"Regulation of the Cell Cycle and DNA Damage-Induced Checkpoint Activation"

"Regulation of the Cell Cycle and DNA Damage-Induced Checkpoint Activation," by Erin Olson and her team at R&D Systems, Inc., Minneapolis, Minn.

Inside a cell's nucleus, some proteins act like quality control auditors, ensuring that it's safe for the cell to copy its DNA and divide. This informational graphic from Erin Olson and her team at R&D Systems, Inc. in Minneapolis, Minn., sketches how these proteins seek out DNA damage during checkpoints as the cell moves between the four stages of its cycle. In the purple circles, they juxtapose the actions of the checkpoint proteins with the normal events inside the cell's nucleus. Some of these checkpoint proteins detect DNA damage, while others sit on the broken site and recruit new proteins to send out the call for DNA repair enzymes to fix the problem. Olson hopes the poster will serve as a quick reference for researchers and biology students.

This image won Honorable Mention in the Informational Graphics category of the 2009 International Science & Engineering Visualization Challenge (SciVis) competition, sponsored by the National Science Foundation and the journal Science. The competition is held each year to celebrate the grand tradition of science visualization and to encourage its continued growth. The spirit of the competition is to communicate science, engineering and technology for education and journalistic purposes. To learn more about the competition and view all the winning entries, see the NSF SciVis Special Report (Date of Image: January-April 2009)

Credit: Erin Olson, Daphne Orlando and Tim Manning; R&D Systems, Inc.