Biomedical animations inspire and educate

Three biomedical animations that accurately represent human biology at the molecular level recently made their debut to the public.

Created by Dr Kate Patterson from the Garvan Institute of Medical Reasearch (Garvan), Chris Hammang from CSIRO and Dr Maja Divjak from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research (WEHI), the animations provide an inspiring way of engaging people and communicating complex science concepts.

Using the same animation software as Dreamworks, Pixar Animation Studios and video game makers, the animations were made under the artistic direction of biomedical animator Drew Berry from WEHI as part of the VIZBIplus project - Visualising the Future of Biomedicine - jointly led by Dr Patterson, Dr Sean O’Donoghue from CSIRO and Garvan, and Drew Berry.

“We are in the middle of a communication revolution, and I see animation as one of the keys to unlocking the mysteries of science,” Dr O’Donoghue said. “In modern science, we are discovering very complex phenomena that are often hard to communicate because they are occurring at a molecular scale. Biomedical animations have the power to make these invisible events visible.”

The three animations are:

• ‘The Hungry Microbiome’ by Chris Hammang at the CSIRO. This animation shows how starch is broken down in the gut and is based on CSIRO health research about ‘resistant starch’, which protects against colorectal cancer. The animation aims to promote the importance of eating beans and other foods rich in resistant starch.
• ‘Cancer is Not One Disease’ by Kate Patterson from Garvan highlights the role of the tumour suppressor protein p53, known as ‘the guardian of the cell’, in the formation of many cancer types.
• ‘Type 2 Diabetes and Inflammation’ by Maja Divjak from WEHI focuses on the role of the newly discovered ‘inflammasome’ - a structure assembled by the immune system to protect the body from foreign invaders. This animation aims to show how the inflammasome also plays a key role in type 2 diabetes, a ‘lifestyle’ disease representing one of the fastest growing chronic conditions of the 21st century.

The VIZBIplus project is funded by the federal government’s Inspiring Australia initiative.

The full-length animations are available here.

Image caption: A still from ‘The Hungry Microbiome’ animation showing how starch is broken down in the gut