Novia Kayfetz-Vuong is a new undergraduate in the lab. She will be picking up the RNAseq project on nudibranchs started by Yin Chen Wan and Noah Martin. Welcome Novia!
Valeria successfully brought two snakes (on a plane) from the Amazon to Bogotá, Colombia, where she was able to obtain flash frozen tissues. Then she laboriously organized the export of the tissues to the USA (plane #2) while ensuring that they remain frozen, up until they arrived to the Vertebrate Genome Project lab this week (plane #3). We are so excited to process our first snake genome!
Meet Sandrita, the first of her species (Erythrolamprus reginae) to have her genome sequenced.
For an ongoing project, we needed some fresh caecilian tissue. Caecilians are fossorial amphibians that are notoriously difficult to locate in the field. Fortunately, Majo is currently in Ecuador and knew exactly where to find one: Yanayacu! Incredible find Majo.
Caecilia orientalis
Caecilia orientalis
Valeria is currently in the Amazonian town of Leticia, Colombia, studying snakes that eat frogs. She will be conducting some difficult field research involving behavioral trials with several snake species. We wish her luck!
Valeria’s PLOS ONE publication was featured in an interview by Science Magazine yesterday. Read it here: https://www.sciencemag.org/careers/2020/10/science-s-english-dominance-hinders-diversity-community-can-work-toward-change
Her article has now been viewed >17,000 times!
Valeria’s new publication in PLOS ONE was highlighted by Berkeley News
Becca’s February Nerd Nite talk is now available on YouTube