Early on in the fall semester, I decided to change my research focus once again because I felt the topic I had selected may not have been feasible given the time, budget and travel constraints. I spoke with one of my biology professors, Dr. Wendy Boehmler, about some possible directions for my research given the time I had left at YCP and the resources that were available. She uses zebrafish as a model system for her neuroscience-based research and I became very interested in this topic after talking with her, especially since I already had an interest in neuroscience. We came up with a tentative plan to use CRISPR Cas9 technology for genome editing in zebrafish in hopes of eventually utilizing my findings to study different neurodegenerative diseases.

​

Most of this semester was spent working on my annotated bibliography in order to learn as much as I could about zebrafish development and CRISPR Cas9. I also spent a significant amount of time working on my research portfolio since I had finally settled on a topic that I was very happy with and felt was more fitting for my interests. For next semester, I am planning to develop a more specific research outline to submit to IACUC for approval so we can begin working with the zebrafish.