IT had a unique problem – how to explain their groundbreaking technology that re-educates the immune system to view an allergen instead like an infection, triggering a completely different immune response. It is an elegant solution to an age-old problem. The issue would be getting people to understand it.

Typically, the body’s response to an allergen invokes the MHC-I pathway, which provokes the release of IgE antibodies, ramping up production of cytokines and histamines and creating an allergic reaction. In many people, this results in typical seasonal hay fever, but for some people, it’s deadly.

IT’s technology utilizes the MHC-II pathway, which instead initiates the release of IgG antibodies, which in turn, actually train the body to view previously detected allergens as infections instead.

All this to say, immunology is insanely complex, and unraveling all the parts working within it can be dizzying. We were challenged to dive in deep, learn these systems, and then bring the most relevant pieces to the fore to have the greatest impact for the viewer. One additional component was that this animation needed to speak to scientists, investors and the public, a very broad range of people.

We’ve dealt with many companies and technologies in the immunology space, but this project pushed us. However, in the end we came up with an animation that succeeded in drawing a sharp distinction between the two immune responses, and why IT’s technology may be the new wave in allergy immunotherapy.

Unifarco Biomedical is one of the premiere biotech companies in Italy. They have developed and marketed a number of medical grade cosmeceutical products over the years for sale in Europe. A new product line called Ceramage was recently developed, and they realized that in order to reach their target audience, which in this case were pharmacists and physicians, they needed to dive more deeply into their explanation of how the product worked.

Their problem was that the science behind the product formulation is quite complex, and though researchers in the field of immunology of the skin would comprehend, physicians and pharmacists would only have a cursory understanding of the subject. However, without a satisfactory description of what really differentiated their product from others on the market, the launch might fall flat.

It fell to us to learn the intricacies of how the various layers of the skin are impacted by internal and external factors and what methods the body uses to repair the skin. From there, we created a storyline to explain how the skin effectively ages because of environmental, dietary or stress-related causes, as well as how their product helps the body recreate some of the components needed for replenishing the underlying skin layers.

Two animations were created, for Ceramage, and one other product, Ceramol. Both have been used with great success both on their company website as well as at the International Society of Dermatology’s yearly conference.