Yeast are very simple single-celled organisms, and we are using the species Saccharomyces cerevisiae for our studies. Also known as baker's yeast because of its uses in the bread-making industry, this species is commonly used as model organisms for genetic experiments due to three primary reasons:

1. Like humans, their cells are eukaryotic. This means that their cells contain a nucleus with DNA that is packaged into chromosomes, making their genetic processes of transcription and translation identical to humans. The yeast genome has also already been fully sequenced (since April of 1996), making it far easier to conduct genetic studies compared to other organisms.
2. Many of the same metabolic pathways and cellular processes that happen in human cells occur in yeast cells. This makes them highly functional and accurate models to make hypotheses about the effects of environmental factors such as UV radiation on human cells based on how it affects the yeast.
3. The yeast are easy and inexpensive to obtain, nonpathogenic, and have a short lifespan and generational time. This means that it is easier to produce more strains of yeast from the cells that are being tested on and shortens the amount of time necessary for the Bio Team to grow and study them.