Spring 2012
Summer Students: Undergraduate Erica Harris (Rice University, Team Wiess!) joins the lab for the summer via the SURE program. Vander Harris continues in the lab this summer before heading off to Stanford. Essie Quaki (Brown University) joins the lab this summer as a volunteer.
Art-Science: Kelly Gracia and Julie Chang hang their final art piece based on work in the lab.
Graduation Honors: Zayir Malik and Ehi Akhirome graduate with highest honors for their undergraduate thesis work conducted in the lab.
Undergraduate Award: Karen Choe receives recognition for her presenation at the undergraduate research poster session.
Visiting Scholar: Tom de Man joins the lab for five months as a visting masters student from the Netherlands.
A Job!: Jen Kovacs is offerred a position as Assistant Professor at Spelman College in Atlanta. She will start in the fall.
Spring 2011
Art-Science Award: Julie Chang and Kelly Gracia receive the University of Florida-HHMI Science for Life Undergraduate Creativity Award for their joint Art-Science project utilizing fungus-growing ant associated microbes to create art. Congratulations!
NSF Fellowship: Graduate student Justine Garcia receives a three-year predoctoral research fellowship from the National Science Foundation.
Postdoctoral Fellowship: Lynn Huynh receives funding from the FIRST postdoctoral program.
Welcome: Jen Kovacs (Emory FIRST postdoctoral fellow) joins the lab.
Fall 2010
Old Hat, New Hat: Stephanie Chiang (former undergraduate researcher) joins the lab as the laboratory technician. Lynn Huynh (former graduate student in the Population Biology, Ecology and Evolution program, joins the lab as a postdoc.
USDA Grant: Nicole Gerardo, John McCutcheon (U. Montana), Margaret Allen (USDA), Tracie Jenkins (U. Georgia) and Paul Smith (U. Georgia) receive funding to study the reecent invasion of a stinkbug, Megacopta cribraria, and its symbiotic bacteria into the United States. It is hypothesized that the bacteria of this insect may facilitate its utilization of soybeans.
Summer 2010
SURE Summer Students: Claire Trincot joins ths lab from the University of Indiana with a fellowship from the summer undergraduate research program. Daniel Sok receives funds to continue his work on symbiont and immune differences between aphid morphs.
NSF Grant: Nicole Gerardo and postdoc Alice Laughton receive funding from the National Science Foundation to continue their work on aphid -microbe interactions.
Spring 2010
SIRE Poster Session: Stephanie Chiang wins honorable mention for her poster presentation.
NSF Fellowship: Graduate student Ben Parker receives a three-year predoctoral research fellowship from the National Science Foundation.
Honors Thesis: Undergraduate Stephanie Chiang graduates with honest honors for her research on host-parasite interactions associated with fungus-growing ants in the genus Cyphomyrmex.
Graduation and Research Abroad: Undergraduate Jill Spragg finished her Emory career and headed to the lab of Tom Little at the University of Edinburgh to conduct research on water flea immunity.
The Aphid Genome: The pea aphid genome paper and related immune gene companion paper are released. Authors from the lab include Alex Kamins, Jill Spragg, Seth Barribeau, Ben Parker and Dr. Gerardo.
Fall 2009
Research Funding: Undegraduate Austin Causey wins a fellowship to travel abroad to work in a natural product chemistry lab. He hopes to use what he learns to explore natural product chemistry in the fungus-growing ant symbiosis.
Visiting Scholar: Boran Altincicek (Germany) arrives to spend one year in the lab working on the evolution of immunity in aphids.
SIRE Fellowship: Undergraduate Daniel Sok receives funding to complete one year of research on aphid-pathogen interactions. He also summits his first papers.
Summer 2009
SURE Summer Research: Scott Keith joins the lab for the summer to complete summer undergraduate research on aphid-fungal interactions.
Spring 2009
Honors Thesis: Alex Kamins receives highest honors for her undergraduate honors work on the interaction between ladybird beetles, aphids and aphid symbionts.
Roche 454 sequencing grant: In collaboration with Cameron Currie (U. WIsconsin), Garret Suen (U. Wisconsin), Steve Slater (U. Wisconsin), George Weinstock (Washington), Sandra Clifton (Washington) and James Taylor (Emory), the lab received funding to sequence 10GB of genomic, transcriptomic and metagenomic 454 sequence from players in the fungus-growing ant symbiosis. The project will be the most extensive genomic exploration of a symbiosis to date. News Release
New Arrival: Alice Laughton arrives to start a new postdoc position in the lab.
Fall 2008
SIRE Grants: Undergrads Daniel Sok, Alex Kamins , Carmen Linares , Jill Spragg and Shruthi Subramanyam received SIRE (Scholarly Inquiry and Research at Emory) research grants to fund their projects next semester.
Monarch-Parasite Seed Grant: Nicole Gerardo and Jaap de Roode received a seed grant to use 454 sequencing to explore the immune responses of parasitized monarch butterflies.