Title
Neuralized Mania
Preview
Identifier
Honorable Mention
Creation Date
Spring 2023
Description
Drosophila is the household fruit fly. Drosophilae provide a very powerful model that helps scientists better understand biological systems. This image is a montage of six Drosophila legs captured through novel live imaging techniques. This method gives us the ability to view separate components of a structure simultaneously, even when their fluorescent colors overlap. The sensory neurons of the leg are made visible because they produce a jellyfish fluorescent protein (shown in red) using control systems from a nerve-specifying gene, called neuralized. The green color with blue highlights represents the exoskeleton of the legs. Applications of this method can help us study development and degeneration of neurons and better understand diseases of neural function. I aim to use this system to research and understand the effects of expressing toxic protein fragments in neurons.