Tomo studies satellite DNA, which was once considered genomic “junk” but actually appears to play important roles in cell function. His childhood interest in nature and animals set him on a path toward science and research; it also served as a lens for his love of cartooning. “Since I was a kid, I’ve enjoyed drawing animal cartoons,” he says. “During my PhD program at University of Pennsylvania, I started drawing mice because I used them in my research and they're so cute. I’d hang my cartoons all around the lab. I continued cartooning at Whitehead, but the pandemic prompted me to learn to draw digitally and to share my art through an Instagram account. The drawings are inspired by things I see in the lab and by interesting research I read about. I’ve also created drawings based on my own papers — and I hope to have one of my cartoons accepted as a cover image for the journal that publishes my future studies. . . Although, since my current research uses Drosophila, not mice, I need to get more practice drawing flies.”

Cartoons courtesy of Tomohiro Kumon