Cassandra is a research associate at Seattle Children’s Center for Global Infectious Disease Research. She's been known to dissect hundreds of mosquito salivary glands in a day to isolate malaria parasites in the hunt for a better understanding of this disease's dynamics of transmission from mosquito to human (or mosquito to animal) and back again. Cassandra and her colleagues are studying mosquitoes and malaria to help develop new automated tools for research (a mosquito-dissecting robot, anyone?!), and new routes for vaccination.

Isabelle Neylan studies copepods - think the little green Plankton from SpongeBob! - and how they deal with stressors like excessive heat in the splash pools where they live. Understanding the mechanisms of stress resilience and plasticity in copepods can help us better understand how ocean food webs may respond to future environmental conditions. We may even be able to learn a thing or two about how we humans can better adapt to stress from these tiny creatures! Join Isabelle in the lab with your host Paige Jarreau, as Isabelle extracts RNA from copepods and talks life as a scientist!

Shelby Prindaville is an interdisciplinary artist who works across painting, drawing, mixed media, ceramics, sculpture, and installation to create artwork depicting animals, plants, and ecosystems within a human-altered world. Her studio practice combines science and art to encourage a more conservation-focused relationship with nature.

In this inaugural episode of the Facetime with Scientists podcast, Shelby discusses how science has shaped her art practice, how she has worked with chemists and conservation scientists, what it means to be creative, and the value of handcraft and art-based "synthesis" in the modern world.

See more of Shelby's art at https://shelbyprindaville.com/.

Enjoy! - Your host, Paige Jarreau