I think I’m going to do the protein alpha amylase, the enzyme responsible for breaking down starch for digestion. For my sculpture, I’m thinking of covering a basic pipe cleaner structure with cornstarch. Now I just need to find out how to make it more interesting color-wise (white would be too bland).
Protein artists
Protein science
Studio tricks and materials
Perhaps the substrate (the starch) could be white and the amylase (the protein) could be colored artistically to match its function. Let’s see… I’m looking up PDB 1SMD … wow. This is cool… The enzyme has two domains 1) an alpha/beta barrel, and 2) a sandwich. OK. What colors might you choose for a barrel and a sandwich??. And here’s something else: To be broken down, the starch has to first get past a floppy “glycine rich” gate that looks like Gumby (I’m not making this up … well, OK, I am). So this enzyme has a Gumby, a sandwich, and a cracker barrel. Sounds like an episode for the next Pixar film!