Cover Art for ACS Letters of Medicinal Chemistry

While working in a computational biology lab, I was interested in learning more about how to visualize the unseen. This brought me down the rabbit hole of Biomolecular Visualization or using 2D graphics and 3D representations to better understand the structure of proteins, carbohydrates, and other biomolecules. I created a mini research paper to highlight my findings here.

I then taught myself how to utilize pymol structures in Blender and render them with realistic lighting. I crafted a diorama that shows how different inhibitors (silver and gold) could be used in the binding cavity of Sphingosine kinase 2, which is an important regulator of immune cells. On the left of the visualization is the inactive ingredient and on the right is the final product, sphingosine-1-phosphate, making its way into the bloodstream towards cancer cells. By creating this visualization and utilizing best practices for biomolecular visualization I was able to convey sophisticated work in an intriguing manner.

Check out the published journal cover art here.