Hi again!

Unfortunately, my summer of research in the Williams Lab is coming to a close. This was my last week until I return in September for the coming school year. However, this past week has been one of the busiest and most exciting.

As Dan said in his latest blog post, we finally have embryos! Embryos are crucial for our research to get off the ground and this week the zebrafish have started breeding consistently. Getting the zebrafish to breed was a huge project that Dan and I spent most of our summer working on so it was great to see visual results! The breeding will continue into the fall and it is a relief to have all of the kinks worked out before the year begins. We have also received new wildtype breeding fish to further increase our number of usable embryos. Due to the increase in numbers, this week has been very successful in terms of microinjecting. I even have my first set of preliminary data!

This summer has certainly been challenging, but also rewarding. Working with the zebrafish was a great learning experience and problem-solving booster. I think it was important to see every step in the process of our research, from caring for the animals to crunching numbers. These are skill sets that I will be able to carry with me into further research and future jobs. The past nine weeks have flown by and I’m excited to continue my work in the following semester!

Stay tuned for updates as Jenny and James finish their last week!