Congratulations to Jennifer!

Today we congratulate Jennifer Jenkins on acceptance of her first first-author paper, in the journal Genetics. We’ll share the final version of the manuscript when it’s available, but for now, hooray to Jen for her hard work exploring heterotrimeric G proteins in planarian regeneration and behavior. It was a lot of work and it’s a project we’re both super proud of!

Jennifer showing peace signs in front of the computer after hitting the (re)submit button.

Jennifer and Rachel with thumbs up. This revision was a lot of work and I’m so proud of the final product!

2022 Highlights!

We got a LOT of great work done in 2022 and I wanted to take a moment to reflect on our collective progress in the past year. I was going to make it a top 10 list, but we did a lot, so there are more than 10 things listed here. Here are some highlights (in no particular order):

  1. The lab received its first R01 from NINDS (NIH). It will fund our work on neurogenesis and nervous system repair in planarian regeneration.

  2. Kendall and Taylor passed their qualifying exams with flying colors.

  3. Jen submitted and preprinted her paper on heterotrimeric G proteins, which was reviewed and will be resubmitted very soon!

  4. We worked on several other forthcoming manuscripts, including Tulip’s paper on planarian glia (in collaboration with the Davies lab).

  5. Lab members attended several meetings: Regional SDB (Worm Squad), SDB (Jen and Rachel), ASCB (Rachel), Gordon Conference on Neural Dev (Kendall), CSHL Glia (Tulip), and a Cell Symposium on Stem Cell Biology (Andres). We also attended and presented at local symposia and retreats with our communities at UGA focused on undergraduate research, developmental biology, neuroscience, cellular biology, and regeneration.

  6. We continued the Flatworm Fridays series in the spring, participating, presenting, and hearing lots of good work from our community.

  7. We hosted 5 rotation students and recruited 2 new Ph.D. students — Skylar and Christina! Kendall and Taylor hosted ILS students and did a great job.

  8. We were joined by technician Chris and returning undergrad lab member James.

  9. We hosted high school trainee Ariel and NSURE student Jazmine, both of whom did a fantastic job in the lab!

  10. Kendall applied for and was awarded a 2nd year of funding from our Genetics T32 training grant.

  11. Andres was awarded a Pecot Fellowship from the McKnight Foundation. He is the first UGA recipient of this fellowship!

  12. Trainees submitted funding applications that are under review: Andres’s GRFP and Ford applications and Kendall’s F31 application.

  13. Lab alum Rachel Grimes graduated and headed off to medical school.

  14. Rachel taught Advanced Developmental Biology and Cellular Biology, as well as a new GRADFirst class. Lab students did a fantastic job TAing classes that included CBIO (Tulip and Jen) and Anatomy and Physiology (Taylor).

  15. We continued to support and encourage each other so that we can do the best science we can and be our best, healthiest, and happiest selves!

Winter conferences

The lab presented at two different conferences this winter. Rachel traveled to the ASCB/EMBO meeting in Washington, D.C., where she presented on our heterotrimeric G protein project and our glia project. Andres also attended the Cell Symposium on Advanced Therapeutic Applications of Stem Cells. This trip was supported by his Pecot Fellowship and was meant to help him choose research areas for his Ph.D. work!

We enjoyed visiting with colleagues and sharing our work with others!

Successful ILS recruitment season

We have had a busy fall and are entering the homestretch of our last ILS rotation. We have been joined by 5 talented Ph.D. students, all of whom have been really wonderful visitors to the lab. We’re excited that two students, Christina Endara and Skylar Settles, have decided to join the lab for their Ph.D. work. We’re really excited that we get to work with you in the coming years, Christina and Skylar!

Taylor and Kendall did a fantastic job training our rotation students and mentoring these students in their first semester of graduate school. I am always proud of how our research community welcomes others and provides a rich, rigorous, and supportive training environment for new students. It has been fun to get to work with each rotation student this year. We’re eager to get Skylar and Christina integrated in the lab in early 2023 and to get them matched up with some exciting projects. More exciting science coming soon!