Lab work can be intimidating, but everyone starts somewhere (as do organisms!). This summer, each of us navigated entering a lab environment with little experience in the techniques needed to research the early development of organisms and disease. During our panel, Whitney will discuss using gene editing to develop a potential treatment for a rare neurodegenerative disease, Friedreich's ataxia, and what it was like to learn cutting-edge techniques from the ground up. Next, you'll hear from Ruby about learning to use plant tissue culture techniques for the initiation, maintenance, and germination of endangered oak somatic embryos. Then, Grace will talk about expanding her female reproductive immunology lab experience to include mouse handling, while building on her pathology scoring and imaging knowledge. Finally, Raine will discuss the process of knocking out genes in Nasonia wasps and using microscopy to expmine how these changes influence embryonic development.

Moderator: Heather Chenoweth, Microscopy Facility Director

Presenters:

• Ruby Shaw '26 Biological Sciences
• Raine Smolen '26 Biology/Psychology
• Whitney Welch '27 Biochemistry/Psychology
• Grace Wieselquist '26 Biochemistry/German Studies