Bristol artist Luke Jerram reveals new glass coronavirus sculpture

Bristol artist Luke Jerram has created a new glass sculpture depicting a coronavirus.

The 23cm replica of COVID-19 is 2 million times larger than the actual virus.

It was created as a tribute to the global scientific and medical effort to combat the pandemic.

The piece was commissioned eight weeks ago by a university in America, before the virus became a pandemic.

Luke Jerram who is known around the world for his installation called The Museum of the Moon, said:

Made through a process of scientific glassblowing, the coronavirus model is based on the latest diagrams of the virus.

All money from the glass model is going to Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) a charity that will be assisting developing countries deal with the fallout of the coronavirus pandemic.

The coronavirus model is just the latest in Luke's Glass Microbiology series of virus sculptures.

Luke and his glassblowing team have, in the past, made other sculptures of viruses from swine flu and Ebola to smallpox and HIV.

The Glass Microbiology sculptures are in museum collections around the world, including the Metropolitan Museum, NYC; Wellcome Collection, London and the Museum of Glass, Shanghai.