Autism Speaks asked us to create the brand identity and drive awareness and funds for a groundbreaking effort: to sequence the DNA of 10,000 families affected by autism and upload the data to Google’s Cloud, allowing scientists around the world to help find the missing answers to autism.

The challenge was that people outside of the scientific community don’t naturally engage with subjects like medical research. So, in order to reach a wide audience and raise significant awareness and donations, we created art out of the very thing that holds the answers to autism: DNA.

We took more than 15,000 beautiful microscopic photos of actual DNA crystallizing and created a coffee-table book juxtaposing them with portraits of people affected by autism. The book told the stories of these families and the struggles they had gone through as a result of the lack of answers about autism.

We started by developing an online film to explain the project, all of its scientific elements, and juxtaposed that information against the individuals who actually stood to gain from its existence — individuals and families with autism. Through the film, we were able to express the project purpose, but in a very relatable and humanized way.

On our site, aside from watching the film, users were invited to a deeper level of experience by exploring DNA for themselves. We replicated the real functions of the microscope and let users take control of it. They could even generate their own crystal via WebGL technology.

We even developed a section on the site that housed 10,000 unique DNA posters — as unique as the project genomes themselves -- that users could purchase and directly fund the research effort.

Researchers were able to get the information they needed in order to apply to analyze the DNA data collected thus far.

We made a highly scientific endeavor relevant to whole new audiences of potential donors by appealing to the art, photography, technology and design communities. Putting MSSNG on the map not just with scientists and doctors, but the entire world.

So far, 2,675 genomes have been sequenced and 853 uploaded to the Google Cloud, which has already led to new discoveries.

Scientists from around the world have applied to analyze the data, and hospitals and research facilities have joined the effort.

And though we still may not have all the answers, with MSSNG, we're closer than ever.

To date, MSSNG has raised over $15M.