Ruth's Cell
Animation in Gravity Sketch and AnimVR, created as artist-in-residence at QBI, UCSF, 2022.
Thanks to Ruth Huttenhain.

- A ligand binds to a cell receptor
- Ligand docking triggers 3 g-proteins in the cell to be recruited around the end terminal domain of the receptor
- The recruited proteins move away from the receptor, signalling close-by that the receptor was bound
- A kinase enzyme moves in to phosphorylate the receptor
- It is followed by arrestin, which internalises the receptor using clathrin
- The receptor fuses with the endosome
- The g-proteins interact with the receptor in its new position and then break apart, triggering a cascade of signalling within the cell
- The receptor returns to the cell membrane, interacting with the ligand again, possibly repeating the process
- Alternately the receptor is degraded in the lysosome