Jack Mostyn

Abstract: The Hattori Lab is broadly interested in understanding the neural circuits that calculate the relative importance of stimuli. I studied how fruit flies react to various odors in various conditions to learn how the relative importance of an odor is calculated.  My projects use optogenetic manipulations, a variety of behavioral assays, and immunostaining to study the odor response in flies. During the spring Green Fellows session I gathered data which suggest that the detection of food odors involves both learned and innate processes. During the summer Green Fellows session I am selectively silencing more than 40 different groups of neurons in the fly brain to better understand how each of those groups contributes to the odor response. Specifically, my projects focus on two brain regions: the mushroom body and the lateral horn.

 

​What does research mean to you?
Humans tend to think about the world in terms that they already understand. Afterall, learning from past experiences provides useful tools for dealing with future experiences. Through this process we develop intuitions about the world that effectively guide us through day-to-day life. But these intuitions do not tell the true story of our world. In novel situations, our intuition often falls short. This is perhaps most true when it comes to understanding nature. Without prior experience, one cannot use reason alone to understand cell division or quantum mechanics. Understanding these concepts requires a different process: research. At its most basic, research is just loosely-guided learning. But this seemingly simple process requires a lot of both time and effort. A researcher must constantly set aside what they think they know in order to discover the ways that they are wrong. A researcher must not let observations be driven by personal biases. A researcher must do all these things and more because nature is not intuitive. Nature is complex and mysterious yet beautiful all at once. And there are still countless discoveries yet to be made. Being a researcher will be hard work but it will also allow me to contribute to our collective understanding of nature. I cannot imagine a more fulfilling career.
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Tell us about your journey.
Before even taking my first class at UTD, I knew that I wanted to do research. The summer before my freshman year and the entirety of my first semester I emailed professors asking to join their labs. When I finally began working in a lab during the spring of my freshman year, it was all that I had hoped. Even though I was only doing the work assigned to me and not directly involved in discussion, it felt great being exposed to the research process. 

Having known that research was my goal, the Green Fellowship became a dream of mine. I attended info sessions before I could even apply. When it came time to actually apply, I was eager to get the process completed. I cannot express in words how excited I was when I got the acceptance email. It was a dream come true. And the actual experience I’ve had has far exceeded my lofty expectations. Every step in my research journey so far, I’ve not regretted a single decision. I hope that this journey will continue for the rest of my life.

What was your favorite part about the program? 
My PI gave me responsibility from day one. Nobody was looking over my shoulder while I worked or giving me directions every week. It was up to me to get my project done on time. Of course, my PI gave ample help. In fact, I’ve learned just as much from our conversations as all the work that I’ve done. But ultimately, it was on me to get my stuff done. That not only taught me a lot about responsibility and research, but also gave me immense satisfaction.

What was the biggest thing you learned from the program?
Time is everything in research. Every task takes twice as long as you expect and then some. On top of that, certain tasks require other tasks to be completed before you can even start. In the beginning, it was chaos. I would stay late one day then have nothing to do the next. But eventually I learned how to plan my days. Now I can tell you what I’ll be doing a week or two in advance and tell you where there is room to shift things around. I can only imagine how useful this will be in future research experiences

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Advice for Future Green Fellows

​This isn’t school - it’s real. Cramming is not a thing in research. You need to plan ahead and follow through. That’s the only way you can really be successful here.