Client: Dr. Reza RahbarGhazi’s group
Field: Cancer biology / tumor immunology / extracellular vesicles
Figure type: Four-quadrant mechanism illustration
Published: Cell Communication and Signaling (2024), Tumorigenic and tumoricidal properties of exosomes in cancers; a forward look (figure 3)
Delivered: High-resolution PNG and editable Adobe Illustrator file
The brief
The third figure in this exosome review needed to show the many ways tumor-derived exosomes help cancer grow and spread. The authors’ material came as four separate topics: immune escape, metastasis and invasion, tumor angiogenesis, and chemoresistance.
The challenge
Four topics usually means four figures. The review needed one figure that kept them together, because the same tumor cell and the same exosomes drive all four. Each quadrant also had its own cell types, signaling molecules, and arrows, which had to stay readable.
From four sketches to one figure
I sketched each topic on its own first, then combined the four sketches around a single tumor cell in the center that releases exosomes in every direction.
My approach
One center, four quadrants: the tumor cell sits in the middle and each quadrant has its own background color, so readers can focus on one mechanism at a time while still seeing that they share a source.
A guided reading order: the quadrants are arranged so the eye moves counter-clockwise through them.
Two arrow types: black arrows mean “causes” and red blunt-ended arrows mean “inhibits”. With only two arrow types, the immune-escape quadrant, which is mostly inhibition, can be read at a glance.
One legend for the whole figure: fourteen cell types and the exosomes are drawn once in the legend and reused in every quadrant.
The result
A single figure that carries a whole section of the review. It is one of my most-viewed pieces and a good example of how far a complex topic can be compressed when the structure is right.
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