CRISPR Gene Therapy. This award-winning mock journal cover created by Vadym Lytvynov imagines the inner world of the cell and its nucleus as a DNA repair shop.
Vadym Lytvynov, a graduate student in the Master of Science in Biomedical Communications program, received an Award of Merit in the student category for Still Media–Editorial in the Annual Salon of the Association of Medical Illustrators (AMI).
The award was given at the 77th annual meeting of the AMI, which took place July 19 to 22, 2023 in Henderson, Nevada. He received the award for his mock journal cover CRISPR Gene Therapy, which he created in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the course Visual Representation of Medical Knowledge.
Lytvynov, who holds an MD from Kharkiv National University, Ukraine, took inspiration from the potential approval by US authorities for the application of CRISPR gene therapy to sickle cell disease and beta-thalassemia.
He planned and designed the journal cover to attract the interest of an educated audience of non-specialists and inspire them to read about the technology that research scientists can use to modify the DNA of living organisms.
Lytvynov visualized the inner world of the cell and its nucleus as a bustling DNA repair shop. In the repair shop metaphor, the DNA is first scanned for possible defects. If any are found, the DNA is cut and edited. The whole process is supervised by a toy doctor.
"It's like molecular surgery right inside the nucleus," he says. "This playful image symbolizes the potential of CRISPR technology to treat inherited genetic diseases, cancer, and other genetic disorders."
Dr. Vadym Lytvynov is a graduate student in the Master of Science in Biomedical Communications program at the University of Toronto. (Photo credit: Tunya Langsub.)
Creating the journal cover began with a literature review. Not only did Lytvynov want to expand his knowledge of how CRISPR works, he needed to find an analogy suitable for the editorial illustration.
Lytvynov sketched ideas until the concept of the DNA repair shop crystallized. He took the sketches into illustration software where he created two-dimensional templates. He then took the templates into 3D-modeling software, where the models were textured, lit, and rendered. The rendered image was composited and finished in photo editing software. "The hardest part was to draw the viewer's attention to the DNA chain and the cut, while keeping the colours of the cover in harmony."
Lytvynov says that he is grateful to Course Instructor Shehryar Saharan, assistant professor, teaching stream (limited term appointment), for his support and technical advice while learning the software required to create the cover.
He also wishes to acknowledge the School of Graduate Studies’ and Massey College’s Scholar-at-Risk Fellowship, the Institute of Medical Science’s Stimulus Award, and the Institute for Management and Innovation’s Professional Master’s Bursary. “Without this financial support, I would not have been able to study at the University of Toronto,” he says.
Lytvynov, who enters the second-year of the Biomedical Communications program in September, says the 3D-modeling and other skills he learned while creating the cover have served him well in his current role as a Clinical Education and Biomedical Communications intern at Boston Scientific.
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Web site referenced above.
Shehryar Saharan’s faculty profile: https://bmc.med.utoronto.ca/faculty-staff/#saharan