TOP2A · Meander

The enzyme that cuts clean through both strands of the double helix to untie the knots of replication, then seals them back; one of chemotherapy's oldest targets.

TOP2A is a topoisomerase, an enzyme that manages the tangles DNA ties itself into. As the double helix is copied and read, torsion builds and duplicated chromosomes become intertwined. TOP2A cuts clean through both strands, passes another stretch of DNA through the gap, then reseals the break, releasing the strain and separating the copies so a cell can divide.

That momentary double-strand break is also a vulnerability. Several chemotherapy drugs work by catching TOP2A mid-cut and jamming the break open, so a dividing cancer cell shatters its own chromosomes. The enzyme that keeps the genome untangled becomes, frozen at the wrong instant, a way to bring a tumour down.

TOP2A cuts clean through the double helix to release the coils that build as DNA is copied; here its own sequence is uncoiled the same way, all 4,596 bases traced as a single meandering line across the sheet.

Provenance

The coding sequence of TOP2A, transcript ENST00000423485 on the GRCh38 assembly, retrieved from Ensembl (EMBL-EBI).

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.