The Amyloid Necklace, VIB-KU Leuven Center for Neuroscience (2026)
This residency with explored research into amyloidosis and contains beads and 3D printed organs, referencing those that are affected by the disease, which are safely embedded with lab grown amyloid ‘seeds’—small fragments of amyloid fibrils grown from the same protein originally identified in the blood of a systemic amyloidosis patient, and now used to study the biology underlying amyloidosis. The structure of systemic amyloid fibrils varies from patient to patient, giving each set of fibrils its own characteristic form.
Amyloids are tangles of proteins that form into thin, self-replicating thread-like structures called fibrils. They are everywhere in nature—from silk to spiders’ webs, from fried egg white to bacteria—and may even have played a role in how life emerged on Earth from the primordial soup. However, amyloid fibrils can also build up in organs and tissues, disrupting their normal function and contributing to diseases such as Alzheimer’s and systemic amyloidosis, a condition in which misfolded proteins accumulate in vital organs and impair their ability to function.
The amyloid seeds embedded in the beads are stained with Congo Red, a historic dye still used to reveal amyloid deposits in diagnostic workup in the clinic—a moment many patients remember as the turning point in their illness. The silk and linen are dyed with Sirius Red—a derivative of Congo Red used to measure the extent of fibrosis and amyloid deposits characteristic of the disease—and cochineal, a natural dye made from insects which can destabilise amyloid structures in laboratory conditions. Together, these dyes mirror the lived experience of amyloidosis: the moment of diagnosis, the ongoing medical tests that define life after diagnosis, and the sustained research effort to develop therapies that can alter the course of disease.
Read more here, here and here.
Curation: Bethan Burnside.
Artist: Anna Dumitriu.
Supported by the VIB-KU Leuven Center for Neuroscience, BE.Amycon (a VIB Grand Challenges project), and the Switch lab, working hands-on alongside researchers Rodrigo Gallardo, Meine Ramakers, Gemma Martinez-Rivas to develop this artwork. This project was supported by the ‘Science & Society Sparks’ grant awarded by The Kavli Foundation. The project was kicked off by a one week exploratory residency in August 2025 and a second production residency in June 2026. The artwork premiered at the FENS Meeting in Barcelona in July 2026.
Photography by Miles Fischler and Alex May.
