[00:00:00.09] - The ladder lines are on either side. See how they're separating.
[00:00:04.50] DR. JESSICA CLARK: I feel like the undergraduates here have a lot more opportunity for undergraduate research. They're starting from the very beginning. They are mating the fish, they're collecting the embryos, they're treating them, they're running the entire experiment. And then at the end of the experiment, we're analyzing data together, and they're writing papers. And they're doing all the things that normally you don't get an opportunity to do an undergrad.
[00:00:28.33] - It's like being able to get a lot of experience and meet a lot of great people.
[00:00:33.51] - Not many schools, I think, have that special spark.
[00:00:37.32] DR. JESSICA CLARK: All my students have presented at the Salisbury University Student Research Conference. And we've also had a number of students traveling to the National Conference for Undergraduate Research.
[00:00:49.30] - I never thought I would be conducting research with fish. What we're interested in looking at is how a hyperglycemic environment affects the nervous system of zebra fish. So we use zebra fish because they're actually very similar to humans. They're a vertebrate model. Because it's neuroscience-based and that's what I want to get into, it's just amazing to be able to look at the zebra fish and their nervous system, and look at them under the microscope is really cool.
[00:01:17.63] - There's a connection between the damage to the peripheral nervous system and diabetic peripheral neuropathy, which is a common complication associated with having diabetes, which leads to the loss of sensation, pain, tingling. I take zebra fish and they have transgenic genes, which allow them to fluoresce. And that's really cool because I get to visualize their nervous system. So after I induce hyperglycemia, I mount and section them. And then I look at those genes, and look at the damage that was done to the nervous system. And so from there, we'll be able to look at new therapeutic approaches.
[00:01:49.17] - I've been able to get my foot in the door early because I do plan on conducting research as a future career. And so I've been able to get a lot of experience and meet a lot of great people.
[00:01:59.43] DR. JESSICA CLARK: The quality of the students here has blown me out of the water, but I had no idea that I would have Fulbright winners, and I would have the president of SGA, and that I would have a student showing up on the first day of her freshman year because she already knows what she wants to do, and it's a PhD in neuroscience. The quality is unbelievable.