Come see BioE in 3-D

Qutub will demonstrate cell-imaging work at Rice’s DAVinCI Visualization Wall

Amina Qutub

Rice bioengineer Amina Qutub ’99 will show images of biology’s building blocks and the multiscale systems they give rise to — in three dimensions — at a public demonstration July 10 at Rice’s Chevron Visualization Laboratory.

After a demonstration for 80 students from Houston’s Health Museum, the Chevron lab in Room110 at Dell Butcher Hall will be open to the Rice community at 3 p.m., with a reception from 4 to 5 p.m.

The lab’s DAVinCI Visualization Wall, funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), opened last year to give scientists an immersive way to “walk through” their work. For the demonstration, Qutub is turning microscopy images and computer-generated models into 3-D data to display on the big wall, a solid set of 16 50-inch monitors. (See a video of the wall’s capabilities here.)

Artwork that will be part of the 3-D demo at Rice's visualization wall is made entirely of cellular images captured by the lab of bioengineer Amina Qutub. Image courtesy Nancy C. Qutub

Qutub’s research group combines experimental work and modeling to get a better picture of processes administered by protein networks, particularly as they relate to the vasculature system. Through microscopy, image analysis, an image database and modeling, the researchers hope to answer questions about how the body heals and find new ways to direct the healing process.

“We’re also taking the same images we’ve produced experimentally and will display some of them as pure art,” Qutub said. Her artist mother, Nancy Qutub, has incorporated the lab’s colorful images of stained cell membranes, endothelial cells, cytoskeletons and other biological structures into artworks for the demonstration.

Qutub, who earned her undergraduate degree at Rice, is an assistant professor of bioengineering based at Rice’s BioScience Research Collaborative. She received an NSF CAREER award last year for work that may lead to new treatments for victims of stroke and neurodegenerative diseases.