Polygenic Score Video
Making a complex topic clear and compelling in three minutes
Project Type: Animated Video
Keywords: Animated Video, Innovative Art and Storytelling
Funding Type: Research Grant (Awardee-Client)
SLCC Teams:
Writing: Focused message and storytelling
Animation: Relatable visuals, narrative graphics, and creative data visualization
Project Management: Project Coordination, scope and timing
Client: Ideas, insight, review
The Challenge
Our clients had ambitious goals: create public interest and a positive connection to a research study on polygenic scores, educate viewers on what scores mean (statistically), and dispel common genetics misconceptions.
These topics take significant background knowledge to grasp, and everything needed to fit into a short, three-minute video.
In the video, a visual metaphor teaches that a person's genes and environment both shape their traits.
The SSLC Approach
Our science writing team helped the clients focus on a single, clear goal and the core content to support it. We created detailed outlines and script drafts, recommended examples from the scientific literature, and refined the framing and messaging to ensure clarity, accuracy, and accessibility.
Our art team brought the story to life through animation. This video is an example of how visuals can carry much of the educational load, transforming complex science into something intuitive and engaging. Narrative-style animation paired with creative metaphors, like a genetics-themed board game and statistics data visualized as scenery in a famous Salt Lake City park, made the content fun, memorable, and extra meaningful for its intended local audience.
Because the SSLC’s writers, artists, and video teams are all in-house, our collective expertise ensured every metaphor, graphic, and voiceover explanation complemented one another for accuracy, clarity, and fun. Video and sound tied it all together with playful pacing and tone.
Impact
Clear Science Storytelling
Delivered a clear, accessible explanation of a complex research topic in under three minutes
Public Science Engagement
Supported public engagement with emerging genetics research
Multidisciplinary Design
Created a product in which storytelling, scientific expertise, and creative design work together to make an advanced genetics topic understandable and relatable
Statistics are explained using scenery to turn the abstract into something memorable.