Subir Shakya
This summer I was part of the Smithsonian Laboratory of Analytical Biology at the Natural History Museum involved in sequencing the genome of tepui birds. I was mostly working with one specific group of birds known as the nightbirds (the whip-poor-will or chuck-will’s-widow being common examples) and aiming to sequence the genome of all the known species, (most of them, at least).
The idea was to use this data to understand the origin of the tepui species of this group. At the lab we were doing whole-genome sequencing using Ultra-Conserved Element protocols. We were not able to complete all the steps in the 10 weeks I was there. The project is still ongoing and they provided me with a 2 year extension allowing me to come to the museum and work there in the future, which I intend to do.
Also, I was able to tour the thousands of collections in the museum that are not in display or open to the public. I got to see the Alan-Hill meteor (Martian so called fossil rock), several gemstones, the Burgess Shale, their collection of ancient American Indian artifacts, a giant squid, a coelacanth, and a real flesh-filled elephant head about to be prepared.
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