Walking along sulfation pathways – a personal journey

Outreach and SciArt come along more naturally, if you be somewhat ‘arty’ yourself. Science has so many fascinating shapes and patterns, one can map, magnify, photograph or just adore... Fondly looking back at my scientific drawings from A-level and undergrad studies, there were striking moments of admiration of protein structure during my biochemistry degree. Even now, I can only think of TIM as being beautiful – TIM, you know, the β-barrel enzyme triose phosphate isomerase, that works at catalytic perfection.

During my post-grad studies, I also portrayed and documented nature and post-industrial heritage as a hobby photographer. An exhibit from this period is shown in Figure 1. Having an interest in graphical patterns and digital art certainly improved the way I produced multi-panel figures for my scientific publications. A senior colleague from Germany, M.E., described one of my early publications as ‘he knows how to do it’. Another colleague, J.I., said on a different occasion that figures in my papers would be ‘just flawless’. In the longer run, it was these thoroughly thought-through publications that aroused Birmingham’s interest in hiring me.

Since I joined the University of Birmingham, this passion for the visual arts inevitably attracted me to the Barber Institute of Fine Arts. At the Barber, I joined Recovery Art, an art group that has run for many years, welcoming adults ‘in recovery’. Why one would be in recovery – should it be discussed at all – was reserved for more subtle conversation over tea or coffee. The exhibitions span all sorts of materials, methods and genres of art. I contributed to these exhibitions in 2017 and 2018, on both occasions with some photography/digital collage works. You can see my 2018 contribution in Figure 1.

Being interested in Fine Arts made me also want to purchase fine art – be it drawings, paintings or prints on the 2D side or carvings and sculpture on the 3D side. At Moseley Art Market, I purchased a coloured, wood-cut print from John Gage, signed by the artist. John has a fine eye for architectural patterns. John works with all sorts of media, primarily picturing the ever-evolving City of Birmingham. It was John’s artwork showing the Birmingham University’s clocktower ‘Old Joe’ (Figure 2) that drew my attention to his work.

With a conference to organize, I wanted to seek permission to use John’s artwork for promotional material, be it conference posters or related social media posts. The conference was on Sulfation Pathways, and it was held in Birmingham in 2017. Somewhat unexpectedly, John was supportive from the start. John gave permission to use reproductions of this piece (Figure 2) for the conference advertisement.

The UK Society for Endocrinology generously sponsored the 2017 meeting, and a condition of the award was to have a special issue in a society-run journal. So, it came that the Journal of Molecular Endocrinology invited me, as guest editor, to suggest cover art. And so I asked John again.

We met in the Barber Institute, first for a tour through their superb art collection, but then also to sit down over coffee and to discuss pictures and patterns of our research as well as the depiction of science in the arts in general.

It probably is these secluded, special spaces that are needed for a good science and art collaboration to get going. In follow-up projects, we made it a tradition to meet somewhere arty, whenever discussing SciArt…, e.g., at the MAC Birmingham, the Ikon Gallery, the Minerva Works, the Becketts Farm Framers, or the Custard Factory in Digbeth… For sure, you’ll find similar spaces somewhere near you.

Part of my role as a scientist is to reach out and explain in everyday words what I do scientifically and what my publications are about – ideally avoiding the cryptic language of standard peer-reviewed publications then. So, what was discussed? For collaborative meetings like ours, it is especially important to establish common ground. It is this analogy of a pathway that I use frequently for the communication of the science of sulfation pathways. Pathways can be direct and straight, or winding and intertwined. A strong analogy, providing enough food for thought for two SciArt projects that both became cover art in the end.

The way in which discussions and ideas are communicated is very important. Ideas cannot be shared and understood without meaningful and inspiring explanations. How did we discuss things? I prepared a substantial collection of slides with minimal text and an emphasis on visual communication. John did something similar, having a good handful of paintings portraying people submersed in scientific activities. Quickly our discussion focussed on selected scientific figures and paintings. The Barber’s collections also came in handy here, allowing us to communicate ideas in the ‘common language’ of paintings and histories around them.

This method of communication and discussion is completely different for me, compared to lecturing to cohorts of 200–400+ students. Except for some polls here or there, we deliver lecture content mainly unidirectionally. Instead, I perceived our reciprocal SciArt meetings to be interesting, insightful and inspiring experiences. At times, surprising and exciting outcomes await further exploration in the future.

Walking along ‘sulfation pathways’ can take you on some interesting journeys. For the 2018 Special Issue in the Journal of Molecular Endocrinology, John and I discussed artistic representations of science, such as Kandinsky’s representation of a cell. We then found similarity between directional sulfation pathways and the straight and cubistic lines in Piet Mondrian’s Broadway Boogie Woogie (1942), a reminder of the traffic within the human body and all the jagged interactions reminiscent of jazz music. The editor-in-chief was somewhat sceptical about our suggestion for the cover. With the added blur of some chemical structures however, this project became cover art of a kind, not published often by the journal (Figure 2) – A source of pride for John and me.

Coronavirus slowed things down a bit. After the SUPA meeting 2019, it took until 2022 to meet the growing appetite for another special issue on sulfation pathways. This next project was realized with the journal Frontiers in Molecular Biosciences. Again, I approached John, this time with a very clear proposal – aren’t sulfation pathways as intertwined as the junction J6 of the M6 motorway at times? This motorway junction in North Birmingham is affectionately known as Spaghetti junction, for obvious reasons (Figure 3). John immediately took up the idea and enhanced it; also comparing complicated cellular pathways with magical knots from the Book of Kells (Figure 3). John created several iterations of this theme, influenced by my colour preference for sulfuric yellows. In the end, we decided to present the outcome in an Andy Warhol style format – four versions making up the final cover (Figure 3).

The interaction with John Gage clearly went beyond using pre-existing art for conference promotional material. It involved stunning SciArt for cover art in 2018 and 2022. John also produced architectural drawings of some of our conference venues; that featured on prize certificates in the end. These successful SciArt projects suggested that I had found a new role, NOT acting as an artist myself. Instead, I happily act as the communicator of scientific ideas in ways that stimulate OTHERS to create art.

The 2023 meeting on sulfation pathways was a Biochemical Society Scientific Meeting, again with a clear brief to have a Research Topic in a Society-run journal – Essays in Biochemistry. Thinking of more cover art, I visited an exhibition of Flemish and Dutch 17th- and 18th-century masters, at the Barber Institute. One piece on display in this superb exhibition captured my imagination – a so-called gallery painting by David Teniers the Younger, showing real pictures on display (Figure 4). Some form of self-referential art display. Or maybe a very early form of social media display, such as Instagram… ?

Furthermore, inspired by art-deco architecture and the geometric spaces by Dutch artist M.C. Escher, John and I envisioned a virtual space, cladded with abstract art-deco tiles. These tiles would draw from any graphical inputs of the contributors of the upcoming special edition, be it graphical submissions directly to us or all the scientific illustrations and diagrams contained within the different submitted papers (Figure 4). At the time of writing, the submission window was still open, so that the final cover art for our current project remains unknown at this very moment.

The SciArt collaboration has been an unexpected source of inspiration and journey of learning for me. As an artist, I see science and endocrinology with a combination of intrigue, mystery and respect. Science is often perceived as people working hidden away in the ‘background’ whereas the visual arts, by definition, put ideas ‘on display’. The work of scientists can sometimes be seen as opaque and difficult to comprehend. However, using design, symbols and graphics and magnification, all are important parts of explaining, conveying and clarifying ideas.

Nature has an inherent beauty or ugliness that is irresistible to the artist eye. Similarly, scientists perhaps find interest and satisfaction primary in the way in which natural processes occur. I’m convinced that both artists and scientists appreciate the visual and process-based observation.

It could be argued that science is entirely rational and functional, whereas art is emotive and ambiguous. However, the more one looks at the two ‘disciplines’, one realizes that common themes exist. ‘Observation’ is key to both art and science. Notions of balance, composition, randomness, symmetry, asymmetry, patterns, comparison, scale, sequences, iterations, contrast and colours are all things that are analysed and studied in both disciplines.

Nature and the human body are common themes that are of huge importance. Leonardo da Vinci is a famous example of being both an artist and a scientist. The study of anatomy is at the heart of some of the greatest paintings and sculptures. Live drawing is a key part of many artists’ education. Studying how we as humans are physically formed and how we function is at the heart of understanding ourselves. Vesalius’s 16th-century illustrated work ‘On the fabric of the human body’ was crucial in conveying scientific and medical ideas and facilitated their on-going development. The illustrations are said to be by Titian’s pupil Jan Stepen van Calcar. Artists often have a thirst for evolving new ideas – objectives that chime with scientific ambitions.

Scientific principles tend to focus on order and accuracy. Artists often like to play with breaking rules and conventions to discover new ways of seeing and understanding society and the world. This dichotomy has often attracted the two disciplines. Curiosity is at the heart of both art and science. Both like to discover more about our world by analysing and deconstructing it in an attempt to gain greater understanding and break boundaries.

In pre-pandemic times, the two of us were invited to present our collaboration at a ‘Worlds collide’ workshop at the University of Birmingham, where scientists and artists were supposed to meet. I thoroughly enjoyed the interaction with the artist, including this presentation. Both my communication skills and my graphical thinking have been enriched by SciArt projects. In addition, it is a privilege and fun to interact with like-minded people from different disciplines. SciArt co-creations may make one immensely proud. They may be featuring nicely on this or that otherwise boring office wall.

I can wholeheartedly recommend that any scientist engage in some form of SciArt project. A useful bonus from these days is that funders more and more want this type of interaction to occur, to increase perception and impact. There are increasing opportunities to incorporate costs for SciArt projects within funding proposals.

We want to thank all co-editors of the upcoming special issue and all contributors, who agreed that their submissions may be scanned for our upcoming SciArt project. Special thanks to our proof-readers Sofia Ahola and Luiza Cekrezi. Noteworthy, S.A. is a researcher of mitochondria and a superb artist herself. The SUPA 2023 conference on sulfation pathways was a Biochemical Society Scientific Meeting with generous support by the Society for Endocrinology.

Please visit https://www.johngage.co.uk/ to learn more about the artist.

Please visit https://barber.org.uk/learning/recovery-art/ to learn more about Recovery Art, an art group run by the Barber Institute of Fine Arts.

• Brylski, O., Shrestha, P., Gnutt, P. et al. (2021) Cellular ATP levels determine the stability of a nucleotide kinase. Front. Mol. Biosci. 8, 790304 doi: 10.3389/fmolb.2021.790304

• Günal, S., Hardman, R., Kopriva, S. et al. (2019) Sulfation pathways from red to green. J. Biol. Chem. 294, 12293–12312 doi: 10.1074/jbc.REV119.007422

• Hirschmann, F., Krause, F., Baruch P. et al. (2017) Structural and biochemical studies of sulphotransferase 18 from Arabidopsis thaliana explain its substrate specificity and reaction mechanism. Sci. Rep. 7,4160. doi: 10.1038/s41598-017-04539-2

• Lightning, T.A., Gesteira, T.F. and Mueller, J.W. (2021) Steroid disulfates - Sulfation double trouble. Mol. Cell. Endocrinol. 524, 111161 doi: 10.1016/j.mce.2021.111161

• Mierzwa, B.E. and Goodsell, D.S. (2021) Picturing science: using art and imagination to explore new worlds. The Biochemist (London). 43, 32–38 doi: 10.1042/bio_2021_156

• Mueller, J.W., Collier, A.C. and Gesteira, T.F. (2022) Sulfation Pathways-There and Back Again. Front. Mol. Biosci. 9, 912700 doi: 10.3389/fmolb.2022.912700

• Mueller, J.W. and Foster, P.A. (2018) Steroid sulfation research has come a long way. J. Mol. Endocrinol. 61, E5–E6 doi: 10.1530/JME-18-0109

• Mueller, J.W. and Müller S. (2016) Welcome to a SUPA issue. Chem. Biol. Interact. 259, 1 doi: 10.1016/j.cbi.2016.11.006

Jonathan Wolf Mueller has always been fascinated by the patterns and structures abundantly seen in nature. He teaches biochemistry and endocrinology at the University of Birmingham, UK. His research is centred around regulation of steroid hormones by sulfation pathways. Jon is passionate about teaching innovation and science communication. Email: [email protected].

John Gage has been drawing and painting from an early age and has always had a passion for art and design. He studied architecture and has worked for firms in Kent, London and Birmingham. John has been drawing his built environment, particularly Birmingham, more recently producing a range of graphic artwork. He had art exhibitions at various venues in and around Birmingham.