Talking Science

Vallee Scholar Melissa Harrison, PhD, talks about the research in her lab at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.  Dr Harrison's lab uses the fruit fly - drosophila melanogaster - to look closely at the developmental transitions from DNA to adult cells.  Her lab shut down for three months in early 2020 because of the pandemic, but - with some modifications - has been able to function pretty much at capacity since then.

While many research laboratories around the country were shut down last spring, work related to the SARS-CoV-2 virus has continued apace. Vallee Scholar Andrew Kruse, PhD, Professor of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology at Harvard Medical School, who is interested in the mechanistic basis for protein-to-protein interactions, recently spoke about his work using a library of synthetic, yeast-based antibodies he has developed.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, Vallee Scholars Chris Mason, PhD, Associate Professor at Weill Cornell Medicine, and Feng Zhang, PhD, James and Patricia Poitras Professor at MIT and Core Member of the Broad Institute, have been working separately and in collaboration on new COVID-19 tests.