I work under Dr. Jim Wellehan in the Clinical Sciences Research Laboratory at the UF College of Veterinary Medicine.  The Bat Papillomavirus Project began after a strain of papillomavirus was detected in a vampire bat that was being treated at the veterinary college.

Using swabs of DNA from the bats at the Lubee Bat Conservancy in Gainesville, the project aims to find the presence of the same papillomavirus in other bat species.  My work on this project has included:
 

• Performing DNA extractions on the swabs using micropipettes and a centrifuge

• Performing qPCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) sequencing on samples with E6 and 18S primers

• Cleaning and maintaining lab equipment as needed