This summer is not my first time working with Drosophila, or as many would say, fruit flies. From living in a big city that accumulates a lot of trash to working at a lab at Syracuse that researched the copulatory patterns of Drosophila, these flies are not new to me. Over the years I have become very fond of how complex flies are and how useful Drosophila species are to research.
I am currently working with the Kiehart Lab for this summer and I have learned so much after one week of orientation. Before starting the B-SURF program, I was scared about working with the flies in a more delicate matter. However, I will say that working on a project is more stressful than working with the flies themselves.
The project that I am a part of requires me to understand how myosin functions in embryo dorsal closures, how different genotypes impact the way that embryos are imaged, and how meticulous on has to be when sorting Drosophila and collecting their embryos. I am excited to be a part of important research, but I am also terrified. On my third day of orientation, I had to collect embryos (with the help of my mentor) and I had to identify dorsal closures as well. I failed miserably at identifying which embryos were going through dorsal closure, but it was at that moment that I knew that this summer is going to be filled with educational enrichment.
With that being said, I know that mistakes are inevitable, so I am going to put my best foot forward everyday in the lab. My goal is to get the best out of this summer. At the end of the summer, I am going to be confident in my ability to identify flies with Cy-O and TGC mutations and for that I am grateful for this opportunity to be a part of B-SURF and to meet the amazing people who are members of Duke’s amazing community.
