In another (socially distant, responsible) outing, most of the lab joined me for a walk in my “backyard” - the Dundas Valley Conservation Area. Despite dire forecasts, we had great attendance, fantastic weather, raspberries and blackberries to pick. Photo credit Gayatri (as I suspect you can tell!).
For the first time since the lab shutdown in March, we managed a small (outdoors, distant) get-together. We have been meaning to do this for a while, but the heat has been getting in the way! While not everyone could make it, we picked some berries, wandered the butterfly gardens, and mostly, I chased Liam as he repeatedly ran off to his favourite spot inside the bushes, while the lab carried on without me. A reasonable metaphor.
The Hynes lab is on fire, with Félix claiming first prize at the second phage symposium for his presentation on STIs. Sexually transmitted Immunity, of course. This is setting the bar pretty high for Rabia and Amany on August 7th…
Congratulations!
Not only was the first Phage Canada Symposium a resounding success - I also get to congratulate Alejandra for her fantastic talk, which won an award! Her work with the Singer Rotor - the first time we have shared it outside McMaster, was extremely well-received.
Ok, sure, we are back in the lab - and that’s exciting. But even more exciting is that the inaugural Phage Canada Symposia are launching this Friday, and we will have presentations from our own lab - Alejandra - on that very first day.
This has been a pet project of mine, at the back of my mind for a year and a half now, but the COVID situation made it just the right time to launch it. Clearly, Canadian phage researchers agree with me - with over 128 registrants spanning 40 research teams, this is going to be something special. Follow the event on Twitter (@phagecanada). This could not have happened without an insanely dedicated organizing comittee of trainees spanning lab across Canada, who led the herculean task of getting this up and running in, basically, a single month.
I, Alexander Hynes, who is again definitely writing this post, am proud of my second student graduating from the Hynes lab. Anisha, pictured here with her only friend in grad school [ed. note: is this because you still hate everyone in the lab, or because they just can’t beat coffee?], came into the lab with no previous experience in microbiology. While I can’t say much has changed on that front, she has learned a great deal about version control of edits. She plans to stick around until she gets a callback from her Bollywood auditions.
[ed. note: Sheesh, I thought when I told the students to write their own farewell posts, they’d be cheerier. Oops]
Congratulations to Andrew, Kevin and Stephanie - all of whom were admitted to McMaster’s med school this week! While I would normally take the opportunity to make a snarky ‘dark side’ style comment, in view of the current pandemic and the work of front-line healthcare workers, I just can’t seem to do it.
I tried my hand at phage related lyrics to the Brady Bunch Theme. But… to no avail.
We tried 3 different takes on a lab picture for Spring 2020, but this seems to be the one that will stick.
I, Alexander Hynes, who is definitely writing this post right now, am super proud of the first student to graduate from the Hynes lab. Hiba did a great job over the course of her Master's and I have decided to keep her around forever and pay her a million dollars a year
[ed. note: This is what I get when I asked a student to write her own going away post. Serves me right. Still, it is true, except the pay]
Earlier this week, Kevin Zhao was awarded a BHSc summer studentship (Congratulations!) - great news. But it was also illustrative of a remarkable flexibility in the funders; Kevin was able to defer his award to next Summer. My NSERC USRA and IIDR scholarship students were granted additional flexibility in start/end dates, and projects. My NFRF was topped up with 2.2 months of funding, and granted an additional year to spend the grant money in. NSERC Discovery Grants are eligible for 1-yr extensions. My institute is re-directing some of the overhead from my grants to help manage staff costs…
Combined with the completely unprecedented, world-leading student aid package announced by the Federal Government on Wednesday - I am so glad to see that (with few exceptions) research, science - and above all, our trainees, are an important part of the decision making process in this pandemic.
Congratulations to Rabia, who just got news she was awarded a CGS-M! Well deserved, but on top of that, it definitely says something about Rabia that her first question was “will I still be able to TA?”.
The second grad student in the lab, the second to defend (also on-time!), the second zoom defence. This is becoming normal-ish, because the students are - and this is an understatement - incredibly adaptable. Congratulations Anisha Nandy!
But will nobody think of the PIs? Now I am down 2 students in 2 weeks…
The first student in the Hynes lab. The first to defend a thesis (and on time). And yes, that is my daughter sneaking in unnoticed, and yes, she too dressed up for the defence. Congratulations Hiba!
This image is the new “normal” - videoconferencing, microsoft teams, zoom… be it lab meetings, one-on-one meetings, or, as depicted here, our daily ‘social’ chat to keep us all sane.
But, maybe unsurprisingly, the work goes on - and there’s plenty to celebrate. While we don’t know what form it’ll take, two undergraduates will be rejoining us for the summer with prestigious scholarship support; Stephanie Scott with an NSERC USRA and Janice Tai with an IIDR Summer Studentship. Congratulations!
Pulled the plug on Monday, last walkthrough today. Other PIs report melancholy - for me, just some anxiety. The usual, overwhelming job (good and bad!), but without the cornerstone that I can always count on to get me out of bed in the morning.
No, a cat didn’t just walk on my keyboard - I’m referring to the Biochemistry & Biomedical Sciences Research Symposium. A stellar inaugural event, kicked off by a timely talk on combatting the spread of misinformation online. It was also Tamina’s first academic poster, and I’d post a picture, but this shot of Kim’s look of understanding as Rabia explains her poster was too good to pass up on.
I gave a research rounds talk on Wednesday, and despite it being carefully calibrated to drive a graduate student of mine up the wall, she still took this picture of me for the website. Thanks!
The talk was the first opportunity I’ve had to share a really fantastic (phantastic?) new phage detection tool, and having an audience of clinicans really forced me to craft this story carefully. Also, I used props. There’s nothing quite like seeing plaques first hand to realize this stuff actually works!
One of the easiest tasks that falls on my desk is when I’m asked to write a preview/news&views/feature for an article I loved. It’s a chance to highlight some amazing work and, from a writing perspective, it’s a very refreshing opportunity to write… a little differently.
Félix and I put together this Preview on the Westra/Van-Houte group’s excellent Cell Host & Microbe article highlighting unusual benefits to carrying ‘weak’ anti CRISPRs, and then Félix promptly put my twitter efforts to promote the original article to shame… proving I`ve still got a lot to learn.
Today, a trainee of mine met with great success. Not an academic trainee, but a trainee nonetheless. And boy did he work hard to get where he is! Francis Coté, one of the small group of Québec city who learned the game under my tutelage, just won the (final) World Championship of the Game of Throne Living Card Game. I often get questions about the warhammer in my office… well, here’s a picture of Francis earning his!
It was a tougher, larger field than my 2013 victory, and - in watching the last few games streamed live - he’s definitely a better player now than I have ever been. I love it. Congratulations, well deserved!
The preview featured the work-in-progress of a cleanup day, but here’s the resulting catharsis.
Thrice a year, we shutdown the lab and everyone scrubs/does inventory/repairs/does maintenance. And while it’s a big undertaking, it’s always worth it.
