Client:bild der wissenschaft, Konradin Mediengruppe
Magazine: Issue 10 2016
Cuts in inheritance
I had the honour of designing the entire cover story for the November issue of bild der wissenschaft, which revolves around the topic of ‘Gene Drive’. The issue is very ambivalent: on the one hand, it opens up many new possibilities for medicine to cure diseases, but on the other hand, there are also a lot of ethical concerns. Tinkering with the genome of living beings – especially humans – at will is a delicate matter that could have unmanageable consequences.
For an article explaining the discovery and mode of action of the ‘Crispr’ gene scissors in detail, I illustrated the controversial topic as an injection-moulded kit containing a selection of elements associated with the topic of gene drive, ranging from gene segments, viruses, animals and plants to the gene scissors themselves. I illustrated the topic of malaria with a series of graphics. Malaria could be eradicated if we intervened in the genome of the male Anopheles mosquito and made it infertile. I have illustrated this fact in a double-page spread using a mix of photography and graphics. In another infographic, I have illustrated the comparison between normal inheritance and gene drive inheritance.
