2020 Online Salon
Pyocins: Natural Bacteria Killers
Project Details
- Entrant Name: Margot Riggi
- Membership Type: Student Submission
- Address: Toronto, Ontario Canada
- Client: Faculty advisor: Derek Ng
- Copyright: 2020 Margot Riggi
- Medium/software used: Chimera, Cinema4D, Photoshop, Illustrator
- Final presentation format: Print, detachable poster in a magazine, 11’x17′
- Primary Audience: Educated lay audience
Project Description
Pyocins are elegant supra-molecular assemblies produced by Pseudomonas aeruginosa. They specifically recognise and attack competing bacterial strains—with an efficiency that approaches single shot killing. I created this illustration as a two-page detachable poster for a popular science magazine, in order to educate a lay audience on the molecular mechanism of this biological nanomachine, as it could have important applications for public health. This is why the narrative ends with an emphasis on the therapeutic potential of pyocins as a novel type of precision antibiotics. I rendered the molecular reconstruction of a pyocin in 3D and made it the central visual focus of the composition in order to draw viewers into the illustration. I used 2D schematics to visually simplify the molecular complexity of pyocin into the essential protein components responsible for its mechanism of action.
