50th anniversary of Polio Vaccine

"Whatever  Happened to Polio?

April 12, 2005





Web page of models and molds




Web page of castings




Web page of sculptures of the polio virus



Web page from the Polio Vaccine Exhibition







Survivors

Polio survivors Reunion

Hogle lab polio structure




Sculptures commissioned by the Smithsonian Institution

Click on web links to view additional pages


Bronze sculptures were made in collaboration with Prof.  James Hogle and his laboratory, Harvard University Medical School, and the  Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC for the exhibition "Whatever  Happened to Polio? at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History. 
links:
http://americanhistory.si.edu/polio/virusvaccine/how.htm
http://americanhistory.si.edu/polio.
Castings were made at the Shidoni Foundry, Santa Fe, New Mexico

The spherical polio virus capsid sculpture represents a 7,000,000-fold magnification of the 2.2Å resolution crystal structure (1HXS.PDB). The structure of the capsid complexed to the cellular membrane receptor was elucidated by cryo-electron microscopy at ca. 10Å resolution.
These sculptures are models based on experimental images from the laboratory of Prof. James Hogle, Harvard University School of Medicine
The surface representations of both models in digital form were used to create plastic models by means of rapid-prototyping. These plastic models were used to create molds, from which identical wax models were formed. The ‘lost-wax’ method was used to make the brass castings. Patinas were applied to help distinguish the viral capsid from the membrane-receptor region.

Please note the remarkable complimentarily of the five-fold receptor domain of the cell membrane with the 5-fold symmetry of the viral coat proteins at the site of viral injection of RNA to infect the cell. The cell receptor is composed of five protein (Pvr, CD155) chains each consisting of a chain of ca. 340 amino acids that assume the Ig fold characteristic of immunoglobulin monomers.


E. Meyer, Taos NM
©2005 The Smithsonian Institution and E. Meyer