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Megan Kelly

Profile

  • Time Zone
    Eastern

  • Organization
    University of Florida

  • Role
    Scientist Mentor: I will mentor teams of students online

  • Research Interests (300 words)
    I am interested in the genetic engineering of plants for the purpose of improving crops and using plants to make specific protein products. My previous work includes developing tools to improve the process of engineering plastid DNA in Arabidopsis and assisting in the classification of tree species based on genetic markers.

  • Profile Question 1
    When and why did you decide to go into a science career?

  • Answer the question you selected for profile question 1 here (300 words):
    I decided to go into a science career when I was in high school. I read science magazines and took science classes that I really enjoyed. I was amazed at how people could use science to solve problems, like engineering plants that can survive a drought, but I also thought some of the techniques used in science were really cool. So when I graduated from high school, I decided to study biology as an undergraduate. In my lab as an undergraduate, I did experiments that involved using liquid nitrogen and GFP, which I had read about in high school, and contributed to projects that could help solve problems in plant science. It was very exciting!

  • Profile Question 2
    What is the coolest thing you have discovered or learned about plants?

  • Answer the question you selected for profile question 2 here (300 words):
    One thing that I've always found cool is the way that many plants can regenerate or reproduce themselves without seeds. If you have certain plants at home, such as aloe or strawberry, you may have seen them put out runners that grow into new plants. Others will generate new plants from cuttings. Some plants, such as tobacco, are so good at this that in the lab you can regenerate an entire plant from a single cell! That's how my lab makes genetically modified plants.

  • Profile Question 3
    What is tough about being a scientist?

  • Answer the question you selected for profile question 3 here (300 words):
    Science requires a lot of patience. Some experiments will take almost an hour to complete, and in my lab it would sometimes take months to find out if a transformation experiment worked because the plant has to be regrown from a single cell. If it doesn't work, you might have to try again a few times and try to figure out what went wrong. That's why the students in my lab work on two or three projects at once; there's always plenty to do, and there's a good chance that one of them will work. Of course, some experiments are easy to do and you get the results very fast, but it's always exciting to see a long-term project finally succeed!

  • Help represent the outreach efforts of your societies. Please click all those organizations you are a member of:
    (not set)

  • Capacity: How many teams at a time are you comfortable working with?
    1

Recent Posts

hchsprokopchakfall2017 project 8 Megan Kelly

Hi Rachel,

You're welcome.   I'm glad your experiment went well!

bshsseligfall2017 project 6 Megan Kelly

You're welcome! I'm glad it worked out.  It sounds like your experiment went well!  Let me know if you have any other questions.

hchsprokopchakfall2017 project 8 Megan Kelly

Hello! 

I think that your temperature experiment is a great idea.  Make sure you pick a few different temperatures to get a good range of data. 

The idea of using different types of water is interesting, but make sure you really…

more

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NSF_Logo.jpg This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant #2010556 and #1502892. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

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