The first room of the exhibition Preserving the brain explores neuroimaging technologies. Credit: Fondazione Prada.
An art museum may seem like an odd place to learn about the physiology of neurons, the epidemiology of multiple sclerosis, or new biomarkers for Alzheimer’s disease. But for the next few weeks Fondazione Prada, a private cultural centre in Milan famous for its exhibitions and collections of contemporary art and photography, takes visitors on a trip through neuroscience.
Preserving the Brain combines brain scans and neuronal microscopies, real laboratory instruments, videos and texts that show how research on neurodegenerative diseases is done – and why it is so hard to find therapies. It will be followed by a two-day scientific conference in October involving dozens of scientists from world-leading research centres.
Giancarlo Comi, a neurologist and professor at Università Vita-Salute San Raffaele, who chairs the project’s scientific committee of the project, says the exhibition was built around one question. “How can we protect this organ that is so unique and powerful, but also so frail?” Each of its 14 rooms focuses on a specific disease, experimental technique, or therapeutic strategy, and each was designed by a different research centre. Israel’s Weizmann Institute, for example, shows how organoids can be used to model Alzheimer’s pathology. The Max Plank Institute of Neurobiology in Munich created maps and infographics to explore the link between the brain and the gut microbiome. Canada’s McGill University focusses on the role of glial cells (the other cells of the brain beside neurons) in diseases, while the sections by Università San Raffaele deal with new disease biomarkers and brain stimulation as a possible therapy.
“We reached out to all these institutes during the concept phase, because an essential part of our message was that brain science can only be a collective effort and an international collaboration”, Comi explains. “To our surprise they all immediately accepted the request for contributions”.
Many images on display, such as artificially colored microscopy and gene-expression maps, have an abstract beauty that fits naturally in the context of the museum. The accompanying texts, in English, and videos are surprisingly in-depth, even uncompromising, which can make the visit challenging for the art lover who is not familiar with scientific language. “There are some ‘art-and-science’ projects where the science part is really missing,” Comi says. “Here, we took the challenge of communicating science in a place that is normally devoted to art, creating an experience that is visually attractive but also scientifically sound”.
Comi hopes visitors will take home the message that the fight against neurodegenerative diseases is the cultural challenge of our age. “Medicine has managed to extend the life of most of our organs, but the brain remains the one on which we have less influence,” he notes. “We need to close this gap to make the increase in life expectancy really meaningful”.
He explains that communicating about brain science in a cultural institution does make a lot of sense. “There is still a lot of cultural resistance to the idea that ‘we are our brain’, but all our culture and art, all that mankind has done is down to what happens in that organ”, he says.
This is the last stage of “Human Brains”, a project that began in 2020, during the pandemic, with an online conference on consciousness followed by a series of online conversations between neuroscientists, artists and philosophers. Another exhibition in Venice, that opened in April and will close in November, focusses on the history of brain studies. The project will end with a conference on 6 and 7 October at Fondazione Prada, made up of four thematic sessions with the participation of all the 13 partner institutes and live-streamed on the project’s website.
Preserving the Brain will run until 10 October.
