Time for a bit of break from the usual animal illustrations. I thought I’d post something from the “Day Job” for a change of pace.
The Ebola virus is on everyone’s mind lately, and I’m no exception. I keep seeing many of the same images, so I thought it might be useful to create some new illustrations of the deadly filovirus.
My first image is an editorial illustration of the virus itself. The second shows the virus in a stylized blood stream; the filoviruses are shown approaching a macrophage, which they use to make a multitude of copies of themselves.
The third illustration shows an interesting viral protein, VP40, from the matrix of the Ebola virus. Viruses have a limited genome to code for proteins. The protein VP40 in the Ebola virus is a bit like the “Swiss Army Knife” of proteins. It has widely varying functions that change when it is assembled as a dimer, hexamer or ocatamer. In this illustration an octamer of the VP40 protein is shown. Eight protein subunits combine to form a torus (donut) shape. In this arrangement the proteins bind to ribonucleic acid (RNA) and are involved in regulation of viral transcription. In its other arrangements VP40 is responsible for giving shape to the matrix of the virus (hexamer arrangement) and transporting proteins (dimer).
An excellent discussion of Ebola Virus Proteins can be found at the Protein Data Bank.
If you are interested in seeing more of my medical and scientific art, visit http://bohanart.com/medical.html.
If you are interested in publishing any of these images, contact me for a rate chart or more information. Additional unpublished images in vertical format are also available.
These images are NOT in the Public Domain.
All content copyright © Matthew Bohan 2014. All Rights Reserved.
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