I haven’t updated the lab website in about a year…and there has been quite a bit of good news that has accumulated, which I will try to recap in this one “catch-up” post. In no particular order…:
• We’ve published a few papers: Price et al solved the mystery of what IFN gamma-induced factors are required for control of Legionella replication; Ji et al published what we hope is the first in a long string of papers on M. tuberculosis; Gonçalves and Margolis et al published the collaborative results of Dario Zamboni’s sabbatical visit to the lab; two other collaborative papers (Tenthorey et al and Burke et al) were also published; and most recently, we received the good news that Yamashiro et al (originally released on bioRxiv) has been accepted for publication (stay posted).
• Daisy and Kristen, along with various collaborators, reported on bioRxiv their discovery of Sp140 as the gene within the Sst1 locus that causes susceptibility to tuberculosis
• Elizabeth was awarded an NSF Fellowship and passed her qualifying exams (taken over zoom under less-than-ideal circumstances). Congrats Elizabeth!
• Patrick and Justin, along with collaborative help from several others, revealed to the world their new oral infection model for Shigella, launching an entirely new and exciting direction of research for the lab. This was followed up by news that the lab received a fundable 6%ile score on their Shigella R01.
• We also received news that we have been awarded a grant from the Bakar Fellows program to try to translate some recent unpublished discoveries from Moritz into novel human therapeutics. Based on work done by Patrick in the lab, we also received seed funding from the CEND Covid Catalyst fund to investigate a possible role for inflammasomes in COVID-19.
• Patrick and Andrew wrapped up successful job hunts — in a very very challenging academic job market. Stay posted for official news soon…
• A huge accomplishment involving several folks in the lab was our collaborative submission of the renewal of our P01 project grant. Phew!
• The most recent good news is that after 14 weeks of COVID-related shut down, the lab is now back in operation (at ~25% capacity). It’s been great to see how resilient everyone has been — taking advantage of time away from the lab to gather their thoughts, acquire new bioinformatic skills, submit and re-submit papers, write reviews, etc. But I think it is fair to say we are all excited to be back in the lab (even if only part time).