Synthetic Cells to Cure Eye Disease

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Biotech Graphics: Illustrating Synthetic Cells

Goal and Challenges

Potential and promise. Most biotech start-ups have plenty of both, but many are unable to fully communicate their vision. Biotech company Cell Care Therapeutics approached SayoStudio’s Nicolle R. Fuller to illustrate their technology using synthetic cells to combat diabetic blindness. They needed to visually communicate their technology to potential investors, with graphics that garnered excitement, understanding, and support. The illustration, to be used in their investor slide deck presentations (pitch deck), needed to explain their science and demonstrate their unique niche in biotech. 

Synthetic Stem Cell Delivery Packages

The constellation of health problems that CCT targets, from neural autoimmune disease to degenerative eye health, is at its root a problem of cellular inflammation. Other researchers have studied potential therapeutics, but some don’t treat the true underlying cause. While others have focused on costly stem cell delivery systems, CCT is working to better understand these disease pathways and is the leading producer of a new kind of therapeutic delivery system called secretomes. Secretomes are special cellular packages sent from stem cells to communicate with other cells and can be harnessed to deliver therapies to damaged cells and tissue. CCT’s technology removes the need for stem cells, creating the secretomes in an easily injectable therapeutic. 

Curing Diabetic Blindness

Degenerative eye disease (retinopathy) is one of many debilitating downstream effects of diabetes, and the leading cause of blindness in adults. Like much of the damage that occurs from diabetes, eye disease happens from poorly functioning blood vessels. Unfortunately, the solution isn’t as simple as fixing the blood vessels. CCT is studying the network of supporting neural cells that surround the retina’s capillaries, specifically a network of cells that helps hold together the integrity of blood vessels called pericytes. Healthy pericyte cells help to seal the blood vessels and act as an anchoring system for other neuron cells. 

Process and Solution

Working with CEO Nicolas Sohl, we discussed the key aspects of both the disease that needed to be shown, and the technological differences that set them apart from competitors. The illustration needed to show both potential disease targets (pericytes), and a comparison of 3 things:

• The unhealthy state with the old drug delivery system
• The unhealthy state with the innovative CCT synthetic delivery system
• And the healthy, treated state, made better because of the CCT technology. 

Style Direction

Nicolas and Nicolle discussed different ways to visually signal the 3 different states. Nicolas looked at past works, including those that had more of a hand-drawn quality. He described a drawing that signified the old treatment in pencil, while the final healthy state was treated in a more realistic, 3D style.

Biotech Graphics Research and Sketch

Now that we had a visual direction, Nicolle began to bring the vision to life. Although she had done many projects on the more well-known neurons, there was a lot to learn about pericytes and the larger interplay of neural cells in the eye. Background research provided by Nicolas, plus additional resources, helped Nicolle identify realistic ways to show the pericytes wrapped around the capillary. 

An early artistic decision was to treat the whole illustration as one continuous art piece rather than repeating the same scene created in 3 different styles. The idea was to create more of a tryptic, where the art and the story continue from one panel to the next. Although stylistically it is signaled that each is different, there is continuity and cohesion in the composition.

Nicolle started out with a detailed pencil sketch to capture the overall point and the scientific details. She also wanted to confirm that some of the slight artistic liberties, like pericytes falling off the blood vessels in the unhealthy state, were appropriate.

On. To. Color

With the visual map approved, Nicolle was excited to start on color. Because so much of the message would be conveyed with different styles, she wanted to get going quickly to confirm that everything was still on track in color. The art was created with a mix of 3D programs and Photoshop.

First, Nicolle created the main components in the 3D program Cinema 4D (C4D) and going back and forth between it and Zbrush. Next, she modeled the swooping blood vessel and the basic shapes of the pericytes wrapped around the vessel. Then, she digitally sculpted the detailed arms of the neural cells and the diseased pericytes’ bumpy distortions in Zbrush. Nicolle continued to perfect the look of the cells until it was time to collage them together in Photoshop. She hand-drew the ‘sketched’ sections of the left and right panel, finalizing the full-color draft. At this point the artwork felt close to complete, with only a few details left to add. It was a good time to send it to CCT, to see how they felt after seeing the color art for the first time.

Finalizing the Art

Overall, the art was lining up with Nicolas’s vision, with a few constructive requests. One, he wanted more contrast between the 3 sections. Two, he felt like the key technology, the synthetic stem cell in the center panel, was feeling a little flat and cartoony. On the left side we removed the color completely to really make it feel like a pencil sketch. In the center, Nicolle re-created the synthetic stem cell to make it feel more concrete and tactile. Then she worked on the texture of the neural cells a bit more to give the art that final spark. 

The art has become the underpinning of CCT’s investor presentations and the face of its business social media. In 2018 CCT finished its first round of investor funding, with 4.3 million dollars in seed money to support production of synthetic stem cell therapeutics. Their research continues into treatments for eye disease, and SayoStudio is proud to continue working with CCT to visualize their developments. 

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