2020 Online Salon
The Perfect Match of Demise

Project Details
- Entrant Name: Zhen Bai
- Membership Type: Student Submission
- Address: Toronto, Ontario Canada
- Client: Faculty Advisor: Derek Ng
- Copyright: 2020 Zhen Bai
- Medium/software used: Photoshop, Illustrator, Chimera, Maya, mMaya
- Final presentation format: Print, two-page spread in a popular science magazine (e.g., Scientific American)
- Primary Audience: Educated lay audience
Project Description
Charybdotoxin is found in the venom of death-stalker scorpions. It is a neurotoxin that specifically targets voltage-gated potassium channels. It is remarkable how this simple polypeptide toxin can have such high specificity to one of life’s most essential proteins. I created this two-page molecular illustration spread to demonstrate the 3-dimensional structure of charybdotoxin, the voltage-gated potassium channel, and the molecular mechanism behind this interaction.