Not an easy task considering Pai has been at the University for 27 years, serving three years as chair of the Biology Department, and has been involved in several research and educational endeavors. In 1978 Pai took a one-year sabbatical to do research at the Roche Institute for Molecular Biology. There, she worked with Dr. Michael Sherman in the Department of Cell Biology on a system to use embryonal carcinoma cells as a model for development. In 1993, Pai switched her research focus from mammalian development to fruit fly development. It's more feasible for the students to study fruit fly development than mammalian development.
Fruit flies are also easier to maintain and easier for the students to handle.
Pai takes what she learns in the laboratory into the classroom. Students in her genetics classes are actively involved with her research. Her continued research on Drosophila, a fly used in laboratory studies of genetics and development, may very well be on the cutting edge. She notes that last year's Nobel Prize went for the first time to developmental biologists who pioneered the same type of research. It's working on a problem that has the potential of having an important impact.