Hello all and thanks for viewing my webpage! My name is Mike Harris and I'm a biology student at the University of Wisconsin- La Crosse. This website was developed as part of a class project for Organismal Biology at UW-L, and as part of a larger project for multipleorganisms.net. I have to say, building this website was not an easy task. With no prior knowledge of website development, I was a bit apprehensive about the project. However, after many countless hours of messing around with a WYSIWYG software, I finally started to get the hang of it, and it started coming together, page by page.

Every year the students in Organismal Biology 203 make a website about a particular organism. The theme for this year involved choosing an organism that has some type of use in medicine. This site is meant to provide the average person with some background information about the medicinal leech, Hirudo medicinalis. I chose this organisms because I recently saw a news report about how the leech is making a come back in the hospital setting. At first I thought it was kind of bizarre that people were using them for therapy, and I was interested in learning more. As I found out, and hopefully as you find out by reading through the pages, the medicinal leech is quite an interesting creature, with the potential to save limbs and lives!  

So A little about me
                 I grew up in Stoddard, Wisconsin; a small town ten miles south of La Crosse. My interest in biology started at a young age when my parents started taking my sister and I on all sorts of camping and fishing trips. If you are not familiar with the La Crosse area, it is in the south western part of Wisconsin, in a place known as the driftless area. The landscapes are plastered with all sorts of bluffs and valleys, and the Mississippi river is practically in my back yard. It is an easy place for someone to spark an interest in the array of life and beauty around them, and for me, that is exactly what happened.
            As with many students in Organismal Biology, I too want to go into healthcare. Right now I'm seriously considering the profession of a physician assistant. In my spare time, which is extremely limited during the school year, I relax by playing guitar, listening to some good tunes, and catching up with friends. I also love to fish, and take an annual fishing trip up to Hayward, Wisconsin.


   If you have any questions or comments you can email me at harris.mic2@uwlax.edu

Click on the link below to visit the University of La Crosse website	Click on the link below to see other organism websites made by UW-L students at multipleorganisms.net