These are my recent published advertisements for the biotech industry. As artist and scientist I developed and created them by myself. The messages are sometimes quite specific for the food testing industry but I tried to explain the idea of the advert, just in case you wonder what the heck I did.
All 3D images were rendered in the lovely Maxwell Render. I hope you like it.
A visual with my robots promoting a liquid handling system for automated food testing in the German biotech magazine LABORPRAXIS issue December 2014.
The old but still very common way of testing food samples is by microbiology approach. Samples are put on culture medium in a petri dish to grow potential microorganisms. Different species need different nutrients and need time to form colonies – around 24 hours. A lot handwork is essential for testing.
Utilizing real-time PCR you just extract the whole DNA in the sample, including DNA of potential microorganisms fast (< 1 hour) and easy with a kit. Only small amounts are need to detect specific parts of DNA that are typical for pathogens you are looking for. After detection run in a real-time PCR Cycler you know exactly which species/subspecies you have found and how many. A lot of test are to detect different species within one reaction (Multiplex PCR). Due to the fact that you just handle DNA there is no risk to contaminate with serious pathogens. But real-time PCR is more expensive than microbiology. Therefore, many labs are just using this old testing method.
The hands hold a microtiter plate able to have 96 test in one single real-time PCR run. Compared with the microbiology method you need hundreds of petri dishes. Real-time PCR kicks ass!
Is there pork in your halal food? Is there bovine in your lasagna or the cheap horse or donkey meat? Either you want to confirm a species in your food or you want to exclude it. As a testing lab you are a detective looking for genetic fingerprints in the food by detecting species-specific DNA.
Done in Photoshop and Illustrator.
Clostridium botulinum is a serious foodborne pathogen especially in canned food. This advertisement plays with “beauty toxin” Botox that is produced by C. botulinum. Contaminated canes bulge due to produced gases and lose their wrinkles. You should definitely not eat food from wrinkle-free canes… .
This is a provoking piece for a kit that detects and quantifies genetically modified organisms (GMO) in food. Especially maize strains are genetically engineered to resist pests and herbicides. But the gene flow to other plants is a big problem.
Norovirus is a dangerous foodborne pathogen and is considered to be the main agent for gastrointestinal diseases in humans worldwide. It can be found in shellfish (incl. pacific oysters), fruits, berries and minced meat.
This artwork is a Photoshop montage. This time no 3D, sorry.
“Safe while fast” – here I used an allegory to the automobile industry. I hope it becomes clear… .
In this artwork, I put the foodborne pathogen in the missing window of the milk carton. In this scenario the testing with the kit was so successful that the microorganisms are missed themselves. This piece was rejected but I think it is too good to hold back. Therefore, this is just a concept, now.
This one promotes automated liquid handling systems for processing food samples to detected genetically modified organisms (GMO). I love my robots hands!
These adverts promotes a software suite controlling different aspects of a liquid handling system doing advanced pipetting schemes (i.e. PCR setup) fast and highly accurate.
Are there genetically modified organisms in my food? In many vegetables like maize and soy or in animals like salmons you never really know it. It is seldom as easy as detecting artificial creatures like mermaids or longhorns. 😉
Using the detection kit for food testing is as easy as finding the right location in Google Maps.
So much to say? Liquid handling solution for DNA extraction from food samples.
