Congratulations to Dr. Emily Burghardt, who successfully defended her thesis! She gave an outstanding presentation of her research.
A huge congratulations to Rehan on being awarded a JCRC Grad Student Cancer Research Award, which will fund his summer stipend.
Jocelyn, Rehan, and Yujun attended the TAGC 2024 meeting in Washington, D.C. from March 6-10. Rehan and Yujun both had well-attended posters on their ongoing work.
Jocelyn was elected Heartland Representative to the “Fly Board.”
Congratulations to Emily on her first, first-author paper! A great collaboration with Brad Olson’s lab at K-State and Pralay Majumder at Presidency University. Now out in BMC Genomics.
November
The lab went bowling! We had a fun time at Little Apple Lanes.
Jocelyn attended an NSF-sponsored grants workshop on the lovely Hendrix College campus in Conway, AR. Thank you to Andrea Duina for organizing this great meeting.
October
Welcome to rotation student, Abhineet Banerjee!
Emily and Rehan attended the Midwest Drosophila Conference at Allerton Park, in Allerton, IL. Rehan presented his first research poster from his work in the lab.
July
Jocelyn presented a poster on Yujun’s work at the Society for Developmental Biology meeting in Chicago, IL.
June
Luke’s major paper is accepted and online ahead of print at Developmental Biology. Congratulations! The paper is in the September issue.
We are excited to welcome Daysha Isaacs as a K-INBRE summer scholar. She joins us from Langston University, in Langston, OK, where she is a pre-medicine/Biology major.
Both Nirupama and Luke received their diplomas and were hooded at the K-State graduation on Friday, May 12. Congratulations!
Our undergraduate researchers have all graduated this spring – we will miss you! Congratulations and best of luck to Ashlyn Bugbee (studying for a PhD at St. Jude’s), Caleb Kutz (applying for graduate programs), Claire Richardson (master’s program at University of Nebraska Medical Center and applying for medical school), and Sydney Tobis (studying medicine at Arkansas College of Osteopathic Medicine).
April
Huge congratulations to Emily, winner of the Henley Haymaker Award for Outstanding Presentation at our Graduate Research Forum by a Graduate Student (2 years or more in grad program)! Well done.
Caleb and Emily were honored for their JCRC cancer research awards at the spring banquet. Congrats!
March
Emily received the K-State Johnson Cancer Research Center Graduate Student Stipend Award. Many congratulations!
Emily and Yujun presented posters at the Annual Drosophila Research Conference in Chicago. They had a lot of visitors to their posters and positive feedback.
We said goodbye to Luke. He has joined the Fox Lab at Duke University as a postdoctoral researcher to study genomic extremes in organ development and repair. We wish you the best of luck!
Emily competed in the 3MT (three-minute thesis) competition: “How do the border cells cross the road? What fruit fly genes can teach us about cell movement”
January
It is official – Dr. C. Luke Messer successfully defended his thesis. Huge congratulations. Great job!
Sydney and Claire received honorable mentions for their poster presentations at the 2023 Annual K-INBRE symposium in Overland Park, KS. Congrats!
Rehan officially joined the lab as a PhD student. Welcome – we are so excited to have you in the lab!
2022
December
Caleb is one of 28 students selected to receive the Johnson Cancer Research Center’s Cancer Research Awards. He will perform this research in the spring semester. Congratulations!
Jocelyn visited Volodya Gelfand’s lab at Northwestern University School of Medicine to present in their lab meeting. Thank you for your great questions and suggestions!
September
Jocelyn is on sabbatical in Sally Horne-Badovinac’s lab at the University of Chicago for the fall semester. Jocelyn is excited to try out a new system and learn new things. Also, lots of pretty fall color on campus!
Welcome to Rehan Khan, a Division of Biology PhD rotation graduate student. We are excited to host you for the next 5 weeks!
August
Jocelyn spent August in Denise Montell’s lab, further optimizing optogenetic tools to manipulate Rap1 activity (funded by the NSF EPSCoR Track 4 program). Thank you to all the Montell lab members for their generous help and feedback! It was a very fun month of getting back to the bench and imaging/manipulating cells using the confocal microscope.
Welcome back to returning senior undergraduate research students Caleb, Claire, and Sydney. We’re looking forward to working with you this year. Claire and Sydney are funded through K-INBRE and Caleb through OURCI. Congrats on your funding!
July
Jocelyn gave a talk at the Gordon Research Conference: “Signaling by Adhesion Receptors.” This was a great meeting, organized by Dr. Ann Miller at the University of Michigan.
June
We participated in the EXCITE outreach program with an activity for high school students to use Foldscopes and measure egg size in different Drosophila species.
May
Goodbye and congratulations to graduating senior Gibson Hoefgen. Thank you so much for your hard work and good luck on your next steps, which includes future graduate school applications!
Sydney won the Division of Biology Most Promising Student Award. She received a monetary award and certificate during an awards luncheon at the Alumni Center. Congratulations – the award is well-deserved!
Luke won the Division of Biology Watkins Award for Outstanding Graduate Student Teaching. This is a huge honor – congratulations! Here he is pictured with his award and the faculty who nominated him, Eve McCulloch and Robbie Bear.
We said goodbye to Dr. Nirupama Kotian at a lab gathering (she got a mug with her recent G3 publication and a fly tote bag). She successfully defended her thesis and is moving on to her postdoctoral position at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Cancer Institute (NCI) to study breast cancer in Dr. Kent Hunter’s lab. We will miss you, but wish you the best of luck!
April
Emily and Jocelyn presented “Cells on the Move” at the Kansas Science Festival in downtown Manhattan, KS. Despite the cold and windy weather, there was great turnout! Kids got to play a border cell-inspired board game created by Emily and look at flies under a magnifying glass.
Claire, Caleb and Emily were honored at the Spring Johnson Cancer Research Center Awards Banquet. It was great to meet the donors for these awards and the supportive family members of our researchers. Congratulations again.
Sydney, Caleb, and Gibson presented posters at the OURCI undergraduate research symposium. Nice job all! We are really proud of your hard work this year.
Lots of great undergraduate researcher news: Claire received a K-INBRE Semester Scholar Award for next academic year, Caleb received an OURCI research award, and Sydney received a renewal of the K-INBRE Freshman Scholar Award for next year. Congratulations to all!
Emily received a Johnson Cancer Research Center Graduate Student Summer Stipend. Congratulations!
Emily Burghardt and Jocelyn became official Foldscope teachers – thank you to Kansas Science Fest for providing this great opportunity. And thank you to trainer Paola Moreno-Romano from Foldscope for the wonderful training session. We are excited to implement Foldscopes in K-12 outreach later this year.
The lab attended #Dros22, the 63rd Annual Drosophila Research Conference, in San Diego, CA – in person (4/6/22-4/10/22)! Emily presented her poster (PgmNr 603B) on Friday, Luke presented his poster (PgmNr 595C) on Saturday, and Yujun presented his talk (PgmNr 183) in the Cell Stress and Cell Death session on Saturday.
Congratulations to Emily for getting a K-State Graduate School travel award to attend the 2022 Annual Drosophila Research Conference.
Kudos to Emily and Luke, who both received travel awards from the Biology Graduate Student Association (BGSA) to attend and present posters on their work at the 2022 Annual Drosophila Research Conference in San Diego.
Nirupama’s paper is out at G3 (Genes|Genomes|Genetics 2021; jkab356, https://doi.org/10.1093/g3journal/jkab356). Former summer undergraduate Kristen (Hylen) Curren is a co-author!
2021
November
Big congratulations to both Claire and Caleb for receiving a Cancer Research Award (from the Johnson Cancer Research Center at K-State), which will support their Spring 2022 research in the lab. Wonderful news! Read about it here and here.
Nirupama wins 2nd place graduate student poster presentation award at the Midwest Drosophila Research Conference (virtual). Nice job!
August
New preprint from the lab with Nirupama as first author: A Drosophila RNAi screen reveals conserved glioblastoma-related adhesion genes that regulate collective cell migration. Kotian et al., bioRxiv.
Our undergraduate researchers return for the fall semester: Gibson Hoefgen (K-INBRE semester scholar), Claire Richardson, and new students Sydney Tobis (K-INBRE freshman scholar) and Caleb Kutz. Welcome – and – welcome back!
Claire received the Arts & Sciences Research Award for research this fall.
July
Juliet presented her virtual research at the RiPS Final Presentation Meeting. Fantastic job – we really enjoyed hosting you this summer!
Screen capture of Juliet’s Zoom presentation. Courtesy of the KS-LSAMP program.
June
Juliet Her joins the lab from the Kansas City area (Donnelly College) to perform “virtual” research in the remote KS-LSAMP RiPS program (Research immersion: Pathways to STEM). She will be working with Luke, Emily and Yujun on mini-projects. Welcome – we are glad to participate in this program and host you this summer.
Matthew Ho joins the lab as a summer intern and will be learning lab techniques and working on a few projects before heading to Harvard this fall. We are excited to host you in the lab.
May
Emily won the Henley Haymaker Award for Outstanding Presentation at the 46th annual Graduate Research Forum. This award is given to a graduate student who has been in the Division of Biology for two or more years. Congratulations – this is a big honor!
The fully vaccinated lab (yay!) got together for an outdoor gathering to celebrate all the great things that happened in the last year, from passing prelims and winning lots of awards to graduating from K-State (undergrads Carmen, Hannah, and Manuel).
The lab’s research was featured in the 2021 JCRC Conquest magazine – thank you to the JCRC for funding and for such a nice story.
Hannah and Manuel will be heading to KUMC for medical school in the fall – good luck! We are so proud of you.
Outstanding Graduating Senior Award virtual ceremony – April 21, 2021 (Carmen is 2nd row from top and 2nd from right). Congratulations!
February
New undergraduate researchers join the lab (in a pandemic no less): Gibson Hoefgen and Claire Richardson. Welcome!
2020
December
It was a tough year, but lots of good things also happened. The lab accomplished a lot despite a pandemic!
End of year Lab Zoom happy hour – it was great seeing everyone. We had a snack exchange of yummy goodies.
November
Hannah received a Johnson Cancer Center Cancer Research Award for Spring 2021 cancer-related research. Congratulations! Read more here.
Our newly funded NSF Rules of Life Project with Brad Olson was featured in K-State Today. Thank you to all involved.
October
Jocelyn gave a short talk in the virtual Cell Migration Seminar series. You can watch a recording here. Learn more about the series here – and catch up with past seminars on their YouTube channel. Thank you to the organizers: Jennifer Mitchell (postdoc Jeffrey Fredberg lab), Adam Shellard (postdoc Roberto Mayor lab), and Becky Jones (graduate student Sandip Patel & Roberto Mayor labs).
Yujun’s image of fluorescent egg chambers was chosen as an “image of distinction” in the 2020 Nikon Small World Photomicrography Competition. Check out his image, and the stunning winners! And shown in a Washington Post story about the winners this year.
September
We received a new NSF Rules of Life award to continue our work on collective cell migration using Drosophila border cells. We are grateful to NSF IOS Animal Developmental Mechanism (along with MCB Cellular Dynamics and Function and BIO) for continued support of the lab’s research.
Welcome back returning undergraduate research students Carmen, Hannah, and Manuel!
August
Hannah received an Arts & Sciences Undergraduate Research Award to continue her research in the lab this fall. Well done!
Yujun continues his science and art image competition streak. His image, “ovary the rainbow”, was chosen in the BioNexus Science to Art competition, and a framed art version is available for bid/purchase in the silent auction.
Belated welcome to Linda Hamuli, fly food prep technician – who has taken over duties from departing fly food tech Toni Lona. Welcome Linda and thank you and good luck to Toni, who starts a Ph.D. program!
May
New Insight article in eLife, co-authored by Jocelyn and Yoshi Tomoyasu from Miami University of Ohio, highlighting very nice work from the Rebeiz lab that was recently published in eLife (Smith et al., Evolutionary expansion of apical extracellular matrix is required for the elongation of cells in a novel structure. eLife 2020; 9:e55965 DOI: 10.7554/eLife.55965).
April
Our paper was accepted to eLife! Congratulations to first author Yujun, second author Nirupama, and contributing authors (past and present) from the lab – Luke, George Aranjuez, Ketki Sawant, and Ashley Burtscher.
Congratulations to Carmen Del Real for receiving a K-INBRE semester scholar award for continued research in the lab during the 2020-2021 academic year.
Yujun’s 11th place Nikon Small World image continues to make news, now featured on the Biomedical Picture of the Day.
Carmen and Hannah each received a Johnson Cancer Research Center Cancer Research Award! This will allow them to continue their cancer-related research in the lab for the Spring 2020 semester. Congratulations! Read more here.
November
We received a Johnson Cancer Research Center Investigator Research Award! This will allow us to further adopt Drosophila cancer models, with help from Yves Chabu at University of Missouri, Columbia, and apply to glioblastoma cancer stem cells with Justin Lathia at the Cleveland Clinic.
October
Jocelyn attended the 26th NSF EPSCoR National Conference in beautiful Columbia, SC, presenting the work done at UCSB on her Track 4 Fellowship.
2019 Nikon Small World Photomicrography Competition: 11th place
September
Welcome to returning undergraduate research students Carmen Del Real, Hannah Coggeshall, and Manuel Garcia!
Emily presented a lightning talk on the lab’s research at the Division of Biology’s inaugural Freshman BioBonanza.
July
Elijah finished up a successful research experience in the lab and presented his research at the KS-LSAMP RiPS (Research immersion, Pathways to STEM) poster session. Nice job! It was great hosting Elijah for his summer research.
Poster presentation by Elijah Gardner (right), with his lab mentor Luke Messer (left)Elijah receiving his certificate of completion from KS-LSAMP Program Director Dr. Brenee King
Jocelyn and Yujun escaped the heat of Kansas and headed back to University of California, Santa Barbara, in the Montell lab to continue the NSF EPSCoR Track 4 fellowship training/experiments. This time they will work with biosensors and photo-activatable optogenetic tools. They will also attend seminars presented by the Kavli Institute of Physics (KITP) QBio course Form, Fate and Function. The Montell lab has been a fantastic host site!
UCSB “campus point”, a short walk from the Montell labSunset at Coal Oil Point
June
Hannah has received an Arts & Sciences Undergraduate Research Award to continue her research for the Fall 2019 semester. Great work – and we look forward to welcoming you back!
Another of Yujun’s images was chosen in a science and art competition: this time, his image will be auctioned off to raise money for STEAM education outreach through BioNexus|KC. Congratulations!
Elijah Gardner joins the lab as a summer RiPS student. Welcome!
We hosted 18 high school girls as part of the KAWSE EXCITE summer workshop. In “Flies are Like Us”, they “learned how to fly” (look at wild-type and mutant fruit flies), performed “fly surgery” (dissected GFP-tagged ovaries), and looked at “glow in the dark flies” (GFP- and RFP-tagged nuclei, cytoplasm, and cell membranes) on our upright microscope.
Image by Yujun Chen, chosen for Science to Art auction, BioNexus/KCEXCITE activities in the lab: learning how to mount dissected ovaries on microscope slides.
May
Hannah received the Division of Biology Most Promising Student Award. Congratulations!
Marissa has graduated and moves on to Veterinary School at KSU, starting Fall 2019. Good luck!
Yujun wins the “Star of Instagram Award” for most liked post in the Node Calendar Competition, and has his image chosen for the Node 2020 calendar. Well done!
Yujun Chen image for the Node Calendar: Drosophila whole ovary stained for f-actin (Red), nuclei (Cyan) and actin (Green).
March
Emily Burghardt officially joins the lab as a graduate student. Welcome!
Jocelyn, Nirupama, and Carmen attended the Annual Drosophila Research Conference in Dallas, TX. Both Nirupama and Carmen received travel grants from the KSU College of Arts & Sciences. Jocelyn gave a talk in the Developmental Mechanics Workshop, and Nirupama and Carmen presented posters.
Jocelyn received tenure and promotion to Associate Professor. Thank you to all current and former lab members for your hard work and making science fun – and thank you for the cake and champagne!
February
Hannah received an Office of Undergraduate Research & Creative Inquiry (OURCI) Research Grant. Great News!
2018
December
Marissa received a Johnson Cancer Research Award to continue her research on PP1-interacting genes for the Spring 2019 semester. Read about it here. Congratulations!
November
Our paper at Molecular Biology of the Cell (MBoC) is online! Please read it here or here. Thank you to the hard work of all three first authors: former lab member Ketki Sawant and current lab members Yujun Chen and Nirupama Kotian.
September
Jocelyn attended the Midwest Society for Developmental Biology meeting in Cleveland, OH, and helped organize the Education Workshop “Publish or Perish”.
Welcome to Biology Graduate Program rotation student Emily Burghardt!
Dr. Mark Peifer visited the Division of Biology (KAWSE ADVANCE Distinguished lecture series). The lab had productive discussions about Rap1, adhesion proteins, and the cytoskeleton.
August
A new semester starts! Welcome to returning/new undergraduate research students: Carmen, Hannah, Manuel, and Marissa.
July
Yujun and Jocelyn returned to UCSB to continue their work to learn advanced live imaging, in vivo reporters and photomanipulation of cells, and light sheet imaging.
Kevin moved on to start an MBA in San Antonio, Texas. We’ll miss you, but wish you the best of luck!
June
Carmen Del Real returns to the lab, now as a Bridges/DSP Scholar. Welcome back!
After a trip back home to Sri Lanka, Oshadhi will move to Kansas City to start graduate school in August. We wish her the best of luck.
May
Yujun and Jocelyn spent time in Denise Montell’s lab as part of her NSF EPSCoR Track 4 Fellowship. They learned how to perform live in vivo FRET imaging and analyses, confocal time-lapse live imaging, and started to use light sheet fluorescent microscopy. The Montell lab was very welcoming and helpful! Special thanks to Joe Campanele and Abhinava Mishra in Denise’s lab and Ben Lopez in the NRI-MCDB Microscopy Facility for training.
Sunset (and full moon): view from Montell lab (UCSB)
March
Oshadhi will be joining KU-Medical School (Kansas City) for PhD graduate studies in August 2018. Congratulations!
February
Nirupama received travel grants from the KSU Graduate College and the BGSA (Biology Graduate Student Association) to attend and present her work at the 2018 Annual Drosophila Research Conference in Philadelphia, PA, in April. Congrats!!!
January
Oshadhi continues in the lab, now as a part-time technician. We are excited to have her join the lab in a more formal capacity.
2017
December
Undergraduate research student Marissa Komp received the Johnson Cancer Research Center Cancer Research Award (CRA). She is one of 50 K-State students this year to receive the award. She will continue her research in the lab for the Spring 2018 semester. Kudos!
November
Three undergraduate students in the lab have been selected for the McNair Scholars Program: Marissa Komp, Adelina Parral and Loan Tang. Congratulations! Read more here.
The lab attended the Midwest Drosophila Research Conference at Allerton Park and Conference Center in Monticello, IL. Yujun gave a talk and Nirupama presented a poster. It was a great meeting with lots of interesting science.
Luke Messer joins the lab as a first-year doctoral graduate student. Welcome to K-State and to the lab!
July
It was a summer of hard work and successful research for our undergraduate researchers. Carmen learned a lot helping Yujun screen for candidate PP1 interacting genes. She presented the results of her genetic screen at the RiPS Poster Session. Adelina had a great start to her ongoing research project in the lab. She presented her research on the Drop Out gene to her fellow Bridges students in early August. Adelina returns for the Fall 2017 semester through the Developing Scholars Program.
June
Several new students/interns are working on research projects this summer. Welcome to Carmen Del Real (RiPS Program – KS-LSAMP), Adelina Parral (Bridges/Developing Scholars) and Oshadhi Athukorala Arachchige!
A warm welcome to our new lab manager Kevin Preuss.
May
Undergraduate researcher Loan Tang received a Gilman scholarship to study in Vietnam and is featured in K-State Today. Congratulations to Loan!
Jocelyn gave a seminar on May 11th at the Stowers Institute in Kansas City, MO. She had a wonderful time interacting with her host, Paul Kulesa, and his lab.
Jocelyn visited the University of Iowa Anatomy and Cell Biology on May 5th – thanks to Tina Tootle for hosting a fun and productive visit.
March
Yujun presented a poster at the 2017 Annual Drosophila Research Conference in San Diego, CA, March 29-April 2.
February
Yujun received word that he will be receiving a K-INBRE Post-Doctoral Award. Great news!
Undergraduate Marissa Komp is a new intern in the lab.
January
Loan Tang presented a poster at the K-INBRE symposium in Manhattan, KS, Jan. 14-15. Nice job!
Lauren continues in the lab as a research student.
2016
December
Jocelyn presented a poster at the Annual ASCB meeting in San Francisco, CA, Dec. 2-7.
Pralay finished his productive science visit on Dec. 20th and headed back to India.
September
Jocelyn visited the University of Kansas on 9/19 where she presented a seminar – it was a great visit, meeting with KU biologists and students. Thanks to Rob Ward for hosting the visit.
New interns Lauren Knox and Heather Foy have joined the lab – welcome!
A very special welcome to Dr. Pralay Majumder, visiting scientist from Presidency University (Kolkata, India). He will be here all fall to learn techniques and do new experiments.
New graduate student, Nirupama Kotian, has arrived and starts her studies this month. Welcome to the lab!
New postdoctoral fellow, Yujun “Eugene” Chen, has joined the lab. Welcome!
Our recent paper (Aranjuez et al., Mol Biol Cell 2016) has been recommended in F1000Prime.
July
Jocelyn attended the TAGC 2016 Genetics Conference, which included the Annual Drosophila meeting. She presented a poster on “Inhibition of Protein Phosphatase 1 activity switches border cells from a collective to single cell mode of migration.” Lab alumnus George Aranjuez also attended.
SUROP (Summer Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program) student Kristen Hylen (Benedictine College, Atchison, KS) presented her research at the end of summer research forum. Congratulations on a job well done!
Kristen presenting her summer project
Award ceremony for SUROP From L to R: Associate Dean Mike Herman, Jocelyn, Kristen, Dean Carol Shanklin
June
Jocelyn attended the Gordon Research Conference on “Signaling by Adhesion Receptors” at Bates College in Lewiston Maine. She presented a poster and short talk on Ketki’s work, titled: “Detachment Versus Cohesion: Novel Roles for PDZ-GEF and Rap1 During Collective Cell Migration.” It was a great meeting, with lots of ideas and interactions amongst scientists at all levels.
May
Dr. Ketki Sawant graduated at the 2016 Cleveland State University graduation ceremony at the Wolstein Center. She is the first student in the McDonald lab to go through the hooding ceremony!
From L to R: Jocelyn McDonald, Dr. Ketki Sawant, Mr. Sawant
April
Former lab member, George Aranjuez, won the Doctoral Excellence in Genetics and Genome Sciences award from Case Western Reserve University. Congratulations on this major honor!
New paper published in Molecular Biology of the Cell: George Aranjuez, Ashley Burtscher, Ketki Sawant, Pralay Majumder, and Jocelyn A. McDonald
Dynamic myosin activation promotes collective morphology and migration by locally balancing oppositional forces from surrounding tissue
Mol. Biol. Cell mbc.E15-10-0744; First Published on April 27, 2016; doi:10.1091/mbc.E15-10-0744
February
We participated in the GROW workshop to introduce 6th-8th grade girls to innovative science (click on link to see pictures of the event). The lab presented “Glow in the dark fly: lighting up cells to learn about the body.” Students looked at fly mutations and glowing body parts using GFP (green fluorescent protein) and RFP (red fluorescent protein).
Welcome new lab member Maria ‘Kitty’ Lawas, who joined our group as a Research Assistant/Technician!
Two new lab prep/fly food assistants have joined our group and Dr. Erika Geisbrecht’s group: Fawwaz Naeem and Nathan Tolle. Welcome!
January
The McDonald lab is looking for a postdoctoral fellow (“Research Associate”). Please see the Division of Biology employment page, or click Postdoc Ad, and follow the directions on the ad for details on how to apply.
Welcome to new undergraduate research interns Loan Trinh and Erin Feeley!
2015
December
Jocelyn met with lab alum Pralay Majumder on her visit to her in-laws in India. He took an overnight train from Kolkata to Bhubaneswar to chat science over tea.
Clockwise from L to R: Pralay, Mrs. Misra, Jocelyn McDonald, Mr. Misra
November
Ketki Sawant successfully defended her PhD thesis at Cleveland State University. Congratulations Dr. Sawant!
October
The McDonald lab is recruiting multiple people to join our team!
Interested graduate students can apply to the Division of Biology or the Genetics program at Kansas State University. Students interested in the lab can contact Dr. Jocelyn McDonald by email (jmcdona (at) ksu.edu) before sending their application. Please include specific information about your research interests and how studying in the McDonald lab will further your career plans.
Interested undergraduate students, postdoctoral associates, or technician applicants are welcome to contact Dr. McDonald with research interests (i.e. “why are you interested in the lab?”), current CV, and contact information for three references: jmcdona (at) ksu.edu.
New lab funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF IOS 1456053).
We will be recruiting undergraduate students, graduate students and a technician at Kansas State University. We have an opening for a postdoctoral fellow. Interested applicants should contact Dr. McDonald with research interests, current CV, and contact information for three references: jmcdona (at) ksu.edu. Information about the Division of Biology and the graduate programs can be found at: http://www.k-state.edu/biology/index.html.
July
The McDonald lab is moving to Kansas State University, Division of Biology! Details to come…
The McDonald and Lathia Labs received a multi-PI R21 Exploratory Research Grant award from NCI to use Drosophila border cells and patient-derived glioblastoma cell lines to identify genes responsible for collective cell invasion in glioblastoma (1R21CA198254-01).
George Aranjuez successfully defended his PhD thesis. Congratulations Dr. Aranjuez and good luck as he moves on to a postdoctoral position at the Burnett School of Biomedical Sciences, University of Central Florida!
April
Ketki Sawant gave a talk at the Buckeye Cell Biology meeting in Columbus, Ohio. April 24, 2015. Congratulations!
March
The McDonald Lab attended the 2015 Annual Drosophila Research Conference in Chicago, IL. March 4-8, 2015. George presented a poster (203A) and Ketki presented a platform talk (115) on Saturday, March 7 in the Cell Biology & Cytoskeleton I Session.
George Aranjuez won first prize (graduate student) for his poster at the 2015 Annual Drosophila Research Conference: “Myosin activity at the periphery of the border cell cluster promotes its compact shape during migration between nurse cells.”
The McDonald lab participated in the second annual LRI Science Day! A local group of 6th, 7th and 8th grade students came to the LRI for a day of Science. We gave a 20 minute demonstration called “Glow in the Dark Fly”. Students saw movies of our fluorescently-labeled moving cells and flies with glowing red eyes or green abdomens. Click link for a summary of the event.
February
Ketki Sawant won a Conference Travel Award from the CSU Graduate College, which she will use to attend and present her research at the Annual Drosophila Research Conference in Chicago, IL. Kudos!
2014
November
George Aranjuez gave a talk at the 2014 Midwest Drosophila Conference on Nov. 1st at Allerton Park in Monticello, IL. He won a best talk award. Congratulations!
New publication: “Canonical and Noncanonical Roles of Par-1/MARK Kinases in Cell Migration.” McDonald JA. Int Rev Cell Mol Biol. 2014;312:169-99. doi: 10.1016/B978-0-12-800178-3.00006-3
Kristen presenting her summer project
Award ceremony for SUROP From L to R: Associate Dean Mike Herman, Jocelyn, Kristen, Dean Carol Shanklin
The McDonald Lab 