SENIOR

If you haven’t read part I (sophomore year) or part II (junior year), click the links and read all about it.

BIO 332- Tissue Culture

This was a half-semester long lab, where we placed plant stem pieces onto media with different hormone ratios to observe for callus growth and the development of roots and shoots. After a course of several weeks, we tried transplanting one of the stems that grew a shoot into media containing hormones that would induce root growth.

BIO 350 – Siderophore

For this lab, our job was a collect a sample from any water source. My lab partner and I chose to collect a sample from Ruston Way. The actual lab consisted of taking our water samples and plating them onto different medias to see what microorganisms grew/lived in the water. After a week of letting them grow, we discovered a microorganism that secreted siderophores, aka it fluoresced under UV light. It was such a cool discovery, we ended up using it for our independent project later in the semester.

BIO 404 – PHYA

This was approximately a half-semester long project in lab, where we tried to understand the role of the phyA gene at the molecular level in tomato plants (Solanum lycopersicum). This was lab was really fun because we were really able to build this project from the ground up. For instance we used several programs and online sources to analyze RNA sequences from our mutant and wild-type tomato samples to select for a candidate gene we were interested in, and create primers to be used for qPCR. But the coolest thing by far, was that we were all able to design and use CRISPR/Cas9 for our candidate gene.

CHEM 251 – Unknown Aldol Condensation

For this lab we performed a double aldol condensation between an unknown aldehyde and unknown ketone, which was then purified using recrystallization. With our purified product we obtained their melting points and H-NMR spectra to help identify our unknown aldehyde and ketone. One of the things that made this lab so memorable was that my “unknown” product looked like this shiny film of gold.

*And if you were curious, I identified that my aldol condensation was between cinnamaldehyde and cyclohexanone.

BIO 490 – Research

For all of my senior year, I have been working on a research project with my advisor. In my research, which is genetics based, we looked at changes in apoptosis/cell death in response to exposure to BPA using zebradish (since we can’t use human subjects, darn). From this experience I was able to learn a new lab technique, qPCR, which would help other biology labs (some would had a lab section dedicated to using qPCR). Additionally, I loved being able to dedicated a large amount of time into exploring and answering to a specific topic of interest. I’m so glad that I chose to do research over another biology elective.

Honorable Mentions

• Synthesis projects in CHEM 251