Lab News!

The latest (and hopefully greatest) from our group.

Science, science-adjacent, and life in Minnesota.

Last lecture day of grad level insect physiology is (apparently, and unbeknownst to Amelia) “dress like Amelia day.” 2023/04/27
Congrats to Gloria and Laura for being awarded departmental scholarships! 2023/04/21
Double congrats to lab “adoptee” Hailey Shanovich: the newly minted Dr. Shanovich defended her dissertation at the end of March and was then awarded the CFANS Borealis Award for Graduate Student Leadership! We are so proud of you! 2023/04/20
Congrats to Megan for being awarded the Sping and Ying-ngoh Lin Fellowship! 2023/04/14
Amelia got to hang out with some of her favorite symbiontologists (and share Wolbachia updates from the lab!) at UW Madison Bacteriology. Many thanks to Dr. Kerri Coon for the invitation and hosting, and for Dr. Mark Mandel and lab for the ice cream! 2023/04/13
A trifecta of exciting things related to soybean gall midge: Gloria, Megan, Amelia, collaborator Dr. Chris Faulk, et al sequenced the soybean gall midge genome. Megan’s artwork was selected for the G3 cover image, and UMN featured this work in a press briefing which you can read <here>! 2023/04/01
Sarah gave a superb presentation on her proposed thesis project! 2023/03/28
Beautiful spring midnight in Minnesota: the northern lights were out in full force. 2023/03/24
Welcome to the lab, Pablo! Pablo is a UMN undergraduate student with interests in insects, evolution, and microbiology. He will be working on understanding how Wolbachia localizes in insects. 2023/03/20
Amelia visited long-time friend Dr. Emily McDermott at the University of Arkansas to share Wolbachia updates and learn what the McDermott lab and colleagues are up to! 2023/03/07
Big congrats to Laura who was awarded a UMN interdisciplinary doctoral fellowship! 2023/02/01
New preprint from the lab: using the Drosophila melanogaster model, we show that Wolbachia enhances fly development, especially under nutrient limited conditions. You can read more <here> 2023/01/21
Lab holiday party! We had a traditional white elephant gift exchange: Gloria is thrilled that she won a pineapple! 2022/12/16
Amelia visited Fred Hutch to talk about microbe-mediated asexuality. 2022/11/17
The lab attended the Entomology meeting in Vancouver, BC and shared research updates! Congrats to Laura, Sarah, and Tina on their presentation awards! 2022/11/14
Amelia visited Penn State to chat with Wolbachia friends and others at the Center for Infectious Disease Dynamics. CIDD mascot Lucy is a star! 2022/10/20
Attending the @EntsocAmerica meeting this November? Consider attending our program symposium on #sciart and #scicomm in #entomology! So many awesome in-person and on-demand speakers on diverse topics! 2022/10/01
It is Minnesota’s favorite time of year: the state fair. We spotted a nested symbiosis! 2022/08/28
Congrats to Laura who passed her prelims today!!! 🎉🎉🎉 We now have lab tradition of wearing the onychophoran as a crown for special occasions. So proud of Laura and all her great progress. 2022/08/10
While at the Beneficial Microbes meeting in Madison, WI, we were gifted some micromalthids. Read about these wacky beetles <here>. 2022/07/14
Megan shared her latest on coinfecting Wolbachia at the Beneficial Microbes meeting in Madison, WI. 2022/07/12
Laura presented her work on parthenogenesis inducing Wolbachia at the Beneficial Microbes meeting in Madison, WI. 2022/07/12
The lab’s first publication is online! You can read more about how multiple Wolbachia infect a single insect <here> 2022/06/22
The first crosses with Laura’s new fly stocks are emerging and we have a phenotype! 2022/06/02
Welcome, new MS student Sarah Lisak! Sarah is co-advised by Bob Koch and will be using molecular approaches to quantify biocontrol of soybean gall midge. 2022/06/01
Megan’s FiSH protocol is working! Next step, confocal training. 2022/05/23
Amelia received the Exemplary Faculty Award from the College of Food, Agricultural, and Natural Resource Sciences (CFANS). 2022/04/21
Laura presented her non-thesis seminar which focused on the use of insects in art across history. We all learned SO much: you can view the recording <here>. 2022/04/21
Megan presented her thesis proposal on endosymbiont niche partitioning. You can watch the recording <here>. 2022/04/16
Megan and Laura showcase their science-themed art at the UMN SciArt Exhibition. 2022/04/01
The lab’s first preprint is on BioRxiv! Megan is leading the charge on Wolbachia confections; read more <here>. 2022/03/30
Amelia is selected as the Excellence in Early Career award recipient by NCB ESA. 2022/03/22
The lab attends the NCB ESA meeting and Gloria wins an award for her presentation on gall midge predation. 2022/03/22.
Laura wins a free T-shirt. 2022/03/14
First annual lab spring cleaning, featuring Mim’s for lunch, inventory checks, and some elbow grease. 2022/03/10
Welcome, Ashlyn Anderson! Ashlyn joins us from Bemidji State/North Hennepin to work with Laura on PI-Wolbachia. 2022/03/01
Gloria presents her M.S. thesis proposal seminar. 2022/02/15
Amelia was featured on RadioBio. You can listen to the podcast <here>. 2021/12/13
Congrats, Tessa! Tessa defended her M.S. thesis on cryptic species after Amelia stepped in as interim advisor a few months ago. 2021/12/09
Laura presented her Ph.D. thesis proposal seminar. 2021/11/16
Laura and Gloria attended ESA 2021 and gave excellent talks on their research! 2021/11/02
Amelia was selected as the SysEB awardee for this year’s ESA early career standout symposium. 2021/11/01
Finally, a lab group photo! L->R: Megan, Hailey (Aukema Lab adoptee), Laura, Tina (Koch Lab adoptee), Amelia, Gloria. 2021/10/28
Welcome, new grad student Megan Jones! She is joining us with an Excellence in Entomology Fellowship to work on mechanisms of Wolbachia infection. 2021/09/07
Discovery of Edward (Scissorhands) 2021/07/22
Laura generated the lab’s first yeast transformants. 2021/07/17
Amelia receives the Faculty Award for Mentorship in Entomology 2021/07/13
Welcome Gloria Melotto, new M.S. student in the Koch and Lindsey Labs, working on soybean gall midge biocontrol! 2021/06/30
Our fluorescence microscope is here! 2021/06/14
We’ve been finding an abundance of “smooth Kens” (i.e. males with no genitalia). 2021/05/05
Publication of the DROP database for Drosophila parasitoids is out in Molecular Ecology <here>. 2021/05/29
Laura was awarded Honorable Mention for her GRFP proposal! Huge congrats! 2021/03/23
A lucky sighting of the northern lights. 2021/03/20
Hannah Tubby and Annie Lyra get to be honorary scientists. 2021/02/13
Amelia’s postdoc work is published in mBio <here>. 2021/02/09
The qPCR machine is here! We are ready to run lots of samples. 2021/01/08
The walk-in insect incubator is (finally) up and running! 2020/12/20
The lab’s first PCR! 2020/09/22
We have pipettes! 2020/08/05
Amelia’s review on Wolbachia‘s mechanisms for host interaction is published <here>! 2020/07/16
Welcome, Laura Fricke, PhD student and UMN DOVE Fellow! Laura will tackle Wolbachia-mediated parthenogenesis. 2020/07/10
The lab is born! 2020/07/07
%d bloggers like this: