CURO Symposium

Our undergrad team presented their work at the CURO (Center for Undergraduate Research Opportunities) Symposium at UGA. Kathleen and Ella presented their work in talks. Zoe, Anisha, and Emily (all in their first or second semester in the lab) presented their work in posters. They all did a great job!

Kathleen talking about her work on the stem cell niche.

Ella getting ready to talk about her efforts to identify synapse proteins in planarians.

Undergrad team S26! From L to R, Ella, Emily, Zoe, Anisha, and Kathleen. The middle three scholars presented posters on their research.

Developmental Biology Spring Symposium

On April 10, we were happy to join our Developmental Biology colleagues for our Spring Symposium. Several lab members presented their research in talks and posters. We got some great feedback and loved being in community with our people!

Jazmine presenting a poster on her work.

Skylar chatting with people about her project.

Macey gave a flash talk and Christina gave a long talk, both on their projects.

80% of our undergrad team, who came to support their grad mentors!

Christina to DC for the CASE workshop!

Christina traveled to DC to take part in the Catalyzing Advocacy in Science and Engineering Workshop hosted by the American Association for the Advancement of Science. She was selected to represent UGA. There, she learned to talk to people about her research and to advocate for aspects of science and engineering she is passionate about. She met with staffers and representatives on both sides of the aisle and she learned a lot!

Thank you AAAS for supporting Christina and thank you Christina for supporting science!

Congratulations Skylar and Alex!

Our fantastic scholar Skylar wed her other half, Alex last weekend. I had to be in the mountains to celebrate my parents’ 50th wedding anniversary, so I had to miss this one (heartbroken, though the anniversary party was great, too!). We love the bonus of getting these fancy photos of our grad scholar team (plus this time with an alum, Taylor)!

February lab news

We had a good month with an emphasis on service in the R-G lab in February. We participated in the first ever Education Day hosted by Athens’ own Rock Lobsters. Clawdius, the team mascot, got in on some of our planarian work (invertebrate allies, I guess?). We also visited Gaines Elementary for their STEM night. Thanks to Macey, Christina, Jazmine, and Skylar for their time! I also spent a Saturday at a regional middle school Science Olympiad competition as a volunteer (those are always fun!). We also kicked off a new semester of Dev Talks, our supergroup meeting with the Developmental Biology Alliance at UGA. Ella Cho (undergrad student) and Kendall Clay presented the work of several undergrads in trying to identify synapse proteins in planarians, and I was really proud of Ella’s ability to present in this venue, which usually features grad student and postdoc presenters!

Our classes (teaching, TAing, and as students) are going well and we have lots of fun science happening, too!

We love our UGA Entomology colleagues - great scientists with such a sense of humor!

Science communication event at the Rock Lobsters Education Day, which included 3400 students in local schools. Thanks for the assist, Clawdius!

Ella and Kendall presented our undergraduate team’s progress on understanding planarian synapse biology at a recent Dev Talks Supergroup meeting.

Christina, Jazmine, and I spent a fun evening at the Gaines Elementary STEM night. We love visiting CCSD elementary schools and this was a new one for us, so grateful to be included!