A successful summer in the Blackburn lab!

My name is Tyler Sullivan and I am a senior chemistry student at Morehead State University. Working in the Blackburn lab as part of the KBRIN program has been one of the most exciting experiences of my career. The environment was definitely very welcoming and helpful; everyone was more than willing to answer questions that I or anyone else had. Also, the nature of the work felt relevant and meaningful. It was gratifying to know that my work contributed to a larger goal. My project involved generating “pan-PRL” knockout Zebrafish and monitoring early development. The lab is interested in targeted PRLs as a potential cancer therapeutic, so knowing what the functions of these proteins are in healthy tissue is critical. We concluded that this PRL loss isn’t entirely lethal and that even

though there is an increase in cardiac edemas, many of the embryos seem to develop normally. Overall, in just ten weeks I feel much more confident in myself as a biomedical researcher and I owe this to Dr. Blackburn and the amazing scientists in this lab.