Somehow, a few of us need frequent reminding that German food isn’t all about bratwurst, sauerkraut, and beer. There I was, all cuisine stereotypes gone from me, happily consuming the German food at Jennifer Hoy’s BRAVO! Datablitz. As her labmate, I was there to support her and also curious to learn what she had been doing those few months that she was absent from Dr. Gail Burd’s lab, Molecular and Cellular Biology.

Jennifer began by introducing her research objectives for the work she did at the University of Cologne, Institute for Genetics. The main goal of Jennifer’s project, “A Functional Analysis of Odorant Receptor-Ligand Interactions in Zebrafish,” was to match odorant receptors and their ligands using a fluorescent imaging system. Using zebrafish as an animal model, the goal was to inject a construct containing a gene for an odorant receptor protein and a fluorescent marker into one-celled embryos. As each embryo grew up, it was hoped that all the cells in the olfactory epithelium of the animal would express both the protein and the marker. Then, using a computer to take rapid-fire pictures of the fluorescent cells in the epithelium, Jennifer and her sponsor, Dr. Sigrun Korsching, hoped to see which specific odorants (like food or phermones) activated the cells in the olfactory epithelium. This would allow them to find the ligand (odorant) for the injected odorant receptor.

Jennifer described her work as frustrating because results were difficult to obtain, but worthwhile because she learned several important techniques, including gene cloning, PCR, and computer-assisted fluorescent imaging. She found the BRAVO! experience rewarding, and not just for the research. Hearing her talk about navigating around a foreign city and teaching her German labmates modern English slang made me realize that the research, while important, is only part of the equation in a BRAVO! experience. It wasn’t until she began seeing the countryside, going to museums and historical sites, and interacting with others that she realized that BRAVO! is also about building international relationships between research groups and discovering personal abilities. This was a great datablitz, and I look forward to attending more in the future
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Melissa Drake, UBRPer in Dr. Gail Burd’s lab, Molecular and Cellular Biology