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“I make up for the missing part of myself through drawing”: Huanhuan Wang on the similarities of image making and language
The Brussels-based illustrator discusses how she imagines herself in a situation, then illustrates it, in her evocative artworks.
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Huanhuan Wang came to illustration via interior design, a subject she dedicated her undergraduate studies to. The transition came naturally to the Zhejiang-born creative, as illustration required only a small work space and a computer. Other than that, the work could be done from anywhere and in any place, and that greatly appealed to Huanhuan, who is now living in Brussels. “I enjoy my time alone,” she tells us, an attitude which suits her chosen discipline. With this in mind, Huanhuan pours a mix of emotions into her striking, beautiful practice. Emotions, she explains, of “anxiety, jealousy, vanity and enthusiasm.”
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Many genetic mutations have been found to be associated with a person s risk of developing Parkinson s disease. Yet for most of these variants, the mechanism through which they act remains unclear.
Now a new study in
Nature led by a team from the University of Pennsylvania has revealed how two different variations one that increases disease risk and leads to more severe disease in people who develop Parkinson s and another that reduces risk manifest in the body.
The work, led by Dejian Ren, a professor in the School of Arts & Sciences Department of Biology, showed that the variation that raises disease risk, which about 17% of people possess, causes a reduction in function of an ion channel in cellular organelles called lysosomes, also known as cells waste removal and recycling centers. Meanwhile, a different variation that reduces Parkinson s disease risk by about 20% and is present in 7% of the general population enhances the activity of the same ion channel.