Post 57: Why we draw proteins in the way we do? ✏️

Today I learned that Jane Richardson was the creator of the diagrams of helices, sheets, and turns that we use to illustrate proteins. Before her, everything was little balls and sticks that were very difficult to interpret.

So Jane designed a scientifically accurate and stylish way to represent proteins, inspired by the work of several artists like M.C. Escher. This crystallized along with a 173-page article published in 1981.

Here’s the full story from Quanta Magazine.

Introduction to Protein Structure by Branden (Author), John Tooze (Author)

And some other interesting refs:

• Early ribbon drawings of proteins
• The curse of the protein ribbon diagram
• Seeing the PDB
• Coloring books from the PDB

There’s even a beautiful book called Introduction to Protein Structure that features all of her hand-drawn protein illustrations!