As if to celebrate my return from pat leave yesterday, the world was not content for me simply to bike in without any dismounts in the conservation area. No, today was action-packed: Ayesha (U)’s top-notch RIP, Tejas & Ayesha (A)’s thesis day presentations. What a celebration of the good science that went on without me… here’s hoping my return doesn’t mess anything up.
In a pattern of absenteeism (this leave, honestly!), I missed yet another sci-comm triumph at this year’s BBSRS. The main picture here is Tejas, an undergrad with his first ever poster (looking slick!) - but click through for Eve and Christine’s appearances as well!
Regrettably, Pat leave got in the way of me attending a rip-roaring RIP of Christine’s. On the bright side, it was so good (and she was proud enough of it) that she then walked me through the final version at our one-on-one… so I got a pretty good feel for it. Some serious scicomm chops here!
The image here is of a wonderful print gifted to me at my visit to UofT Mississauga yesterday. I think it’s the longest I’ve gone without giving a talk (this pat leave!) - but it went very well, despite the very very strange “UofT time” of the session (honestly, starting at 10 min after the hour? what?).
This is one of those “picture is worth 1000 words” - anything I add here will be a rounding error. We had a visitor today….
Christine and I were privileged to get to feature the incredible discoveries of not one, but two independent groups. It’s one of those wonderful situations where the two groups stumbled upon this, but were able to publish in the same journal, at the same time. And we get to spotlight them!
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41564-025-02226-x
The first lab Solstice party at the new digs, and this… this is a lab group photo that can’t be beat: 10 lab children! You can click through for the older lab members too, if you like. As usual, we shared a potluck with traditional meals, exchanged Secret Santa Gifts, and the kids roped us into board games (Werewolf!). Because the new place is a fair bit larger, I was able to extend the invitation to past lab members, and I’m so glad several were able to make it out! Next year, we’re going to need to set up a kiddy table for sure…
See, while the cat is away, the mice… still win prizes and represent the lab. Here’s our lab’s inaugural entry in the Gingerbread House Decorating Contest!
A phenomenal keynote. Alex asking surprisingly few questions of the speakers (if people didn’t know I was on new-baby-sleep-deprivation status, I think they’d be seriously alarmed). And our own Hynes lab showcase: That’s three quarters of the poster-presenting crew, with a tired, attempting-to-caffeinate Alex in the background. This IIDR was Niousha’s first ever poster, while Rabia presented her side-story for the first time (and won a prize for it). Plenty of pictures after the jump!
Things might be a little quiet ‘round here for a while. Not like ‘round here’ in the lab, or at home - but on the website, as our latest little one joined us last Friday - a wee bit early - and I’m starting a paternity leave. So far, Alex & Rita: 6, lab students/alumni: 4. A productive lab? :P
The lab entry in the BGSA Halloween Costume - Inside Out 3: Graduate School Edition. We had a script, a performance, a pre-recorded contribution by Gayatri - who couldn’t make it. I thought the best gag was going to be Anxiety being imposter syndrome, and “Fulfilment” just being an older, white-haired version of Imposter Syndrome. Maybe sadness popping the p=0.049 balloon and replacing it with a p=0.051 balloon. But really, the red button being “give up” and the green button being “another replicate” - that… chef’s kiss.
Left to Right: Imposter Syndrome Sr, Jr, Sadness, Joy, Disgust, Embarrassment, Anger. Not pictured: Parental Pressure (Gayatri).
In a heated Halloween Pumpkin contest, we took Superman (and Crypto) to a podium finish - the Jays-themed Brown lab snuck in a win, but that might just be the judges trying to manifest tonight’s result. It’s not just the result, though - I think this was a first ever time carving a pumpkin for both Niousha and Aeysha Ahktar - pictured after the jump.
Alex had to run off to teach… he was there though!
We managed to gather all the lab not headed away for Thanksgiving for a chill walk ‘round Christie Lake, joined by all the wee-ist ones. I actually, I thought we’d be just walking the the dam and back, but Gayatri seemed game for everyone getting their steps in, as she hauled everyone’s stuff and her baby in the stroller. The weather was fantastic. The photographers… less so. But we did catch a few other nice moments, including (click through).
With Félix back in town for a friend’s defence yesterday, we took advantage of the opportunity to gather and celebrate his paper (out in mSphere last week). We have done Lunches, Suppers… Snacks, but never Breakfast’s before. I guess next is midnight snack? As an additional treat, Gayatri dropped by, and we got to hear allabout her litt le one.
It was a great day for the Hynes lab. In my bike ride to the annual Farncombe Research Day at the Beautiful Botanical gardens, I managed to make it up that insane hill without dismounting. A group published a paper that builds on our work and really inspired me. Ayesha (pictured) gave a great talk closing off the morning session, with an entirely new pitch I am definitely going to steal. Gayatri and Rabia were recognized for their leadership and contributions to the Farncombe (click through for picture), and Rabia picked up an award for her poster too! Oh, not to mention all the great science on display I got to ask questions about…
The lab’s longest-running story, I thought it was one good experiment from ready about 8 months into the lab’s tenure… but this one was a lesson in the importance of readily falsifiable hypotheses. We had one we liked so much - it fit perfectly. We knew eDNA mattered. We knew it had to be phage eDNA… but we were convinced that meant it had to serve as the source of the immunological memory (the spacers). It was only through flipping the story on its head and genuinely assuming we were wrong that Felix was able to wrap this one up, and so today’s publication feels like a particularly momentous one - great science, disseminated, but also an important lesson for this particular PI…
Check out the paper here.
While I celebrated labour day by grant writing, Gayatri was busy celebrating the day by… going into labour. Welcome to the world, little one, and congratulations Gayatri! Pretty much guaranteed to be the lab’s biggest news of the year. Oh, at it might be worth noting that she also got an award for best talk (in absentia) for her RIP talk in last year’s series. I imagine that’s not high on her list of memorable things about the week though…
A little lab cleanup, with some new and returning faces. It’s the start-of-semester tradition that gets us off on the right foot, followed by - of course - boot camp over the next three days.
This shot, as you can probably tell, did not take place today. Rabia’s June Convocation was my third opportunity to hood a PhD graduate (second day wearing the Wizard Robes) - but I’ve been waiting for these pictures for a while, and finally get to show them off - there’s another one after the jump. Belated online congratulations to Dr. Fatima!
I rarely show data in the pictures on this site… but this one speaks for itself. Well, I’ll still speak to it, though - Rabia’s latest paper (today in mBio, click HERE) is, in part, the answer to the “yeah, but do you really think it’ll work in vivo?” question we get after every talk. But it’s more than that - it’s mechanistic insight, and raises a few really interesting questions about Phage Therapy that… well, suffice it to say they’re the subject of a grant I’m writing right now.
