2025 Internship Project Overview

In areas with extreme weather conditions, it may be difficult to find a reliable source of vegetable seeds to convert into cooking oil due to an unsuitable growing environment. Climate change has resulted in more intense heat waves and droughts, so one solution to the question of reliable sources of cooking oils is the cultivation of climate-resilient crops. Okra is one such crop with a high tolerance to heat and drought, but its oil content is low compared to other common oilseed crops. To improve oil production in okra seeds, the Conway Lab iteratively crossed parent okra lines with a higher seed oil content to produce a superior offspring line with increased oil content. The oil content of the seeds was measured via Time Domain-Nuclear Magnetic Resonance and the genetic markers for higher oil production will be determined through the genotyping by sequencing approach.

This internship is connected to the HMEI Water and the Environment Grand Challenges project, “Plant Breeding to Increase Agro-Biodiversity and Crop Climate Resilience.”

 

ORGANIZATION/RESEARCH GROUP

Conway Lab, Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Princeton University

LOCATION

Princeton, New Jersey

 

Interns

Jay Georges ’27
Major: Chemical and Biological Engineering
Minor(s): Materials Science and Engineering
"Working with the Conway Lab has given me great insight into how a research lab functions, from grant proposals to lab meetings. I learned technical skills not covered in my courses, such as how to handle liquid nitrogen. My favorite parts were the mechanical aspects of benchwork. I loved the hands-on nature of this project—the tangible results of my work filled me with a greater sense of accomplishment than anything I have done behind a screen."

 

Jonathan Conway
Assistant Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering

Mentors

  • Chao Liao, Postdoctoral Research Associate, Chemical and Biological Engineering