Duchenne Gene Therapy Illustrations
Industry: Biotechnology / Gene Therapy
Client type: Biotech company, via health communications agency
Purpose: Clinical trial landing page, patient and caregiver education
Deliverables: Five original conceptual illustrations (administration and follow-up timeline, RGX-202 mechanism of action, gene cassette diagram, microdystrophin comparison, Duchenne mechanism of disease)
Year: 2022
Project Description
A biotech company needed illustrations for the landing page of Affinity Duchenne™, the clinical trial for RGX-202, an investigational gene therapy for Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). The brief came through a health communications agency working on the biotech company’s behalf.
The reader for this page is not a physician. It is a parent, deciding whether to enroll their child in a gene therapy trial. That decision rests on understanding three things: what RGX-202 is designed to do, how it is given, and what years of follow-up actually require.
The science underneath is dense. RGX-202 uses a NAV® AAV8 vector to deliver a microdystrophin transgene, driven by a muscle-specific Spc5-12 promoter, to muscle cells lacking functional dystrophin. Explaining that meant covering AAV vector biology, the dystrophin-associated protein complex at the cell membrane, and why a shortened “micro” version of a protein can still do the job of the full-length original.
The scope called for five original illustrations across three sections of the page: the clinical trial process, REGENXBIO’s approach to gene therapy, and the biology of Duchenne itself, all rendered in Kryski Biomedia’s flat graphic style, in colors consistent with the client’s existing branding.
Our Solution
Kryski Biomedia developed five schematic illustrations, each solving a different comprehension problem for a family weighing this decision:
- Administration and follow-up timeline. A three-stage visual spanning baseline assessments, the Day 1 infusion, and the one-year safety evaluation, through to an optional five-year long-term follow-up study, so a family can see the entire commitment at a glance, not just the day of treatment.
- RGX-202 mechanism of action. A five-step sequence following a child from IV infusion to the cellular level, where the transgene is read, the cell produces microdystrophin protein, and that protein is transported to the muscle cell membrane to reinforce the connection between the cytoskeleton and the extracellular matrix.
- Gene cassette diagram. A schematic of the NAV® AAV8 vector, the Spc5-12 muscle-specific promoter, the microdystrophin transgene, and the segment coding for its CT domain, built to the precision the client’s medical and regulatory reviewers require.
- Microdystrophin comparison. A side-by-side diagram answering the question a shortened protein always raises: does it still work? It shows how microdystrophin preserves the domains that matter, the CR and CT regions and their binding partners (Dbr, Syn, nNOS), inside a fraction of the length of full-length dystrophin.
- Duchenne mechanism of disease. A healthy muscle cell next to a DMD muscle cell, showing how non-functional dystrophin fails to anchor the cytoskeleton to the extracellular matrix, and why that single failure leads to progressive muscle damage.
Each illustration went through rounds of review with the agency team, checked against REGENXBIO’s existing visual library for color, line weight, and style, so the five pieces read as one continuous set rather than five separate assignments.
Why This Required Two Kinds of Accuracy at Once
Most MOA illustrations are built for one audience: a specialist who will catch every inaccuracy. This project asked for two, in the same set of images. The gene cassette diagram and microdystrophin comparison had to hold up to REGENXBIO’s own scientific and regulatory reviewers, right down to the CT domain and the DAPC binding partners. The timeline and mechanism illustrations had to work for a parent seeing this material for the first time, at the moment they are deciding whether to enroll their child.
Solving for one of those readers is a familiar illustration problem. Solving for both, in one visual system, is what made this project difficult. It is also where a graduate-level biomedical science background matters most: knowing which details are load-bearing for accuracy, and which can be simplified without misleading anyone, in either audience.
Services: MOA Illustration, Scientific Illustration, Patient Education, Infographic Design, Pharmaceutical Communications
