Claude Gagna

Dr. Claude Gagna is a Professor in the Department of Biological and Chemical Sciences at the New York Institute of Technology (NYIT), where he serves as a senior biology educator in lecture and laboratory instruction within the anatomical sciences. He also holds adjunct Professor appointments at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School in the Departments of Dermatology (Medicine) and Pathology. Dr. Gagna is a molecular biologist, DNA nanotechnologist, anatomist, and inventor whose scholarly work includes patents, peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters, refereed conference proceedings, copyrighted materials, and funded internal and external research grants. Over more than 25 years on the NYIT faculty, Dr. Gagna has developed an interdisciplinary research and creative program that integrates biology and visual art. His work introduces Anatomical/Molecular Biology Art, an approach that combines anatomical science, molecular biology, and canvas-based artistic design. This body of work uses preserved animal eye tissues and purified DNA to explore the relationship between scientific structure and visual aesthetics. Central to this project are novel tissue-preservation methods developed by Dr. Gagna that maintain anatomical morphology while preserving intact cellular DNA and RNA. These fixation techniques prevent biodeterioration and enable the long-term conservation of biological structure alongside molecular integrity. His peer-reviewed publications describe preservation strategies that support simultaneous tissue and DNA stability, with implications for cellular research and cancer studies. The preserved eye tissues serve both as scientific specimens and as materials for artistic expression, including eye tissue-based paints, DNA-derived paints, and biologically informed pigment systems. Dr. Gagna’s Anatomical/Molecular Biology Art incorporates whole and dissected eye globes and their components—such as cornea, lens, iris, retina, optic nerve, vitreous humor, and extraocular muscles—arranged in aesthetically driven compositions that reference flowers, flattened anatomical forms, and DNA double-helix motifs. His work spans multiple formats, including canvas paintings created from ocular lens, retinal, vitreous, and iris materials; DNA-extracted pigment paintings; chemically derived histological color systems; species-specific eye studies from mammals and fish; and Petri-dish art based on DNA-chemical color reactions. Additional pieces utilize antique and modern microscope slides displaying ocular tissue sections. The conceptual framework of this interdisciplinary practice integrates four intellectual dimensions: aesthetic visualization of eyes and purified DNA, biological preservation and potential biobanking, comparative anatomy and evolutionary perspectives, and public engagement with science through art. In addition to his visual work, Dr. Gagna writes science-based poetry addressing themes of equity, diversity, inclusion, social justice, and human identity through biology and genomics. Dr. Gagna is also part of a team of NYIT investigators awarded $427,000 from the National Science Foundation for an instrumentation grant supporting a High-Energy Micro-Computed Tomography (micro-CT) 3D Imaging Scanner. The system, housed at the NYIT College of Osteopathic Medicine, will support interdisciplinary research initiatives, including fossil analysis, advanced studies of eye anatomy, and the development of novel microarray technologies.

Creation of BioArt based on a novel approach of using animal eye tissue and molecular biological techniques, that preserve DNA in tissue, to create canvas art. DNA is being positively exploited in several ways to both promote art and and conserve biodiversity. This approach preserves the genetic material of animals which might one day go extinct. DNA poems regarding social issues, such as diversity, equity and inclusion.