In 2023, the Institute for Research in Immunology and Cancer (IRIC) of the University of Montreal celebrates 20 years of existence and scientific advances in cancerology. For the occasion, he launches a special program in order to highlight its achievements, highlight its community and recall the essential role of research for the benefit of society as a whole.
At the head of programming, IRIC innovates with the exhibition FOCUSwhich will allow science to meet the beauty of art.
This exhibition will highlight scientific works created by the Institute’s community in Casa Project, a Montreal exhibition space founded by long-time IRIC patrons: Danielle Lysaught and Paul Hamelin. Through this initiative, IRIC wishes to showcase the creative talents of its staff members and present science from an artistic angle.
The public is invited to come and discover the exhibition on Saturday and Sunday, February 11 and 12, from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m.
Science under the magnifying glass
Lara Elis Alberici Delsin, PhD student at UdeM and exhibitor
Credit: Courtesy Photo
Using images taken under a microscope, tissue sections or even bioinformatics models, IRIC artists amaze us with the quality of the images and the diversity of their works: Drosophila cells, immobilization nematode C. elegansanimal and human stem cells, sections of lung or liver, artificial neural networks… These visual representations, which we are not used to seeing in close-up, capture the attention by their singularity and remind us that the art manifests itself in different forms.
Lara Elis Alberici Delsin, doctoral student in the laboratory of Gregory Emery, who heads the Vesicular Transport and Cell Signaling Research Unit, will present four of her works. One of them, titled “Cellular Black Hole,” depicts a cancerous cell fluorescently labeled and imaged under a confocal microscope. “The particular shape of this cell resembles the very first image of a black hole, obtained in 2019 thanks to the efforts of the young scientist Katie Bouman using NASA telescopes, she explains. Like what, science can inspire science!”
Gregory Emery, Professor at the Faculty of Medicine of UdeM and Principal Investigator at IRIC
Credit: Justine Latour
For Gregory Emery, the exhibition promises to be particularly interesting. Five artists from his laboratory take part. “My team is made up of talented and creative people, in science and other disciplines! he mentions. I am very proud that their work has been recognized as part of this innovative IRIC project.”
A total of 32 works will make up the exhibition FOCUS. They were created by 19 artists from 9 research laboratories.
Support for the IRIC Chair in Biomedical Data
Chaired by Alexandre Le Bouthillier, specialist in artificial intelligence and optimization, the exhibition FOCUS will also be an opportunity to raise funds to support the creation of the IRIC Chair in Biomedical Data. By applying artificial intelligence to human health, this chair will ensure the development of powerful and novel computational approaches to design new therapeutic agents against cancer. In addition to power just donate onlineit will be possible to obtain the works presented for the benefit of the Chair on a platform provided for this purpose.