Couldn't help but notice...
Wednesday, January 26, 2011 at 07:23PM 
I have an illustration project right now that involves a model of the P-glycoprotein, a molecular pump that non-specifically transports small hydrophobic molecules out of cells. It's presumably there to keep toxins out of our cells, but it's also a pain in the neck when therapeutic drugs meant to be delivered to the cell are pumped out of it. Anyway, I couldn't help but notice that a model of a similar ABC transporter, at a certain angle, looks decidedly bunny-like, so I just had to go with it.
You can make your own molecular bunny! The pdb accession code is 2HYD. I used the molecular visualization program VMD*. Get the surface model into this perspective and highlight residues 10 to 45 for the left ear, 155 to 190 for the right ear, 331 for the nose, 217 to 219 for the left eye, and 326 to 328 for the right eye. I won't lie to you. I made the mouth in photoshop. I don't expect anyone other than myself to waste perfectly good time to make this very creepy looking rabbit, but you just never know.
*Humphrey, W., Dalke, A. and Schulten, K., "VMD - Visual Molecular Dynamics" J. Molec. Graphics 1996, 14.1, 33-38.
Reader Comments (3)
This is so fun!
Hi, Mary. I love this! I actually just adopted a 8-month old holland lop bunny from a friend (they are going back to Korea). I love my bunny. she gave me a lot of comfort after a long science/non-science day. Well, the guy (Ben) who gave me the bunny is an animation artist. http://www.benjaminplouffe.com Maybe you may find something interesting in his work. Hope everything is well. -Claire @Toronto
Thanks Claire! Ben's work is really beautiful, thanks for sharing it. Interesting that both comments on this post came from Toronto. Did I uncover a market for molecular bunnies? Hope you're well, and keep in touch.