Valeria successfully brought two snakes (on a plane) from the Amazon to Bogotá, Colombia, where she was able to obtain flash frozen tissues. Then she laboriously organized the export of the tissues to the USA (plane #2) while ensuring that they remain frozen, up until they arrived to the Vertebrate Genome Project lab this week (plane #3). We are so excited to process our first snake genome!

Meet Sandrita, the first of her species (Erythrolamprus reginae) to have her genome sequenced.

Valeria is currently in the Amazonian town of Leticia, Colombia, studying snakes that eat frogs. She will be conducting some difficult field research involving behavioral trials with several snake species. We wish her luck!