WRN · Meander

A repair enzyme that both unwinds and trims DNA; when it is lost the body ages far ahead of its years, in the disorder that gave the protein its name.

WRN is a RecQ helicase with a second talent: it not only unwinds the double helix but also trims damaged DNA with a built-in exonuclease. It works across replication, repair, and the upkeep of telomeres, smoothing over the knots and stalls that arise whenever the genome is copied.

When both copies of WRN are lost, the result is Werner syndrome, in which the body ages far ahead of schedule: greying hair, cataracts, and age-linked disease arriving in early adulthood. The gene is a reminder that keeping DNA intact and keeping a body young are, at the molecular level, nearly the same task.

WRN both unwinds and trims DNA to hold the genome together. I lifted its own 4,299-base coding sequence off the double helix and drew it as a single meandering line across the sheet.

Provenance

The coding sequence of WRN, transcript ENST00000298139 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

We are Genetics of Design, a data art studio that uses pen plotting as its medium. Every piece we make begins with a public record, whether road networks, genomes, star catalogs, or species data, which we translate through custom code into composition, density, and line, and publish alongside the provenance of the data it came from.