Rouge Research Group: Bioconjugate Chemistry — Joe Luciani

Every scientific cover I design starts as a brainstorming session with my wife, Jessica. Once we lock in the core inspiration, I run with the execution. While many illustrations lean into a glowing, organic vibe, this cover required a highly structural, schematic approach to visualize her Rouge Research Group team's new method for delivering gold metallodrugs into cells using chimeric siRNA-DNA surfactants, developed within UConn Chemistry at UConn. I used Rhino3D and Grasshopper to parametrically model all the individual components. The central micelle is packed with gold pentagonal structures representing the metallodrugs, and it is surrounded by a radiating halo of double-helix DNA and siRNA strands. The graphic captures the exact moment the delivery vehicle begins to disassemble, dropping its gold payload and nucleic acid strands right above a dense lipid bilayer cell membrane. Once the 3D geometry was dialed in, I brought everything into Photoshop, layering the renders and adding a distinct, grainy texture to the background. This gave the final image a clean, textbook-style aesthetic that perfectly fit the Bioconjugate Chemistry journal's focus and successfully landed us the front cover.

Publication Reference: Hartmann, A. K.; Gudipati, S.; Pettenuzzo, A.; Ronconi, L.; Rouge, J. L. Chimeric siRNA-DNA surfactants for the enhanced delivery and sustained cytotoxicity of gold metallodrugs, Bioconjugate Chemistry, 2020, 31, 4, 1063-1069. DOI: 10.1021/acs.bioconjchem.0c00047