Our Team

 

CEO, Creative Director Cameron Slayden, M.S. (Since 1999)

Cameron started his scientific visualization career as Science Magazine’s primary scientific illustrator in late 2000, producing illustrations and covers for the journal and animations for its online presence. Three years later, he began his Masters in Medical Illustration from Augusta University Health and continued to provide illustration and animation to the periodicals Science and Nature. After graduating in 2005, Cameron and Olivia founded Microverse Studios under its original name, Cosmocyte. Since then Microverse Studios has produced award-winning animations for multi-billion-dollar pharmaceutical corporations, educational institutions, biotech startups, and produced scientific graphics for documentary TV series for Discovery, National Geographic, and the History Channel. Cameron has given numerous talks on methods and techniques for scientific animation and story structure as applied to mechanism of action and mechanism of disease narratives for the Association of Medical Illustrators, Guild of Natural Science Illustrators, the Public Relations Society of America, and numerous universities in the US and abroad. Cameron lives in Northeast Florida and strives to bring an air of respectability to the term “Florida Man.”

 

Chief Financial and Commercial Officer Olivia Slayden (Since 2001)

While Olivia’s degree is in psychology, most of her professional life has involved regulations, paperwork and spreadsheets (So. Many. Spreadsheets). Early in her career, Olivia worked in contracting for the federal government, administering and competing large contracts for various agencies including the State Department, Environmental Protection Agency, National Institutes of Health and the Executive Office of the President. Then, in 2005, Olivia decided to leave it all behind and co-founded Microverse Studios with Cameron, where she focuses mainly on business management, marketing and compliance. When not working, Olivia enjoys creative writing, reading, gardening, spending time with her family and dreaming of the day when she might open her very own Renaissance Festival.

 

Chief of Operations Teal Quinn (Since 2008)

Teal has managed the production of all animated material for several television series, including World’s Toughest Fixes (National Geographic), Food Detectives (the Food Network), and How the States Got Their Shapes (History Channel).  Additionally, her experience as an animator allows her to understand the technical requirements for our projects, making her management of the production pipeline seamless. Teal lives in Maryland with her family and enjoys fossil hunting, fishing, sculpture and creating stained glass.

 

Medical Director Adam Mueller, MD/PhD

Adam Mueller completed his MD and PhD at the University of Virginia, his research work focusing primarily on non-coding RNA mediated regulation of gene expression in prostate and breast cancer, as well as in skeletal muscle development. He trained in radiation oncology at the University of Colorado Cancer Center, where he served as chief resident. His clinical practice includes advanced radiation oncology techniques such as SBRT, stereotactic radiosurgery, and brachytherapy, with a clinical interest in gastrointestinal, as well as head and neck malignancies. His post-doctoral research focused on resistance to radiation therapy in pancreatic cancer through modulation of the tumor stromal and immune microenvironment, and strategies to overcome this resistance by targeting the intersection of matrix metalloprotease ADAM10 with the EphB4-EphrinB2 tyrosine kinase receptor complex.

He has written clinical book chapters on proton therapy for prostate cancer, as well as SBRT for liver oligometastases. His work has resulted in over $170,000 of competitive external grant funding from the Deparment of Defense, Radiologic Society of North America, Cancer League of Colorado, and Paul Sandoval Foundation.

Adam has been the recipient of multiple awards, including the Joyce Hamlin award, UVA presidential fellowship, and Burgee Regents Scholarship. He is a member of the Arnold P Gold Humanism Society, the American Society of Radiation Oncology(ASTRO), the Radiologic Society of North America, the American Association for Cancer Research, as well as others. He lives in Denver, Colorado where he enjoys hiking 14ers, rock climbing and road biking.

Senior Biomedical Animator Stephen Boyd, M.S. (Since 2004)

Early on, Stephen could not decide between a career in art, science, or nature. “Why not all of it?”, he thought, graduating in 2001 from The University of Georgia with majors in Scientific Illustration, Biology, and Ecology. Stephen received his Masters in Art as Applied to Medicine from Johns Hopkins University in 2004, and immediately began his career producing biomedical animation for medical and pharmaceutical clientele. With over 16 years of biomedical animation production experience, Stephen is passionate about bringing science and medicine to life through rich visuals and thoughtful cinematography, and he has used his diverse skillset to help generate award-winning animations seen at multiple SIGGRAPH and Association of Medical Illustrators conferences. Stephen lives just outside Atlanta and, when not working, he can be found exercising, getting destroyed by the AI in Civilization 6, or playing Pokemon TCG with his daughters.

 

Biomedical Animator Molly Huttner, M.S. (Since 2015)

Molly received her Masters’ degree in biomedical visualization in 2017 from the University of Illinois at Chicago, and has been producing scientific animation since 2015. She has a particular affinity for patient education, mental health, and bioethics, and as a believer in interdisciplinary collaboration, Molly continues to facilitate a course on bioethics in health informatics at her alma mater in Chicago. Her work has won numerous accolades in both health-centered and mainstream communications programs, including but not limited to: The Communicator Awards, W3 Awards, and the Hermes Creative Awards. As you may have guessed, she currently resides in Chicago and she thinks the winters there really aren’t that bad.

 

Biomedical Animator Amanda Manowski, M.S. (Since 2016)

Amanda got her introduction to the world of science and medicine as a medical textile engineer developing machinery and materials over the course of seven years. Inspired by the concepts of form and function, she received her bachelor’s degree in Scientific Illustration from the University of Georgia and went on to receive a Master of Science in Medical Illustration from Augusta University. She has created resources for the Children’s Hospital of Georgia, the Georgia Museum of Natural History, and has had work accepted to the Fernbank Science Center. Amanda currently resides in Athens, Georgia with her dog Mystery Meat, and in her free time she likes to play video games, roller skate, and practice archery–though not necessarily all at once.

 

Biomedical Animator Leo Swenson, M.S. (Since 2020)

Leo loves the creative challenge of making information both accessible and beautiful. He received his BA in Neuroscience from the University of Southern California in 2013 and his MS in Biomedical Visualization from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 2020. Before becoming a medical animator, he worked as an analyst for Pace Analytical and Medtronic and helped found the Minnesota Tool Library, a nonprofit focused on sharing DIY skills and resources. Leo lives in Salt Lake City, Utah where he loves to ski, climb, and make stuff.

 

Testimonials

Published with permission:
“Microverse Team, Our animation will go live to the public at the end of the month on youtube and our new website will launch ~Oct 1. I can’t wait to show you how everything has come together. I am SO GRATEFUL for the beautiful work your team did. Our site would have suffered without it as it served as the center of inspiration for so many design elements. I have been using the stills in recent society CME webinars. In all the years I have been doing this I have never received as many compliments as I have on these presentations. I know it is due to the animation refreshing our materials and inspiring some refreshing content! Thank you!!”

Heidi Younan
Director of Marketing at Vertos Medical, Inc.

 

“I have enlisted Microverse Studios (nee Cosmocyte) to create four product videos for me over the last few years. Why? Because they sell product! Their compelling videos make people sit up and pay attention to our sales messages. No small feat in large meetings these days when everyone’s face is buried in their phones. Our sales representatives always come back from meetings with very positive comments about how “cool” and informative customers thought our videos were. And the videos invariably lead to conversations with customers and prospects that may not have occurred without the videos to pique their interest.

We are great believers in letting Microverse Studios’ videos carry a lot of the weight of a sales presentation. Utilizing their videos ensures our messaging is consistent across all our sales territories and across our customers’ organizations.

As a smaller company that competes with much larger companies, employing Microverse Studios’ videos allows us to “punch above our weight”. The great production value of the videos impresses customers and makes them feel we are just as capable as, and more innovative than, our larger competitors. The videos also give us instant credibility with prospects who may not know anything about us prior to meeting. Our company’s management and sales organization have no doubts their videos sell product for us and we more than recoup the cost of the videos from increased sales.

The other reason I have repeatedly done business with Microverse Studios is because they make it very easy to create great videos. Even though our business is in an industry outside their area of expertise they are always eager to jump right in and do the background research necessary to make the video content and images factual. A few phone calls to discuss the project and to do an information “dump” and off they go. A storyboard review and some editing of the script is next and then the video is ready to go, usually with just a few minor tweaks. And if I do need to make some changes (that are always my fault, not theirs) after the final version has been delivered, they quickly do the updates at no charge.

I am almost reluctant to write this testimonial for Microverse Studios because I don’t want my competitors to discover them. They are my secret weapon when we launch a new product or make presentations to prospects and new customers.”

Rich Fedigan
Marketing Manager
Oro Agri, Inc.

 

“I have had the pleasure of working with Microverse Studios on several occasions. They created an amazing illustration and two outstanding animations for my clients. The Microverse Studios team thinks outside the box and brings inspired and creative ideas to the table. They also go above and beyond and pulls off impossible feats in the interest of their clients. They are so easy to work with and that means so much in this busy world. Their technical knowledge and proficiency are hard to find. I urge anyone looking for a team of true artists and professionals to work with Microverse Studios.”

Melissa Alexander
(former) Production Manager, Cambridge BioMarketing

 

“Microverse Studios’ (Cameron and his team) team exceeded all our expectations. Their ability to quickly understand our science and produce and animation that brings our science to life was inspiring. We could not have asked for a better partner.”

Clive Bertram
Petra Pharmaceuticals

 

“Microverse Studios took our procedure and created an animation so that it can be easily understood by either a surgeon or a patient. The 3D graphics definitely have a WOW factor. The team was professional and easy to work with. I thought it was going to be difficult to explain the details of the procedure to them requiring revision after revision, but that wasn’t the case. They were able to quickly and accurately depict the TIF procedure. We are very satisfied.”

Donna Levy
Endogastric Solutions

 

“Professional, on-time, broad expertise and skill are why I would not only use Microverse Studios for future projects but I would recommend them to anyone looking to communicate through this medium. Microverse Studios brings a lot to the table…”

James T. Cornicelli
Business Development, Salix Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

 

“We at Vertos Medical appreciate Microverse Studios’ strong work ethic and dedication to helping us develop and launch Vertos’ medical device procedure in animation form.  Microverse Studios’ animators worked attentively with our in-house experts to deliver accurate, clear and impactful animations that perfectly met our needs.  We could not have asked for a better team.”

Bryce Way
Senior Vice President of Operations and Technologies, Vertos Medical

 

“Microverse Studios’ work for the Notre Dame Cancer Institute publication was superb. We could not have asked for a more professional partnerhsip or a better result.”

Cynthia Maciejczyk
Director, Notre Dame Media Group, University of Notre Dame

 

“Microverse Studios is always professional when working with our authors and meeting our deadlines. Their beautiful work continually exceeds our expectations. We will happily use their services again and again.”

Amanda Behr, MA, CMI
Art Director, Quality Medical Publishing, Inc.

 

“As one of the most widely read scientific journals in the world, Science relies on illustration that is not only fastidiously accurate but beautifully rendered. The staff at Microverse Studios have demonstrated time and again that they deliver on both counts, and often on a tight deadline. We can always count on Microverse to deliver top-notch scientific and medical animation and illustration”

Joshua Moglia
Art Director, Science Magazine

 

“Microverse’s work has made our presentations understandable and eye-catching to students, scientists, clinicians and the lay public alike. Their graphic rendering of our research has allowed us to successfully convey complex biological concepts in simple yet dramatic ways to audiences at home and abroad. Working with Microverse has been a pleasure and I look forward to working with this innovative company on future projects!”

Carolina Maier, Ph.D.
Senior Research Scientist, Stanford University School of Medicine

 

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