It’s been a busy few weeks at the Williams lab!

After looking at our embryos every 6 hours, every day for the past few weeks, we have decided to change our experimental approach. In order to gain a better understanding of the effects of the pro-oxidant chemicals we’ve been using, we have decided upon constructing dose response curves for each. These curves will be used later to determine appropriate dosages for the activation of specific transcription factors, such as nuclear factor, erythroid 2 (Nfe2). The hope is to dose embryos in the fall with concentrations we determine this summer, and then run qPCR on RNA extractions from embryos (to test gene expression).

Apart from the labwork, we have been enjoying Acadia! We were finally able to get out on the kayaks, and have hiked many of the beautiful mountaintops of Acadia since my last blog post.

Last night was family science night, an event where we got to share what we’ve been doing with people outside of the lab, kids and adults alike. For the kids we devised many mock experiments using Swedish fish and magic animal growing capsules. For the adults and teens, we had a poster showing normal development of a zebrafish embryo, and some data from our lab to share.

In other news, more high school students and undergrads have arrived from all over to pursue research here at MDIBL. A Colby College short course is here, and there are many students from Germany that have arrived and are enjoying MDIBL with us. Needless to say, the German students here were ecstatic with the World Cup results.

We are just about wrapping up our summer here at MDIBL. We should have tangible data with us when we go back that we can use in the fall, along with unforgettable memories of our time here.

Additionally, this entire experience has been fantastic for adding to our repertoire of lab techniques, it’s impossible to put into words the science we’ve learned and I look forward to what else MDIBL and Dr. Williams have in store for us!