Hello everyone! I don't know how many people will read this blog, but I hope each and every one of you enjoys yourself thoroughly! I must admit, I started this blog because I am in Lawrence at KU for the summer, doing genetics research. Now, most people who know I'm working with fruit flies know that I'm working with these animals and nothing more.
Well, I'm going to give you a few more details. I have two main projects.
The first is starvation. Yes, I'm slaving away in a lab, moving flies around, crossing different lines, collecting virgins (yes, I said collecting virgins) and losing them in the transferring process, just to kill them all. Eventually the point is to learn about starvation and metabolism genes, their location, and eventually their relatives in the human body. The hope is that in the future, these genes will help lead to more information on metabolic diseases, like diabetes. Pretty cool, right? Except for collecting virgins, that is not cool, it's actually difficult. Females can hold sperm for a long time, so for proper crossing, the females must be virgins. "How can you tell a virgin?" you might ask...well, you have to collect them no more than 6 hours after birth. Meaning, you empty live flies, and then collect the remaining ones about 4 hours later. It was a difficult two days collecting them. BUT! I have many eggs and pupae and am just waiting for flies to grow!
If you thought the virgins were weird, wait til you hear about my dissections...
I try to dissect out the posterior lobe of the male genitalia of fruit flies. Yeah, we remove the genitalia of male fruit flies and remove a tiny part of the tiny circle. It is amazing. The only things we use are a standard lab microscope and two pairs of forceps. I'm getting pretty good, and will hopefully get some pictures so you can see what I'm talking about.
Truthfully, the nature of what I'm doing is why I have created a blog. These really aren't things you enjoy posting, but they are very interesting, and I'm learning a lot of new skills I'm hoping to use this fall in another lab setting!
Until later my friends...
Tay
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