Thread by @CVRHutchinson

🚨New pre-print!🚨
biorxiv.org/content/10.110…
Viruses are very small things with very big effects. During the #SARSCoV2 pandemic, tiny changes in molecular biology had huge impacts on people’s lives. How could we communicate about this clearly?
🦠#scicomm #sciart🦠
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In a new study with @CVRinfo @GSofASimVis and @COGUK_ME, @sarahiannucci1 explains how she used animations and interactive visualisations to help explain the threat of #SARSCoV2 variants of concern (#VOCs; 2/9)

There were, of course, plenty of data out there, collected by groups like @COGUK_ME. But these sites were (quite reasonably) aimed at expert audiences.

Could the details of new SARS-CoV-2 variants be explained in a way that was accessible for the public? (3/9)

To do this, @sarahiannucci1 created the #SARSCoV2 Spike Protein Mutation Explorer, an interactive app that explains variants of concern through animations… (4/9)

… interactive models (5/9)…

… and explanations of how the molecular details of #SARSCoV2 #VOCs changed the way the virus impacted our lives (6/9)

Sarah built this app for her MSc with @UofGMVLS and @GSofASimVis, with support from #MattPoyade, @robertson_lab, @_wharvey, @blJOg and @COGUK_ME

She did a fantastic job on this and won the @GSofA’s 2021 Chairman’s Award 🏆 (7/9)

Check out the app yourself here:

sc2-application.itch.io/sars-cov-2-mut…

… and have a look at the paper for details on how visual #scicomm improved molecular biology communication (8/9)

Finally, if you’re interested in the technical details of how Sarah built her app: a book chapter describing this is in press 📔
(watch this space...👀)
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