Events

Thanks to Mario for his many contributions to the lab 2019-2024, including all his very hard work as lab manager!

Max Strul, James Tirtorahardjo, Eilish Murphy, Katie Li, Nicole Wernet, Lakshmi Batachari, Emily Troemel, Mario Bardan Sarmiento

Three current lab members (Emily, Max and Lakshmi) got together with four lab alumni (Robert, Eillen, Vladimir and Jessica), all of whom have gone onto their own independent faculty positions. We shared deep-fried cheese curds at State Street Brats!

From left: Robert Luallen, Emily Troemel, Eillen Tecle, Max Strul, Vladimir Lazetic, Jessica Sowa, Lakshmi Batachari

Liberty Station outing with the lab to tap into our creative sides.

Max Strul, Aundrea Koger, Deevya Raman, Katie Li, Nicole Wernet, Lakshmi Batachari and Mario Bardan Sarmiento

We gathered together to have a white elephant gift exchange at Emily’s house… focused on plants!

Emily, Diana, Max, Mario, Lakshmi, Yating, Deevya, Nicole, Aundrea, Valentin

A few weeks ago, we gathered at Emily’s house for a brunch to recognize current postdocs Vladimir and Spencer’s time with the lab, and to wish them well in their newly acquired faculty appointments!

To celebrate, members of the lab brought various baked goods—

— the most elaborate of which was this anatomically detailed (and delicious!) worm cake labeled with myo-2p::mCherry and pals-5p::GFP, as well as accompanying L1s, prepared by Nicole.

Spencer had his official last day with the lab on June 20th, where we saw him off with a lab coffee break. Vladimir’s final day with the lab was on July 14th, and we commemorated it by making a Friday evening lab beach trip after we wrapped up experiments for the day.

Though we are sad to see them go, we wish both Spencer and Vladimir good luck as they prepare for their new faculty positions at Colorado College and at George Washington University, respectively!

This year, we gathered over pizza to once again participate in a lab holiday white elephant gift exchange.

Additionally, we took the time to express specific gratitude to other lab members as a way to recognize everyone’s efforts in creating a productive and positive lab environment!

To recognize a variety of lab accomplishments, we celebrated together at Emily’s house for a pot-luck style lab brunch!

Some of the many reasons for celebration included two new grants awarded to the lab, a recently published paper that was led by postdoc Spencer Gang (Gang et al PLOS Genetics 2022), and the contributions of our undergrads as they move on in their careers.

We took the opportunity to also invite a few lab alumni who have since moved on to other positions. It was nice to have everyone— postdocs, staff, students, and alumni— together for an outside-of-lab event!