Skip to content
Cognition Studio
Careers Contact

Menu

Moments Capabilities Work Thinking About Focus Areas Careers Contact
Contact
Home/Work/TriSalus Life Sciences

TriSalus Life Sciences  ·  Science storytelling

Can compelling science storytelling elevate a novel cancer treatment?

A growing library of 3D illustration and animation that explains TriSalus’s approach to liver and pancreatic tumors across healthcare, investor, and patient audiences.

ClientTriSalus Life Sciences
ExpertiseScience Visualizations · Animation & Motion · Digital Engagement · Brand Identity
IndustryOncology, hepatic and pancreatic · Biopharmaceutical
FocusScience Communication
Tumor microenvironment with a perfused vessel carrying therapy, titled Overcome two critical barriers: immunosuppression and drug delivery
Film Overcome two critical barriers: immunosuppression and drug delivery

Context

Devices and therapeutics, working on the same tumor.

TriSalus works to bring new options to patients with liver and pancreatic tumors, conditions that are extremely difficult to treat.

Its platform sits at the nexus of devices and therapeutics, addressing two barriers at once: intratumoral pressure and immunosuppression.

The challenge

A platform that solves two problems has to be taught twice.

TriSalus needed healthcare professionals, investors, and patients to understand multiple facets of complex science — each audience arriving with a different vocabulary and a different decision to make.

The approach

Deconstruct the science, then rebuild it layer by layer.

We deconstructed the science into essential components and built precise narratives layer by layer, then visualized in motion the medical devices, therapeutic mechanisms, solid-tumor growth, and vascular changes at gross, cellular, and subcellular levels.

The SmartValve device syncs with the cardiac cycle to reopen collapsed vessels and improve drug delivery. SD-101, a TLR9 agonist, stimulates the immune system and reprograms myeloid-derived suppressor cells. Modular animations moved from liver anatomy and vasculature to the SD-101 signaling cascade to the tumor microenvironment, with two further chapters on clinical data and patient outcomes.

Deliverables

Mechanism-of-action animation 3D illustration library Diagrams and figures Sonic identity Presentation theme Corporate website refresh

Deliverables extended well past the films: a sonic identity, a presentation theme, social support, and a full corporate website refresh.

Outcome

One library, four audiences.

A consistent, growing library of educational assets that supports investor relations, corporate communications, healthcare-professional education, and patient connection — all in one coherent brand identity.

The craft

One platform, five scales.

The library descends from the organ to the molecule without a break in continuity, so an audience can enter at whatever scale they think in and follow the argument down. This is what “layer by layer” looks like when it is built rather than described.

Tumor sited in the liver, in body context
Gross Tumor sited in the liver, in body context
Pancreatic infusion with SmartValve, annotated
Gross Pancreatic infusion with SmartValve, annotated
The TriNav infusion system with SmartValve
Device The TriNav infusion system with SmartValve
SmartValve mesh, at close range
Device SmartValve mesh, at close range
Intratumoral pressure as a barrier to delivery
Tissue Intratumoral pressure as a barrier to delivery
Micrometastases with T cells and B cells
Tissue Micrometastases with T cells and B cells
An M1 macrophage, reprogrammed
Cellular An M1 macrophage, reprogrammed
TLR9 within the endosome
Subcellular TLR9 within the endosome

The build

Solid stress collapses the vessels feeding a tumor. SmartValve syncs with the cardiac cycle to modulate pressure and reopen them, so therapy reaches the malignant cells downstream. The inset pressure curve is the argument in one line.
SmartValve mechanism of action Solid stress collapses the vessels feeding a tumor. SmartValve syncs with the cardiac cycle to modulate pressure and reopen them, so therapy reaches the malignant cells downstream. The inset pressure curve is the argument in one line.
SD-101 binds the MDSC plasma membrane, is endocytosed, and activates TLR9 in the late endosome, driving cytokine production and reprogramming the cell.
SD-101 and the MDSC pathway SD-101 binds the MDSC plasma membrane, is endocytosed, and activates TLR9 in the late endosome, driving cytokine production and reprogramming the cell.
One agonist, four cell types, and the conversion of a suppressor cell into an M1 macrophage.
Adaptive and innate activation One agonist, four cell types, and the conversion of a suppressor cell into an M1 macrophage.

“We would not have arrived here without you and your team.”

Mary Szela

President and Chief Executive Officer, TriSalus

Sectioned tissue model showing therapy perfusing a vessel, from the TriSalus library
Film The immunotherapy mechanism, from vessel to endosome

Accolades

Rx Club 2022, two Awards of Excellence MUSE 2023, two Gold Communicator 2023, two Distinction Telly 2023, Silver and Gold SIGGRAPH Electronic Theater 2023, Official Selection
SIGGRAPH The Telly Awards AMI Awards of Excellence MUSE Advertising Awards Gold RX Club

The takeaway

When the platform is complex, a teachable library is an asset.

Explain it once, well, and every audience can be reached.

Next case

Can mRNA medicine change the world?

Moderna →