Computer Virus Sculpture #7:

AdenoCD Virus (In Progress)

The sculpture is a representation of the Adenovirus shown below. This biological virus is one of several types of viruses that have an icosahedral shape with distinct modules. The Adenovirus serotype 36 virus has been associated with human obesity and it has been reported that this virus can spread just like the common cold virus.

Taking Shape - August 2011

The next step in the process will be to fiberglass the capsid and attach CDs to represent the adenovirus hexons. This sculpture will be covered with 240 CD disks each representing one of the hexons. Of 240 hexons that comprise the outer shell of the Adenovirus, 120 cover the edges, 4 to an edge. The rest cover the 20 faces, also requiring 120 hexons.

The 12 pentons at the vertices and the 12 spheres at the end of the fibers are made from cement; steel rebar is used for the fibers. CAT 5 cables will be used to cover the 12 fibers.

Given that the CDs along each edge must be bent, constructing this sculpture began with the mathematical problem of determining the radius of the curve that when a CD were bent over the edge it became tangent to the flat face. See diagram below.

The circle has two tangent lines that intersect at 138.2 degrees, the dihedral angle of an icosahedron. The arc distance between the two tangent points must be 4 11/16 inches which is the diameter of a CD. A 12" diameter tube comes close satisfying these requirements.

Thanks to Mike Heffner for checking these calculations and for pointing out the errors of my ways.

The next step is to head off to my most favorite art supply store: Home Depot.

Sakrete 12" Form Tube			The Three Tubes
Pentagon Pyramid			Two Halves and Edges
Building the Structure		A Peek Inside		CenterBall
The Icosahedral Frame
External Links
MicrobiologyBytes: on Adenovirus
Imaging the building blocks of viruses
Liu, H., L. Jin, S.B.S. Koh, I. Atanasov, S. Schein, L. Wu, and Z.H. Zhou. 2010. Atomic structure of human adenovirus by cryo-EM reveals interactions among protein networks. Science. 329: 1038-1043. Epub 2010 27 August. The authors and the Science Magazine also provide on-line supporting materials that include incredible movies of this virus. Here is one.
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Gazebo adorned with an Adenovirus Sculpture
Salk Viral Vector Core
Gene in Pieces The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1993
U.S. National Library of Medicine: Gene therapy using an adenovirus vector
Krackeler Scientific, Inc. Introduction to Adenovirus Technology
VIPERdb is a database for icosahedral virus capsid structures
Adenovirus (1990), an IEEE rendering by (art)n artists Ellen Sandor, Stephan Meyers and Craig Ahmer
The Obesity Bug, And Other News From Nerdland, Discover Magazine
Adenovirus.jpg