Selection of Summer Art Work by Jonjo Keefe

Neurodegeneration

Loss of neural connections, accumulation of aggregated proteins in deposits (red) and loss of abilities to recall information or to perform simple tasks (see small pcitures) are all hallmarks of the neurodegenerative process taking place in the brains of patients with Alzheimer's, Huntington's and Parkinson's. Recent research suggests that aggregated proteins can move from one nueron to another as disease progresses.

Memories- that fade (enlargements from picture above)

Infection

A bacterium (black) injects toxins into a host cell, disabling the cell's ability to fight the infection, by inactivating the host's immune responses. The artist has illustrated the way in which a toxic mixture of proteins from Yersinia (the bacterium causing the back plague) are injected. One of these proteins, YopJ (black/green), uses a host cell factor (blue) to fold into an active enzyme (green) which then modifies (and inactiviates) host cell enzymes (red), so compromising the host cell's ability to fight the infection and so the bacteria can multiply.

Music Penetrates the Mind

(exhibition entry by Jonjo Keefe, see 2009 gallery)

Used as artwork for a British Neuroscience Association bulletin article on "Music and the Brain" (pdf of article)

Part of a project to engage local student in the communication of science: Imagining The Brain