2017 started with the addition of a new microscope and graduate student, both of which I am happy to report, are producing data. Now in September, we have had more good fortune with the addition of a postdoc to the lab (Rima Sandhu) and our first NIH R01 grant. We are extremely excited to have both and look forward to all the publications that each will produce (no pressure Rima).
We have had some exciting additions to the lab in 2017 so far. The first being a dual-camera WF/ Confocal/TIRF microscope system,which is rapidly creating TBs of data and a lot of amazing images.
The second addition, arguably as important, is a new PhD student, Arvind Arul Nambi Rajan, from the BMCDB graduate group. Arvind is a recent graduate from the University of the Pacific who is seeking to learn all things RNA and budding yeast. Welcome Arvind!
Members of the Montpetit lab spent an fun filled weekend at Fallen Leaf Lake in Tahoe drinking up the science, nature, and many other things. Ben and Biplab were there with PhD rotation students Liz, Cindy, and Taylor who we are excited to have with us.
The Montpetit Lab has moved to the University of California at Davis. In July 2016, Ben will be starting his new position as Assistant Professor in the Viticulture and Enology Department at UC Davis and will continue to be a part of the University of Alberta in the Cell Biology Department as Adjunct Professor. Rachel Montpetit has been hired as the new lab manager and will help Ben set up the lab space in the Robert Mondavi Institute before the arrival of Biplab and Azra in September.
As the winter term comes to a close things are changing in the Montpetit Lab. Our Post-doc Judit is finished her time in our lab and heading to the UK. We will miss her and her beautiful protein purifications and wish her all the best in the future.
Biplab is arranging to spend 2 months at the University of Montreal to learn some new techniques in bioinformatics (whatever that might mean…) from Dr. Sebastian Pechmann. He will be heading out sometime in June if all plans proceed as expected.
The university closes between Christmas and New Year’s which gave us all a nice break. And while we may have stopped by work a few times during that closure we did slow down. But now the New Year has started and we are back at it full time. To ease the pain of returning to work full time we celebrated Judit’s paper with some champagne. Nothing like the bang of a champagne cork to celebrate a new paper and a New Year.
Congratulations Ben and Judit!
Azra is doing a major happy dance these days. Her first paper is finally coming out!!! The Journal of Cell Biology will be publishing her paper in Volume 211, Number 6 on Dec. 21, 2015. As an added bonus the authors have been singled out for a special “in focus” interview which will also be in the journal. The lab is starting to get use to hearing the odd shriek of joy from Azra’s bench as she reviews the final drafts of her paper before publication.
‘Tis the season and time for some holiday fun. First up is decorating the lab door. We decided to go a different direction this year; instead of all the cute Christmas themes we took a darker approach. We borrowed from the old myth of Krampus and St. Nicholas from Germany (at least we think that’s where it originated). Krampus goes around with St. Nicholas and beats children who have been bad and any kids that have been really bad will be tossed in his sack and stolen.
On Sunday, November 29th the Department booked the Clare Drake arena and hosted it’s first skating event. This event was in memory of Rick Poirier, a lab tech who passed away last year. Everyone was invited out to have some fun no matter their skating level. The hockey players took over one end of the ice for a pick up game, the rest of us took over the other end to practice our skills and just have a good time. Kelly brought her kids and they were thrilled to share the ice with so many adults.
It turns out we are losing our spare storage next door because we will finally be getting new neighbors. For the last few years we have been using the lab next door as spare storage but word has come from on high that Dr. Michael Hendzel will finally be moving into the Department. Dr. Hendzel has been cross appointed with the Dept. of Cell Biology for a while now and wanted to move his lab from the Cross Cancer to Medical Sciences. The lab has been empty so long we were starting to think no one liked us.
