Deciphering The Nature of Cardiokines

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Researcher: 
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Part of Dr. Shirin’s lab work is understanding cellular communication systems that begin in the heart and then interact with the rest of the body. One of the reasons I chose to depict the “Queen” is because of a certain communication network that allows for synchronistic blooming for one night each year.

About the project

"Deciphering The Nature of Cardiokines" is a collaborative art-science project that originated from the University of Arizona's "Artist + Researcher" exhibition, which paired artist Alexandra Bowers with cardiovascular researcher Dr. Shirin Doroudgar. The project aimed to translate the complex scientific language of heart-derived cellular communication (cardiokines) into an accessible visual narrative. It explored how conversation can bridge disparate fields of understanding, using art as a medium to demystify advanced scientific concepts and highlight the interconnectedness of biological systems.

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Medium: Pyrography (Wood Burning) and Water Soluble Wax Pigment

Retail cost: $10,000

Together, they built a shared language between disciplines, translating data, material, and emotion into new forms of expression.

THE TEAM
ARx connects artists and researchers through residencies, exhibitions, and education.
Phoenix Bioscience Core
Get to know PBC Art Committee

WHERE Creativity Image of an Art piece Meets Research • 

Alexandra Bowers
My name is Alexandra Bowers, and I was born and raised in the Sonoran Desert. As an artist focusing on the natural world, my intention is to find ways the environment and our personal lives intersect and converse with one another. Utilizing the wood burning process technically known as pyrography, allows me to illustrate with heat the indigenous plants and animals that live within our neighborhoods and urban streets. Over the years I’ve witnessed technology and made-made structures detach us physically and psychologically from our arid surroundings. Urban sprawl has forced our habitat to either vanish or move away. As we pave, develop, and grow our urban cities, the natural environment diminishes and is forced to change and adapt to its human neighbors. My work is concerned with highlighting these beings, to bring our awareness and emotional empathy back to them before they move on, or permanently disappear.
Shirin Doroudgar
Shirin Doroudgar, PhD is Assistant Professor of Internal Medicine at The University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix and the Translational Cardiovascular Research Center (TCRC). Her research program utilizes integrative approaches from molecular and organellar to cellular and organismal levels to examine the dynamics of the protein homeostasis network in health and disease. The Doroudgar Lab’s current focus is on studies of cellular stress responses that underlie the dynamic remodeling of the cardiac myocyte proteome and secretome.