Gladstone’s Exploratorium unveils ground-breaking cardiac science exhibition

One of the most famous science museums in the country, San Francisco’s Exploratorium is less than three miles north of Gladstone Institute. This proximity has led to creative and high-level scientific collaborations, such as the permanent exhibit featured in the latest issue of Stem Cell Report. .

One of the museum’s most popular exhibits, Giving Heart Cells a Beat, uses techniques and materials made possible by Gladstone’s science and expertise to recreate the minute details of a beating human heart. opens an unusual window to the world. With this exhibit, the team has created the first interactive museum experience that allows the public to interact directly with living heart muscle cells, or heart muscle cells.

“We have the same type of cells in our bodies, so it’s like we have a lens inside us. It’s an incredible experience for visitors,” says Exploratorium Science. said Dr. Christina Yu, Senior Director of Research and Development.

As visitors approach the exhibit, a projected video shows the beating of 200,000 heart cells on an oversized monitor. The visitor grasps the handlebar sensor in front of the screen and feels the pulse through her hand. Then, within seconds, watch as the heart cells on the screen begin to beat in sync with your own heart.

“The juxtaposition of very small cells in a dish and very large images on a screen is very powerful,” Yu says.

Bruce Conklin, M.D., principal investigator at Gladstone University, has been working with Yu and others at the Exploratorium for more than 15 years, long before the exhibit opened in 2019. In fact, the idea for the heart exhibit came from scientists at Conklin College. Lab—and it started with a deceptively simple question. Is it possible to take a beating heart cell out of the lab and find a way to synchronize it with a visitor’s heart?

“We are always looking for natural phenomena that allow visitors to experience living things firsthand,” Yu says. “It’s incredibly difficult to do this on a large scale. That’s why he wanted us to make this idea happen, even though we knew it was very difficult.”

Yu and Conklin, along with their respective teams, share their experience in setting up and running a heartbeat exhibit in a new study published in Stem Cell Reports. To their knowledge, this is the first interactive museum exhibit using living human heart cells. In this case, heart cells were extracted from adult skin cells and developed into heart cells using stem cell technology at Gladstone.

“By sharing our experience in such detail, we hope this exhibit will serve as a model to inspire future relationships between academia and public science venues around the world,” Conklin said. To tell. “We were able to create a very powerful and relatable experience that sparks discussion about heart and health and stem cell science.”

The core of the exhibition

Through interviews with museum visitors who interacted with the exhibits, the Exploratorium reported that 90% thought more about their own minds, 30% mentioned the technology behind the exhibits, and 20% said more about stem cells. I found what you specifically mentioned. Additionally, visitors engaged with the heart cell exhibit longer than any of the other 37 exhibits, the magazine article said.

Importantly, visitors will also learn how the exhibit works. Visitors are taught that their heart rate is sent as an electrical signal from a sensor on the handlebars to a laboratory dish holding live heart cells located several feet away behind a window. Once the cells receive the signal, they begin pacing in time with the visitor’s heartbeat. Signs written on the monitor allow visitors to increase or decrease their heart rate to see how their cells respond, or encourage a friend to use the handlebars to compare heart rates. I can.

“It’s always fun to see visitors’ reactions,” Yu says. “We see them doing jumping jacks and running on the spot to get their heart rate up, and that comes through right away in the video images. The best part is that they It’s time to gesture to your friends to come and experience it for themselves.”

She says that heartbeats require much less explanation than other types of biological phenomena because they are something we experience throughout our lives. “You’ll never have the chance to see your own living heart cells, but you feel them every day. This exhibit allows visitors to have electrical conversations with these cells.”

Despite the numerous challenges, not the least of keeping heart cells alive in a dish for months at a time, it turns out that heart cells are unique in their ability to interact with visitors. .

“Heart cells are dynamic in real-time, they beat, and they can respond to external signals,” said John Conklin, a former postdoctoral fellow in Conklin’s lab who played a key role in developing the exhibit. Dr. Juan Perez Bermejo, who played the role, explains: He is also the lead author of this new study. “No other cell does this in a way that could be the centerpiece of an exhibit.”

Stem cell science practice

Indeed, the underlying science that makes this exhibit possible is commendable.

Shinya Yamanaka, MD, PhD, a senior research fellow at Gladstone, has developed a technique that allows scientists to reprogram adult cells to an embryonic state. These cells, known as induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), have the ability to grow into any type of cell in the body. These are the cornerstones of the rapidly growing field of regenerative medicine, whose vast potential to transform medicine earned Yamanaka his 2012 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

The human heart cells in the Exploratorium exhibit were once skin cells. Gladstone scientists used Yamanaka’s technique to reprogram them in the lab to become iPS cells, which were then encouraged to develop into another type of cell: cardiomyocytes, or heart muscle cells.

To better understand the causes of cardiovascular disease and how to treat it, Conklin’s team studies the tissue in the lab, often using tissue made from skin cells from patients with disease mutations. ing. The cells on display are left over from experiments and cannot be used for other research as they were developed for specific research purposes.

“Our goal is to take a phenomenon like the beating of a heart cell and create an amazing, eye-opening activity that allows even people with no biological knowledge to make connections with the biological world. ,” says Yu.

Visitors aren’t the only ones who enjoy the wonders of interacting with living heart cells. Conklin admits he gets a thrill every time he peers into the plate.

“At first, when you look at them, you don’t know what’s going on because your eyes don’t know where to look,” he explains. “But once you see an area of ​​movement, you notice other areas too, and you realize that these heart cells are beating, and it sends a chill down your spine. It’s a truly magical experience that conveys the excitement of scientific discovery. It’s a moment like that.”

Possible through partnership

Human cell lines are highly susceptible to contamination, and their management requires very specific skills and expertise. Conklin credits the Exploratorium’s highly skilled staff for making the exhibition a success.

“Not every museum can do this,” he says. “It takes a lot of work to maintain these cells and keep them healthy and alive, and the Exploratorium actually has trained molecular biology PhDs on staff, and they are great partners. ”

Dana Callison Stone, a biologist and Exploratorium laboratory manager, is responsible for caring for the cells in the exhibit. She says that after heart cells beat for several months, they need to be replaced by new cells. Luckily, Gladstone is nearby.

“The easiest way is to cross by bicycle,” said study author Carrison Stone. “I filled a Styrofoam container with dry ice and put it in my backpack and rode my bike to Gladstone where I met one of the scientists. They took me to the liquid nitrogen tank where the cells were kept. I’m off. I’ll get a replacement batch, put it in my backpack, and head back to the Exploratorium to begin the thawing process.”

She added that the exhibition was made possible through close collaboration between Gladstone and the museum. “We couldn’t have this exhibit without Gladstone. If you have any questions or need help troubleshooting or problem-solving, our scientists are always there.”

Gladstone scientists also help share creative concepts for exhibitions and help the Exploratorium showcase cutting-edge science that captivates the public.

“Big ideas for museum exhibits often come from places like Gladstone,” Yu says. “Scientists propose things that are at the forefront of science, and we think about how we can translate that into the visitor experience. And together we think about how we can make that happen.Grad “Ston brings the resources, expertise and depth of knowledge that we offer – truly dependable – so we can create truly amazing experiences for the public.”

About research

The paper, “Giving heart cells to beat: An interactive museum exhibit that synchronizes stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes with visitors’ heartbeats,” was published in the journal Stem Cell Reports on February 8, 2024. In addition to Bruce Conklin and Kristina Yu, the authors of Juan Perez-Bermejo and Dana Callison-Stone include Exploratorium’s Samuel Riesman, Joyce Marr, Chris Cerrito, and Gladstone’s Alexandre Ribeiro. is included.

About Gladstone Institute

Gladstone Institutes is an independent, not-for-profit life sciences research organization that uses visionary science and technology to overcome disease. Founded in 1979, we are located in San Francisco’s Mission Bay neighborhood, a center of biomedical and technological innovation. Gladstone created a research model that disrupted the way science was done, funded big ideas, and attracted the brightest minds.

About the Exploratorium

The Exploratorium is your gateway to the amazing scientific phenomena that animate our world and shape our behavior. It creates amazing learning experiences that spark curiosity, challenge perceptions, and encourage brave leaps. Since 1969, the Exploratorium has been home to a renowned collection of exhibits that connect science, art, and human cognition, changing the way science is taught. The award-winning program provides a forum for the public to engage with artists, scientists, policy makers, educators, and crafters to explore the world around them. The Exploratorium celebrates diversity of thought, inspired investigation, and collaboration across all boundaries.