Stan-X Honors Seminar in Life Sciences Research Concludes Second Year of Hands-on Genetic Studies at Rivers

That work will have a real-world impact, as the strains will be stored and used for future research with scientists around the country. For this particular research area, flies are used as a model to study human diseases. Researchers in Stan-X founder Seung Kim’s lab discovered insulin-producing cells in the fly brain, and further studies with the flies are contributing to diabetes research. 

Maylea Harris ’26 was one student in the class this past year who reflected on her time in what is affectionately known as the “Fly Lab,” or “Flab.”

“I loved the ‘Flab’ because I wanted a chance to work hands-on, year-round in science. I knew in college that I’d want to try research [and] join a lab, and I thought early exposure to what a lab experience may be like is very vital,” she said.  

The course, which meets at least twice a week, is complex and very selective, in part due to the demands and patience required. Students are selected from a pool of students who have completed the Grade 11 Special Program in Advanced Topics in Life Sciences Research.

“The genetic concepts alone are difficult to grasp, involving a synthesis of transcription, translation, genotype, and phenotype, as well as the formation of internal 3D representations of the techniques necessary to identify novel insertion sites of our genetic element,” said Reynoso. 

"Students must also have the patience and grit to sort through hundreds of flies under the microscope in search of low-probability phenotypes, maintain a lab notebook to track their work, and troubleshoot challenges with tracking parentage while juggling perishable fly food. “The work is similar to experiments I performed during grad school,” Reynoso said.  

Students observe the progress of creating new fly strains through microscopes and transfer flies into vials with fresh food to keep the flies healthy. At the end of the course in May, students left their strains with Reynoso, who will confirm the genetic insertion sites before sending the strains 

to Stanford University and a storage facility in Bloomington, IN, where they will await future use by other researchers in scientific and medical studies.

In addition to their work creating the various strains of flies, students in the course also digest and interpret current scientific research from the field and hear from guest lecturers, such as Dr. Seung Kim, who visited Rivers in October 2024, and biologist and entrepreneur Derrick Rossi P’26, ’29, who spoke to students in late April. Rossi, a co-founder of several biotechnology companies, including Moderna, has been involved with the Honors Seminar in Life Sciences Research since the beginning and is a benefactor of the lab space in Revers. In April, he spoke to students about mRNA technology and other emerging methods in cell therapies, such as Stelexis Therapeutics, which aims to treat cancers arising from stem cells. 

In May, some of the seminar participants traveled to the Lawrenceville School in New Jersey to present posters along with other schools in the Stan-X program. 

“All of the schools are pursuing the same goal: creating novel fly lines to enhance scientists’ ability to target specific genes and map enhancer activity,” said Reynoso, who accompanied the group. 

“The goal of the conference is for students to share their experience and research with other students who are familiar with the vocabulary. Students have the option of presenting to the entire conference in a conference room and/or presenting a poster as students mill around. Our students did both,” Reynoso said.

The conference also included small-group workshops on topics such as how to include this research experience in a résumé, how to reach out to college professors to obtain more lab research experience, learning a fly dissection technique, making a TikTok video for science communication, or working through challenging conceptual questions.

“I presented on an independent project called a ‘behavioral assay,’ where students researched how our flies that we created over the course of the year would react in specific circumstances and compared them to another line,” said Harris. Her project, titled “Testing Cold-Shock Recovery of Sx4 Flies Through Negative Geotaxis Behavior,” compared how the flies would recover from time in a lower temperature by how quickly they climbed the sides of their vials. 

The conference was also a networking opportunity for students and helped broaden their understanding of the reach of their work, as they shared their research with peers and colleagues from other areas of the country.

“I loved presenting at Lawrenceville,” said Harris. “It was amazing to talk both to other scientists my age and experts in their fields, to apply our learning outside of our classroom and our Rivers ‘Flab’ bubble. I connected with many peers, and I’m keeping in touch with one professor whom I met there.”