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Lab alum Kaavya smashing it in GPCR world
This week's edition of Science magazine features an article on which Kaavya Krishna Kumar - PhD student with Dave Gell when he was here in our unit - is first-equal author. The paper describes the cryoEM structure of the glucagon receptor bound to a glucagon-like ligand and helps understand the mechanism by which the binding of glucagon to its GPCR receptor transmits a signal to the inside of the cell - increasing glucose production when blood glucose gets low. Great work Kaavya! [Figure taken from paper - which you can find HERE]
Angela wins the oldest shaking incubator competition!
Our lab manager, Angela Nikolic, learned of a competition hosted by In Vitro Technologies on "who has the oldest shaking incubator" in all of Australia and New Zealand. She applied with our Infors Unitron Shaker that dated back to Dec 2000! She has won us a brand new Infors Celltron Shaker! Well done Angela!
Jessica hands in
Always a big milestone in the PhD journey, Jessica Zhong has clicked the upload button (which isn't quite the same as the old days with the endless photocopying and page juggling, but still...) and submitted her thesis (and now is an expert on definite articles), which was focused on the biochemical analysis of CHD4 - the chromatin remodelling component of the NuRD complex. Her project landed her a Nature Commun paper so far, and with the experiments she's about to finish off, hopefully another good paper too. And it would be remiss of me to not mention that the project has been a fantastic collaboration with Antoine van Oijen and Bishnu Paudel at University of Wollongong - big...
Have been off X for months but had to log in to see response to AF3. I am much less smart than the authors - but am I (and Erin) the only ones to think that the helical afros that it makes out of IDRs is totally weird? Am I missing something?
Amazing story from the lab down the corridor - @RezwanSidd working with Sandro Ataide and Ruth Hall in @SydneySOLES at @Sydney_Science - now they will be thrown into the gladiators' pit I suspect with the other protagonists that prowl this landscape! 🙂 Great piece of work!
Fionna publishes a nice paper!
Fionna has just had her first paper published from her postdoc with Fred Allain at the ETH in Zurich - in NSMB, no less! While simultaneously juggling a small child (not literally) she has published her structure of the zinc knuckle domains of Lin28 (an inhibitor...
Socks gets the official word on her PhD
...and the word is "congratulations!" - yes - that's right - the official letter from the Dean has arrived saying that Socks has qualified for the award of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Well done Socks - we will put the champers in the fridge for your graduation!
Nick scores Early Career Research Award from the ARC
In the recently announced ARC round, Nick won one of the inaugural DECRA (Discovery Early Career Researcher Award) grants - from a very competitive field - overall success rate of just under 13%. Storming effort Nick - I suppose you will be wanting my office now......
More lab grant success
In the recently announced ARC Discovery grant round, Joel was lucky enough to get his two applications funded (outcomes here) - one on zinc finger design and one on trying to figure out the function of our favourite RNA-binding protein A bit of a...
Now, *this* is a cupcake!
From UNSW School of Chem's 50th anniversary celebrations - cupcake par...
Joel sweet talks a grant from the NHMRC
In the recently announced NHMRC Project grant round, Joel managed to convince the NHMRC to part with a little of its moola for a project that is focused on the design of new zinc-finger-based proteins with a new binding function. Who would have thought there was...
David Jacques lands a postdoctoral fellowship
David is off to old Blighty with his recently awarded postdoctoral fellowship from the NHMRC - he will be working with [Leo James at the world-famous LMB - a young gun working in the area of structural immunology. Perhaps David will come back and be the next Jamie...
Eija hands in her thesis
Yay! Eija has handed in! Off to Tahiti for some well-deserved R+R (and, no doubt, to dream of printers jamming for a few nights...).
Classic highlights of Chu Wai’s cycling trip
I can see a theme emerging from Chu Wai and Chu Yook's recent cycling trip around Switzerland - I think the sausage one is the best... [photos]
Roland and Liza tie the knot
Roland and Liza have taken the plunge and become a married couple - and we have photographic evidence to prove it... Congratulations to them both!
Richard Grant in the news
Richard Grant - ex-Mackay-lab postdoc, is now an associate editor at the Faculty of 1000 - the group of experts that review papers across a range of different fields and make note of ones that seem worth a read - and has been in the news recently with F1000's...
Jacqui gets elected…
...to the Executive Council of the Protein Society. It is possible that she is the first person from down under to be elected to the Council! Expect a push for lab members to attend the Protein Society meetings! Actually, I went to one in Zurich not long ago and it...