ISSUE II

24 SIENNA SOLSTICE
IF A
VIRUS
COULD
SING
Markus J. Buehler
Laboratory for Atomistic and Molecular Mechanics
(LAMM), Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
Cambridge, MA, United States of America
Proteins are key building blocks of virtually
all life, providing the material foundation of
spider silk, cells, and hair, but also offering
other functions from enzymes to drugs, and
pathogens like viruses. Based on a nanomechanical
analysis of the structure and
motions of atoms and molecules at multiple
scales, we showed that each of the protein’s
building blocks – amino acids – have
a unique frequency spectrum, or tonal quality
once transposed to the audible range,
allowing us to translate protein sequences
into musical patterns [1,2] (Figure 1).
Moreover, the hierarchical structuring of the
protein can be translated to music through
variations of volume, note length,
rhythm, and overlaying melodies
leading to counterpoint [3]
(Figure 2). Using this concept of translating the
hierarchical structure of matter into music – a
method termed materiomusic
– we developed sonified versions
of the coronavirus spike protein
of the pathogen of COVID-19, 2019-nCoV (see
Figure 3). The resulting audio features an
overlay of the vibrational signatures of the
protein’s primary, secondary and higher-order
structures and can be played in either
the innate nanomechanical
tuning of molecules (the amino
acid scale) or mapped into
equal temperament tuning [4] .
Sonification of the Coronavirus
Spike Protein [Amino Acid Scale]
Figure 4: Visual representation of the virus
spike protein (left) interacting with the human
cell receptor (ACE2), on the right. This moment
of infection represents the molecular binding
event that occurs during infection process.
Viral Counterpoint of the Coronavirus
Spike Protein (2019-nCoV) [equal
temperament tuning, orchestral classical]
The method allows for expressing protein structures
in audible space, offering novel avenues to
represent, analyze and design ar-