This week I’m doing my own thing, so yesterday was spent reaching out to various people in hopes of finding someone to speak with. I did have someone success, and today I spent a few hours with Royden Saah, who currently works for Island Conservation, a non-profit group with the goal of preventing extinctions on islands by removing invasive rodents. They have been experimenting with gene drive technology, and while this was interesting to hear about, I admit it was hard to fully understand. Gene drive is a way that scientists can spread desired traits through a population faster than they would spread naturally with Mendelian inheritance. Using this technology, they can genetically engineer male rodents to only have male offspring. Then this trait will be passed on, eventually making it so that there are no longer enough females to reproduce. I also got to speak with a recently graduated student and current undergrad about their work in the lab and college advice more generally. Overall I had a very interesting day and I’m very grateful for the people who I got to speak with.
