I was assigned two projects as a summer research student. The first was to create a strain of fruit flies that had a gene coding for a DNA polymerase (pol. theta) knocked out. The second was to document the stages of development of mus-308 knockout embryos through time-lapse microscopy. The latter project was somewhat difficult to complete, as early on the embryos would die prior to reaching the microscope. Through careful examination, and some thinking outside the box, I was able deduce that an adhesive gel in which the embryos were submerged was killing them pre-maturely. My experience as Tufts was a great one because it taught me how to think outside the box.
