Contagious Holiday Spirit

Our 3D printed virus ornaments are ready! We are selling these ornaments to raise money for science outreach. We have:

Last week, I shared our first few prints on Twitter and they were well received. We had plans to add glitter, but I learned that I should be nowhere near a spray can – and that the viruses look better in their classic original print.

How did these happen?

A wonderful woman I work with, Jenny McQueen, altered the virus files uploaded to Thingiverse by Dave (username educator). Because all proceeds are going to our science outreach program, everyone has given us permission to use their work – thank you!

Education tags

Every virus ornament is going to come with a festive bit of information.

Hepatitis B (HepB)

• Attacks the liver and can cause both acute and chronic disease
• Transmitted through blood or other bodily fluids
• Kills more than 780,000 people every year
• Vaccine-preventable

Source: WHO website – HepB (accessed November, 2014)

Human Papillomavirus (HPV)

• More than 100 types, at least 13 are cancer-causing
• Most common viral infection of the reproductive tract and most sexually active women and men will be infected at some point, with some people re-infected
• HPV16 and HPV18 cause 70% of cervical cancers and precancerous cervical lesions
• More than 270,000 women die from cervical cancer every year
• Vaccines against HPV16 and HPV18 are available

Source: WHO website – HPV (accessed November, 2014)

Adeno-Associated Virus (AAV)

• Used in gene therapy trials because it can bring in extra genes as it infects cells
• Small virus that can infect humans and other primates, but is not currently known to cause disease

Source:  Russel DW, Deyle DR (2010). “Adeno- associated virus vector integration”. Current Opinion in Molecular Therapy 11 (4): 442–447

We are also making…

• DNA icicles
• Cross stitch Science like Christmas ornaments for molecular biologists and others who love looking at small things.
• And more…

If you have any craft geeks you would like to see, please let us know! We are up for most challenges.