Professor Finseth was part of a team that published work on the evolution of pollinator adaptations and speciation in the charismatic Mimulus lewisii-Mimulus cardinalis species complex. Check it out here.
Congrats to Fiona Callahan (SCR ‘21)! She was awarded a Johnson fellowship and will optimize the PEVK_Finder tool to work on a larger set of mammals. She will then apply her tool to aquatic and burrowing mammals to see if titin’s PEVK region adapts to locomotor mode. Congrats!
Jocelyn, Erin, and Fiona presented their research projects at the Keck Science Summer Research Program. Congrats to a job well done!
Congrats to Jocelyn, Fiona, and Erin. They presented their summer research at the Brown Bag seminar and did a really stellar job!
Kathleen, Jenna, and Findley’s paper about the evolution of titin was published. This was a really fun, collaborative project where we explored the evolution of the protein titin in mammals with different muscle physiologies. Along the way, we had to build a custom gene annotation tool because titin is such a crazy gene. Congrats particularly to Kathleen for her first (of many I am sure) papers.
Professor Finseth, along with Professors McFarlane, Budischak, van Arnam, Ferree and Schmitz, were awarded a Professional Development Network Grant to fund a DNA barcoding workshop. Let the barcoding begin!
Our paper on life history traits, driven by the Fishman and Kelly lab groups, is accepted in Molecular Ecology.
Emma, Jocelyn, Keon, and Silvia all presented their summer research projects at Keck's Brown Bag Symposium. They all did amazing jobs and put a lot of work into their presentations. Congrats!
We hosted a training session to learn about and use Oxford Nanopore sequencing for all members of the Claremont Colleges. The training was a success, with representatives from all but one of the Claremont Colleges. Plus Keon Rabbbani, a student in the Finseth and Van Arnam labs, was able to sequence an entire Streptomyces genome for his thesis!
Findley and Dr. Barbara Fortini (KGI) received a grant from the Center for Teaching and Learning to purchase nanopore sequencers, host a training session for all members of the Claremont Colleges, and incorporate nanopore sequencing into their classes! Thanks so much CTL!
Emma Bekele received the Johnson Award from Scripps College for her project on the evolution of cell shape in Mimulus that will take place this summer. CONGRATS Emma!
Kathleen presented her titin work at the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology annual meetings in San Francisco. Nice job, Kathleen!
Findley's paper finding that genes integral to reproductive function drive tissue-based heterogeneity in rates of protein evolution is accepted to G3: Genes, Genomes, Genetics!
Thanks to Dena Grossenbacher and the Biology Department at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo for inviting me to talk about meiotic drive in monkeyflowers! It was such fun to interact with the lively biology department and even do a little (unsuccessful) Mimulus hunting.
David, Emma, and Julia presented at the Keck Summer Research Symposium. Once again, they did an amazing job. Congratulations to you all.
David and Emma presented their summer research at the HHMI Brown Bag Symposium. They both did excellent jobs. Congrats!
Portland here we come to the 2017 Evolution meetings. David, Emma, Tessa, Julia, Kathleen, and Findley will all be going. Kathleen will be presenting here excellent thesis work at the poster session. Good luck everybody!
Kathleen Muenzen graduated and nailed her presentation on the evolution of titin at Scripps' Capstone Day. Plus...she ALSO presented her thesis for her Spanish double major. Congrats Kathleen!
Julia Theiss, Emma Bekele, and David Atilano were awarded HHMI student research grants to study in the Finseth lab this summer. Tessa Finley received a Pomona SURP award and will be co-advised by Findley and Fabien Jammes (Pomona). We can't wait for summer!
We are delighted to announce that Findley, Fabien Jammes (Biologist, Pomona) and Babak Sanii (Chemist, Keck Science) were awarded an HHMI grant to study the evolution of petal cell shape in Mimulus! Let the games begin!