Last week, undergraduate Alexis Kirkendall concluded her 10-week Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program at the University of Maine. Over that time, she has been an integral member of the Ishaq lab, and had assisted with lab work for multiple projects, comparing microscopy staining protocols, training students, assisting with laboratory management and safety regulation checks, and more. She picked up skills in animal sample collection, microscopy and staining, parasitology, culture media preparation, DNA extraction, and data visualization in R. Alexis also helped create some of the marketing materials for the Microbes and Social Equity Symposium in July, and facilitated group discussions as a note taker.

At the end of the program, REU students create posters and short presentations of their efforts over the summer. The presentations were last week, but you can check out the poster below.

Alexis is heading back to Ohio for her next year at Heidelberg College where, in addition to studying science, she is leading initiatives to make the campus more accessible and inclusive. But, we hope to see her back in Maine sometime in the future!