Well, probably not the kind you need but we do have four new ones in the lab! Congratulations to Cyna, Yui, and Max on becoming doctors*!!! We had an amazing couple days of exit talks, commencement, partying, and family/friend time.
* none of us have actually filed yet, but we promise we will real soon
The graduates!!! Dr. Shirazinejad, Torvi, Iwamoto, and Ferrin! Congrats!!!!
One of the saddest parts of being in a lab, is we become family, but yet people do have to move on with their lives. On one hand, it’s great we end up with friends sprinkled all around the world, but sometimes you just really miss them. And since the last website update, both Zane and Meiyan have moved on to new adventures. Truly, I am so happy for them. Zane and his family have moved down to San Diego were he now is a staff scientist in the Oegema/Desai lab. Finally, his kids can wear shorts all year and have it not being weird and cold! Meiyan and her family are also in warmer climates as they have moved down to Florida, specifically the University of Florida, where her and her husband will continue their research! We all wish them luck, happiness, and success in their new adventures.
The lab gives a farewell toast to Zane.
David says goodbye to Meiyan.
Congratulations to Itziar on completing her PhD in Biophysics!
Itziar with David and Georjana all decked out in their caps and gowns.
Itziar celebrating post-graduation.
Congratulations to Jessica Hong and Jordan Said who recently completed their undergraduate degrees! Jordan will enter Harvard Medical School this fall, while Jessica begins a prestigious internship at Google this summer and plans to attend medical school in the future. Best wishes to our new grads!
Jessica with her mentor Ross after graduation.
Congratulations to Julian Hassinger on his paper “Design principles for robust vesiculation in clathrin-mediated endocytosis” now published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Design principles for robust vesiculation. The rigidity of the plasma membrane, as well as the membrane tension, resists budding by curvature-generating coats. In the low tension regime, as defined by the vesiculation number, increasing the coat area or spontaneous curvature is sufficient to induce a smooth evolution from a flat membrane to a closed bud. A combination of increased coat rigidity and force from actin polymerization is necessary to ensure robust vesiculation in the high membrane-tension regime.
Congratulations to Rebecca Lu on her paper, “Selection and stabilization of endocytic sites by Ede1, a yeast functional homolog of the human Eps15“, now in press in Molecular Biology of the Cell.
After hosting visiting scholar Prof. Sandra Paiva and then her student Rosana, David and Georjana decided to take a trip to Portugal to visit. Upon their return, they treated the lab to a port and cheese tasting.
Port tasting in the break room! – 5/9/2016
David Drubin, in his capacity as Editor-in-Chief of Molecular Biology of the Cell, has just joined Twitter. You can follow his tweets by clicking the link below:
Yansong Miao‘s new paper is out now at The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Congratulations to Yansong on his great work! The abstract is below. The PDF can be downloaded from PNAS here.
Cell-cycle regulation of formin-mediated actin cable assembly. Miao Y, Wong CC, Mennella V, Michelot A, Agard DA, Holt LJ, Yates JR 3rd, Drubin DG. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2013 Nov 19;110(47):E4446-E4455. Epub 2013 Oct 16. PMID: 24133141
Abstract
Assembly of appropriately oriented actin cables nucleated by formin proteins is necessary for many biological processes in diverse eukaryotes. However, compared with knowledge of how nucleation of dendritic actin filament arrays by the actin-related protein-2/3 complex is regulated, the in vivo regulatory mechanisms for actin cable formation are less clear. To gain insights into mechanisms for regulating actin cable assembly, we reconstituted the assembly process in vitro by introducing microspheres functionalized with the C terminus of the budding yeast formin Bni1 into extracts prepared from yeast cells at different cell-cycle stages. EM studies showed that unbranched actin filament bundles were reconstituted successfully in the yeast extracts. Only extracts enriched in the mitotic cyclin Clb2 were competent for actin cable assembly, and cyclin-dependent kinase 1 activity was indispensible. Cyclin-dependent kinase 1 activity also was found to regulate cable assembly in vivo. Here we present evidence that formin cell-cycle regulation is conserved in vertebrates. The use of the cable-reconstitution system to test roles for the key actin-binding proteins tropomyosin, capping protein, and cofilin provided important insights into assembly regulation. Furthermore, using mass spectrometry, we identified components of the actin cables formed in yeast extracts, providing the basis for comprehensive understanding of cable assembly and regulation.
Average intensity projections along the z-axis of WT cells stained with Alexa-568 phalloidin to label actin filaments and expressing GFP-Tub1 as a cell-cycle stage indicator, obtained using 3D SIM microscopy.
Synthetic boy band 37 Degrees made a surprise live performance at MCB Follies this year. Before a screaming hoard of desperate graduate students, 37 Degrees performed their new single “I Want to Graduate.” You may recognize the song as a parody of the Backstreet Boys single “I Want it That Way.”
You may also recognize one of the members of 37 Degrees as Nate Krefman, a graduate student in the Drubin/Barnes Lab! The other participants in this transient complex are fellow MCB graduate students Phil Cleves and Andrew Glazer from Craig Miller’s Lab (also from “I’m Bringin’ Stickleback”), Alec Sexton from Cathy Collins’ Lab (also from “Grad School Pressure”), and Brock Roberts from Henk Roelink’s Lab (also from “Vol II: How to Do a DNA Mini-Prep (Molecular and Cell Biology Training Video Series”).
37 DEGREES is Nate Krefman, Phil Cleves, Andrew Glazer, Alec Sexton, & Brock Roberts
CONCEPT: Meru S.
LYRICS: Meru S. & Nate Krefman
PRE-RECORDED VOCALS: Nate Krefman
LIVE VOCALS: 37 Degrees
CAMERA: David McCleary
SLIDESHOW & VIDEO EDITING: Nate Krefman
________________________________________________
LYRICS:
Nate:
It is my fire —
my one desire.
Believe when I say:
I want to graduate.
Phil:
But we are two worlds apart,
Just years from the start.
It’s your fate:
You’ll never graduate.
All:
Tell me when…
I’m begging my committee.
Tell me when…
Be in grad school till I’m fifty.
Tell me when…
You never wanna hear me say:
I want to graduate
Andrew:
It will be so wrong,
If this just goes on.
Please don’t come too late.
Cuz I want to graduate.
All:
Tell me when…
All my friends are wearing Polo.
Tell me when…
But I’m still dressing like a hobo.
Tell me when…
You never wanna hear me say:
I want to graduate.
Phil:
Now I can see that you wanna depart —
But not if it’s up to me. Yeah.
No matter your progress,
I want you to know,
There’s no way you’ll ever leave.
Alec:
It is my fire —
My one desire.
Nate:
Ph.D…
Andrew:
Ph.D…
Alec:
Ph.D…
Brock:
Ph.D…
Phil:
You never hear me!
All:
I’m ready for my thesis.
I could even do a defense.
I never wanna hear you say:
You’ll never graduate.
All:
Tell me when…
This stipend ain’t a salary.
Tell me when…
I wanna get better pay.
Tell me when…
You never wanna hear me say:
I want to graduate.
Nate:
Cuz I want to graduate…