Gaining an Edge
When she enrolled at UA as a freshman in 2002, Caitlin Prickett never considered she would soon begin modifying the “building blocks” that make up the genetic code of human life — pretty heady stuff for an undergraduate. But, as a participant in the University’s Howard Hughes Undergraduate Research Intern program, Prickett chemically alters these compounds, known as nucleosides, in the laboratory in attempts to better understand how cancerous tumors develop and to potentially help develop new leads in the fight against the dreaded disease.