Lots going on in the R-G lab for the beginning of the summer!
We welcomed two new undergraduate students, Alicia and Princess. They have gotten started on some neurobiology projects using our planarians and are trucking right along.
After completing her first semester in the lab, Lauren is spending a bit of the summer hanging out with us, before and after her study abroad trip to Peru (jealous!). She spent a couple of weeks writing an immunofluorescence protocol for a few antibodies we'd like to use. She showed a lot of independence in writing up a protocol and her first try at IF worked! She'll return to us later in the summer to optimize the protocol and then use the IF protocol for some of her experiments.
Jennifer just prepared a poster for her first R-G lab presentation, at the regional Society for Developmental Biology meeting, held on campus last week. I was excited to have Jennifer represent the lab and we enjoyed hearing lots of great science and meeting new colleagues in the region.
We finally(!) got our Zeiss Axiozoom microscope set up in the lab! Woohoo for a new toy!
We also found out that we received a Junior Faculty Seed Grant from UGA. Many thanks to the folks who helped with the proposal, the Office of Research, and to the thoughtful reviewer(s) for helpful feedback.
Jennifer won the Cellular Biology Departmental Research Photo Contest, with an image of the nervous system of our planarians.
Rachel's colleague from her Vanderbilt days, Dr. Dawn Hart, spent several days in the lab learning how to do some planarian experiments a first year course she's developing at Grand Valley State University. It was wonderful to get to spend some time doing science together (and visiting, too).
Rachel has found a new writing buddy in her colleague, Dr. Amanda Frossard, from the Department of Chemistry. They enrolled in the Sustainable Writing Practice program through the Office of Faculty Affairs. It has been nice to have some encouragement and support for the writing part of the job! (Plus, we both like brownies.)
Top Left: Rachel and Dawn in the lab.
Above: Britessia, Jennifer, and Rachel attend the Southeast Society for Developmental Biology meeting in Athens, GA.
Bottom Left: new Axiozoom microscope.