UGA undergrad brings science vividly to life

Daniel Sina Rouhani is just finishing up his second year as a UGA undergrad, but this genetics and biochemistry double major has already put together a portfolio that would be the envy of many college graduates.

Rouhani is the founder of the 3D design studio ExonScientific, which develops new techniques in digital graphic design to “push the boundaries of scientific communication.” He’s put his talents to use in projects with both UGA faculty—such as Lohitash Karumbaiah in the Regenerative Biosciences Center as part of Karumbaiah’s “brain glue” research—and investigators from other universities like Yale, Northwestern and the universities of Illinois and Minnesota. ExonScientific’s work already has graced the front covers of ACS Analytical Chemistry, ACS Chemical Biologyand Glycobiology.

“Our goal is to expand and reimagine the way in which science and research is taught and presented by utilizing the power of 3D scientific design and art,” said Rouhani, a UGA Honors student and CURO Honors Scholar. “Our company is made up of a team of UGA undergraduate students, all interested in pursuing careers in science and healthcare.”

Read MORE from our colleagues in the UGA Office of Research on this talented, Franklin College artist-scientist.

Image: Illustration of the expanded Golgi apparatus, an organelle found in most eukaryotic cells, along with decorations of N-glycans, a type of oligosaccharide that plays a role in cell binding. The expanded Golgi complex is shown as the white compartmentalized sacs, which are sliced open to show the N-glycans represented in red. (Illustration by Daniel Rouhani)