Congratulations to Theresa, our newly joined BMCDB PhD trainee, for being offered a trainee position in both the Molecular and Cellular Biology and NIEHS T32 training programs at UC Davis. While she was only able to accept one of these positions, we are thankful for the support of both programs and the NIH. A great start Theresa! We sure look forward to the annual T32 retreat at Fallen Leaf Lake and many more such awards in the future.
Congratulations to Aniketa for graduating this past June and landing a job as a junior specialist at UCSF. Best of luck with your scientific adventures!
For Azra, this has been a great summer. She defended her PhD with great acclaim, published a methods paper on single molecule imaging, and had her most recent work accepted to eLife describing a novel role for Dbp5p in tRNA nuclear export. No wonder she has her own cheering section.
Members of the Montpetit lab (left to right: Arvind, Ben, Rachel, Ryuta, Rima, and Collin – a BMCDB rotation student) spent the weekend at Fallen Leaf Lake in the Sierra mountains immersed in science and nature. Ryuta and Rima both presented posters on their research, while Arvind gave a talk detailing his efforts to map Dbp5 binding sites on RNA substrates across the yeast transcriptome. A success by all measures!
Our work on viral RNA transport just got a huge boost with funding from the W.M. Keck Foundation. We are excited to be working with the Shah, Fraser, and Wozniak groups on this exciting project. See the UC Davis news story on the award.
Arvind has been accepted into the prestigious Yeast Genetics & Genomics course at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory with a travel award too! Way to go Arvind!
We have grown again with the addition of a postdoc to the lab, Ryuta Asada, who performed his PhD work in Japan using fission yeast to study transcriptional control. Looking forward to introducing him to the other yeast!
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).
Congrats to Azra, Carlas, and Carina for having their work selected for a special online collection of articles related to mRNA Processing in Health and Disease by JCB Board member Jens Lykke-Andersen. The complete collection of articles can be found here.
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.
Although the lab is spread across North America (Davis, Edmonton, and Montreal), we still want to celebrate the publication of Bip’s paper in Molecular Biology of the Cell. We will be sure to have a celebratory drink on his behalf!
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.
