Huey, Dewey, and Lewy

A triptych tracing the collapse of alpha-synuclein, the protein behind Parkinson's disease, from intrinsic disorder into the locked fibril of a Lewy body.

Alpha-synuclein is an intrinsically disordered protein. In a healthy brain it never settles into a single shape, a restless chain that wanders freely. Under the wrong conditions it begins to stick to copies of itself and locks into a rigid, parallel fiber the cell can no longer undo. These fibers gather into the clumps known as Lewy bodies, the microscopic hallmark of Parkinson's disease.

Read left to right, the three panels trace that collapse along the protein's sequence. The N-terminal region opens in loose, wandering strokes, its intrinsic disorder. In the aggregation-prone core the marks tighten and straighten as the chain begins to pack, and a single crimson stroke marks the nucleation seed where the change first takes hold. The C-terminal panel locks into an even, near-vertical registry, the fibril, almost mechanical. Here order is not a sign of health but the signature of disease.

Each residue's chemistry drives its mark: the sticky, aggregation-driving positions throw heavier, longer strokes, so the field is the sequence's own energy rather than decoration. The title names the three panels for the Lewy bodies they depict, with a nod to three well-known cartoon nephews.

Provenance

RCSB Protein Data Bank, PDB ID 2N0A
https://www.rcsb.org/structure/2N0A
PDB structure 2N0A. Tuttle et al., 2016. Public domain (RCSB PDB).

Materials

Archival giclée print on fine-art paper, a faithful digital reproduction of a pen-plotted work. Each print ships with a signed data-provenance insert card.

Included

• One archival giclée print (unframed)
• Signed data-provenance insert card
• Care instructions

Studio

Genetics of Design is a data art studio that uses pen plotting as its medium. Each piece begins with a public record, whether road networks, genomes, star catalogs, or species data, translated through custom code into composition, density, and line, and published alongside the provenance of the data it came from.