If a picture is worth a thousand words, an animation could be worth countless more when it comes to the intricate molecular processes that scientists have spent decades trying to unravel and understand.
Janet Iwasa, a biochemistry professor at the University of Utah, gave a fascinating TED talk on the utility of a basic animation in visualizing the crazy complex happenings within a cell, or a virus, or…
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Iwasa is the principal investigator for a project called Molecular Flipbook, a website that allows researchers to freely share, view and edit molecular models and animations with each other. A number of research institutions are involved in the National Science Foundation-backed project, including Harvard Medical School; University of California, San Francisco; Baylor University; and Northeastern University.
“The process of creating these animations can often be enlightening, and can give researchers new insight into how to think about a molecular process,” Iwasa said. “The models used to create the animations can be tools in and of themselves, allowing the researcher to explore an idea in time and space in a way they’ve never had access to before.”
Iwasa spent months in Hollywood learning about animation – time that most researchers can’t afford, she concedes. But with Molecular Flipbook, it only takes 15 minutes for a biologist who hasn’t used any animation software before to begin building these molecular models, Iwasa said. Molecular Flipbook is also building an online database of these animations.
An HIV animation, for instance, that Iwasa’s team has worked on combines decades of research into a simple animation. It may not be Pixar-perfect, but it’s certainly illustrative in a way that makes a textbook drawing pale in comparison. Check it out here.
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Even simple animations can work in describing a microscopic process. One nice example of animation being used strongly is a video created by Cambridge-based SQZBiotech, an MIT-backed startup that uses microfluidic chips to squeeze the pores of cells open in order to insert outside materials.
Lesson: It’s just too difficult to rely on your own brain to imagine what’s going on at an infinitesimally small scale.
“Biologists for the most part are using a paper and pencil for visualizing molecular processes, but with the breadth of data that we’ve got these days it’s just not enough,” Iwasa said.
