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Antibodyody, Raven Baxter's 60-second antibody song, spreads as the first COVID-19 vaccines near authorization
Released days after the first vaccine trials reported results, the hip-hop video walks through the five antibody classes and the memory cells a vaccine trains
Raven Baxter released "Antibodyody," a 60-second hip-hop video about how antibodies work, on Nov. 27, 2020. She posted it on her own channels, including TikTok and YouTube, and it spread across social media within days.
In a white lab coat against a pink backdrop, Baxter chants the names of the five antibody classes, IgG, IgA, IgM, IgD and IgE. A labeled diagram appears beside her for each one.
The song arrived as the first vaccine results came in. On Nov. 16, the National Institutes of Health and Moderna reported interim Phase 3 results showing about 94.5% efficacy. Two days later, Pfizer and BioNTech reported 95% efficacy in their completed Phase 3 study. On Dec. 3, the Pew Research Center found that 60% of Americans intended to get vaccinated. Among Black adults, the share was 42%.
A diagram compares a naive B cell with a memory B cell that recognizes one virus. Image: Raven the Science Maven video
Midway through, the video turns to memory B cells. A diagram shows how a memory cell recognizes one specific virus and answers it with antibodies. That memory is what a vaccine trains the body to build.
The next verses cover four ways antibodies fight infection. They help complement proteins punch holes in microbe membranes. They tag microbes so macrophages will eat them, a process called opsonization. They neutralize invaders, and they clump cells together through agglutination.
Baxter acts out agglutination, in which antibodies bind cells into clumps. Image: Raven the Science Maven video
The closing verse takes on the question people kept asking her, what a vaccine is. It describes scientists in the lab checking nucleic acids and proteins as they make shots that build adaptive immunity.
Megan Thee Stallion retweeted the video, and it later appeared on Saturday Night Live. In September 2021, Baxter shared it again in reply to Nicki Minaj. "Nicki, I made this rap about the vaccine last fall! It talks about the immune system and some of the things that happen with your immune system after u get a vaccine," she wrote, as quoted by Global Voices.
The Washington Post noted the song in a 2021 profile. When the American Association of University Women named her a 2022 Woman of Distinction, it cited the "Antibodyody Antibody Song." AAUW called her "known for effortlessly merging science with pop culture."
At the VOICES 2021 conference, Baxter described the aim. "If you can just get one person to say, what now, what did she say in that song, or I'm gonna go look that up, I'm really curious about that, it can make a huge difference," she said.
Baxter was then a doctoral candidate at the University at Buffalo. Her master's research at SUNY Buffalo State studied how antibodies find their targets.
The video is on her YouTube channel, where it has drawn about 85,500 views.
