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.
Gayatri’s gone, in preparation for another adventure. You might even be able to tell what it is from the picture, at this point. She’ll be back, of course, with reinforcements. We’re all excited for her, and it does create a very odd swap - as Christine returns from Mat leave in 2 weeks. That’s continuity-ish, that is!
He first held his pipette in the Hynes lab - and now, as of today, he’s a Master of Science! Let’s be real, he had mastered his work a long time ago. Today we celebrate (and bid farewell to) Jordan after a rigorous and thought-provoking MSc defence, which had the decency to hold its technical issues until after the defence (see our ‘post decision’ picture after the jump. Then, we all gathered so that Jordan could show his spicy food bona fides. It’s a little terrifying to think of how small the lab is getting… it’s high time our Sept cohort started joining us!
I asked Rabia what she would like to do to celebrate her latest paper acceptance (more on that once it appears in print, of course) - and she chose violence. Throwing Axes, Throwing Knives… should I be concerned? Maybe this is a normal reaction to working on a project that involves eukaryotes…
Yes, we all know the famous quote; opinions are like a…. (everyone has one). But once people start soliciting your opinion, things are fair game! A few months back Microbial Biotechnology reached out to solicit an opinion piece right up our alley, and Rabia put together this wonderful feature which just appeared today: Phage-Antibiotic Combinations for Pseudomonas: Successes in the Clinic and In Vitro Tenuously Connected
It’s been hectic enough that I didn’t even get a chance to highlight a recent publication from the lab - the first in 5 years in which my student is not a first author! In this case, Brad Cook (Cytophage Technologies Inc) approached me about his views on transduction and phage therapy, which aligned with mine on temperate phages. The credit goes to him for getting the ball rolling, and we put together what I think is a very tidy set of arguments highlighting the common reasons people discard a phage for therapy, and whether those criteria make sense (spoilers: some do. probably). It’s open access, so check it out here!
And the hits just keep coming. Gayatri nailed her talk (throwing up only once, and very subtly - I was looking for it and didn’t notice), and then was awarded the CSM Terry Beveridge Poster Award! We got tons of phage goodness spread across multiple sessions (Landon, also phage, won the Postdoc award), great group shots… what a conference! Throw in my laptop breathing its last on Thursday night… and we had some additional chaos just for fun.
Phage Canada, despite a last minute venue change and frantic rebooking, managed to gather on Thursday at the CSM. And from 20 RSVPs, a reservation for 30… and about 45 attendees, I think it was a roaring success. But don’t take my word for it - check out the pictures!
There’s so much going on this CSM, this is practically going to be a day-by-day. On Day 2, three of us presented posters, and Rabia delivered a phenomenal Armand-Frappier talk that for many was the highlight of the conference. The only reason I’m not featuring that as the image is because the one I’ve chosen is more unusual - Dr. Hynes presenting his first poster in 7 years, with the now trademarked “Jordan stance”. Click through for shots of Rabia (and Gayatri, and Jordan) all presenting! Oh, and I listed my house for sale.
