Atalya took a couple of courses from other faculties.
She did a project in Prof. Adi Salzberg's lab at the faculty of medicine. Atalya wanted to learn about the regulation on a gene named delilah in the fruit fly Drosophila Melanogaster.
This gene participates in the development of the fly wing, the tendon cells and the peripheral nervous system of the Drosophila. "I wanted to learn about the genes working upstream and downstream to delilah by producing transgenic flies."
"At first, I did not quite understood the connection between the research in the fruit fly to medicine. However, the advisor which the program assigned to me, Prof. Mandel (from the Metabolic Unit at Meyer Children's Hospital, Rambam Medical Center), showed me the great number of diseases that were being studied in the fruit fly (degenerative diseases, metabolic diseases and more)"
Recommendation to Program participants: "I recommend every student to gain experience in research. Not only doing research is very interesting and intriguing, better than any mystery book I have ever read, but it makes you use your brain, think for yourself, explore a certain subject and discover new things that no-one knows but you. While doing a project you might want to share what you are doing with your friends from the program; You would be amazed with the different points of view that students from different faculties have, and you might even get some new ideas for your project!".