Ballet Leads Student to Science Lab

By John Marchetti

Special to the Gazette

To the uninitiated, ballet might appear to be a relatively pain-free -- if challenging -- endeavor. Dancers move gracefully across a stage, fly effortlessly through the air, and touch down catlike and nimble. It doesn't look easy, but it doesn't quite seem dangerous either.

Not so, says Liz Robinson '97, a dancer since she was a small child. "Ballet is more contortive than gymnastics," she explains. As a result, its extraordinary physical demands can bring plenty of problems to its practitioners. Robinson has herself suffered through several injuries over the years.

Indirectly, it was those maladies that led her to her concentration, to Professor A.W. Crompton's research laboratory, and to the Harvard College Research Program.

"While undergoing physical therapy, I became interested in how body movements are controlled," Robinson says. "I also started appreciating the architecture of bones and how it allows the body to withstand the stresses placed upon it."

Once she arrived at Harvard, Robinson began to pursue her interests in the Biology Department. In Biology 21, she learned how bones respond to increased stress by continuously remodeling and changing their shape. She followed up by enrolling in Biology 121a, a course on experimental techniques used in investigating the structure and physiology of vertebrates. For a semester, Robinson studied bone remodeling in the limbs of juvenile pigs.

By semester's end, she was anxious to start a project of her own. Robinson enlisted Professor Crompton, a longtime research program supporter, as her adviser and applied to what was then the Ford Program for Undergraduate Research. She proposed to examine the effect of exercise on young and old goats.

Robinson's application was well-received by the faculty committee that evaluates student research proposals. Her proposal was clearly defined, and her past experience in Crompton's lab gave her the background that so often makes for a successful project. The committee awarded Robinson a summer research grant.

With Professor Crompton's blessing, Robinson altered her research plans almost immediately. For a variety of reasons, she decided that turkeys, and not goats, would be the ideal subjects for her study. She secured five four-week-old wild turkeys and her study was under way.

Over the summer and early fall, Robinson exercised three of the birds daily on a treadmill. The others, making up the control group, remained sedentary.

"It was pretty easy to train the turkeys to stay on the treadmill," Robinson admits. "They aren't the most intelligent animals." All of the turkeys were given dye injections and periodic x-rays to chart bone growth.

Robinson's five turkeys will soon stop growing. At that point, each will be outfitted with devices called "strain gauges," which allow accurate measurements of compression and tension along the bone. "Previous study under the guidance of Professor Crompton suggests that the bone adjustment that results from strain increases as one moves distally along the limb," notes Robinson. "I hope to add more conclusive data to this theory."

Robinson will also compare the exercised and control turkeys. "The exercised turkeys have had to adjust to a lifestyle of increased impact and stress on their limbs," Robinson says. "As a result I hope to show that the bones were forced to adjust in order to maintain a stress level within their natural physiological range." Despite its more demanding schedule, Robinson believes that a running turkey that has been exercised daily will show a lower value of strain than a running turkey not used to the activity.

Robinson has enjoyed her lab experience enough to apply for -- and receive -- another grant from the Harvard College Research Program. She is especially pleased with her relationship with her mentor. "Professor Crompton is always available to help explain and teach me about various aspects of my project," she says. "It is largely his presence that has sparked my interest so fully in this area of research."

Professor Crompton comments just as favorably on Robinson's work. "She is a meticulous, careful, and dedicated student," he reports. "I am fully confident that excellent results will be obtained." Robinson plans to use those results in her thesis next year.

On a final note, let it be shown for the record that Robinson's years of ballet have brought her more than injuries and a career vocation. She now dances in several ballet troupes, and is co-director of the Harvard-Radcliffe Ballet Company. Robinson also teaches ballet to young dancers. "I love teaching," she says.

In fact, that love has her thinking that she will enter a joint M.D./Ph.D. program after graduation. "I think that it's what I really want to do," Robinson says before adding with a sigh, "no matter how many years in school it takes!"