A five-hour boat ride carries Sun, Joceleyn Keehner ’08 (right), and their classmates to their first destination, the Heath River Lodge. There the students will explore the jungle and collect specimens of the plants they hope to study back in New Haven. Of particular interest are the microbes living within the plants, known as endophytes. Such biota often protect their hosts against infectious disease, an attribute that may prove beneficial to medical science.