Chromos

This project was created by experimental electronic musician Max Cooper and visual artist Andy Lomas, using data provided by Csilla Varnai, Peter Fraser, Takashi Nagano, and Mikhail Spivakov, scientists at the Babraham Institute in Cambridge (GB), from their research on chromosomal conformation capture.

The work explores the complex dynamic beauty of three-dimensional chromosomal structures as they are transformed by a process called »simulated annealing«. This starts by emulating the effect of heating the DNA strands to a very high temperature so that structure is violently moved by thermal noise. Over time the temperature is reduced, and the structure coalesces into a final coherent form.

Through the use of data acquired from real cells that indicate points of contact between strands of DNA, the aim is to use these simulations to create the best possible guess of the real structure of chromosomes in cells. How the chromosomes fold is believed to influence the activation of different sections of DNA, which in turn dictates the proteins expressed and the function of different cell types.