Maya Tanya Dystrophy : This is a drawing I did for a presentation on "myotonic dystrophy," the most common form of muscular dystrophy. The genetic basis for the disease is a repeating trinucleotide sequence, "C-T-G," which is located on chromosome 19 (in the most common type of myotonic dystrophy). Hence Maya's chain-whip, below, is made up of these eventually fatal "C-T-G" repeats and the "19" on the figure's left arm is the chromosome affected. People with this disease develop severe wasting in the muscles, most often the wrist extensors, neck, face, and quadriceps eventually. There is no cure for the disease short of the cybernetic bionics I've replaced Maya's affected muscles with below. The electrodes over her heart and her abdomen represent the cardiac conduction problems and gastrointestinal "slowing" that patients also get. Patients are also described as being "hatchet faced" due to severe wasting of the jaw muscles (masseter) and temples (temporalis), hence the drawing's cleaved mask. The sleeve on the right arm is supposed to look a little like a DNA strand since this is a genetic disease.