Final project for my Intracellular Illustration class. For the less biologically-inclined: Shigella is a kind of bacteria which affects the digestive system and causes awful diarrhea among other things (that may not sound so bad, but I'm talking like, can dehydrate and kill you if you do nothing about it kind of diarrhea).

The bacteria has a really neat way of getting into your system... most of your intestinal lining cells are surrounded by a layer of stuff called the glycocalyx which many bacteria can't penetrate, but the M-cells, which are a particular kind of immune cell dispersed throughout the lining in little dome shapes, don't have a glycocalyx. So the Shigella devised a way to enter through "apical" side of this cell (which is what my image shows; apical just means the side facing the intestine), and then leave through the "basal" side (the side facing the bloodstream/lymph/inner bits of your body). Then they hop over to an intestinal cell, which is the real target, and enter through its *basal* side, which doesn't have a glycocalyx, since the body is not really expecting bacteria to enter from that side. Then it goes about ruining your intestinal lining, leading to the aforementioned symptoms.

Anyway, enjoy the picture