Outreach activities
ASM Agar Art Contest 2025 participation on the Professional category:
“A New Life for the Duomo”
This art piece was made using Synechococcus sp. PCC 7002, a resilient photosynthetic marine cyanobacterium, that floats in the water or grows as biofilms attached to surfaces. It precipitates calcite minerals using sunlight and CO2 from the environment as its carbon source. While they perform these natural metabolic processes — termed biomineralization and photosynthesis — they produce a green pigment called chlorophyll, responsible for the natural green color you see here. We created this piece using standard A+ media, but used two different percentages of agar to display the aesthetic contrast between the two parts of the cathedral.
The “Duomo di Milano”, shows the two faces of cultural heritage: on the right, the beautiful facade of the stone heritage that citizens of the world can appreciate; and on the left, the deterioration and weathering, a harsh reality for stone heritage displayed outside in the environment.
In the Laboratory of Biotechnology for Cultural Heritage, University of Milan, we work towards the conservation of stone heritage through bioprotection strategies: i) the development of a CYAnobacteria-based consolidation TECHnology (CYA-TECH; MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships Program), promoting mineral precipitation and deposition on the stone to fill the cracks; and ii) the optimization of interdisciplinary methodologies to understand how cyanobacterial biofilms interact with stone surfaces (water dynamics and mechanical behavior), and can serve as potential as nature-based solutions for stone conservation (National PhD Program in Heritage Science).
This art represents an initiative to move towards the conservation of these monuments with green, sustainable, efficient, and durable strategies using microorganisms that are beneficial for the environment, the users, and the stone. Irreplaceable cultural and historical assets are under threat from the environment, but could be given new life with the aid of cyanobacterial biomineralization or by using bioprotective cyanobacterial biofilms. By these means, the aesthetic integrity and durability of stone monuments will survive for future generations.
Artists: Luisa Corredor (MRC Fellow) and Letizia Berti (PhD student).
Target audiences: citizens, kids, researchers, CH professionals.