Mossy Fiber
…and its Thorny Excrescence
I was approached by a colleague who was finishing up graduate school and wanted a gift for their supervisor as a token of thanks. Their work had been focused on a particular kind of synapse in the hippocampus - the mossy fiber bouton. Mossy fiber boutons form synaptic contacts with highly complex postsynaptic spine structures called thorny excrescences on the proximal dendrites of CA3 pyramidal neurons. This posed an extraordinary new challenge - these two models should fit together when inverted on top of one another. Since it was meant as a gift, I scaled this one down to create a desk-top compatible size, which opened many new challenges. The electron microscopy image volumes for this piece were obtained from the Megan E. Williams lab at the University of Utah.
About the build
I build these pieces just about anywhere I can find space. In this case, I took these little pieces along during a camping trip to the Sunshine Coast, outside of Vancouver Canada in October of 2023. Luckily my van is outfitted with solar panels, so I can use my electric tools and work on the piece in front of the campfire. Such small and complex pieces require patience, a fine touch, and a bit of glue for the inevitable breakage. These are the smallest I’ve made so far and I’m excited to revisit the smaller scale in future pieces.
