In Spring 2010, the Biol 460 Developmental Biology class at Pepperdine University in Malibu, Calfornia, made this video about Hox genes:



Set to the tune of Ke$ha’s “Tik Tok”, but with far more intelligent lyrics and a funnier video, the song refers to the Ultrabithorax mutation that causes Drosophila to grow a second pair of wings. Janel Gonzalez, a student in the course, wrote the lyrics and sings the part of a fly who wakes up one day to find her Hox genes are “messed up”. The affected fly compares her fate to that of other mutant flies (“I look over at my friend with antenna for eyes”) and concludes that her situation isn’t so bad (“I still can feed; and I still can fly.”)

Donna Nofziger-Plank, who teaches the course, encourages the use of art to teach developmental biology. Aside from this video, the class also held Developmental Biology poetry jam sessions, created cartoons, and used stop-motion animation. The next Biol460 course at Pepperdine runs in early 2012, and we’re looking forward to seeing what the students will come up with that year.