Scientifically accurate 3D model
of HIV

We created this 3D model and visualization of the HIV viral particle in the year 2009. At 2010 it has been awarded the first place and named the best scientific visualization at the Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge (SEVC), a competition organized by Science magazine and the National Science Foundation.

Since then it appeared on the covers of special issue of Nature Medicine, International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) Report, influential textbooks "Vaccines", and "Principles of Virology". It was featured in The New York Times, Cell Picture Show by CellPress, National Geographic, Wired, Popular Science, and elsewhere. It received positive feedback from Nobel Prize winners including Francoise Barre-Sinoussi.

Project goal

Create the most scientifically accurate and detailed 3D model of the HIV particle in atomic resolution.

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Nature Medicine special issue cover

Surface proteins on the HIV particle

Envelope and capsid of the HIV particle

"Congratulation for your very succesful 3D HIV model!”

Prof. Françoise Barré-Sinoussi

Nobel Prize in Medicine 2008, Pasteur Institute, Paris, France

"Based on our experience, we highly recommend Visual Science as a reliable, trustworthy partner with excellent scientific, artistic and organizational expertise."

Alan Bernstein

Executive Director Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise (2010)

HIV whole model visualization

The particle core

Envelope proteins on the HIV surface

The Process

Animation type:

High-end 3D

Project timline:

4 months

Team

Review:

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This model summarizes the results from more than a 100 scientific publications that were published before 2009. Our team spent many weeks collecting and analyzing the data, consulting with virologists, assembling and updating the molecular structures of the HIV components. None of the currently available scientific approaches allow for obtaining an image of the whole virus particle in the atomic resolution. Nevertheless, hundreds of works by different authors from around the world have shed light on the structure and morphology of virion components and their interactions, which made possible creation of this model.

Why we used this animation type?

This complex and very resource-consuming project was the first High-End molcecular visualization we produced and it set the standards not only for our team but also for many our colleagues in the industry. The depicted spatial configurations of 17 different viral and cellular proteins found in the HIV particle are in strict accordance with known 3D structures. The viral membrane in the model includes 160,000 lipid molecules of 8 different types in the proportion found in the HIV particle.