Look at proteins, from hand-drawn masterpieces to electron-density map sculptures.

Look at proteins, from hand-drawn masterpieces to electron-density map sculptures.

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  1. Magic Box

    The original Richards Box, built by Frederic M. Richards at Oxford University in 1968 to help construct more accurate atomic models of proteins. The device became an essential part of structural biology labs. However, researchers were known to lose months using it to tweak protein structures. Perhaps for this reason, the box was also referred to as Fred's Folly.

    Credit: Frederic Richards

  2. Secondary Structure

    Scientist and artist Jane Richardson invented the ribbon representation of secondary structures, such as α-helices and β-sheets, found in proteins. This is one of her drawings of the protein myohemerythrin, an oxygen-binding protein found in the muscle of marine invertebrates.

    Credit: Jane Richardson

  3. Old-School Talent

    Hand-drawn structure of triose phosphate isomerase by Richards, who developed the ribbon model of secondary structure.

    Credit: Jane Richardson

  4. Timber Trophy

    Max Perutz carved this balsa wood model of hemoglobin in 1959. Two of the protein's four subunits are in white, the other two in black. The red objects are heme groups, which are used by the protein to bind oxygen.

    Credit: MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology

  5. Sausage Structure

    In the late 1950s, John Kendrew built this model of myoglobin, with the heme group painted in red and the peptide backbone in white.

    Credit: MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology

  6. Pioneers

    Kendrew (left) and Perutz, the scientists who determined the crystal structures of myoglobin and hemoglobin, with a model of myoglobin in 1960s.

    Credit: MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology

  7. String Schemes

    In 1959, Michael Rossmann, then a coworker of Perutz and now a Purdue University professor, drew a map of hemoglobin's polypeptide backbone after the team solved the structure of the protein at 5.5 Â.

    Credit: MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology

  8. Plastic Perspectives

    Two-dimensional slices of electron-density maps were often printed on transparent plexiglass sheets. Up top is a stack of several plexiglass printouts that display a portion of hemoglobin from lamprey, a jawless fish. Below is stick model of the protein, built by eyeballing the electron-density map.

    Credit: Wayne Hendrickson

  9. Fluorescent Backbone

    In the early days of structural biology, the stick models of proteins were complicated, and it was hard to make sense of the biological molecules. Researchers would sometimes thread green fluorescent rope along the protein backbone for simpler visualization, as seen here.

    Credit: Wayne Hendrickson

  10. Artful Science

    Researchers sought after Irving Geis, who was exceptional at hand-drawing protein structures. This is his drawing of crambin, a protein found in cabbage seeds. According to Richard Dickerson, who often collaborated with Geis, "He was once making an elaborate illustration of a folded protein surrounded by space-filling water molecules. A fellow artist watched him for a bit and then remarked that Irv needed to 'put a few more lima beans over on the left.' Geis declined to do so, because he had an astute respect and understanding of structural biology."

    Credit: Irving Geis

  11. Painted Proteins

    A close-up of the cabbage seed protein crambin, drawn by Geis before the advent of computer visualization software in the 1970s.

    Credit: Irving Geis

  12. Density Depictions

    Stacks of plexiglass sheets piled on top of each other. Each slide shows a slice of electron density from CD4, an immune system protein found on white blood cells.

    Credit: Wayne Hendrickson