David Goodsell

David S. Goodsell, is an associate professor at the Scripps Research Institute^[1] and research professor at Rutgers University, New Jersey^[2] (joint appointment). He is especially known for his watercolor paintings of cell interiors.^[3][4]

David S. Goodsell at the booth for the RCSB Protein Data Bank in 2013

Education

David Goodsell studied a BSc in biology and chemistry at University of California Irvine.^[1] After this, he did a PhD in X-ray crystallography of DNA at the University of California Los Angeles, completed in 1987.^[1][5]

Research

Since completing his PhD he has worked as a structural biologist at the Scripps Research Institute (with a 2-year period in University of California in 1992-94).^[1] His research topics have included the use of structural biology and molecular dynamic simulations to investigate symmetry in protein oligomers, protein-protein interactions and for computer-aided drug design. In particular he is a developer of AutoDock, the most widely-used program used for molecular docking.^[6] His main research focus areas are HIV drug resistance and structure and function of bacterial cells.^[7]

Illustration

Example of individual protein: Cascade surveillance complex of the Type I CRISPR bacterial immune system from Escherichia coli (2015). The Cascade protein complex (blue) bound to the crRNA guide strand (orange). (PDB: 4tvx​)

Example of molecular landscape: Zika Virus (2016). Viruses top and left with envelope proteins (red), membrane proteins (magenta), lipid membrane (light purple), RNA genome (yellow), and capsid proteins (orange). Target host cell bottom-right with cell surface receptors (green). Blood plasma molecules (yellow).

Goodsell has developed a signature style of scientific drawing. He started painting early in his childhood but did not study art in college.^[8] In graduate school, Goodsell became interested in scientific illustration while writing molecular graphics programs to visualize protein and DNA structures.^[8]

Goodsell's signature style uses generally very flat shading, with strong and simple colour-schemes.^[9] As is typical in medical illustration, the images are simplified representations of the subject that still retain accuracy of the important features.^[10][11] His illustrations fall broadly into two categories: individual proteins, and cellular panoramas.

His images of individual proteins are typically computer generated, cell-shaded space-filling representations of proteins, often with cut-aways to show internal binding sites and cofactors. Conversely, his illustration of cell interiors (sometimes called molecular landscapes) are hand-painted in watercolours.^[12] They are typically slices through a cell with highly simplified protein structures in a flat style in order to capture overall organisation without overwhelming detail.^[13] These cell interiors are often displayed at an effective 1,000,000x magnification for consistency.^[14][15] The paintings therefore share a consistent style, aiming to make interpretation easy and as intuitive as possible.^[16]

His illustrations are published in the "Molecule of the Month" series by the Protein Data Bank (PDB), an archive of protein structures.^[8] His illustrations are used as teaching tools,^[17] in textbooks, in scientific publications,^[10] and as journal cover art.^[18]

Process

For individual proteins, Goodsell's illustrations are directly generated from solved protein structures deposited in the PDB using custom computer renderings that he wrote in Fortran (now released as an online illustration tool).^[19]

Representations of large macromolecular complexes or crowded cellular environments require interpretation and synthesis of multiple different types of scientific imaging.^[20] These include X-ray crystallography and NMR for protein components, cryo electron tomography for larger complexes, and super-res light microscopy and electron microscopy for the cellular environment.^[5][21] In these cases, the focus is on portraying the relative scales, orientations and interactions between the components.^[10]

Awards and recognition

In 2022 Goodsell was the recipient of the Carl Brändén Award.^[22] The award honors an outstanding protein scientist who has also made exceptional contributions in the areas of education and/or service.

Bibliography

In addition to scientific papers, Goodsell is the author of several scientific books with a focus on illustration:^[10][23]

• Atomic Evidence: Seeing the Molecular Basis of Life (Springer International, 2016)
• Bionanotechnology: Lessons from Nature (J. Wiley and Sons, 2004)
• Our Molecular Nature: The Body's Motors, Machines, and Messages (Springer-Verlag, 1996)

• The Machinery of Life (Springer-Verlag, 1993).

References

1. "CV of Goodsell, David". vivo.scripps.edu. Retrieved 2019-07-11.
2. "Profile: David Goodsell". researchwithrutgers.com. Rutgers University. Retrieved 2019-07-13.
3. Cohen, Jon (11 April 2019). "Meet the scientist painter who turns deadly viruses into beautiful works of art". Science. doi:10.1126/science.aax6641.
4. "PDB101: Goodsell Gallery". RCSB: PDB-101. Retrieved 5 May 2021.
5. Taylor, Michelle (2019-06-17). "The Intersection of Art and Science". Laboratory Equipment. Archived from the original on June 18, 2019. Retrieved 2019-07-11.
6. Sousa, Sérgio Filipe; Fernandes, Pedro Alexandrino; Ramos, Maria João (2006). "Protein–ligand docking: Current status and future challenges". Proteins: Structure, Function, and Bioinformatics. 65 (1): 15–26. doi:10.1002/prot.21082. ISSN 1097-0134. PMID 16862531. S2CID 21569704.
7. Goodsell, David. "Goodsell Home Page: Science". scripps.edu. Retrieved 2019-07-20.
8. Miller, Mary K. "Interview with David Goodsell". exploratorium.edu. Exploratorium Magazine. Retrieved 3 April 2015.
9. Zackowitz, Maggie (2016-05-28). "It's The Zika Virus In Action, Drawn By A Scientist-Artist". NPR.org.
10. Cohen, Jon (2019-04-11). "Meet the scientist painter who turns deadly viruses into beautiful works of art". Science.
11. Goodsell, David S.; Franzen, Margaret A.; Herman, Tim (2018-10-19). "From Atoms to Cells: Using Mesoscale Landscapes to Construct Visual Narratives". Journal of Molecular Biology. 430 (21): 3954–3968. doi:10.1016/j.jmb.2018.06.009. ISSN 0022-2836. PMC 6186495. PMID 29885327.
12. Fessenden, Marissa (2016-06-21). "This Painting Shows What It Might Look Like When Zika Infects a Cell". Smithsonian. Retrieved 2019-07-11.
13. Augenbraun, Eliene (2016-03-22). "Turning a Killer Virus into Award-Winning Art [Video]". Scientific American Blog.
14. Shikov, Sergei (2011). "David Goodsell: The master of mol art". www.asbmb.org. American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Today.
15. Goodsell, David (2016-02-26). "Cellular Landscapes in Watercolor". Journal of Biocommunication. 40 (1): e6. doi:10.5210/jbc.v40i1.6627. ISSN 0094-2499. PMC 9138463. PMID 36407827.
16. Goodsell, David S. (2011). "Eukaryotic cell panorama". Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education. 39 (2): 91–101. doi:10.1002/bmb.20494. ISSN 1539-3429. PMID 21445900. S2CID 37998506.
17. Goodsell, David S.; Franzen, Margaret A.; Herman, Tim (2018-10-19). "From Atoms to Cells: Using Mesoscale Landscapes to Construct Visual Narratives". Journal of Molecular Biology. 430 (21): 3954–3968. doi:10.1016/j.jmb.2018.06.009. ISSN 0022-2836. PMC 6186495. PMID 29885327.
18. Söderqvist, Thomas (2010). "Selling point: David Goodsell". Nature Medicine. 16 (9): 943. doi:10.1038/nm0910-943. ISSN 1078-8956. PMID 20823862. S2CID 2731570.
19. "Non-photorealistic Biomolecular Illustration". ccsb.scripps.edu. Retrieved 2019-07-20.
20. Calderwood, Kathleen (2016-07-08). "Finding beauty in deadly viruses". ABC Radio National. Retrieved 2019-07-11.
21. Lally, Robin (2011-02-24). "The Art of Science". Rutgers Today.
22. "Outreach and Education". cdn.rcsb.org. Retrieved 2024-01-08.
23. "Author: David Goodsell". americanscientist.org. 2011-06-12. Archived from the original on 2011-06-12. Retrieved 2019-07-11.

External links

• Molecule of the Month
• MotM Illustrator webtool
• David Goodsell on Twitter