 - [Gavin] This project is at
 the cutting edge of technology
   working with an
   international team
 that is right at the forefront
of their respective disciplines.
  - [Callie] The research is
  chondrichthyan tree of life
  so looking at sharks,
  rays, skates, and chimeras,
  how they're related,
  where they live,
what their genetic material is.
   - [Gavin] We're interested
   at some level in how
 over the evolutionary
 process organisms
  just actually
  sprout new features.
   We can compare the
   genomes and say,
"This is the part of
the genome responsible."
   - [Caroline] I get little
   bits of shark skin,
 or liver, or fins from
 all over the world.
   We extract the DNA
   and sequence it
 in order to place it correctly
 in the evolutionary tree
  of sharks and rays.
   - [Callie] I'm looking
   at the skeletons of these
sharks and rays taking
specimens borrowed from museums
   from all over the world to
Medical University of
South Carolina, or MUSC,
and CT scan these sharks
and I upload the data
  from the CT scans
  and then segment out
   the different structures.
   That creates pretty much
   a three-dimensional X-ray.
   - [Gavin] We have
   co-developed a new
 molecular biology
 method so essentially
  we've leapfrogged the
  notion that you have to get
   the whole genome,
and if you've got a
particular set of genes
that you think may be involved,
 we can just target
 them very efficiently
across a broad swath of animals.
 That actually will
 allow other scientists
   to use these technologies
   that we've developed
   here on campus to actually
   improve their own work
 by about three orders
 of magnitude, about
 a thousand fold.
 - [Caroline] I don't
 plan on losing contact
   with any of these people.
  They come from such
  different areas.
   Elizabeth is from France,
 and Shannon's from Australia.
  It's nice to see
  the different paths
  that people took,
  and so meeting them
has been the best part for sure.
  - [Callie] After being
  able to learn all the tools
  that I have within this lab,
   I feel like I have
   kind of a toolkit
that I can take with
me that is very unique.
Very few people know
how to segment CT scans.
 I can apply to jobs at museums
  which are starting to
  digitize their collections.
 - [Gavin] Everybody
 thinks that scientists
have solved most of the
fundamental questions,
  and the truth is
  completely opposite.
  There's so many things that
  are very, very important
that we just don't know
anything about yet.
 (lively music)
