Emily Wesley, a former GSSIMR Summer Scholar, is first author on a paper published last week in Chromosoma. Emily worked closely with Investigator Scott Hawley, Ph.D., and Postdoc Katie Billmyre, Ph.D., on the research. They found that a key meiotic structure, the synaptonemal complex, broke down prematurely in different fly stocks, which reinforces the importance of considering the variability that genetic background can introduce during experiments. This is Emily’s second paper from her time at Stowers, and her first as first author.

Emily joined the Stowers Institute in 2018 as an undergraduate researcher. She learned about Stowers when Hawley gave a talk about his work during one of her classes at UMKC. Emily was intrigued enough to email Hawley about future possibilities in his lab, and joined the lab as an undergraduate researcher in the spring semester of her sophomore year.

In 2019, Emily was accepted to the Summer Scholars program, which allowed her to fully immerse herself in research for eight weeks. She loved being part of a community of young researchers from around the world who shared her love for science. Since much of the research process is trial and error, Emily appreciated that the program taught her how to think critically and solve problems creatively so that she can persist and overcome those inevitable errors. In the future, Emily hopes to combine her love of research and her passion for helping others and become a physician investigator.

To learn more about the Summer Scholars program, visit https://www.stowers.org/gradschool/scholars.