Molecular Magic Springs from Historic Inspiration

With this project, I sought to present a new take on molecular visualization that contrasted with the sleek and modern aesthetics typically seen in similar work.

My illustrative approach was inspired by my 2019 stint as a SCIART Research Fellow at the University of Maryland Baltimore County. I worked on art conservation in conjunction with the Walters Art Museum, isolating DNA from the parchment of medieval manuscripts to deduce the provenance of ancient documents.

This project tied together my passion for medieval art and my interest in psychopharmacology from studying neuroscience. The article explains the historical significance of scopolamine in the early modern age. The border around the piece features various plants that produce this neurotoxic alkaloid.

I used structural data from the PDB Database, refined with Visual Molecular Dynamics and Chimera. The 3D scene was assembled in Autodesk Maya.