Thesis defense: Dr. Baoqing Zhou
Congratulations to Dr. Baoqing Zhou for a successful pandemic-style thesis defense! Setting up and analyzing a new microbial ecosystem in the lab made for a challenging but rewarding project. We wish her the best of luck on her future endeavors as she wraps up the...
Dr. Yei-Chen Lai to join the faculty of National Chung Hsing University
Congratulations to Dr. Yei-Chen Lai, who will soon begin a new faculty position as an assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry of National Chung Hsing University in Taiwan! As a postdoctoral fellow, Dr. Lai made important contributions to our understanding...
Thesis defense: Dr. Ray Borg
Congratulations to Dr. Ray Borg for successfully defending his thesis on September 16, 2021! Ray described a collaboration with Prof. Arnab Mukherjee's laboratory at UCSB, to develop phages for biomedical imaging. The defense was virtual but the spirit was real. Best...
Thesis defense: Dr. Janzen
Congratulations to Dr. Evan Janzen for a well-deserved finish to his graduate studies! Five years of dedicated work spanning organic synthesis, RNA biochemistry, and bioinformatics was summarized in an excellent thesis defense. Dr. Janzen will be venturing across the...
Why do phages tolerate molecular engineering?
When Huan Peng first cloned M13 chimeras by mix-and-match with other filamentous phages, in order to change the host targeted, we thought we'd probably need to do at least a little directed evolution to improve the folding or affinity of the new chimeras. That was not...
Thesis defense: Dr. Tran
Congratulations to Dr. Claire Tran on successfully defending her thesis! We will miss her hard-won expertise in protein and RNA biochemistry as well as her carefully crafted 'joke' slides. Dr. Tran is heading to Boston to join i2o Therapeutics.
Processing Illumina data from in vitro evolution
A few years ago, Celia Blanco and Sam Verbanic began analyzing Illumina data from our collaborator Burckhard Seelig's laboratory. Since our existing tools were written for ribozyme selections, Celia and Sam wrote some new scripts to pre-process the data. Others in the...
Now at UCLA
After more than seven wonderful years at UCSB, our lab is beginning a new chapter at UCLA! We are excited to join the 'Bruin' family in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. Many thanks to our tireless and optimistic lab mates who packed and moved...
Primer on protocells
Looking for a quick introduction to protocells and their importance for the origin of life? Read our Primer by postdoctoral fellow Yei-Chen Lai and Irene Chen, and take advantage of the opportunity to enjoy some of J.R.R. Tolkien's lyrical text. We'll bet you'll be...