Fruit Fly Tracheal System
The tracheal (respiratory) system of Drosophila melanogaster (fruit fly) is a branched network of epithelial tubes that ramifies throughout the body and transports oxygen to the tissues. In her studies of insects, Flatiron Institute Research Fellow Tatyana Gavrilchenko is gaining new insights into the complexities of the vasculature system — work that could inform efforts at improving the functionality of artificial organs. The complex tracheal system is hard to visualize and there have been few attempts to visualize it since 1957 when John Whitten published the paper The Post-embryonic Development of the Tracheal System in Drosophila melanogaster.
Project: Working closely with researchers, illustrate the larval tracheal system of a fruit fly, with special interest on the dorsal terminal cells (highlighted in pink); gather reference for— and art direct— Andrew Swift and his team at iso-form to create the static 3D model; animate the final model.
Client: Developmental Dynamics Group at the Center for Computational Biology, Flatiron Institute, with Tatyana Gavrilchenko, Lena Barrett and Pauline Hansen.
