A new visual design language for biological structures in a cell

Jitin Singla; Kylie Burdsall; Brian Cantrell; Jordan R Halsey; Alex McDowell; Colleen McGregor; Sanraj Mittal; Raymond C Stevens; Shaoyu Su; Alexandra Thomopoulos; Theotime Vaillant; Kate L White; Bryan Zhang; Helen M Berman

doi:10.1016/j.str.2022.01.002

A new visual design language for biological structures in a cell

Structure. 2022 Apr 7;30(4):485-497.e3. doi: 10.1016/j.str.2022.01.002. Epub 2022 Jan 31.

Affiliations

¹ Bridge Institute, Michelson Center for Convergent Bioscience, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA; World Building Media Lab, Media Arts + Practice, School of Cinematic Arts, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA; Department of Biosciences and Bioengineering, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, Roorkee, Uttarakhand 247667, India. Electronic address: jsingla@bt.iitr.ac.in.
² Bridge Institute, Michelson Center for Convergent Bioscience, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA.
³ World Building Media Lab, Media Arts + Practice, School of Cinematic Arts, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA.
⁴ John C. Hench Division of Animation + Digital Arts, School of Cinematic Arts, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA.
⁵ Immersive Media Lab, School of Cinematic Arts, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA.
⁶ Bridge Institute, Michelson Center for Convergent Bioscience, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA; World Building Media Lab, Media Arts + Practice, School of Cinematic Arts, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA; Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Piscataway, NJ 08854, USA. Electronic address: berman@rcsb.rutgers.edu.

PMID: 35093200
DOI: 10.1016/j.str.2022.01.002

Abstract

As part of a project to build a spatiotemporal model of the pancreatic β-cell, we are creating an immersive experience called "World in a Cell" that can be used to integrate and create new educational tools. To do this, we have developed a new visual design language that uses tetrahedral building blocks to express the structural features of biological molecules and organelles in crowded cellular environments. The tetrahedral language enables more efficient animation and user interaction in an immersive environment.

Keywords: artscience; immersive environment; tetrahedral structure representation; whole-cell modeling.

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