Happy New Year, world! The lab is kicking it into high gear for 2018 with our THREE (!) new members! It's a pleasure to welcome David, our new postdoc, along with Alison and Mike, our two new neuroscience rotation students. They're going to be pushing back the frontiers of synaptic knowledge and making our BLSB neighbors have to wear shades thanks to all the shiny science. We're ecstatic to have them join the lab and look forward to their successes.
The *New and Improved* Mosca Lab
We've been very busy here in the Mosca Lab. At the end of September, after much construction, many months of waiting, and a few delays, the Mosca Lab officially moved into its new wet lab and personnel space in the Bluemle Life Sciences Building here at Jefferson University! When all is said and done, we will have over 1600 feet of space in which to push back the frontiers of knowledge! Our wet lab consists of 5 benches, two protein and DNA gel running stations, and a wall of supplies and equipment!
We also have a dedicated room for our personnel! Gorgeous new desks (all hand assembled by Tim and Lucas), shelving for any and all of your storage needs, and plenty of places for you to think about science and watch cat videos on Twitter. We also have a fridge, a microwave, and an impending snack drawer. We're also set to grow with space for more desks, more equipment, and more snacks. Now doesn't this look like a fantastic place to do science? Wouldn't you like to come join us! Click on the button above to find out how!
You didn't think we'd leave without a shameless plug to entice new lab members to join, did you? COME VISIT US!
The Mosca Lab at the CSHL Neurobiology of Drosophila Meeting
Recently, Tim represented the lab at the 2017 Neurobiology of Drosophila meeting at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. It was a wonderful celebration of the state-of-the-art from all realms of Drosophila neurobiology and an equally wonderful celebration of the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine presented to Jeff Hall, Mike Young, and Mike Rosbash for their discoveries relating to the biological clock and Circadian rhythms.
Tim presented the lab's new story on postsynaptic development at the fly NMJ which we're all very excited about. As any visitor to this meeting will tell you, there is little to worry on about the future of fly neurobiology!
Scientists Help TX Colleagues Affected by Hurricane Harvey
This has been a busy week! Following the devastation in Texas following Hurricane Harvey, Tim and many other labs across the country pledged their support to their Texas colleagues affected by the storms. What started as a tweet has turned into over 250 labs across the world volunteering support, space, storage, and general assistance to any scientists whose work has been impeded by Harvey. The generosity and kindness of the science community has been absolutely awe-inspiring and amazing. Our Twitter community has also been marvelous about spreading the word about the effort.
The database can be found here: http://bit.ly/2x4Hm2c
If you're a lab in Texas who has been affected by the storm, you can find an appropriate lab to your particular field of research on this list who is willing to help and their contact info.
If you'd like to pledge your labs' support, please email SciHelpTX@gmail.com, contact Tim (@drosophilosophy) or the March for Science-Houston (@MarchForSciHou) on Twitter, or use the hashtag #SciHelpTX. Your kindness is much appreciated!
The media has been amazingly kind to help us get the word out. Thanks to the PR office and Social Media people at Jefferson University for putting us in contact with the right folks. Below are links to written articles in (among others) The Washington Post and The Scientist. Also included are links to interviews with Tim on NBC10 Philadelphia and on NewsWorks Tonight from WHYY / NPR about the efforts.
Thank you to all of those who have been so generous with their science and their time! Together, we can make sure that our Texas colleagues know that they have our support and our help!
NBC10 Philadelphia: Link to Interview
The Washington Post: Link to Article
NewsWorks Tonight: Full Interview or Entire Program (Tim starts at 5:02)
The Scientist: Link to Article
Popular Science: Link to Article
GenomeWeb: Link to Article
Technical.ly Philly: Link to Article
Our New Rotation Student!
A big Mosca Lab welcome to Steve Doll, who joins us as a rotation student from the Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology graduate program here at Jefferson!
Tim's Commentary in EJN is Published
Tim wrote a commentary on some exciting new work from Gabrielle Boulianne's lab in Toronto on TβH mutants in Drosophila aversive olfactory learning for the European Journal of Neuroscience. This is the first review published in the lab and is work completely from Jefferson!
Our LRP4 paper is out!
Welcome to the Mosca Lab!
Stay tuned here for all the goings-on in our laboratory!