Khushi was awarded the Division of Life Sciences Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (DLS SURF) 2022. To conclude her fellowship, Khushi presented a poster on her project: the development of a new gene expression system that allows for the controlling of Drosophila genes without having to use temperature sensitive proteins. Khushi and her team uses an auxin(major plant hormone)-inducible degree system that can remove the need for a temperature shift in gene expression experiments. In collaboration with the Southall Lab, they were able to monitor how this system affects gene expression with GFP, a green fluorescence protein, as well as examine its behavioral effects and whether we are able to control behavior. During the summer, Khushi and the team ran experiments that monitored the recovery of Drosophila from auxin, as well as experiments that measure the effects of CRISPR when paired with this gene expression system. Congrats again Khushi!
