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Epigenomics

How a complex, novel research published in Nature Communications, with the potential to change the future of personalised preventive medicine, has been brought to screen

Client

The University of Innsbruck EUTOPS institute, in collaboration with its partners, has a vision to integrate cutting-edge research in systems biology and oncology to enable real-world implementation of the concepts of P4 medicine (predictive, preventive, personalised, and participatory) and drastically reduce cancer mortality.

Industry

Research, Educational, Awareness 

Turnaround

10 weeks

Target Audience

General Public

Well informed lay audience

Field experts and peers

Patient education

Final Video Length

130 seconds

Multi-language

English, German

“All members of Helix Animation were extremely professional from the outset and throughout the entire process of producing the videos. I was not only impressed by the graphical work but equally by the central role the Helix team played in developing a concept that would convey the complexity of the tasks. As several members of the team are medically/ scientifically trained, this really helped to make this happen.”

 

Martin Widschwendter, PhD

Professor at University of Innsbruck, UCL & Karolinska Institutet; EUTOPS Institute Director and Principal Investigator

 

 

“There was an excellent flow of communication and many opportunities for discussion on how to best present our scientific concepts. Moreover, we appreciated the fact that you not only worked on the graphical aspects but also understood the scientific concepts and helped us with the storytelling.”

 

Chiara Herzog, PhD

Postdoctoral researcher, EUTOPS Institute, Universität Innsbruck

 

Key Objectives & Messages

  • Present in a highly compelling and easily understandable way for the broader audience the Epigenome, DNA Methylation, and the external influences that can influence the epigenome and the risk of developing cancer;
    • "The primary challenges we were facing and wanted to tackle with a scientific 3D animation was to convey a rather complex/novel task to our peers and well-informed laypeople”, Dr. Widschwendter pointed out.
  • Explain DNA methylation analysis - the new way to predict cancer risk;
  • Introduce the new WID tests and the WID risk scores that may offer an innovative way of diagnosing and risk predicting four women’s cancers: breast, ovarian, endometrial, and cervical cancer;
  • Clearly communicate the approach key characteristics and advantages;
  • Produce multiple versions for different use cases and outlets;
  • Produce tailored and reusable content for the future.

Deliverables

  • Complete video in 2 different languages;
  • Video cuts - short outtakes for social media;
  • Web ready imagery;
  • Still images from the content.

Results

  • Great acceptance of the first publish;
  • Increased interest and media coverage;
  • Versatile Content for multiple purposes.

 

"The whole team was incredibly happy with the final product and we have received a lot of positive feedback”, Dr. Herzog.
 

The Challenge

"As scientists and clinicians, we need to ensure that the fundamentals of our tests and treatment strategies are easily understood in order to maximise the buy-in from colleagues and the people we serve", Dr. Widschwendter.

 

Their team turned to Helix in an effort to find the best way to present their latest complex and breakthrough research published in Nature Communication in a video that would grasp the diverse audience attention, and bring closer the novel, very important field of Epigenomics and its risk prediction potential to a broader audience.

The Solution

"Humans are 'visual creatures' and many of us like to learn by observing things with our own eyes, so we felt that 3D animations would be the optimal way to make our research accessible to as many people as possible", Dr. Herzog.

 

In tight collaboration with the EUTOPS expert team, we have developed a concise and easy to understand scientific story that embraced all the key messages in a clear way for the respected audience.

 

Further on, through our pre-production and production processes, we have developed script, storyboard, look and feel and turned it into a spellbinding final animated video product, with various versions for the distinct outlet usage in two different languages.

See more deliverables for this project

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