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.
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!
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.
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:
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.
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.”
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.
CAST (in order of appearance): Rebecca Lu, Jasper Weinberg, Eric Lewellyn, Jeff Woodruff, Akemi Kunibe, Kathryn Sievert, Adrienne Greene, Sun Hae hong, Benjamin Gowen, Wendy Ingram, Kevin Barry, Caitlin DeJong, aileen Kelly, Caitlin Shartner, Christopher Alvaro, Jennifer Cisson, Nathaniel Krefman, Colin Cerretani, Thomas Burke, Julia Durack, Christina Glazier, & Michelle Reniere
________________________________________________
LYRICS:
Private industry, it’s a mess. Life here in the UC Berkeley is much better than anything they got out there.
The money is always greener,
In some private company.
You quit you could be a tech there,
But you would be sad you’ll see.
Just look at the world around you,
Right here through the lab room door.
Such wonderful things surround you.
What more is you lookin’ for?
In the UC!
In the UC!
Darling it’s better,
Grab your pipetter,
Come follow me!
Here you can surf for half the day.
With a real job you’ll slave away.
Ya we be chillin’.
Time we be killin’.
In the UC!
Right here all the postdoc happy.
They follow where research go.
The industry doc ain’t happy —
They feel like they sold their soul.
But doc with a job is lucky —
They in for a worser fate:
One day when the boss sell company,
Guess who eatin’ ramen plate!
Uh Oh!
In the UC!
In The UC!
We doin’ science.
We not some appliance,
for makin’ money.
They got a team of robots manned.
We got the Zen of workin’ by hand.
We got no worries,
Troubles or hurries,
In the UC!
In the UC!
Each protein gel here,
Runnin’ so well here,
Bands are so clean.
Even though takin’ lots of class,
Can be a real pain in the ass,
While we be learnin’,
money be earning,
In the UC!
The tub is the bass,
the drum is the flask,
the beakers are good,
for most any task.
Our science is play.
We do every day,
Like Nate, who’s the Duke of Clone.
Yeah!
He put DNA,
In cells on the plate.
The sequence is good.
There ain’t no debate.
Right here where it’s at,
Our microscope phat.
An’ oh that protein glow!
In the UC!
In the UC!
No scientist here,
Like to get pissed here,
You will agree.
We got a campus full a perks.
They got a boardroom full of rich jerks.
Each undergrad here,
Learning like mad here.
In the UC!
None of our tech here,
is pain in the neck here.
In the UC!
Each PI swell here.
Get the Nobel here.
Publish in Science,
Nature, and Cell here.
Stay academic.
The fun is pandemic!
In the UC!
