Calmodulin molecular visualization

Personal project
Project Overview
This 2-page science magazine spread was created during my studies in the Biomedical Communications program at the University of Toronto. It is a biomolecular visualization piece that illustrates the molecular basis of calmodulin regulating intracellular levels of calcium.
Upon binding to calcium ions, calmodulin becomes highly flexible and dynamic, enabling it to bind to many different target proteins and perform a wide range of functions (PDB IDs: 1CFD and 1CLL). The structure of the calcium-calmodulin complex bound to three different peptides were incorporated in the spread (PDB IDs: 2JZI, 1CM1 and 2BBM).
Tools
Adobe Illustrator
Adobe Photoshop
Chimera
Cinema 4D
References
  • Chang JY, Parra-Bueno P, Laviv T, Szatmari EM, Lee SR, Yasuda R. CaMKII Autophosphorylation Is Necessary for Optimal Integration of Ca(2+) Signals during LTP Induction, but Not Maintenance. Neuron. 2017;94(4):800-808.e804.
  • Chao LH, Stratton MM, Lee IH, et al. A mechanism for tunable autoinhibition in the structure of a human Ca2+/calmodulin- dependent kinase II holoenzyme. Cell. 2011;146(5):732-745.
  • Chattopadhyaya R, Meador WE, Means AR, Quiocho FA. Calmodulin structure refined at 1.7 A resolution. Journal of molecular biology. 1992;228(4):1177-1192.
  • Ikura M, Clore GM, Gronenborn AM, Zhu G, Klee CB, Bax A. Solution structure of a calmodulin-target peptide complex by multidimensional NMR. Science (New York, NY). 1992;256(5057):632-638.
  • Kuboniwa H, Tjandra N, Grzesiek S, Ren H, Klee CB, Bax A. Solution structure of calcium-free calmodulin. Nature structural biology. 1995;2(9):768-776.
  • Li X. Calmodulin. Accessed June 15, 2018.
  • Meador WE, Means AR, Quiocho FA. Target enzyme recognition by calmodulin: 2.4 A structure of a calmodulin-peptide complex. Science (New York, NY). 1992;257(5074):1251-1255.
  • Myers JB, Zaegel V, Coultrap SJ, Miller AP, Bayer KU, Reichow SL. The CaMKII holoenzyme structure in activation-competent conformations. Nature communications. 2017;8:15742.
  • PDB101: Molecule of the Month: Calmodulin. RCSB Protein Data Bank. Accessed June 15, 2018.
  • Pepke S, Kinzer-Ursem T, Mihalas S, Kennedy MB. A dynamic model of interactions of Ca2+, calmodulin, and catalytic subunits of Ca2+/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II. PLoS computational biology. 2010;6(2):e1000675.
  • Wall ME, Clarage JB, Phillips GN. Motions of calmodulin characterized using both Bragg and diffuse X-ray scattering. Structure (London, England : 1993). 1997;5(12):1599-1612.
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