Project Description

C. elegans is a nematode worm (roundworm, not to be confused with ringworms) approximately 1mm in length when fully grown that can be found living in soil around the world. They are used as a model organism in science to help researchers answer basic questions for a large range of biological areas including molecular biology, cellular biology, developmental biology, stem cells, neurology, and many others. We use C. elegans to better understand how biology controls the process of animals developing from a single cell to a fully formed animal. In this project, students gained experience raising and manipulating C. elegans worms, dissecting them to retrieve the early developing embryos, and identifying the developmental stages of different embryos.