High-end animation on LINE-1 reverse transcriptase

The collaboration includes ROME Therapeutics, a biotech company leveraging insights from dark genome biology to develop breakthrough therapies, and scientists from a number of high-profile academic institutions.

Series B
—
$199M raised

Project goal

Create a scientifically accurate animation to present the recently-discovered structure of LINE-1 reverse transcriptase, and its potential for future drug discovery.

LINE-1 ORF2 reverse transcriptase enzyme

Reverse transcription in the nucleus

LINE-1 mRNA in the nucleus

“The animation depicting the LINE-1 lifecycle is both visually remarkable and scientifically accurate – we were impressed by the Visual Science team’s ability to use exact protein structures to depict complex mechanisms in <90 seconds. The visuals are beautiful and tell a clear story.”

Rosana Kapeller

President, CEO and co-founder, ROME Therapeutics

”Together with Visual Science, we created a compelling and captivating video that clearly explains complicated concepts in a short amount of time. I've had the chance now to show the video at a few meetings, and jaws dropped. The Visual Science team was also amazing to work with! Through the process, we were able to iterate and expand on a few key areas that only became apparent once we got into the animation. The end result speaks for itself!”

Martin S. Taylor, M.D.,Ph.D.

Massachusetts General Hospital & Harvard Medical School

LINE-1 ribonucleoprotein (RNP) complex

RNA-DNA hybrid with cGAS molecules attached

Activity and inhibition of LINE-1 reverse transcriptase

The Process

Animation type:

3D + High End 3D

Project timline:

13 weeks

Team

Review:

10 zoom calls + 7 e-mail feedback sessions

Find out which of our 26 scientific animation options works best for investor relations and communications in 2023:

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We completed this project for a team of researchers from various scientific and medical institutions and biotech firm ROME Therapeutics. The team published a remarkable study in Nature, describing the structure of LINE-1 reverse transcriptase - an enzyme that can produce potentially harmful genomic insertions and pro-inflammatory cytoplasmic RNA-DNA hybrids. Our work on this project required maximum dedication from every member of our team, and the communication process included a lot of input from multiple science specialists on the client's side. We took meticulous care to implement all our client's ideas and comments. For this reason, the project took quite a lot of time and required extensive 3D modeling R&D - but in the end, we achieved a scientifically-accurate and visually outstanding result.

Why we used this animation type?

This animation focuses on very complex molecular processes and structures, requiring our most advanced modeling approaches and high-end 3D style. Since the animation was primarily targeted at scientists, the result had to be accurate and sophisticated at every level, from the script to the model details. At the same time, the video is brief, and to some extent plays the role of an artistic abstract for the research paper, so we had to delicately unite scientifically rigorous modeling and effective storytelling. Our team worked in close collaboration with the client-side researchers, who provided us with consultations and reference structures allowing us to update our molecular assets and visualize complex scenes with reverse transcription.