Riley Kraft ’23 Enjoys Discovering the Mystery in Science at the Zelikowsky Lab in Salt Lake City, UT

Hi everyone! My name is Riley Kraft, I am a senior at Whitman College. I am majoring in biology and minoring in chemistry and psychology. And this is a day in the life of a Zelikowsky lab undergraduate.

My entire internship roll is focused on one experiment. I am characterizing the pathway between the BNST and NAc. Past research suggests the neurons projecting from the BNST are most likely GABAergic. All other research has hypothesized about this pathway. It’s time to find out for sure!

Prepping the slides for imaging using RNAscope

I started by injecting a fluorescently labeled retrograde tracer into the BNST of mice. After the retrograde tracer was given enough time to travel between the BNST and NAc I sacked the mice and flash froze the brains. Now comes the difficult part, I took these brains and plated 20nm thick brain slices onto microscope slides. I prepped the slides for imaging with a two-day experiment called RNAscope. Once the brains were prepped for imaging, I went down to do confocal analysis. So far, I have found significant overlap between two different neurons. The Tac2+ neurons and GABAergic neurons seam to inhabit most of the same cells in the NAc. I need to continue to image in order to definitively determine the neurons present in the NAc, but the preliminary data suggests that it is both Tac2+ and GABAergic neurons are present within BNST, NAc communication.

Confocal analysis

This experiment has opened my mind to the possibilities with a biology degree. I have never considered doing research. I enjoy the Monday through Friday, nine to five lifestyle. I create my own schedule every week. The work I put in directly impacts my research progress and quality. I love working on my own schedule.

I hope to accomplish a quality research project for my supervisor. Her research is looking at social isolation. This is the perfect time to discover how social isolation effects the mind. With the recent pandemic and extreme social isolation around the world, the effects of social isolation need to be discovered and researched.

That is my life as an undergraduate research assistant at Zelikowsky Labs. I work a 40-hour work week with amazing coworkers doing an amazing research project. I find joy in discovering the mysteries in science. This internship has even helped me learn about other career opportunities within my biology major. I can see myself pursuing my own research in a field that I find interesting.


Experiences like Riley’s are made possible by the Whitman Internship Grant, which provides funding for students to participate in unpaid internships at nonprofit, some for-profit, and government organizations. We are happy to be sharing blog posts from students who were supported by either a summer, fall, spring, or year-long grants at organizations, businesses, and research labs all around the world. To learn how you could secure a Whitman Internship Grant or host a Whitman intern at your organization, contact us at ccec_info@whitman.edu.

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