Tree of Life. The Complexity of Life: From the Cell to an Alive Organism
Last Thursday, our biology class went to Palau Robert to visit the exhibition Tree of Life. We observed pictures taken by the scientists from the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG) in Barcelona and we participated in a workshop.
The exhibition was settled in two little rooms with photographs of cells, organisms, tissues and organs. The main objective of the exhibition is to share the connection between science and art. We also played with a mobile application called CRG Memory Game.
Bernat, a biomedical researcher from CRG, led the workshop. He told us about what the scientists have been studying for years. We were introduced to the composition of the cell, how cells differentiate into different tissues, how they get to become a whole body, and the importance of chromosomes. Bernat showed us some pictures of the project. He also explained us the different microscopia techniques used by scientists to see specific types of cells. One of them is immunofluorescence, that consists of the genetic modification of cells proteins of an organism. Using natural components of jellyfish they modify other organisms proteins and make them visible. Another powerful technique uses the specificity of antibodies to their antigen to target fluorescent dyes to specific targets within a cell. They use cells to create antibodies and conjugate it to fluorescent labels to localize structures within tissues or cells.
At the end, Bernat allowed us to use 4 microscopes supplied by Leica Microsystems. We observed how C. elegans proteins become active while feeding, also a fly, a piece of mouse brain and human tumor cells.
Aina Segarra 4t B / Mercè Brunet 4t A