We congratulate our winners of the 2020 Willa Dean Lowery Fund to Support Research in the Natural Sciences:
Heather Evans Anderson , Assistant Professor of Health Sciences
CRISPR gene editing in Ciona intestinalis
Gene editing via CRISPR has garnered global attention due to the recent actions of a Chinese scientist who used it to genetically modify a set of twin girls. This egregious act brought the world’s attention to the powerful technology. I see great potential to use CRISPR as an educational tool. Previously I successfully used CRISPR in a semester long project conducted by undergraduates in a Cell Biology course (1). Here I intend to harness the power of CRISPR technology to genetically modify an invertebrate organism (Ciona intestinalis) to investigate the regulatory mechanisms of heart development. This proposal describes a set of specific research aims that will be conducted by undergraduate students at Stetson through an advanced genetics course in collaboration with Dr. Lynn Kee as well as several spin off senior research projects. The proposed project will bring cutting edge technology in an innovative application to Stetson. Funding provided by the Willa D Lowery grant would support several student projects that would lead to presentations at national level meetings and high impact peer reviewed publications.