EDITORS: Journalists are invited to visit Robin Evans’ art class while the students complete their mural panels. (Completion is expected by April 6.) Photos and video of the students are available, as well.

ANN ARBOR—Some endeavors like medicine or clinical research are described as combining art and science, meaning they bring the facts and figures as well as the intuitive and emotional interpretation of them.

The April 11 kickoff of construction at the University of Michigan’s Life Sciences Institute melds art and science in a number of ways.

In the morning, those attending the 10 a.m. official ceremony at Rackham Auditorium will see the work of 21 Ypsilanti High School students who are working under the direction of teacher Robin Evans to create a series of 40-by-44-inch images employing house paint on aluminum sheets.

Students researched the life sciences and painted panels with the theme “What life science will look like in the future.” Their work will decorate the construction fence while the institute building is going up. The institute is slated for completion in 2003, and when finished, it will serve as a hub for cross-disciplinary research and teaching in the life sciences at U-M.

In the evening, attendees will have the opportunity to view the exhibition “Paradise Now: Picturing the Genetic Revolution” at the U-M Museum of Art before a panel discussion on art, ethics and genetics, moderated by U-M President Lee C. Bollinger. Panelists include Carole Kismaric and Marvin Heiferman, partners in the New York-based company, Lookout, and independent curators of the exhibition; Peter Ubel, associate professor of internal medicine, U-M Medical School; Elizabeth Petty, associate professor of internal medicine and of human genetics, U-M Medical School. The discussion is scheduled to run 5-7 p.m.

Even the scientists are joining in on the artistic side of the event. A trio from the Life Sciences Orchestra, a symphony orchestra recently formed by faculty, students and staff from life sciences departments at the University, will perform at the kickoff ceremony.

The Life Sciences Institute is part of the U-M’s Life Sciences Initiative, launched in 1999 as a campuswide effort to coordinate and expand research and teaching in such rapidly advancing fields as genomics, chemical and structural biology, cognitive neuroscience and bioinformatics.

Bollinger will speak at the kickoff ceremony, as will Life Science Institute Co-directors Jack Dixon and Scott Emr. U-M students Nakia Williams and Meredith Miller also will make remarks at the morning event.

For more information on the Life Sciences Initiative: http://www.lifesciences.umich.edu/

For details of the event: http://www.lifesciences.umich.edu/news/news-sect-events.html

For more on Paradise Now: http://www.geneart.org/pn-intro.htm For more on the Life Sciences Orchestra: http://www.umich.edu/~lsorch/welcome/aboutlso.html

Life Sciences InstituteYpsilanti High SchoolParadise Now: Picturing the Genetic RevolutionLife Sciences OrchestraLife Sciences InitiativeJack Dixonhttp://www.lifesciences.umich.edu/