How a Medical Illustrator Built 'Canva for Science'

BioRender helps scientists draw biological diagrams more easily and communicate more efficiently. It’s used by half a million researchers. BY TALIB VISRAM, FREELANCE WRITER @TALIBVISRAM Photos: Courtesy BioRender; Getty Images Shiz Aoki doesn’t know whether she considers herself an artist or a scientist. “I’ve always had an identity crisis,” she says. In high school, she struggled to find her crowd—she was enamored with both disciplines while most peers gravitated to one or the other. “I’d have my dissecting coat on, and have my paint-splattered coat on top of that.” Then at age 23, when she was one of a select few admitted to a coveted graduate program for Medical and Biological Illustration at Johns Hopkins, Aoki finally felt like she fit in. “There’s a handful of weirdos dedicating their life to communicating science at the intersection of art and science,” she says. It’s at that intersection that Aoki has built a career—for seven years as lead medical illustrator for National Geogr

BioRender helps scientists draw biological diagrams more easily and communicate more efficiently. It’s used by half a million researchers. BY TALIB VISRAM, FREELANCE WRITER @TALIBVISRAM Photos: Courtesy BioRender; Getty Images Shiz Aoki doesn’t know whether she considers herself an artist or a scientist. “I’ve always had an identity crisis,” she says. In high school, she struggled to find her crowd—she was enamored with both disciplines while most peers gravitated to one or the other. “I’d have my dissecting coat on, and have my paint-splattered coat on top of that.” Then at age 23, when she w