Newswise — ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- If you have a chronic disease or a child born with a medical problem, it may sometimes feel like the diagnosis owns you.

But now you can turn the tables and own _it_.

How? By buying unique art that’s made by University of Michigan Medical School scientists who study everything from diabetes to digestive disorders to genetic diseases.

Through a program called Bioartography, they turn images made in their labs and pictures taken through microscopes into artworks that look beautiful on any wall.

This week, they’ll sell prints and notecards of their art at Ann Arbor’s famous Art Fairs, which run from Wednesday through Saturday. Every year, their booth attracts people with different health conditions who seek out a way to “own” their disease in this new way.

And the proceeds from all sales help young scientists launch their careers and do more research on the conditions.

Who knew that kidney cells could be beautiful, or that DNA could take your breath away? The scientists who compete to have their images included in the annual crop of new Bioartography images do.

Deborah Gumucio, Ph.D., the scientist who leads the project and the Department of Cell and Developmental Biology in the U-M Medical School, says the effort to turn science into art helps bring the microscopic world alive for the general public – and to show that researchers aren’t just about data and facts.

A jury of scientists, art professors and artists chose 16 new images for the collection this year, and they’ll be available at booth #112 of Ann Arbor’s South University Art Fair, on E. University between Willard and S. University.

The weeks leading up to the fair are a frenzy of activity, as lab staff prepare the prints, and frame and package them, in an unused area of a research lab.

This year, the team is introducing images printed directly onto canvas, and images printed on metallic backgrounds, which give the cells and molecules extra shimmer and depth. They also offer several sizes of matted, framed prints, and packs of notecards.

After the fair is over, the new images will be available for order online at www.bioartography.com, along with prints and notecards of more than 200 images chosen in past years.

Past Bioartography sales have raised enough money to send more than 80 graduate students and postdoctoral fellows to scientific conferences, where they can present their work to other scientists, and make connections that can help them launch their careers in research and industry.

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