News
Fierce Big Jenga action at the UDS-UCSD Holiday Party!
December 2024
Postdoc Caitlin Donahue joins the Rogers lab. Welcome Caitlin!
November 2024
Postbac Matt Monaghan joins the Rogers lab. Welcome Matt!
August 2024
Summer student Caitlin presents her poster at the NIH Summer Student Poster Days! Caitlin worked with Leanne this summer and we’re excited for her to continue her scientific journey. Congrats Caitlin and Leanne!
August 2024
Cat, Katherine, Will, and Selvaraj attend the 2024 Society for Developmental Biology meeting in Atlanta, Georgia
Selvaraj presents his poster at SDB 2024
Will presents his poster at SDB 2024
Katherine presents some of the UDS's work at SDB 2024
Cat, Selvaraj, Katherine, and special guest Nikan Toulany at the Georgia Aquarium. Nikan and Katherine overlapped in Patrick Müller's lab!
Georgia Aquarium
Atlanta, Georgia
Postbac Micaela Murphy joins the Rogers lab. Welcome Micaela!
July 2024
The NIH deer and geese stopped by to welcome Cat and Caitlin to the UDS! Caitlin is a HiSTEP summer student mentored by Leanne. Cat is returning to the lab as an NIH-JHU-GPP graduate student. We’re happy to have you both here!
June 2024
Farewell Party for postbacs Allison (Rogers lab) & Avani & Sean (Farrell lab). Complete with model zebrafish embryos!! Allison is heading to the University of Utah for her PhD.
Rogers and Farrell labs celebrate the successful postbacs of Allison, Avani, & Sean!
We're going to miss you Allison!!! But congrats and we wish you all the best as a graduate student at the University of Utah!
Welcome back Cat Rogers!! Cat was a postbac in the UDS from 2021 - 2023. She then joined the NIH - Johns Hopkins University Graduate Partnership Program and has been rotating at JHU this past year. We’re thrilled that she is now re-joining the UDS as a PhD student!
June 2024
Potluck with Bldg 6 NICHD tenure-track labs! Farrell, Rocha, Rogers, Rosin, & Sheppard labs enjoyed a sunny day in Bethesda.
Jeff Farrell, Pedro Rocha, Sarah Sheppard, Katherine Rogers, & Leah Rosin
NICHD Bldg6 tenure-track labs potluck. Yum!
UDS at the 2024 Mid-Atlantic Society for Developmental Biology Meeting at University of Maryland College Park!
Will gives a talk about the transgenic bOpto-FGF zebrafish line he made at the 2024 MA-SDB meeting
Leanne presents her poster at the 2024 MA-SDB meeting
Selvaraj presents his poster at the 2024 MA-SDB meeting
Katherine gives a talk at the 2024 MA-SDB meeting
Venue for the 2024 MA-SDB meeting, University of Maryland College Park
The UDS at the 2024 Mid-Atlantic Regional Zebrafish meeting (MARZ) at Rutgers, NJ, with members of the Chitnis and Farrell labs!
Leanne presents her poster at MARZ 2024
Selvaraj presents his poster at MARZ 2024
Allison presents her poster at MARZ 2024
UDS at The Allied Genetics Conference 2024 (TAGC24) in National Harbor, MD
Will presented his work on bOpto transgenic zebrafish at TAGC24 (next to Avani from the Farrell lab!)
Allison gave a talk about the on/off kinetics of bOpto-FGF at TAGC24
Katherine gave a talk at TAGC24
Katherine helped organize the TAGC24 Variety Show with her undergraduate mentor, David Fay, along with Tina Gumienny & Orna Cohen-Fix
Dinner with some zebrafish PIs at the Gaylord Center TAGC24
Gaylord Center, National Harbor, MD (TAGC24)
“Mug shot” to celebrate the first publication from the UDS! Congrats to co-first authors Allison Saul and Cat Rogers on their JoVE protocol: Optogenetic Signaling Activation in Zebrafish Embryos
October 2023
Congrats to Selvaraj for his first UDS Seminar Bingo win! This was an “All Stars” special edition bingo featuring winning terms from previous rounds. Winning terms:
Ribbon diagram
YOU ask speaker a question live
bioRxiv
Receptor tyrosine kinase (RTK)
Speaker discusses future directions
September 2023
The FeralKats Team (& supporters) moments before participating in the 2023 NIH Relay Race! Everybody was fast as lightning.
September 2023
The UDS and UCSD labs had a Farewell Party for Cat at Lake Needwood. Cat finished both her postbac with the UDS and a rotation with the UCSD, and is now heading to Johns Hopkins as a GPP student!
August 2023
Some UDS members at the 2023 Society for Developmental Biology meeting in Chicago! Selvaraj held down the fort in Bethesda :)
Allison presents her poster at the 2023 SDB meeting
Cat presents her poster at the 2023 SDB meeting
Jeff Farrell gives a stirring talk about his lab's work at the 2023 SDB meeting
Zebrafish researcher meet up at the 2023 SDB meeting
Chicago skyline at the 2023 SDB meeting
Will wins UDS Seminar Bingo!! Winning terms this round:
Gain of function mutation
”Primordium”
Speaker thanks core facility
”Salt and pepper”
”Map”
July 2023
Postdoc Selvaraj Velanganni joins the Rogers lab. Welcome Selvaraj!
June 2023
Cat’s last day as a postbac in the UDS— time flies! Cat will do a rotation with the Farrell lab at NICHD and then rotations at Johns Hopkins as a GPP student. We had a “Farewell for now / Farrell for now” Party to wish her well! We’re
excited for Cat in this new chapter, and even more excited for her to come back :)
May 2023
Getting ready to host the 2023 Mid-Atlantic Regional Zebrafish meeting at the NIH Bethesda campus! Organizers: Jeff Farrell, Katherine Rogers, Matt Swift, & Brant Weinstein. Photo credit: Abhinav Sur.
Cat Rogers from the UDS presents her research at MARZ 2023! Photo credit: Celia Martinez-Aceves
Allison Saul from the UDS presents her research at MARZ 2023! Photo credit: Celia Martinez-Aceves
MARZ 2023 participants enjoy dinner outside Natcher Conference center. Photo credit: Jeff Farrell
MARZ 2023 poster session!
Leanne wins UDS Seminar Bingo!! Winning terms this round:
Sox gene
”Endogenous”
Double-strand DNA break
FlowJo plot
YOU ask the speaker a question live
March 2023
The Sheppard, Farrell, Rocha, and Rogers labs went on a Potomac River Cruise and then had a picnic in Georgetown Park! (May 2023)
Members of the Rogers and Rocha labs on the Potomac Cruise
The UDS at the Potomac River
The UDS enjoyed the 2023 Mid-Atlantic Society for Developmental Biology meeting at Princeton!
UDS
NICHD labs at the 2023 Mid-Atlantic Society for Developmental Biology meeting (Rocha, Weinstein, Farrell, and Rogers labs)
NICHD labs!
Allison presents her poster at MA-SDB 2023! First major poster presentation!!
Cat gives a "flash talk" explaining her research in 1 min...
... Cat presenting her poster...
... and Cat winning a poster prize at MA-SDB!
The Farrell, Weinstein, Rocha, and Rogers labs stop at Tiger Noodles in Princeton en route to the 2023 MA-SDB meeting
Cat wins UDS Seminar Bingo for the second time this month! Winning terms this round:
iPS cells
”Reporter”
Speaker discusses future directions
”Cell-autonomous” or “non-autonomous”
Speaker makes joke / pun
March 2023
Cat returns to her UDS Seminar Bingo Throne… for now! Winning terms this round:
”Leaky”
Concentration shown in mM or uM
Phylogenetic tree
Diffusion
Molecular weight shown as “kDa”
March 2023
Postdoc Leanne Iannucci joins the Rogers lab. Welcome Leanne!
February 2023
Ice skating and boba tea with the Farrell lab in Rockville!
February 2023
The UDS crushed the Question Challenge! Lab members read Elisa Granato’s excellent pointers on how to ask questions after a seminar. Once everyone asked at least one question, we celebrated with cupcakes.
January 2023
Happy Holiday Party with the Farrell lab! Two lab members independently brought the same book to our white elephant gift exchange!! (“What if?” by Randall Munroe)
December 2022
Will continues his UDS Seminar Bingo streak! Winning terms this round:
Photobleaching
Optogenetics
Zebrafish age shown as “# hpf” or “dpf”
”Noise”
”Construct”
December 2022
In a stunning upset, Will has dethroned reigning UDS Seminar Bingo champion Cat! Winning terms this round:
qPCR or qRT-PCR
Speaker asks for questions during talk
YOU ask speaker a question live
Cell or nuclei tracking
Phalloidin
November 2022
Happy birthday to Will! We enjoyed a fruit & cheese snack in the sunny afternoon with the Farrell lab to celebrate.
October 2022
Cat wins UDS Seminar Bingo for the fourth time in a row! Will the reigning champion ever be dethroned?? Winning terms this round:
Ribbon diagram
Conditional knockdown
Volcano plot
Presenter thanks organizers
H&E staining
October 2022
Team Farel Kats crushed the 37th Annual NIH Institute Relay! Congrats to UDS members Will, Allison, and Daria, along with Farrell lab member Sean and NICHD PI Alex Sodt
September 2022
Joint farewell party for Cheng-Yi Chen, postdoc in the Farrell lab. Best of luck in Boston, we will miss you!
August 2022
Postdoc Daria Lukasz joins the Rogers lab. Welcome Daria!
August 2022
Some UDS members enjoy a Fleet Foxes concert in Columbia, MD with opener Uwade and special guest: a katydid
August 2022
The incomparable Dr. Andi Pauli from the IMP Vienna visits! Jeff Farrell and Katherine Rogers were thrilled to host her. Everyone was blown away by her fabulous seminar.
August 2022
Cat remains the undefeated UDS Seminar Bingo champion! But the competition just got fiercer with two new lab members… Winning terms this round:
“DEG” (differentially expressed genes)
Glycoprotein
Cites research older than 100 years
“Artifact”
Recombinant protein
August 2022
Postbac Allison Saul joins the Rogers lab. Welcome Allison!
July 2022
The UDS in Vancouver, BC for the Society for Developmental Biology conference July 2022
SDB conference venue in Vancouver, BC
Cat presents her poster to a rapt audience!
Abhinav Sur from Jeff Farrell's lab at NICHD updates the SDB about their fabulous zebrafish single cell atlas. Amazing seminar!
The UDS goes to the beach in Vancouver
Heading back to Maryland... or UMAP??
The UDS enjoys lunch in Bethesda with two soon-to-be new members, Daria Lukasz & Allison Saul
July 2022
Luma Therman, Optomus Prime, Rainbow Brite, and Mr. Rob-opto (our shine shrine optogenetic incubators) after their Naming Ceremony. We look forward to many exciting experiments! (July 2022)
The UDS has a delicious lunch in Montreal before the 17th International Zebrafish Conference June 2022
Cat presents her poster at the Centre Mont-Royal IZFC 2022
The UDS explores Montreal during IZFC 2022
Happy birthdays to Jeff and Jeremy in the Unit on Cell Specification and Differentiation!
June 2022
Cat wins UDS Seminar Bingo again! This time the winning squares were:
ChIP
CpG islands
Question asked during talk
bioRxiv
Receptor tyrosine kinase
May 2022
The Rogers, Farrell, and Weinstein labs stop in Allentown, PA, for lunch after the wonderful Mid-Atlantic Society for Developmental Biology Meeting in May 2022
Cat presents her poster "Shedding (blue) light on BMP signaling in zebrafish embryos" at the MA-SDB meeting at Lehigh University
The UDS stops for lunch on the way to the MA-SDB meeting
The UDS (and special guest Daria Lukasz) went on a short hike through the Virginia side of Great Falls. Incredible scenery and weather.
April 2022
Cat is the first winner of UDS Seminar Bingo! The winning squares were:
Single-cell RNAseq
Picture of person who did the work
Signaling gradient
CRISPR/Cas9
Live imaging
Morpholino
Violin plot
Extracellular matrix
Signaling pathway
March 2022
We visited the Smithsonian’s #If/ThenSheCan Exhibit celebrating women in science. Cat & Will are standing next to a 3D-printed statue of Dr. Harshini Mukundan, team leader at Los Alamos, holding a microscope. We are also microscope fans :)
March 2022
Lucky to have unseasonably warm February weather to celebrate Cat’s (Rogers lab) and Abhinav’s (Farrell lab) birthdays! With delicious nutella sandwich cookies by Paulina.
February 2022
Updated light exposure system for optogenetic experiments (version 2.0). Many thanks to Tom Pohida and Marcial Garmendia-Cedillos at NIH IDEAS!
January 2022
Quite the spread at the Farrell/Rogers lab joint holiday party. There are some spectacular chefs among us!
December 2021
New light exposure system for optogenetic experiments (version 1.0)
November 2021
Postbac Cat Rogers joins the Rogers lab. Welcome Cat!
November 2021
Research technician Will Anderson joins the Rogers lab. Welcome Will!
September 2021
The Rogers lab is open at the
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)!
Postdoc positions are available
July 2021
Image credit: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:NIH_Clinical_Research_Center_aerial.jpg