This illustration depicting the mechanism of topoisomerase II was created using a mixture of PyMOL, Cinema 4D and ePMV, and Photoshop.
Client: Dr. James Berger, Professor of Biophysics and Biophysical Chemistry
Audience: Graduate and medical students taking cell biology and genetics
Using PyMOL
The content expert, Dr. James Berger, provided .pdb files of each state of topoisomerase II. I separated each domain of the topo II dimer and exported for continued work in Cinema 4D using ePMV.
Cinema 4D and ePMV
Using the .pdb files as reference, I made my own DNA using ePMV and positioned it accordingly. I chose to create course surface models for each state of topoisomerase II to draw attention to the molecule's movement and mechanism throughout each state. Disordered domains were created with splines in Cinema4D - the length of the disordered domains was determined by examining the number of amino acids reserved for the disordered domains in the amino acid sequence. I referenced Alphafold to derive a general chaotic confirmation of the disordered domains.
Check out one of my 3D models below using Sketchfab!
Photoshop Rendering
I painted on top of the Cinema 4D rendered models to push light on form, add highlights and reflected lights, and add details. I used a combination of sketch and toon lines as well as my own linework to create subtle outlines for each topoisomerase II state.
Chromatin Condensation
Topoisomerase II is implicated to interact with DNA and with each other to help compact DNA segments and promote entanglement, helping chromosomes condense during mitosis.
I created a scene of this concept in the bottom inset of my illustration, compositing foreground and background DNA with topoisomerase II positioned throughout in Cinema4D.