Digoxigenin Binder I

A rendering of an artificial protein designed to bind to the plant toxin/drug digoxigenin (DIG).  DIG is used as a cardiac drug, but it has a very narrow therapeutic window, making overdose a serious consideration.  This protein was designed by Dr. Christine Tinberg to bind DIG (as a possible antidote in cases of overdose).  It represents one of the first examples of a rationally-designed artificial protein for small molecule binding.

For more information, please read Dr. Tinberg's excellent 2013 Nature paper.

This model was generated from the crystal structure of the DIG10.2 binder (PDB ID 4J8T) using PyMOL, cleaned up in Blender, and rendered in Maya with mental ray.  The background was generated with Apophysis, and the final image was assembled in Photoshop.

Image copyright © 2013 Vikram K. Mulligan.  This image is not in the public domain.  It may not be used without permission of the artist.