Trypanosoma and Darwin’s Disease
Trypanosoma is a genus of kinetoplastids (class Kinetoplastida), a group of unicellular parasitic flagellate protozoa. The name is derived from the Greek trypano (borer) and soma (body) because of their corkscrew-like motion. All trypanosomes are heteroxenous (requiring more than one obligatory host to complete life cycle) and are transmitted via a vector. The majority of species are transmitted by blood-feeding invertebrates, but there are different mechanisms among the varying species. When in the invertebrate host they are generally found in the intestine and, after transmission, they normally occupy the bloodstream or intracellular environment in the mammalian host.
Trypanosomes infect a variety of hosts and cause various diseases, including the fatal human diseases sleeping sickness, caused by Trypanosoma brucei, and Chagas disease, caused by Trypanosoma cruzi.
It has been hypothesized that Charles Darwin might have suffered from Chagas disease as a result of a bite of the so-called great black bug of the Pampas (vinchuca). The episode was reported by Darwin in his diaries of the Voyage of the Beagle as occurring in March 1835 to the east of the Andes near Mendoza. Darwin was young and generally in good health; though six months previously he had been ill for a month near Valparaiso. In 1837, however, and almost a year after he returned to England, he began to suffer intermittently from a strange group of symptoms, becoming incapacitated for much of the rest of his life.
Attempts to test Darwin’s remains at the Westminster Abbey by using modern PCR techniques were met with a refusal by the Abbey’s curator.
The Lab Model
An animal model is a living, non-human animal used during the research and investigation of human disease, for the purpose of better understanding the disease without the added risk of causing harm to an actual human being during the process. The animal chosen will usually meet a determined taxonomic equivalency to humans, so as to react to disease or its treatment in a way that resembles human physiology. Many drugs, treatments and cures for human diseases have been developed with the use of animal models. Many (but not all) laboratory strains are inbred, so as to make them genetically almost identical. The different strains are identified with specific letter-digit combinations; for example C57BL/6 and BALB/c.
Although some (but not all) of us might be comfortable with the use of rats and mice for this purpose, I felt that the idea of visually transposing this concept – through the use of a little modified colouring – onto my own pet Labrador might be worthy of investigation.
Trichuris trichiura
Preliminary sketches for drawing to measure 1.5m x 1.5m.
The human whipworm (Trichuris trichiura or Trichocephalus trichiuris) is a roundworm, which causes trichuriasis when it infects a human large intestine. The name whipworm refers to the shape of the worm; they look like whips with wider “handles” at the posterior end. The long ‘lash’ of the whip burrows into the cells lining the intestine, thus creating a particularly intimate relationship between parasite and host …
There is a worldwide distribution of Trichuris trichiura, with an estimated 1 billion human infections. However, it is chiefly tropical, especially in Asia and, to a lesser degree, in Africa and South America. Poor hygiene is associated with trichuriasis as well as the consumption of shaded moist soil, or food that may have been fecally contaminated. Children are especially vulnerable to infection due to their high exposure risk.
Like lovers entwined …
Preliminary sketch for drawing to measure 1.5m x 1.5m.
The Schistosoma are a genus of trematodes (otherwise known as platyhelminthes, flatworms or ‘flukes’). Unlike other trematodes, the schistosomes are dioecious – i.e. the sexes are separate – yet the male surrounds the female and encloses her within his gynacophoric canal throughout the entire adult lives of the worms …
Commonly known as blood-flukes and bilharzia, schistosome worms are responsible for significant parasitic infection of humans (they infest and migrate through human blood vessels). Causing the disease schistosomiasis, they are considered by the World Health Association to be the second most socioeconomically devastating parasites; second only to malaria in their impact.
Orca
Preliminary drawing for ‘Away from the Pod’: a life-sized (5m x 1.5m) drawing of a killer whale which will feature as part of ‘Under the Sea’, an exhibition curated by Rowena Hamilton which opens in January 2012 at Millennium Galleries, Sheffield.
The title ‘Away from the Pod’ directly references ‘Away from the Flock’: a work by Damien Hirst from 1994 which features a lamb enclosed in a tank of formaldehyde.
The orca (Orcinus orca), less commonly known as the blackfish, is the largest species of dolphin. It lives in matrilineal groups. This means that both male and female offspring stay with the mother for the duration of her life, only breaking away from her to hunt and mate. Despite the fearsome nature of this ocean predator, there have been no observations of violence occurring within these close-knit and harmonious family groups. Beyond the family orcas form complex, cultural communities; they are highly communicative and they exhibit remarkable resourcefulness (for example recently developed sustainable fishing practices in the North Pacific have been quickly exploited by orcas who have fed well off fish-laden hooked lines).
The intention was to create a tight, confined graphic space for our orca, perhaps reminiscent of the solitary confinement within which captive members of the species live. The curved dorsal fin, bent to fit the dimensions of the drawing, is a symptom of captivity and is not found in wild killer whales.
