Finally got this blog up and running. And finally took our first picture of the summer research experience, with only 3 weeks left. We definitely need to do a better job of chronicling the amazing work that these young scientists are putting in. But I guess that’s part of the point of this blog. Hopefully we can convince everyone to contribute regularly. I think that will be the hardest part. #youngpeoplearebusy

We have our largest group ever this summer: 18 students working on 9 projects, and an additional 2 students for support. We also had to move our home base due to some ongoing lab renovations, but other than the extremely cold conditions in this room, being in an open lab environment has been awesome.

Projects are varied, and include examining the microbial communities of crayfish guts, monitoring genes responsible for the regulation of heat stress in chickens, cloning genes from the Dengue virus, identifying fungal contaminants growing on crop seeds, and phylogenetic studies of anthurium flowers and mites living on the human face. As always, we are impressed with the amount of work the students can deliver in such a short span of time, and humbled by how hard they work. #youngscientistsatwork

That’s enough from me, let’s hear from the stars of this show. #waiting