Lab News Archive
July 2022
October 2020
September 2020
August 2020
July 2020
May 2020
April 2020
March 2020
February 2020
January 2020
September 2019
August 2019
July 2019:
June 2019:
May 2019:
April 2019:
March 2019:
January 2019:
December 2018:
November 2018:
October 2018:
September 2018:
May 2018:
March 2018:
February 2018:
November 2017:
June 2017:
May 2017:
April 2017:
Janunary 2017:
August 2016:
May 2016:
December 2015:
August 2015:
- Ebony and Leslie attended the joint SDB/PASEDB meeting in Vancouver. Ebony presented a poster and Leslie gave a talk for her award, the Rudolph A. Raff Pioneers Award
- Leslie will be starting as President of PASEDB (Pan-American Society for Evolutionary Developmental Biology) following the meeting
- Ximena received the Genetics Society of America Presidential Membership for 2022! You can read more about it here.
- At the 63rd Annual Drosophila Research Conference of the Genetics Society of America, Matthew presented a poster entitled "Necessity versus sufficiency: furthering understanding of ftz cis-regulatory elements in Drosophila melanogaster" and Ximena presented an online poster entitled "fushi tarazu and fushi tarazu factor 1, novel re-wiring in the Tribolium castaneum pair-rule network".
- Congratulations to Leslie for being named a 2021 Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). She is being recognized for her “distinguished contributions to the fields of evolutionary developmental biology (evo devo) and insect biology, particularly the role of Hox genes in embryogenesis and organismal diversification.” In February, Leslie will be awarded at the AAAS Annual Meeting. Here is the full CMNS press release and here is the AAAS press release.
- We've been thrilled to have 3 students from the MOCB program rotate in our lab this year, Maria Rife, Savanna Lyda, and Miriam Flynn.
- Wishing Alys the very best as she begins her new position as a research scientist at HHMI Janelia research campus in David Sterns group. We miss you already!
- Congratulations to Alys, Catherine, and Leslie for their recent publication in the Journal of Experimental Zoology Part B: Molecular and Developmental Evolution entitled "Anterior-posterior patterning of segments in Anopheles stephensi offers insights into the transition from sequential to simultaneous segmentation in holometabolous insects".
- We are happy to have Ximena Gutierrez Ramos join our lab as a new post doc!
- Congratulations to Tricia and Matthew on their co-first author paper in press at G3: Genes, Genomes, Genetics!
- We are happy to have Minh Le join our lab as a new graduate student!!
- At the Society for Developmental Biology 80th Annual Meeting, Matthew presented a poster entitled "ftz expression and insect viability do not require the zebra or upstream elements in Drosophila melanogaster" and made it to the semi-finalist round in the best student poster competition. Congratulations ^_^
- We welcome Abigail Heath to the lab as a new undergraduate researcher!
- Congratulations to Omid, Daniel and Cady on their graduations! Omid and Daniel are graduating with Honors in Cell Biology & Molecular Genetics and Cady is graduating with Honors in Biology.
- Congratulations to Alys for being promoted to Research Assistant Scientist!
- At the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology Virtual Annual Meeting 2021, Alys gave a 10 minute paper presentation entitled "Genome editing in mosquitos reveals regulatory gene function handoff" during the Evo-Devo: Deep Homology Session
- At ESA 2020 Virtual Annual meeting, Alys gave a 10 minute paper presentation entitled "Genome editing in mosquitos reveals regulatory gene function handoff"
- Congratulations to Katie for passing her qualifying exam!!
October 2020
- At the Biodiversity Genomics Conference (Wellcome Sanger Institute), Alys gave a virtual oral presentation entitled "Genome editing in mosquitos reveals regulatory gene function handoff"
- We have an opening for a Postdoctoral Fellow to work on the re-wiring of regulatory genes in insects. For more info, click here.
- Articles in COSMOS and SCIENMAG discuss Alys' recent publication in Communications Biology!
September 2020
- Alys gave a virtual oral presentation entitled "Genome editing in mosquitos reveals regulatory gene function handoff" at the Protostome functional genetics: Tribolium & Friends Symposium Deutsche Zoologische Gesellschaft (German Zoological Society)
- Congratulations to Alys, Catherine, and Leslie for their recent publication in Communications Biology entitled "Regulatory gene function handoff allows essential gene loss in mosquitos". You can read UMD's press release, here.
- Alys, lead author blogs about her recent paper in Nature Ecology & Evolution, here.
August 2020
- Congratulations to Jessica as she starts graduate school in the Molecular & Cellular Physiology program at John Hopkins University School of Medicine. We wish you the best!
- We welcome Ashley Zavodnick to the lab as a new undergraduate researcher!
- Congratulations to Katie and Leslie for their recent publication in Genetics entitled "High Efficiency CRISPR/Cas9 Mutagenesis of the white Gene in the Milkweed Bug Oncopeltus fasciatus"
July 2020
- We would like to welcome James Digel as a full time research assistant! 🎉
May 2020
- Congratulations to James Digel on his graduation!
April 2020
- Congratulations to Hernandez et al. for their recent publication in EvoDevo entitled "Oncopeltus-like gene expression patterns in Murgantia histronica, a new hemipteran model system, suggest ancient regulatory network divergence"
March 2020
- Katie and Ebony designed the new cover for The Journal of Experimental Zoology -B: Molecular and Developmental Evolution (JEZ-B). (see image on the right)
February 2020
- Congratulations to Jessica for her graduate school admission to the Molecular & Cellular Physiology program at John Hopkins University School of Medicine ^_^ We are excited for her!
January 2020
- We welcome Omid Tabatabaee to the lab as a new undergraduate researcher!
September 2019
- Congratulations to Reding et al. for their recent publication in Development entitled "Shifting roles of Drosophila pair-rule gene orthologs: segmental expression and function in the milkweed bug Oncopeltus fasciatus"
August 2019
- Congratulations to Judy as she starts a postdoctoral fellowship in the Life Sciences at the Hebrew University. We'll miss you!
- Leslie, Katie, Jessica, Matthew and Ebony attended the Pan-American Society for Evolutionary Developmental Biology conference at the University of Miami. Katie presented a poster entitled " Combining RNA-seq and a candidate gene approach to probe the segmentation gene network of a sequentially segmenting insect Oncopeltus fasciatus (Hemiptera: Lygaeidae). Jessica presented a poster entitled "Isolation of Drosophila pair-rule gene orthologs from the harlequin bug Murgantia histrionica (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae). Ebony presented a poster entitled "A mechanism-based strategy to asses risks of RNA interference in diverse insects".
July 2019:
- We visited the Insect Transformation Facility Institute for Bioscience and Biotechnology Research. for their 2019 IGTRCN Technical Workshop. Leslie gave a lecture on RNAi; and Katie, Patricia and Ebony helped with the embryo, larvae and adult injection modules.
June 2019:
- Ebony and Katie designed the logo for the Pan-American Society of Evolutionary Developmental Biology (see image on our gallery)
May 2019:
- Congratulations to Abhi Giri and Terresita Hernandez Arriola on their graduations!
- Congratulations to Catherine Trelstad for receiving the Ernest N. Cory Undergraduate Scholarship for the spring 2019 semester and James Digel who received it for Fall 2019.
April 2019:
- Judy wrote a blog article for Insect Genetic Technologies Research Coordination Network on the genetic modification of the common silverfish, Thermobia domestica called, Heritable Gene Editing in Thermobia domestica
- Our lab participated with an international collaboration of researchers to sequence the genome of the milkweed bug, Oncopeltus fasciatus. This work was recently published in Genome Biology entitled "Molecular evolutionary trends and feeding ecology diversification in the Hemiptera, anchored by the milkweed bug genome"
March 2019:
- Congratulations to Graham et al. for their recent publication in Developmental Biology entitled "Dynamic expression of Drosophila segmental cell surface-encoding genes and their pair-rule regulators"
January 2019:
- We are happy to have Matthew Fischer join our lab as a new graduate student!
December 2018:
- Congratulations to Faith Kung for starting her new job as a Scientist at Eurofins Lancaster Laboratories Professional Scientific Services, LLC. She'll be dearly missed!
November 2018:
- Katie Reding presented a poster at UMD's Bioscience Day entitled "Understanding the roles of the Drosophila melanogaster pair-rule gene orthologs in the milkweed bug Oncopeltus fasciatus (Hemiptera: Lygaeidae)".
- We welcome Matthew Fischer to the lab as a new rotational graduate student!
October 2018:
- Katie Reding spent Oct 14-26th studying in the Gene Regulatory Networks for Development course at the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) at Woods Hole, Massachusetts.
- On October 10th, we contributed to a new paper published in the New England Journal of Medicine and it was featured on their home page. Alys Jarvela and Bijal Kikani are authors on this paper.
- Here is a link to an Associated Press article about the New England Journal of Medicine publication for the Undiagnosed Diseases Network that was published on October 10th.
September 2018:
- We welcome Daniel Zheng to the lab as a new undergraduate researcher!
May 2018:
- Congratulations to Mengyao Chen on graduating with an M.S. in Entomology! Congratulations to Ebony Argaez and Bijal Kikani on graduating with their bachelor's! We also welcome undergrads Catherine Trelstad, James Digel, and Teresita Hernandez-Arriola to the lab!
March 2018:
- Mengyao Chen successfully defended her thesis for a Masters in Entomology!
February 2018:
- We welcome a new post-doc, Judy Wexler, and a new undergraduate researcher, Abhi Giri, to the lab!
November 2017:
- Jessica Hernandez presented a poster on her work with the harlequin bug M. histrionica at UMD's Bioscience Day
June 2017:
- Congratulations to Jie Xiang for successfully defending her PhD dissertation!
May 2017:
- Leslie, Jie, and Mengyao attended the Mid-Atlantic Society for Developmental Biology meeting in Baltimore, MD, where Jie presented a poster entitled "Investigating pair-rule gene orthologs in an intermediate germ beetle, Dermestes maculatus."
April 2017:
- Leslie, Alys, and Katie attended the GSA Drosophila Research Conference in San Diego, CA. Leslie gave a talk during the Ecdysone Workshop and helped moderate a session on patterning, morphogenesis, and organogenesis. Alys presented a poster entitled "Regulation of alpha-Ftz-F1 by transcriptional corepressors." Katie presented a poster entitled "Drosophila pair-rule gene orthologs in the sequentially segmenting insect Oncopeltus fasciatus (Hemiptera: Lygaeidae)."
Janunary 2017:
- We welcome Bijal Kikani and Ebony Argaez to the lab as new undergraduate researchers!
- Congratulations to Iain Forrest on his graduation! Iain now moves on to an M.D./Ph.D . program at Mount Sinai School of Medicine.
August 2016:
- We welcome Jessica Hernandez as a new undergraduate to the lab. Jessica will be working on optimizing the rearing conditions of our Dermestes maculatus colony.
May 2016:
- We welcome two new members to the Pick Lab! Faith Kung is a new postdoctoral fellow Chance Lantz is a new undergraduate researcher. And we congratulate Lakshmi Kirkire, who successfully defended her Honors thesis on Oncopeltus and will be leaving the lab to begin an MD/PhD program in Chicago!
- Jie, Mengyao, Katie, and Leslie attended the Mid-Atlantic Society for Developmental Biology Conference at Howard University. Jie presented a poster entitled "Investigating pair-rule gene orthologs in an intermediate-germ beetle, Dermestes maculatus". Katie and Mengyao presented another poster, "Isolation of Drosophila pair-rule gene orthologs in the sequentially segmenting insect Oncopeltus fasciatus (Hemiptera: Lygaeidae)."
December 2015:
- Leslie received a Distinguished Scholar-Teacher Award and gave a talk entitled "Genetics: From Basic Research to Impacts on Society".
August 2015:
- Alys, Jie, and Leslie attended the inaugural meeting of the Pan-American Society for Evolutionary Developmental Biology (PASEDB), including a satellite Tribolium meeting to discuss recent research involving beetles and other insects.
March 2015
Leslie gave two talks on “Variation and Constraint in Embryonic Regulatory Genes.” One at a meeting on Molecular Mechanisms in Development and Evolution in Basel, Switzerland on March 21 and the second at the Institute of Plant Biology, Zurich, Switzerland on March 24th.
Leslie gave two talks on “Variation and Constraint in Embryonic Regulatory Genes.” One at a meeting on Molecular Mechanisms in Development and Evolution in Basel, Switzerland on March 21 and the second at the Institute of Plant Biology, Zurich, Switzerland on March 24th.
- MOCB graduate student Jie Xiang presented a poster entitled, “Establishing an intermediate-germ beetle, Dermestes maculatus, as a new model insect to study the evolution of segmentation patterning” at the 55th Annual Drosophila Research Conference, San Diego, CA.
- Congratulations to Heffer et al. for their recent publication in Evolution & Development and Li et al. for theirs in Frontiers in Physiology!
- Congratulations to Geo Crivat et al. on their publication in PloS One this week. See the UM press release here.
- See story about our Evo-Devo work in the CMNS Odyssey Magazine (page 9, May 2013).
- Li, CR., Guo, D. and Pick, L. (2014) Independent signaling by Drosophila insulin receptor for axon guidance and growth. Front Physiol 4:385
- Heffer, A., Grubbs, N., Mahaffey, J. and Pick, L. (2013) The evolving role of the orphan nuclear receptor ftz-f1, a pair-rule segmentation gene. Evol Dev 15:406-17
- Heffer, A. and Pick, L. (2013) “Conservation and variation in Hox genes: how insect models pioneered the evo-devo field.” Annual Reviews of Entomology 58:161–79. Link to article at http://www.annualreviews.org/doi/pdf/10.1146/annurev-ento-120811-153601
- Lu, Y., Anderson, W.R., Zhang, H., Feng, S., and Pick, L. (2013) Functional conservation of Drosophila FTZ-F1 and its mammalian homologs suggests ligand-independent regulation of NR5A family transcriptional activity. Development, Genes and Evolution, in press
- Heffer, A., Xiang, J. and Pick, L. (2013) Variation and constraint in Hox gene evolution. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. [Pubmed Link]
- Good luck to Alison Heffer who will be leaving us to join Igor Dawid's lab at the NIH for her postdoctoral studies. We will miss you Alison!
- Congratulations to Dr. Alison Heffer for a successful thesis defense!
- Just published: Pick, L. and Heffer, A. Hox gene evolution: multiple mechanisms contributing to evolutionary novelties. Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2012 Feb 9. doi: 10.1111/j.1749-6632.2011.06385.x. [Pubmed Link]
- Congratulations to Margo Faust on successfully defending her Undergraduate Honor's Thesis on firebrats!
- Leslie’s at NSF as a rotating Program Director for the year. Will be on campus at UM every Monday.