Busy time for the Pelegri lab with PhD students Trevor Chamberlain, Ryan Trevena, & Christina Hansen, postdoc Cara Moravec, and research intern Gabriella (Gabby) Voit all presenting their research in flash poster talks at the online Society for Developmental Biology conference this week. Special shout-out to Gabby for being selected as a finalist in the undergraduate poster competition!!

Congrats to postdoc Cara Moravec for being selected to give a talk at the 2020 Genome Writers Guild virtual conference! She will present “The identification of maternal-effect genes in zebrafish by a maternal crispant screen” on July 24th. Registration is still open (and free!)

Our lab and team of collaborators received a UW2020 grant! It will be used to fund the next phase of an exciting project initiated by Francisco and grad students Trevor Chamberlain & Ryan Trevena. They aim to leverage developmental biology and genetics for conservation of animal biodiversity. Congratulations to the entire team! https://research.wisc.edu/establishing-proof-of-principle-models-for-animal-biodiversity-biobanking

Francisco is presenting a talk today titled “Integration of developmental genetics into a conservation framework” in the Cutting-edge Conservation session of today’s virtual Earth Day Conference hosted by the Nelson Institute.  Free registration is available here: https://earthday.nelson.wisc.edu/

Postdoc Cara Moravec is sharing her research and personal experiences as a scientist with Ms. Byrom’s 7th grade class at Barber Middle School in Georgia tomorrow afternoon! She connected with these students through the Skype a Scientist program, which matches scientists with classrooms around the world.

Genetics grad student Christina Hansen recently finished 12 weeks in the National Science Policy Network’s Wiki Scientist Training Program. Christina, along with 14 other early career researchers from across the US, were selected to learn about using Wikipedia as an outlet to share scientific expertise with the public and improve existing content. For more information, check out this blog post: https://wikiedu.org/blog/2019/11/05/channeling-passion-into-action-nspn-wiki-scientists/

ERP graduate student Ryan Trevena presented his poster “Nuclear reprogramming of interspecies somatic cell nuclear transfer in a Danionin genus model” at ASCB|EMBO last week (and was kind enough to bring back conference swag for the rest of us!).

Pelegri lab postdoc Dr. Cara Moravec is visiting Marian University tomorrow (11/22) to give a talk about her research and speak with students during a lunchtime seminar. Check it out if you’re in the area!

Earlier this month, the lab participated in CRISPRcon Midwest – an event meant to promote conversations on science, society, and the future of gene editing.  Francisco co-hosted a table during the “Ideas Marketplace” session with  Carol Barford and Paul Robbins to lead discussion focused on the topic “Conservation genetics to save ecosystems.”

Congratulations to Genetics grad student Trevor Chamberlain for passing his prelim exam yesterday – this means he has advanced to PhD dissertator status and earned a masters degree!