Aqueous Humours: Fluid Ground (Fluid Mapping)

'Aqueous Humours: Fluid Ground (Fluid Mapping)' is a paper that both introduces the publication of the same name that Cooke is currently editing and attempts to perform the way in which the book might be mapped in relation to its watery context. In so doing it aims to reorient our current methodologies for mapping water, which encourage normative relationships to the landscape that are contributing to climate change. This mode of mapping water is anthropocentric and is connected to Isabelle Stenger's criticism of the constructed neutrality in 'Modern Science', which has been abstracted from its wider entanglements in order to witness its own 'truths'. Stengers points out that his leaves 'Modern Science' without the ability to speak to wider contexts, such as climate change. This paper understands mapping to mimic the approach of 'Modern Science' and suggests that we queer this quasi-scientific cartography and instead learn from water to produce a fluid mapping that acknowledges water as an agent in its own topographical imaging. It also relates this mapping to curatorial exhibition practice and tries to construct a platform in which curating highlights its own intra-actions and wider entanglements

Damp Bodies: Fluid Ground

'Damp Bodies: Fluid Ground' is a commissioned chapter that responds to the artist Avril Corroon's, 'GOT DAMP' project through the lens of Cooke's fluid ground research. It takes the three most common types of damp found in properties as its cardinal directions and organises the text in accordance with them: Rising Damp, Condensation Damp, and Penetrating Damp. We are invited to stay with the trouble of this wet terrain, as opposed to falling back into using coordinates that make humans think that we can control the planet (North, South, East, and West). We are not aiming to be Promethean meaning-makers (readers and writers) that set our desires and planetary score by our closeness to the sun (Heavens), and existing technologies (such as the fire Prometheus steals from the Gods), but instead find ourselves in Avril Corroon’s watery composition, which, similarly to the planet, we cannot transcend

Steam Works (Wanderscorde Woad Extractor)

Steam Works is a gallery in Wandsworth Town that is programmed by the curator Kirsten Cooke. Steam Works (Wanderscorde Woad Extractor) was launched in October (2023) with an exhibition by Dale Holmes, 'Welcome to Ratcatcher's Song and Dance Plague Band for Good Dogs' and is based in WIP space, a studio complex located in a converted Georgian listed building. The programme presents solo exhibitions by artists at different stages of their careers and supports intergenerational exchange, with a focus on queering and decentering the gallery space alongside an interrogation of capitalism and class

T.E.N.T.S by Material Conjectures

Material Conjectures T.E.N.T.S T.E.N.T.S. is a presentation about a fictional company with an international reach, across a wide range of contexts – commercial, charitable, Governmental and insurgent. Through the presentation we hope to navigate the ideologies prevalent in ‘extrastatecraft’ and provide a cross-section of the ‘zones’ produced by these practices. The resultant slice of spatial strata, and the potentiality to exploit these ‘extrastatecraft’ technologies to different ends, is the area in which ‘Temporary Fabrications’ and our invited speakers, Jonathan Darling and Jaspar Joseph Lester will be tapping into through their talks

Material Conjectures presents Kwartz Kapital Konstruktion Kollider

Kwartz Kapital Konstruction Kollider is a new architectural structure conceived by Material Conjectures to stage the work of Sinead Bligh, Mikko Canini, and Thomas Yeoman. Material Conjectures (artist Dale Holmes and curator Kirsten Cooke) is an exercise in transparency through which contested authorial positions – artist/curator – are at stake

Abandoned Temporary Crisis Facility

A large scale (26metres x 7metres) temporary architectural structure built in the Arch Space at Beaconsfield Gallery, London. this structure was then intervened upon by artist Gary Woodley in the form of a large architectural drawing upon the structure and the existing architecture of the arch

Ensuring quality in 17OHP mass spectrometry measurement:an international study assessing isomeric steroid interference

Objectives: Interference from isomeric steroids is a potential cause of disparity between mass spectrometry-based 17-hydroxyprogesterone (17OHP) results. We aimed to assess the proficiency of mass spectrometry laboratories to report 17OHP in the presence of known isomeric steroids. Methods:A series of five samples were prepared using a previously demonstrated commutable approach. These samples included a control (spiked to 15.0 nmol/L 17OHP) and four challenge samples further enriched with equimolar concentrations of 17OHP isomers (11α-hydroxyprogesterone, 11β-hydroxyprogesterone, 16α-hydroxyprogesterone or 21-hydroxyprogesterone). These samples were distributed to 38 participating laboratories that reported serum 17OHP results using mass spectrometry in two external quality assurance programs. The result for each challenge sample was compared to the control sample submitted by each participant. Results: Twenty-six laboratories (68 % of distribution) across three continents returned results. Twenty-five laboratories used liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS), and one used gas chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry to measure 17OHP. The all-method median of the control sample was 14.3 nmol/L, ranging from 12.4 to 17.6 nmol/L. One laboratory had results that approached the lower limit of tolerance (minus 17.7 % of the control sample), suggesting the isomeric steroid caused an irregular result. Conclusions: Most participating laboratories demonstrated their ability to reliably measure 17OHP in the presence of the four clinically relevant isomeric steroids. The performance of the 12 (32 %) laboratories that did not engage in this activity remains unclear. We recommend that all laboratories offering LC-MS/MS analysis of 17OHP in serum, plasma, or dried bloodspots determine that the isomeric steroids are appropriately separated.</p

Ensuring quality in 17OHP mass spectrometry measurement:an international study assessing isomeric steroid interference

Objectives: Interference from isomeric steroids is a potential cause of disparity between mass spectrometry-based 17-hydroxyprogesterone (17OHP) results. We aimed to assess the proficiency of mass spectrometry laboratories to report 17OHP in the presence of known isomeric steroids. Methods:A series of five samples were prepared using a previously demonstrated commutable approach. These samples included a control (spiked to 15.0 nmol/L 17OHP) and four challenge samples further enriched with equimolar concentrations of 17OHP isomers (11α-hydroxyprogesterone, 11β-hydroxyprogesterone, 16α-hydroxyprogesterone or 21-hydroxyprogesterone). These samples were distributed to 38 participating laboratories that reported serum 17OHP results using mass spectrometry in two external quality assurance programs. The result for each challenge sample was compared to the control sample submitted by each participant. Results: Twenty-six laboratories (68 % of distribution) across three continents returned results. Twenty-five laboratories used liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS), and one used gas chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry to measure 17OHP. The all-method median of the control sample was 14.3 nmol/L, ranging from 12.4 to 17.6 nmol/L. One laboratory had results that approached the lower limit of tolerance (minus 17.7 % of the control sample), suggesting the isomeric steroid caused an irregular result. Conclusions: Most participating laboratories demonstrated their ability to reliably measure 17OHP in the presence of the four clinically relevant isomeric steroids. The performance of the 12 (32 %) laboratories that did not engage in this activity remains unclear. We recommend that all laboratories offering LC-MS/MS analysis of 17OHP in serum, plasma, or dried bloodspots determine that the isomeric steroids are appropriately separated.</p

A deep learning system accurately classifies primary and metastatic cancers using passenger mutation patterns.

In cancer, the primary tumour's organ of origin and histopathology are the strongest determinants of its clinical behaviour, but in 3% of cases a patient presents with a metastatic tumour and no obvious primary. Here, as part of the ICGC/TCGA Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes (PCAWG) Consortium, we train a deep learning classifier to predict cancer type based on patterns of somatic passenger mutations detected in whole genome sequencing (WGS) of 2606 tumours representing 24 common cancer types produced by the PCAWG Consortium. Our classifier achieves an accuracy of 91% on held-out tumor samples and 88% and 83% respectively on independent primary and metastatic samples, roughly double the accuracy of trained pathologists when presented with a metastatic tumour without knowledge of the primary. Surprisingly, adding information on driver mutations reduced accuracy. Our results have clinical applicability, underscore how patterns of somatic passenger mutations encode the state of the cell of origin, and can inform future strategies to detect the source of circulating tumour DNA