2020 Online Salon
Cas9-induced p53 activation

Project Details
- Entrant Name: Jeff Day
- Membership Type: Professional Submission
- Address: Rockville, Maryland USA
- Client: Rameen Beroukhim, Uri Ben David, Oana Enache and Veronica Rendo
- Copyright: 2020 Jeff Day @ Johns Hopkins University
- Medium/software used: C4D, Photoshop, Illustrator, PDB
- Final presentation format: Journal Cover
- Primary Audience: Scientists
Project Description
The cover image illustrates the paper “Cas9 activates the p53 pathway and selects for p53-inactivating mutations”. In the image, p53 is represented by a guard dog that protects a yard from Cas9 bunnies looking to bite into the DNA hedge. The shapes of the dog and bunnies are based on the crystalline protein structures of p53 and Cas9 respectively. The bunny heads are illustrated into scissors, playing with the conventional snipping depiction of Cas9 in cartoons. The characters were modeled to have a whimsical plastic toy feel, to match the material quality that a pair of plastic bunny scissors might have. The cover image was published in the July 2020 issue of Nature Genetics.