Cancer Assassin
The artist sought to create a portrait of the dramatic moment the death grip of a Natural Killer T cell overcomes a cancer cell's defenses, memorializing a moment humanity desires. Cytotoxic Natural Killer T cells are cancer assassins that induce cancer cells to undergo programmed cell death known as apoptosis. Natural Killer T cells recognize specific sites on the surface of cancer cells called antigens, bind to them, and release biochemical proteins that form pores in the cancer cell's membrane and specifically induce the cancer cell to destruct.