Dance Your Ph.D. Winner

Selection of a DNA aptamer for homocysteine using SELEX from Maureen McKeague on Vimeo.

About 50 recent doctors of philosophy decided to make their often obscure doctoral dissertations a little more hip and lively so they entered Science magazine’s Dance Your Ph. D. contest. Making Her research on a chemistry method called Systematic Evolution of Ligands by Exponential Enrichment (SELEX) come alive through an interpretive dance, scientist and dancer Maureen McKeague from Carelton Unviersity in Ottawa, Canada took home the top prize last fall.

Her dance, titled “Selection of a DNA aptamer for homocysteine using systematic evolution of ligands by exponential enrichment” doesn’t sound like something that could be easily translated for a non-scientist let alone set to the music of Lady Gaga, among others.

The target is a small molecule called homocysteine, the main dancer with a target painted on her shirt. (That’s Maureen McKeague.) SELEX is a chemical technique that creates short RNA and DNA segments called aptamers (the other dancers). Aptamers are nucleic acids that can be designed to stick to any molecule–in this case the amino acid homocysteine. Watch for the Taq Polymerase scene in the middle of the dance. High levels of homocysteine in blood is associated with heart disease.

Dr. McKeague’s work aims to use the SELEX process to make aptamers to easily and cheaply measure homocysteine levels in blood samples. She and the 12 students in Maria DeRosa’s bionanotechnology research group helped give McKeague her win, which was announced in a special event in New York in October.

45 Ph.D. students entered the 2010 Dance Your Ph.D. contest. McKeague won with 69 percent of the online vote. You can view all the finalists here.