Amanda – Finalist in the Biorender Graphical Abstract 2020 Contest!

Amanda Muñoz, a PhD researcher in the N&N group, became a finalist of the Biorender Graphical Abstract challenge with a visualization of her work with C. elegans and nanoparticles.

Biorender is an online tool that allows the creation of visual figures in a very simple way, through a drag and drop system and a large base of icons. It is hard to overstate the importance of using visual tools like this one to support the information we want to convey in a paper, presentation, poster, etc. One of these kind of figures are Graphical Abstracts, single-image figures that summarize the main point in a paper.

Graphical abstracts are usually the first thing that a potential reader of our article sees. Therefore, it is essential to create one that impacts the reader and convinces them that reading this paper is worthy. – said Amanda.

Amanda Muñoz’s figure showcases one of the lines of research within the N&N Group, which uses C. elegans as a tool to evaluate the toxicity of some nanoparticles and to realize how biological interactions change the initial properties of the nanoparticles. Her graphical abstract specifically illustrates the paper “Protective Effects of Bovine Serum Albumin on Superparamagnetic Iron Oxide Nanoparticles Evaluated in the Nematode Caenorhabditis elegans” by Laura Gonzalez-Moragas, Si-Ming Yu, Elisa Carenza, Anna Laromaine*, and Anna Roig.

Amanda submitted her Graphical Abstract as part of the challenge as a way to learn to express her research visually:

“I like science outreach and I thought it was a good idea to try a chance in this contest and learn how to create a graphical abstract.”

Her efforts have been prized with a Finalist position in the Expert’s Choice category, which means she was placed within the Top 200 figures rated by more than 1500 Principal Investigators and Senior Scientists. However, during the process, she found out there was much more to gain from this: 

“I’ve met new people that were interested in our work and some students that now want to join our group as PhD researchers. Moreover, some ICMABers gave me support and showed me other tools to create graphical abstracts.”

 

Congratulations Amanda!