Blood culture: reimag(in)ing life at a cellular scale

ABSTRACT

This paper reflects on collaboration between an artist, a scientist, and two social scientists involved in research on cultured red blood cells. Cell culture is part of a suite of methods used by bioscientists to study cellular processes outside of the living organism. The production of laboratory-grown blood is at the cutting-edge of cell culture and regenerative medicine, with hopes for significant therapeutic benefit in the future, particularly for patients with rare blood types or with conditions that require frequent blood transfusions. We reflect on our collaboration and on artistic experimentation with spatial dimensions of cells and scaffolds used in red blood cell culture, highlighting our efforts to generate knowledge that cuts across our respective disciplinary locations. We situate our work together in the context of the increasing molecularization of the body in science and medicine, and on the efforts to ‘open up’ scientific practice to multiple publics.

KEYWORDS:

• Blood
• tissue culture
• synthetic biology
• art
• body
• scale
• biotechnology
• tissue economy

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 See http://www.bristol.ac.uk/btru/work/trial/ (Accessed August 8, 2019).

2 The Bristol Blood and Transplant Research Unit is a joint initiative funded by NIHR. See http://bristol.ac.uk/btru/ (Accessed June 26, 2019).

3 See https://www.katyconnor.net/artworks for examples of practice.

4 See the edited volume, Becoming Image: Medicine and the Algorithmic Gaze, Orton (2018).

5 See Severn et al. (2016).

6 See https://www.nhsbt.nhs.uk/how-you-can-help/get-involved/key-messages-and-information/why-black-asian-and-minority-ethnic-donors-are-needed/ and NHSBT Annual Report 2018/2019.

7 https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/open-science

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by NHS Blood and Transplant R&D and National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) to support the Blood and Transplant Research Unit (NIHR BTRU) in Red Cell Products at the University of Bristol in Partnership with NHSBT, and the University of the West of England (IS-BTU-1214-10032); a BBSRC/EPSRC grant (BB/L01386X/1); a University of Bristol Brigstow Institute Seed Corn Grant; and Public Engagement Funding from the BioDesign Institute, University of Bristol. This manuscript presents independent writing funded in part by the NIHR. The views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the NHS, the NIHR, or the Department of Health and Social Care.

Notes on contributors

Katy Connor

Katy Connor is an Artist Researcher whose interests lie in the spaces between embodiment, technologies, and materiality. Her doctoral thesis ‘Translating the Intimate’ (2016) articulated a poetic and sensory reading of technologies used in biomedical science and industry.

Maria Fannin

Maria Fannin is Reader in Human Geography at the University of Bristol. Her research interests include the politics of midwifery in North America and Europe, feminist contributions to theories of biopolitics, and the social and political forms of value in the ‘tissue economies’ of the biosciences.

Julie Kent

Julie Kent was formerly Professor of Sociology of Health Technology at the University of the West of England (now retired) and is now Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Bristol.

Ashley Toye

Ashley Toye is Reader in Cell Biology at the School of Biochemistry and Director of the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Blood and Transplant Unit in Red Blood Cell Products at the University of Bristol, Bristol, UK.