David Hale doesn’t know whether his poem will kill the culture.
Oppman’s goal is to see whether the 2013 Supreme Court case Association for Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Genetics, Inc., actually ended the 25-year practice of gene patenting—that is, for-profit labs identifying and claiming human genes as intellectual property in order to profit from any medicines or treatment derived from studying those genes.
Department of Art and Technology Studies professor Eduardo Kac and grad student Yutaka Makino first opened a bio lab for research, not classes, on the MacLean Center’s fourth floor in 2003.
The current facility—with an industrial sink—opened in the basement in 2014. It’s a biosafety level 1 lab. The highest biosafety level is 4, at which Ebola, Kyasanur Forest disease, Marburg, and other potential pandemics are studied. A level 1 lab like SAIC’s is similar to what one might find at a community college or a particularly well-funded high school, according to the Federation of American Scientists. The biosafety levels set security protocols (whether you need a hazmat suit or can eat your lunch in the lab) and also limits on what materials a lab can work with, from DNA strands to individual cells to multicellular organisms like living animals.
In May of this year, Strozier, 34, received her master’s degree in biology from Loyola University Chicago and her master’s degree in science education from UIC. With 12 years of research experience and what she describes as a dedicated personality—”I eat, breathe, sleep science,” she said—she soon parlayed her education into a research position at Rush University Medical Center.
It’s often a starting point for projects the artists will continue on their own, Scarpelli says, either because of graduation or other reasons. For example, the type of DNA work required for the next step of Oppman’s self-patenting project will require a biosafety level 2 lab.
Thu 12/13, 7 PM, Empirical Taproom, 1801 W. Foster, chitownbio.org. F
