“Do Eddie Bauer wrinkle-free dress shirts count as fashionable?” jokes Christopher Gibson, a Utah-based bioengineer who admits he knew next to nothing about fashion—until, that is, he signed on for Descience, a project that’s teamed up designers and scientists for unique collaborations.

“That’s precisely why I was attracted to this project: to understand a world I know little about,” says Gibson, who paired with Boston-based designer Candice Wu to create a design reflecting her vision and his research. Wu, in turn, knew nothing about Cerebral Cavernous Malformation (CCM), the rare genetic disorder that’s the subject of Gibson’s work. But now funding CCM research is a cause she holds dear. “You can imagine the loneliness of having a disease that most people have never heard of, that has no treatment and that is not even being studied,” she says.

Together, Gibson and Wu form Team OrphaCure, one of 61 duos whose designs will hit the runway in a Sept. 29 competition at the MIT Media Lab. “The collaboration was really more about asking each other questions and watching the other work,” Gibson says. The result: a striking red dress that emulates blood vessels and is adorned with 3-D-printed appliqués. “The final product is true to the science; the textures and colors have direct inspiration from the images I work with in the lab on a daily basis,” Gibson says. “But Candice was also able to embody much of the dichotomy of fear and hope that is a part of life for so many patients with rare diseases and their families.”

For her part, Wu was touched by the response of the CCM community, especially on the part of one girl who’s spent all her 16 years in a wheelchair due to the debilitating disease. “She is a typical teenager, full of life, but battling a devastating genetic condition,” Wu says. “After Chris and I posted an inspiration board on Instagram, she immediately became one of our followers and shared her story.”

Her story and others helped shape the design of Team OrphaCure’s garment, which is competing for a $3,000 prize, to be divided between the two winning collaborators. But regardless of the outcome, Gibson feels the project has been a success. “The dress has a bit of a mysterious quality, and I find that to be so relevant to the study of rare genetic diseases,” he says. “From a scientific perspective, this work helps us scientists, who sometimes do a poor job of telling the world why and how we do things. I feel incredibly lucky because I’ve had the chance to be a part of two seemingly disconnected worlds coming together, and the result is that we will have informed many new people about the power of both fashion and science.”

Check out all the Descience collaborations at fashiondescience.com.