Liquid Crystal DNA (Exhibition and final launch)

Linden.g · Post by **Linden.g** » Sun May 10, 2015 5:59 am

Thanks for the kind comments.

Marek, its the same Olympus system a mixture of Plan Achromats and Apo's using either cross polarization with and without a 1-4 lambda wave plate. Some were also done with DIC. 3 of the mages were printed over a meter in size and its impressive to see how well a standard single frame form a Canon EOS 5D Mark II prints at that scale.

zzffnn · Post by **zzffnn** » Sun May 10, 2015 9:47 am

Thank you Linden for those breathtaking arts and noble course!

How did you generate that 3D-like effect in the first photo (columnar phase LC DNA)? I imagine it takes more than stacking, polarization scope/wave plates and high concentration of DNA recrystalized in isopropanol?

I had biochem class in grad school and read about how to make LC DNA in lab environment - it seems routine work there. But for a hobbyist at home, it may not be easy to control concentrations, buffer strengths and other physical chemistry conditions? Did you make LC DNA preps at home?

Linden.g · Post by **Linden.g** » Sun May 10, 2015 10:46 am

zzffnn wrote:Thank you Linden for those breathtaking arts and noble course!

How did you generate that 3D-like effect in the first photo (columnar phase LC DNA)? I imagine it takes more than stacking, polarization scope/wave plates and high concentration of DNA recrystalized in isopropanol?

I had biochem class in grad school and read about how to make LC DNA in lab environment - it seems routine work there. But for a hobbyist at home, it may not be easy to control concentrations, buffer strengths and other physical chemistry conditions? Did you make LC DNA preps at home?

Thanks for the kind feedback. I had a double stranded palindrome sequence made synthetically and chose it based on its known properties in the literature (5'-ACGCGAATTCGCGT-3'). I don't have a lab at home so all the conditions and variables were uncontrolled. The first image was one of the easier ones using RO water and DNA at almost saturation. The key is to have the right layer thickness on the slide. I used two additional cover slips to suspend the sample coverslip. The image below shows a 2 giga pixel panorama of almost the entire width of the sample. I didn't use focus stacking in most of this work.

The main website is here http://www.mss.ng/film. You can make your own virtual crystals and buy fund raising posters.

zzffnn · Post by **zzffnn** » Sun May 10, 2015 11:38 am

^ Amazing! Indeed you did it at home.

So that first photo was done using slow crystalization (dissolve DNA in room temp without boiling -> saturated water solution naturally cooled and evaporated)?

I guess that palindrome sequence helps with self-assembly/crystalization. Does it have to be double stranded though - wouldn't single strands have more structural freedom to form more complex crystals? Is it because too much structural freedom would not produce a rigid/stable crystal? What happens if you boil (break apart) that double stranded sequence at saturation and let it slowly cool/crystalized?

I am just curious - your photos are fascinating and thought-provoking.Thank you.

Linden.g · Post by **Linden.g** » Sun May 10, 2015 11:58 am

zzffnn wrote:^ Amazing! Indeed you did it at home.

So that first photo was done using slow crystalization (dissolve DNA in room temp without boiling -> saturated water solution naturally cooled and evaporated)?

I guess that palindrome sequence helps with self-assembly/crystalization. Does it have to be double stranded though - wouldn't single strands have more structural freedom to form more complex crystals? Is it because too much structural freedom would not produce a rigid/stable crystal? What happens if you boil (break apart) that double stranded sequence at saturation and let it slowly cool/crystalized?

I am just curious - your photos are fascinating and thought-provoking.Thank you.

It was dissolved at room temp to about 300mg/ml and then the evaporation was done on the slide just from the edges of the coverslip and that's why it was pretty slow. It was made double stranded and I didn't try high temperature melting. Large, small and single stranded DNA has all been studied. See references here.

http://www.physics.nus.edu.sg/~bcf/publ ... 1_1998.pdf
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v3 ... 724a0.html
http://www.e-lc.org/dissertations/tmp/G ... _56_31.pdf

Marek Mis · Post by **Marek Mis** » Sun May 10, 2015 11:42 pm

Thank you for your answer and additional informations. Once again - great work and great achievement

Marek

Ecki · Post by **Ecki** » Mon May 11, 2015 12:33 am

Very interesting project and excellent images. Bravo!

arturoag75 · Post by **arturoag75** » Mon May 11, 2015 1:51 am

great in anyway