Covered In Bugs: Unique And Unusual Scrubs From Patho Phizz

Online, January 13, 2011 (Newswire.com) - Patho Phizz is the brainchild of Ben Parks and Marti Bein, a couple of artists with an idea: cover the teeming masses with teeming pathogens. Ben, who also works as a critical care nurse at the local regional hospital, traces his original inspiration back to his days in Microbiology 101--entranced by the beauty of bugs under the microscope. Surely these images could be used creatively. Then, graduation from nursing school, and that fateful first shopping spree to buy scrubs for work. He found that his choices fell into two broad categories--drab colors for men, and cutesy patterns for women. In late 2009, Ben, Marti,and Ben's daughter Aurora started playing around with micro-graphs of pathogens and pathologies, enhancing colors, patterning them with the aid of computer graphics software. Marti, a painter, offered pointed criticism and suggestions. Aurora, in addition to making patterns, came up with ideas for future products (e.g. pajamas patterned with REM sleep EEG rhythms). They made a couple of prototypes and thought their results had promise. Ben wore an early E. coli to work one day, followed by a pulmonary embolism pattern. His co-workers were intrigued. In November 2010, the business was launched via the internet. Currently they offer three patterns, based on the pathogens Clostridium botulinum, E. coli, and Candida albicans--with several patterns in the works (e.g. C. difficile, MRSA, and STD's). Their story has been featured on the website www.whatsgoodinamerica.com.