Drosophila Melanogaster

Stephan Dong is a Senior at the University of Arizona studying cognitive and neuroscience. He works as an undergraduate research assistant at the Zinsmaier Neurogenetics Lab where they use Drosophila Melanogaster as a model organism, aka fruits flies, to study the brain and neurodegenerative disease. Stephan has developed a deep appreciation and empathy for model organisms and their “contribution” to scientific research. He wrote a paper expressing these perspectives for a Science Journalism class taught by Susan Swanberg. The paper is titled “Model Martyrs” and will appear in the upcoming edition of SciView magazine.

Producer/Editor: Mitchell Riley
Videographers: Nate Huffman, Steve Riggs Tweet