Synergy Sculpture

Outside of the IQB building sits Julian Voss-Andreae’s 20-foot, 3,200-pound polished stainless steel and colored glass sculpture. Synergy is based on the triple-helical structure of collagen. The most abundant protein in humans, collagen forms long molecular ropes that provide tensile strength to our tendons and bones, and make up vast, resilient molecular sheets that support the skin and internal organs. Collagen also serves as a pathway for cellular movement during development and growth.

The first atomic resolution structure of the collagen triple-helix was determined at Rutgers in Helen M. Berman's laboratory in 1994.  Professor Emerita Berman is the founding director of the RCSB Protein Data Bank and the founding director of IQB’s precursor, the Center for Integrative Proteomics.

Julian Voss-Andreae is a German- born sculptor based in Portland, Oregon. Starting out as a painter, he later changed course and studied quantum physics at the Universities of Berlin, Edinburgh, and Vienna. For his graduate research, Voss- Andreae participated in a seminal experiment demonstrating quantum behavior for the largest objects thus far, which became the inspiration for many of his sculptures. Voss-Andreae’s work has quickly gained critical attention and graces multiple institutional and private collections in the U.S. and abroad.