Dr. Douglas Guzior’s PhD research on bile acid conjugation was published in Nature in April 2024. He and his PI called for help designing a possible cover. Article submissions for each issue compete for the spotlight on the cover.

The timeline was tight. I had 1 week to design, model, render, and edit the image. We went through several concept sketches and settled on a “pruning” metaphor for bile salt hydrolase acyltransferase (BSH/T)’s mechanism of action. The “leaves” of the bonsai tree are the Van der Waals representation of BSH/T. The “flowers” being pruned are the chemical structures of amino acids taurine and phenylalanine.

While we did not make the cover, the image provided a major visual for his defense and will be printed on a private run of the issue.