{"id":21932,"date":"2026-08-03T13:17:45","date_gmt":"2026-08-03T17:17:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/?p=21932"},"modified":"2026-08-03T13:18:49","modified_gmt":"2026-08-03T17:18:49","slug":"megan-malone-qa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/news\/megan-malone-qa\/","title":{"rendered":"Unlocking the Genetics of Plant Cell Growth: Q&A with Megan Malone"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A senior majoring in cell and molecular biology<\/a> with a concentration in biochemistry, Megan Malone is conducting research through the CELS Summer Fellowship program<\/a> under the mentorship of professor Alison Roberts. Interested in genetics and plant biology, she is studying a family of genes that help build plant cell walls and regulate cell growth and division. This summer, she’s using microscopy and other laboratory techniques to quantify the effects of targeted gene knockouts, contributing to research that will help scientists better understand how plants grow and develop. Along the way, she’s gaining firsthand experience with graduate-level research and preparing for her goal of pursuing a Ph.D. Learn more about her work below!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q. What are you working on this summer?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A. In P. patens <\/em>moss, a family of 8 genes called CSLDs are being studied in their role of synthesizing cellulose to build new plant cell walls. Specifically, these genes are involved in cell growth and cell division. From previous studies and work produced by graduate students in the Roberts Lab, numerous CSLD knockout gene variants have been produced, and observed for phenotypic changes and comparison to one another to attempt to determine the roles of each CSLD (1-8). The phenotypes need to be quantified, which is what our project aims to complete.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In biology when the function of a particular component of an organism (be it a gene, a structure, or pathway) is under question, researchers often remove or disrupt that component to see how the organism responds. In the moss, we are seeing visible changes in growth\/structure due to intentional removal of certain genes, and we want to understand the differences of those related genes that were removed in a way that data can support, not just with observations that we can describe by looking at it under a microscope. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What has been the coolest experience of your fellowship?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fluorescence microscopy has been really fascinating to use. The images are very striking and learning about the subsequent image and data analysis has been a great experience. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is it like working with your mentors?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

My mentors (Dr. Roberts and graduate student Kate Pagano) have been fantastic to work with. They have taught me so much in a short amount of time and have provided a strong balance of guidance while also allowing me to work independently. Being able to work independently while also collaborating in meetings and smaller projects has been one of the most valuable parts of the experience and has contributed greatly to what I have learned. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What will you take away from this experience?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Learning how to troubleshoot and pivot from mistakes has been an invaluable part of the fellowship. In the classroom when you make mistakes usually you can just try again or a professor will tell you exactly what went wrong. Sometimes in the lab it isn’t as clear why the results came out the way that they did and talking through the possibilities with other people is very helpful. Exchanging scientific methods\/tips between students is also something that I have noticed makes work more efficient and builds a stronger community while we are working towards our research goals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As part of a CELS Summer Research Fellowship, Megan Malone is studying genes involved in plant cell wall development, research that could eventually help scientists develop more resilient and productive crops. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1089,"featured_media":21933,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[54,26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21932","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fellowships","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21932","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1089"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21932"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21932\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21935,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21932\/revisions\/21935"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21933"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21932"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}