Farncombe
Phage

Tomorrow is the 50th anniversary of the Moon Landing - and this is not a picture of the lunar lander, but a rather nice shot of a podovirus (P68). While I don’t think this is an actual example of biomimicry, it’s a pretty remarkable convergence.

Photo used with permission of the Félix D’Hérelle Reference Center for Bacterial Viruses, credit Dr. Hans W. Ackermann.

I think when even our shaking incubator is filled to the brim with overflow plates, my students sending me this picture might, just might be hinting at suggesting I buy another incubator.

At Rabia’s initiative, we followed up lab meeting with board games (and snacks!). We flubbed a round of Mysterium (pictured), and wrapped up with quite a few games of Spyfall. The conclusion; we should never trust my instincts for anything, and Rabia is inherently suspicious. Or I guess, that I’m inherently suspicious of Rabia? I don’t know what that says about me, but it can’t be good…

CRISPR2019 - I was back to my old stomping grounds, with Sylvain (and Karen & Alan, whom I am hiding behind in this picture) hosting the always impressive CRISPR conference. It’s always both awesome (in the original sense of the word) and humbling to see the work coming out of the labs of some of these luminaries.

While of course I could put up great pictures of Hiba presenting her competition poster, Amany swamped while presenting her first ever poster, Felix in a throng of interested people… here’s something a little different. Joined by lab alumna Clara, a lab picture at the end of the Foresta Lumina!

I knew I was a star. There I am, in the same breath as Kawhi Leonard, right? Jason gave his CSM Symposium talk (an extremely rare honour for an undergraduate) to an audience of over 500 Canadian microbiologists. It’s hard to explain how nerve-wracking that is unless you’ve done it, but Jason did phenomenally. Not only was he swamped by adoring fans, but I, too, was bombarded by people expressing how impressed they were with him.

That calm pose! Here’s Anisha, after the FHS Plenary Awards Ceremony. As you can see, it’s not just her talks in the last few weeks that have caught the attention of judges - poster’s too! Congratulations!

I told you all, a few weeks back, that Anisha’s RIP was fantastic. Well, I wasn’t just blowing smoke; Anisha’s talk in the WISE "CREST” event last Friday won best talk - in the same category as PhD students and Postdocs. Extremely well-deserved, of course - not just for the (excellent) end product, but also how far she’s come in such a short time! This didn’t come naturally, it came through hard work and practice, and it’s paid off in a big way.

How in the blazes did this happen. The lab opened its doors January last year, and we're already at 13 people (one not pictured). I remember my postdoc supervisor telling me to aim for a Baseball team (9)… I’ve overshot. Perhaps we’ll do Rugby?

Day 3 of the FHS Plenary, and Anisha’s got her crack at impressing the poster judges with another mighty fine looking poster, and a fantastic ‘punchline’ too. Not content to rest on her laurels, she’s also presenting (a talk) at the WISE presentations tomorrow!