The lack of updates hasn’t been because we’ve been idle - rather, too busy to update the site! Right now, the whole lab (yes, everyone! even the undergraduates, for today) are at my favourite meeting; the Canadian Society of Microbiologists, in Guelph. Today Rabia presented her competition poster, and I managed to get my first in-person talk in ages. Amazing how the nerves come back, and make it a completely different, energizing experience! Here’s a picture after the “All About Phages” session, with the speakers, keynote, and chair.

Covid has made a mess of things… in that tomorrow Janice is convocating from her undergrad, the day after she completed her MSc! Not only was it a truly masterful defence, we actually got to celebrate immediately after, in-person, with the whole lab (and a few tag alongs) going out for lunch. Congratulations Janice!

Yeah, we’re not going to top this one for news this month… year even. Today, Amany let us know that the long awaited (and slightly overdue - 40 w 4 d) Yusuf. Anything I say won’t matter… so here is a picture worth way more than 1000 words.

This week, we got to celebrate that Janice Tai was accepted to several medical schools, and seems to be leaning towards heading to UofT in the Fall. A good thing we planned for this, as she’s scheduled to defend her thesis the week after next! They grow up so fast…

Today was lab cleanup day - but rather than showcase the lab in all its glory (and it is, as always), I thought I’d share the lab team in all their glory - including our three incoming undergraduates, and our now-on-leave Amany (& Mohammed) who joined us for the customary lab-cleanup lunch… and in this case, we snuck in some baby-related gifts. Any day now, Amany!

This won’t turn in to some kind of running blog, I promise! But it is also not every day you run your first marathon, 4 weeks after your first ever race, and put in a convincing Boston-Qualifying time. Here I am at the finish line, looking “fresh” 3 h 3 min 48 s in… but if I shared a shot a split second before or after, well… it would be pretty clear I am exhausted. But, as a Marvel Super hero once said (and I paraphrase), “That’s my secret…. I am always exhausted.”

Just got Ashlyn’s bio and intro post up yesterday, only to find out today that she has been awarded an FHS RCI Summer Scholarship to cover her work term! I am lucky to have such exceptional students who continue to secure funding to help me free up funds to hire exceptional student who continue to… you get the drift!

Congratulations, Ashlyn!

Today’s feature rounds up the full trio of undergraduates coming to the lab this summer. Ashlyn, a first year Kinesiology major, joins us to do some work on Phage Detection - with the challenging task of filling the shoes of Alejandra. As usual, check out her bio on the updated “Team” page.

Today I get to feature Yaser Al Moayad, another student joining us for a studentship this summer. Supported by a Farncombe Summer Studentship, he’ll be working for 12 weeks on bacterial memory, hunting for a very specific pattern in some reporter gene assays. And I remember him telling me he was fond of making ‘interesting patterns’ while mowing lawns. For more info, check out his bio on the newly updated “Team” page.

Introducing the first of our 3 summer students: Maryam Othman. She’s secured a prestiguous NSERC USRA for the summer, and will be working with us for 14 weeks starting in May on prophages as antibiotic “sensitizing” factors. Want to ‘meet’ her? Check out her bio in our updated “Team” page.

Yeah, that was actually my title - a talk given today by this not-particularly illustrious “a” at the Canadian Cancer Immunotherapy Consortium Symposium (see here). What do I know about Cancer? Not much - I’ll not pretend otherwise. But as more and more compounds of interest to cancer researchers show up in our screens, this gave me the drive to brush up. Cross-field engagement like this is fun, how you build unexpected collaborations, and a really good way to put into practice all that talk about how to craft an engaging narrative.

Yup, this one is just boasting about myself. On Sunday, I ran my first ever race - finally putting my pandemic running to the test. This was the Hamilton Classic, Historic “Around the Bay”, whose claim to fame (among others) is being older than the Boston Marathon. I told my students - entirely honestly - that I had about a 20% chance of hitting my goal (2 h 15 min)… and somehow flew through the race, ending in 2 h 7 min 50s. I underestimated myself, the energy from the race. I also had a blast, and will be doing this again next year… and the year after that…

More Spring News, for the Fall - this time for Autumn. She just let me know that she accepted an offer to pursue an MSc with Dr. Kirsten Bell, in Kinesiology, this Fall - exciting! And when I asked for a celebratory picture, she, too, volunteered the same headshot she submitted a year ago. I thought this was supposed to be the age of selfies and constantly updated photos? Pretty soon, this website will have as many out-of-date pictures as your average University Department’s website.

I knew the celebrations would start to come in fast in March - today Jacob shared with us the news that he’d been accepted into the MBioTech program at UofT… which starts in May (!). This is great news for Jacob, although when asked for a celebratory picture, he failed to provide one, so I am yet again re-using an old picture, but imagining his hands thrown up in elation.

February is often a quiet, productive month - but we’ve entered the madness of March! Students find out about scholarships, I’ll find out about a grant, students find out about grad school/med school interviews… I am sure the lull in lab website news is over.

Kicking it all off, in fact, is this week’s wonderful new that Alan obtained a CSM Undergraduate Award! This is a national recognition of an exceptional undergrad, and a very deserved win! He’ll get to receive the certificate in person at the Banquet in June, but for now, here is the picture he sent me of his celebration. Which… is just the picture he sent me last year for the lab website. sigh

Amany’s exceptional work on temperate phage-antibiotic synergy (tPAS) just got its second (and even cooler) chapter - as part of submitting the manuscript, we posted a preprint on ResearchSquare. Check it out here!

And now, with Rabia passing her Candidacy, I am left with no PhD Students… just PhD Candidates. Superb job - I was particularly impressed with her answer on how she would track lysogeny over time in transposable phages, which showed some ingenuity and quick thinking on her feet!

It was overdue, and it was wonderful. We had everyone in the lab yesterday scrubbing, mopping, cleaning, doing maintenance, etc. The result speaks for itself - in the short term, it is great. In the long term, it is essential to keeping things running smoothly.

Yes, the forced alliterations are back - you know you love them! Today, Tamina was awarded a Dean’s Award for Oustanding Leadership & Contributions to the International Graduate Student Community. This is a recognition of her wonderful work outside the lab, so I am not here to take credit for it, but just showcase how great our team is!

The first of several attempts to secure masks & RATs have born fruit, with more on the way - but critically, most of us are 2 weeks post booster. I now get to lift some restrictions, and have a few of us back in the lab.