Author: Brittany Tian Majors: Biology, English
During late spring of my sophomore year, I began conducting research in the Paré Lab in the Department of Biological Sciences. The lab focuses on developmental biology and utilizes the fruit fly as a model system. While my project for the first few semesters focused on creating transgenic flies that expressed variations of a protein present during development, COVID-19 disrupted a large amount of my lab work and my general ability to complete the project before graduation. In lieu of these events, my current project pairs aspects of my old project with fixation and staining techniques that allow the continued examination of the tartan protein during specific stages of fruit fly development. While the project itself pertains directly to fruit fly embryology and development, model organisms are often needed to understand aspects of the human system. Fruit flies, mice, and zebrafish are well-known model organisms that have greatly contributed to our knowledge of genetics, evolution, and medical applications.
Dr. Paré became my research mentor after he taught the Genetics course during my sophomore year. He was looking for undergraduates for his new lab at the same time that I was interested in pursuing other research opportunities in the department. Of the introductory biology courses required for my degree, I was the most attracted to genetics and its inherent applications to medicine. Dr. Paré initially found a project for me that utilized my interest in cloning techniques and plasmid work. Given the time restrictions caused by COVID, my current project applies the same background information regarding the tartan protein. While I had to learn new fixation and staining techniques for the changes in my project, I appreciate the adaptability that comes with research. Many topics are overlapping as they draw from the same pool of original information but ultimately seek to understand different things.
An important aspect of research that I have come to accept is the necessity of persistence. In my current fixation and staining protocols, but especially my initial plasmid work, failure was quite frequent. It seemed easy to accept defeat when certain results were not produced, or errors occurred without any idea of the cause. The microscopic nature of the materials and the protocols only added to the growing challenge of accepting defeat, however, my mentor really helped all of the other undergraduates understand the frequency of failure. No experiment would run through perfectly, so the ability to repeat the process was an important element of conducting research.
My mentor has continued to offer useful advice throughout the research process and remains hands-on in teaching new protocols and techniques to all of the undergraduates in the lab. I am currently in the process of determining the best fixation and staining conditions to use for my fruit fly embryos. Afterwards, I will need to work on acquiring the best images through confocal work that present the desired expression patterns of the tartan protein and other indicator patterns. This will be my final semester at the University of Arkansas, so time is of the essence in completing my project. Although my future career plans focus on medical school, my time conducting research has undoubtedly provided a solid foundation in both developmental biology and genetics. I plan on using this experience to both further my career goals and consider other research opportunities moving forward.