A raw screenshot of a moment when you sit back and think, wow, I'm looking at a mathematical structure on a program display output that describes how we think an image might be formed in an electron microscope. It was not that long ago (in a geological sense) that we didn't know that there might be a language that can capture our abstract reasoning. Perhaps we're still grasping for it.

Inspired by the iconic One Ring from The Lord of the Rings, this artwork celebrates the remarkable molecular architecture of gasdermin- a pore-forming protein that plays a central role in innate immunity. When activated, gasdermin assembles into a ring-shaped pore that punctures the membranes of infected or damaged cells, releasing inflammatory signals and initiating programmed cell death to help eliminate threats. While Tolkien’s ring was forged for domination, gasdermin’s ring is forged for defence, where the sacrifice of a single cell protects the host as a whole. 

Every human cell contains approximately two metres of DNA. To package DNA into nucleus, a tiny spool called "nucleosome" wraps the DNA around like a thread. This packaging not only compacts the DNA but also protects it from damage. When this protective system is disrupted, DNA damage can accumulate, contributing to diseases such as cancer, aging, and genetic disorders.

A lot of structural biologists work on drug targets and spend a lot of time trying to get a structure that allows modelling of a target protein together with its drug/ligand/activator. I wanted to capture exactly that feeling in a wanted poster, styled like the classic One Piece wanted posters.

What happens after your sample becomes waste? 

Computer-modelled structures get all the glory, while the friends we made along the way are left to rot and fester. This work is comprised of old membranes, foil, autoclave tape, dried SDS and agarose gels, piles of used cryo-EM grids, reagent stickers and consumable cutouts, with Coomassie and Bradford dye stains. 

Representing hours upon hours of work amassed by the students and researchers of the CCeMMP collective, Wasteland is an ode to structural biology, sung from the depths of the biohazard bin.

This image shows a segmented cryo-electron tomogram of Selenomonas sputigena, a curved, flagellated bacterium from the human oral cavity. The 3D reconstruction captures its crescent-shaped body, membrane architecture, and flagella in near-native detail. Strikingly, the tomogram revealed previously undocumented electron-dense granules within the cytoplasm. Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) confirmed these granules contain iron, a feature not previously reported in this species.What began as a routine structural study became an unexpected discovery.

How close can we get to seeing our own reality? There is a hidden world, right under your electron beam. 

Macroscopic transfer uses a microscope camera and photo-weaving to blend the micro and macro. As these unfamiliar worlds are transferred to our lived scale, we might wonder, how much information gets through? What does it really look like down there? The world might be fuzzier than we think......

Photos taken using a Litpopo Microcam XI at Monash DDB. 

This is an image of M5 muscarinic acetylcholine receptor bound to a positive allosteric modulator. 

A single image, multiple perspectives, resolutions, and wavelengths.

Zoom out, and you're looking at the hole of a cryo-EM grid, with a membrane protein sample blotted across it. 

Zoom in, and that same edge transforms: it becomes the membrane of a living cell, populated by a chain of colorful membrane proteins, arcing across the border like a rainbow. 

The visible electromagnetic spectrum made structural.

Aka. Life is like a box of chocolates; you always know what structure you're going to get.

Handmade and decorated chocolate sculptures of various membrane protein receptors and their tasty ligands.

I illustrate a gold-colored glycosyltransferase (ArnC), which appears in a position similar to Michael's shadow in the background of the image. 

Structural biology is full of these shapes that resemble everyday objects or human postures.

This is a reconstruction of Drosophila thick filament showing flightin in red and myosin backbone and heads are in grey. made in Chimerax.

This video shows the assembly and function of the Salmonella bacterial flagellar motor, one of the most remarkable molecular machines in biology. Each major protein is labeled, along with the experimental or computational method used to determine its structure.

Envision a fictitious Museum of Molecular Arts (MoMA) where structures of proteins are displayed in artistic manner to explore and interact with. They are shown as gigantic installations that almost let you feel like a small molecule next to them. The video highlights a special exhibition focusing on molecular machines - protein complexes that involve distinct conformational changes to fulfil their task in the cell. This draws on the beauty and power of biological structures for education and our deeper understanding of nature.