She injects the tiny eggs with RNA, or ribonucleic acid, to check its effect. To get the eggs, the frogs are anesthetized, a small incision is made, eggs are removed, the incision is sutured and frogs are placed back into the tanks in USF's vivarium. Frog eggs are harvested many times for weeks before the frogs are sacrificed, and then only when they're old and no longer produce eggs. The fellowship program, initiated in spring 1996, has 10 students this year, said Clark Craddock, the institute's assistant director. Eight to 10 students participate in the program each year.
Some students change majors once they get a taste of research.
She's working with Dr. John Hassell in the Surgery department at Shriners Hospital. Kolanko is measuring the keratan sulfate and dermatan sulfate levels in the eyes of normal and lumican-mutant mice. The investigation has potential applications to diseases such as Macular Corneal Dystrophy, a disease that may strike young people ages 10 to 20, as well as older people, and eventually leads to blindness. She is working with Medical Microbiology and Immunology Professor Dr. Steven Specter. In a study that might one day affect people with HIV, she has been infecting mice with a leukemia virus and watching the response of the white blood cells in their spleens.