Interactive Biophysics & Genomic Soundscapes

Lab for Fun

Playful, tactile explorations of genome biology in the browser — scrub continuously through 8,500-fold 3D physical folding of human chromosomes, or translate raw nucleotides into polyphonic ambient music.

These interactive web applications translate complex biophysical principles into tactile, real-time visual and acoustic experiences. Built with pure WebGL and the Web Audio API, they run entirely client-side with zero dependencies or server roundtrips.

Chromatin 3D Compaction

From the DNA Duplex to a Metaphase Chromosome

A continuous, multi-scale 3D physical model visualizing how 84.6 mm of human chromosome 1 is systematically packaged into a compact 10 µm mitotic chromatid — an 8,500-fold linear compaction spanning five distinct structural regimes across five orders of magnitude.

2 nm B-form DNA: Double helix duplex with major/minor grooves
11 nm Nucleosome: 147 bp wrapped 1.65 turns on histone octamers
10 nm Fibre: Flexible beads-on-a-string zigzag chain with linker histone H1
Loop Domains: Loop extrusion by cohesin halted at convergent CTCF motifs
Mitotic Array: Helical ~400 kb loop array organized around condensin scaffolds

Sonic Genome

Real-Time DNA Audio Synthesizer & Acoustic Soundscape

An interactive biological music synthesizer that sonifies DNA sequences into rich polyphonic soundscapes. Nucleotides modulate melodic pitch, codons dictate synth timbres, GC-content sweeps steer dynamic low-pass resonance filters, and transcription factor motifs trigger percussion.

Nucleotide Mapping: A, C, G, T mapped across 6 harmonic musical scales
Amino Acid Timbres: 20 translated amino acids drive polyphonic oscillator voicings
Dynamic Filter Sweeps: Sliding-window GC% dynamically modulates cutoff frequency
Motif Percussion: TATA box, E-box, and Kozak consensus hits trigger acoustic beats
Interactive Controls: Real-time BPM slider, reverb acoustics, and custom DNA loader

Biophysics Meets Playful Computation

Both playgrounds highlight different fundamental facets of genome structure and information theory. Explore how their underlying computational architectures translate biological data:

Feature	Chromatin 3D Compaction	Sonic Genome
Core Medium	3D WebGL procedural mesh rendering	Web Audio API multi-oscillator polyphonic synthesis
Biological Dimension	Spatial physical packaging & polymer folding	Sequence information density & nucleotide harmonics
Dynamic Scale	Five orders of magnitude (2 nm → 10 µm)	Sub-bass to high-frequency audio spectrum (55 Hz → 2,093 Hz)
Interactive Input	Continuous scale scrubber, 3D orbit, regime milestones	Audio playback transport, scale selector, custom FASTA parser
Biological Anchor	PDB 1AOI nucleosome crystal geometry & loop extrusion physics	Universal standard genetic code, IUPAC motifs & GC resonance

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