title: Ana Tsai: Fruit Fly Embryos, Immortality and California Strawberries
author: Thomas Clark
contenttype: article
publication: Modus Mirandi Podcast with Thomas Hikaru Clark
published: 2023-11-21T14:10:00+00:00
sourceurl: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/modusmirandi/episodes/Ana-Tsai-Fruit-Fly-Embryos--Immortality-and-California-Strawberries-e2c72i2
word_count: 121
Ana Tsai is a PhD student in Biology at MIT from Stockton, California. (0:30) What was your childhood like? (3:25) Growing up with mixed heritage (9:50) Smell of freshly picked tomatoes (11:57) Did you ever imagine becoming a grad student? (15:18) Researching immortality (20:24) What do you do on a daily basis, Zelda protein (24:30) Humans (and fruit flies) are basically a donut (25:10) Optogenetics (28:40) Generalizing from fruit flies to other species (32:00) Setting goals in grad school (34:20) Teaching and connecting with students (42:00) Breaking out of bubbles (51:00) Bees are really cute (55:00) Potlucks with friends (57:15) Where do you see yourself going after grad school? (1:07:00) What would you tell someone who’s thinking about going into research?