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We are traveling! Cindy is currently in Vancouver at the Society for Reproductive Investigations (SRI) meeting talking about her work with human and livestock placenta.
Rachael is also on the West Coast (Seattle) for the National Postdoctoral Association conference. In her ‘spare time’, Rachael is Madame President of Pitt’s Post-doc Association!
The next conference we will be attending will be ASV2024 at Ohio State in June. Lots of us are going!! See you there!
This is the smile of someone who just passed his comprehensive exam with flying colors!!
Celebration @ Industry Tap House
Both Austin and Cade are now through their comprehensive exams and are ready to get back to the lab full time!
Maris Pelow (below, left) is a 1st year master’s student in the IDM MS program. She is from Mechanicsburg, PA and completed her undergrad degree here at Pitt. She plays the clarinet and likes reading non-fiction.
Maris parallel TC-ing with Austin?!
We also welcome Neal Gupta (below), a freshman undergrad at Pitt who will be working with Cindy McMillen on reverse genetics and placental projects. Neal comes to us from Montville, NJ (he clarifies that this is just outside NYC). He likes working out / lifting weights, reading, and music. He is on the student government board here at Pitt.
Neal w/ attenuated RVFV
When a student in your lab passes their comprehensive exam, its always a proud moment as a PI. The student writes the proposal on their own and defends it, but the genesis of the project comes from our lab’s historical work. So to see a brand new student come in and, in less than 1 year, learn a whole new field - better than all of us put together - that’s a fantastic moment as a mentor. And Cindy’s mentorship of Austin as part of the Horns working group has also been invaluable for all of us.
Looking forward to where his project will take him (and us) next!!
Here’s the look of a guy who just passed his comps! Welcome to PhD candidacy, Austin! He got shit done!
For about the past 6 years, I’ve done a State-of-the-Lab presentation with my lab group every January. This is not my original idea, but one I stole from my former colleague Carolyn Coyne. Its a fantastic way to summarize the year that just ended and plan for the next. I’m able to pull up last year’s presentation and see - did we accomplish what we set out to last year? If not, why or why not? Now that I’ve been in my career for 15 years now, I can reflect on a yearly basis. I alway know what I want to accomplish in the upcoming year, but in some years, goals get changed in ways that are out of my control (the SOTL that I gave in January 2020 quickly got thrown out the window lol!). I make a point to communicate to my lab that there are goals that I have for all of us (i.e. progress/grants/papers on certain projects) but that there are also goals that I have for MYSELF so that they can understand the process that I go through and how we are all learning/changing all the time (even the PI). Some goals are small and some are big. Its important to have a range. What I’ve realized is that some years are focused more on grants and others are focused more on publications (its very hard to focus on BOTH at the same time - that’s just reality). We’ve collectively worked on a lot of papers the past 6-8 months. While most of them are not quite ready to submit, they are all getting close, so 2024 should be a banner publication year! Feedback from my lab folks over the years is that they really like the SOTL. So I better get working on it :-)
January 17 is our SOTL date for this year!
“We are concerned that the proposed NSABB oversight rules are not compatible with the realities of implementation, will not achieve the stated goals of increased safety or security, and will ultimately slow research progress to the overall detriment of pandemic preparedness.”
NSABB has proposed changes to virology research that, if enacted, will hinder the research that labs like ours are able to do. Having worked in academic research with emerging viruses for 20+ years now, I am intimately familiar with the local and national regulations that are in place to ensure safety of the lab workers and the public. Safety underlies everything we do. Following rules and regulations is, quite literally, what I do for a living. I fully support the safe conduct of research and believe that it can be done safely and effectively. Its critical that we continue to discover new viruses and understand how they work so that we are not completely unprepared for the next hurdle that nature throws at us. Regulation for regulation sake, however, is not effective and will hinder progress. A rational approach to lab safety is paramount. I’ve worked with biosafety professionals for my entire career, and close collaboration between the scientists and the safety professionals is paramount to maintaining effective oversight of virology research.
An epic time was had by all (as usual, Paul does a great job!)
Its always fun when a former trainee comes by to see us.
Thanks for stopping by Matt!
Once of the things that Cindy and I organized this past year is a monthly working group of labs working in the area of pathogens and the placenta. We brought in folks from OB/GYN, Pediatrics, CVR, Biological Sciences, Medicine…all over the University and a range from the basic to clinical sciences. There is a small community doing this type of work here at Pitt, but the COVID pandemic resulted in each group working in isolation. So we thought we’d fix that. The first year has been a success. Last Friday, we had an in-person end-of-year get-together. We have plans for growing the program in 2024! Stay tuned!
Fantastic visit by the Amarasinghe/Leung labs from WashU this past week! Super fun talking science with Gaya and the crew and exploring the city of Pittsburgh! Safder gave a CVR Seminar and we ended the visit with a tour of the Nationality Rooms at the Cathedral of Learning.
