Join us in welcoming our newest faculty member, Dr. Saori Sakaue (@saorisakaue.bsky.social ) from the UW Department of Genome Sciences (@uwgenome.bsky.social )!

An ISCRM research team of biologists, engineers, and physicians shows that fibroblasts, often thought of as helpers, may weaken the heart by causing a harmful cycle of stiffening and scarring, and pinpoint a potential fix.

Say hello and welcome to MCB cohort 2025-2026!

Join us in welcoming our newest faculty members, Dr. Julie Mathieu from the UW Department of Comparative Medicine, and Dr. William from the UW Department of Genome Sciences (@uwgenome.bsky.social )!

Join us in welcoming our newest faculty member, Dr. Lucas Hoffman from the Seattle Children's Research Institute!

🎉 Huge congratulations to Dr. Elizabeth Bonner @ebonner.bsky.social on her successful PhD defense - the first PhD to graduate from our lab! Her journey has been nothing short of inspiring! Couldn’t be more proud and excited for all the big things [email protected] @mcbseattle.bsky.social

Happening TODAY - Elizabeth Bonner's (@ebonner.bsky.social ) dissertation defense! Title: Dissecting the role of CDK8 mis-splicing in SF3B1 mutant MDS Lab: Stanley Lee Lab, FH When: Wednesday, August 20, 11am PDT Where: FH Pelton Auditorium & Zoom (email [email protected] for link)

See you next week for Elizabeth Bonner’s (@ebonner.bsky.social ) dissertation defense! Title: Dissecting the role of CDK8 mis-splicing in SF3B1 mutant MDS Lab: Stanley Lee Lab, FH When: Wednesday, August 20, 11am PDT Where: FH Pelton Auditorium & Zoom (email [email protected] for link)

Happening TODAY - Victoria Rachleff’s defense! Title: Disentangling the relationship between pathology and cellular vulnerability in Alzheimer’s disease Lab: Keene Lab (UW) & Lein Lab (Allen Institute) When: Wed., Aug 13, 3pm PDT Where: Allen Institute & Zoom (email [email protected] for link)

Happening TODAY - Gygeria Manuel’s dissertation defense! Title: Decoding the Innate Immune Response to Group B Streptococcus Infections at the Maternal-Fetal Interface Lab: Adams Waldorf Lab, UW When: Thursday, August 7, 10am PDT Where: UW SLU Brotman Auditorium (Building D)

See you next week for Victoria Rachleff’s defense! Title: Disentangling the relationship between pathology and cellular vulnerability in Alzheimer’s disease Lab: Keene Lab (UW) & Lein Lab (Allen Institute) When: Wed., Aug 13, 3pm PDT Where: Allen Institute & Zoom (email [email protected] for link)

Join us for Elizabeth Bonner’s (@ebonner.bsky.social ) dissertation defense! Title: Dissecting the role of CDK8 mis-splicing in SF3B1 mutant MDS Lab: Stanley Lee Lab, FH When: Wednesday, August 20, 11am PDT Where: FH Pelton Auditorium & Zoom (email [email protected] for link)

See you next week for Gygeria Manuel’s dissertation defense! Title: Decoding the Innate Immune Response to Group B Streptococcus Infections at the Maternal-Fetal Interface Lab: Adams Waldorf Lab, UW When: Thursday, August 7, 10am PDT Where: UW SLU Brotman Auditorium (Building D)

Join us for Victoria Rachleff’s dissertation defense! Title: Disentangling the relationship between pathology and cellular vulnerability in Alzheimer’s disease Lab: Keene Lab (UW) & Lein Lab (Allen Institute) When: Wed., Aug 13, 3pm PDT Where: Allen Institute & Zoom (email [email protected] for link)

Join us for Gygeria Manuel’s dissertation defense! Title: Decoding the Innate Immune Response to Group B Streptococcus Infections at the Maternal-Fetal Interface Lab: Adams Waldorf Lab, UW When: Thursday, August 7, 10am PDT Where: UW SLU Brotman Auditorium (Building D)

Join us in welcoming our newest faculty member, Dr. Megan O'Connor from the UW Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology!

Join us in welcoming our newest faculty members, Dr. Kate Carbone (@mkate.bsky.social ) from the Seattle Children's Research Institute and Dr. Julie Theriot from the UW Department of Biology (@uwbiology.bsky.social )!

Happening TODAY - Scott Best’s dissertation defense! Title: Loss of the USP22 deubiquitylase confers resistance to chemotherapy in small cell lung cancer Lab: MacPherson Lab, FH When: Thursday, June 26, 1pm PDT Where: FH M1-A303 – (H) Behnke Conference Room, Arnold Building

See you next week for Scott Best’s dissertation defense! Title: Loss of the USP22 deubiquitylase confers resistance to chemotherapy in small cell lung cancer Lab: MacPherson Lab, FH When: Thursday, June 26, 1pm PDT Where: FH M1-A303 – (H) Behnke Conference Room, Arnold Building

Join us for Scott Best’s dissertation defense! Title: Loss of the USP22 deubiquitylase confers resistance to chemotherapy in small cell lung cancer Lab: MacPherson Lab, FH When: Thursday, June 26, 1pm PDT Where: FH M1-A303 – (H) Behnke Conference Room, Arnold Building

Happening TODAY - Justin Thomas’s (@justin-j-thomas.bsky.social ) dissertation defense! Title: CD90 as a target for in vivo gene and cell therapies Lab: Kiem Lab, FH When: Monday, June 9, 2:00pm PT Where: FH Pelton Auditorium (Weintraub Building) & Zoom (email [email protected] for link)

Happening TODAY - Manuel Rosero’s dissertation defense! Title: Thermosensory Neurons Mediate Tactile-Dependent Locomotion Modulation in C. elegans Lab: Bai Lab, FH When: Friday, June 6, 2pm PDT Where: FH Pelton Auditorium & Zoom (email [email protected] for link)

See you next week for Justin Thomas’s (@justin-j-thomas.bsky.social ) dissertation defense! Title: CD90 as a target for in vivo gene and cell therapies Lab: Kiem Lab, FH When: Monday, June 9, 2:00pm PT Where: FH Pelton Auditorium (Weintraub Building) & Zoom (email [email protected] for link)

See you next week for Manuel Rosero’s dissertation defense! Title: Thermosensory Neurons Mediate Tactile-Dependent Locomotion Modulation in C. elegans Lab: Bai Lab, FH When: Friday, June 6, 2pm PDT Where: FH Pelton Auditorium & Zoom (email [email protected] for link)

Happening TODAY - Ellen Paatela’s dissertation defense! Title: A discrete region of the D4Z4 is sufficient to initiate epigenetic silencing Lab: Tapscott Lab, FH When: Thursday, May 29, 1pm PDT Where: Fred Hutch Pelton Auditorium (Weintraub Building) & Zoom (email [email protected] for link)

Join us for Justin Thomas’s (@justin-j-thomas.bsky.social ) dissertation defense! Title: CD90 as a target for in vivo gene and cell therapies Lab: Kiem Lab, FH When: Monday, June 9, 2:00pm PT Where: FH Pelton Auditorium (Weintraub Building) & Zoom (email [email protected] for link)

Join us for Manuel Rosero’s dissertation defense! Title: Thermosensory Neurons Mediate Tactile-Dependent Locomotion Modulation in C. elegans Lab: Bai Lab, FH When: Friday, June 6, 2pm PDT Where: FH Pelton Auditorium & Zoom (email [email protected] for link)

See you next week for Ellen Paatela’s dissertation defense! Title: A discrete region of the D4Z4 is sufficient to initiate epigenetic silencing Lab: Tapscott Lab, FH When: Thursday, May 29, 1pm PDT Where: Fred Hutch Pelton Auditorium (Weintraub Building) & Zoom (email [email protected] for link)

Join us for Ellen Paatela’s dissertation defense! Title: A discrete region of the D4Z4 is sufficient to initiate epigenetic silencing Lab: Tapscott Lab, FH When: Thursday, May 29, 1pm PDT Where: Fred Hutch Pelton Auditorium (Weintraub Building) & Zoom (email [email protected] for link)

Really excited to share the final version of Rechel Geiger’s PhD thesis paper with help from friends www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... Rechel is now back in medical school training to become a kickass physician-scientist

Happening TODAY - Cara Chao’s dissertation defense! Title: Development of vaccines against MERS coronavirus and Merbecovirus prototype pathogens Lab: King Lab, UW When: Monday, May 5, 3:00pm PDT Where: UW Health Sciences Building, T-Wing, Room 747 & Zoom (email [email protected] for link)

Happening TODAY - Roberto Carlos Segura’s dissertation defense! Title: Asymmetry of centrosomes in Drosophila neural stem cells requires protein phosphatase 4 Lab: Cabernard Lab, UW When: Wed, April 30, 2pm PDT Where: UW Health Sciences Education Building, 101 & Zoom (email [email protected] for link)

See you next week for Cara Chao’s dissertation defense! Title: Development of vaccines against MERS coronavirus and Merbecovirus prototype pathogens Lab: King Lab, UW When: Monday, May 5, 3:00pm PDT Where: UW Health Sciences Building, T-Wing, Room 747 & Zoom (email [email protected] for link)

See you next week for Roberto Carlos Segura’s defense! Title: Asymmetry of centrosomes in Drosophila neural stem cells requires protein phosphatase 4 Lab: Cabernard Lab, UW When: Wednesday, April 30, 2pm PDT Where: UW Health Sciences Education Building, 101 & Zoom (email [email protected] for link)

Join us for Cara Chao’s dissertation defense! Title: Development of vaccines against MERS coronavirus and Merbecovirus prototype pathogens Lab: King Lab, UW When: Monday, May 5, 3:00pm PDT Where: UW Health Sciences Building, T-Wing, Room 747 & Zoom (email [email protected] for link)

Happening TODAY - Jonathan Amezquita’s dissertation defense! Title: The Integrin/Kindlin/Talin axis regulates mechanosensory neuron development in C. elegans Lab: Grill Lab, SCRI When: Tuesday, April 22, 1:30pm PDT Where: SCRI Building Cure McKinstry Auditorium & Zoom (email [email protected] for link)

Join us for Roberto Carlos Segura’s dissertation defense! Title: Asymmetry of centrosomes in Drosophila neural stem cells requires protein phosphatase 4 Lab: Cabernard Lab, UW When: Wednesday, April 30, 2pm PDT Where: UW Health Sciences Education Building, 101 & Zoom (email [email protected] for link)

See you next week for Jonathan Amezquita’s dissertation defense! Title: The Integrin/Kindlin/Talin axis regulates mechanosensory neuron development in C. elegans Lab: Grill Lab, SCRI When: Tuesday, April 22, 1:30pm PDT Where: SCRI Building Cure McKinstry Auditorium & Zoom (email [email protected] for link)

Join us for Jonathan Amezquita’s dissertation defense! Title: The Integrin/Kindlin/Talin axis regulates mechanosensory neuron development in C. elegans Lab: Grill Lab, SCRI When: Tuesday, April 22, 1:30pm PDT Where: SCRI Building Cure McKinstry Auditorium & Zoom (email [email protected] for link)

Join us in welcoming our newest faculty member, Dr. Mara Pavel-Dinu from the Seattle Children's Research Institute!

Congratulations to MCB student Jeremy Hollis in the @melodygcampbell.bsky.social and @harmitmalik.bsky.social labs on being named a 2025 Weintraub Awardee!

Join us in welcoming our newest faculty members, Dr. Nobuhiko Hamazaki from UW Medicine, Obstetrics & Gynecology (@uwmedicine.bsky.social ) & Dr. Sudarshan Pinglay (@sudpinglay.bsky.social ) from UW Genome Sciences!

Happening TODAY - Stephen Rettie’s dissertation defense! Title: Deep learning enabled design of functional cyclic peptides Lab: Bhardwaj Lab, UW When: Wednesday, March 5, 3pm PST Where: UW Health Sciences Building, K-069 & Zoom (email [email protected] for link)

Happening TODAY - Carrie Stine’s (@carriestine.bsky.social ) dissertation defense! Title: Dissecting nociceptin opioid peptide function at the intersection of stress and reward circuitry Lab: Bruchas, UW When: Mon, March 3, 1pm PT Where: UW Hogness Auditorium & Zoom (email [email protected] for link)

Congratulations to Maggie Russell @magdalenarussell.bsky.social for graduating from @mcbseattle.bsky.social with a phenomenal thesis. I will retell the story of her thesis through images from her papers. 🧵 (Here we are with Phil Bradley, who co-advised Maggie.)

Join us for Stephen Rettie’s dissertation defense! Title: Deep learning enabled design of functional cyclic peptides Lab: Bhardwaj Lab, UW When: Wednesday, March 5, 3pm PST Where: UW Health Sciences Building, K-069 & Zoom (email [email protected] for link)

Happening TODAY - Alexandra Willcox’s dissertation defense! Title: A novel antiviral function of AMOTL2 enhances the human type I interferon response against Zika virus Lab: Overbaugh, FH When: Wed., Feb 26, 11:30am PT Where: FH Pelton Auditorium & Zoom

Celebrate the brain with us at the Pacific Science Center! 🧠✨ On 3/15, get up close with real brain tissue, listen to your own nervous system, check out a model of T. rex brain, and more. BrainFest with free with admission and perfect for all ages. 🎟️ alleninstitute.org/events/brain... 🧠📈

The Termini Lab at Fred Hutch in Seattle is recruiting a Lab Aide to join our group - more information and instructions to apply can be found at the posting below 👇🧫👇🔬👇🐁 careers-fhcrc.icims.com/jobs/29265/l...

Applications are open for the @lakeconferences.bsky.social on Neural Coding & Dynamics in Seattle – co-hosted with Circuit Neuroscience Basel! 📆 9/28 to 10/2 📍 Seattle, USA 🧠📈 All career stages welcomed. Apply to attend by May 23: alleninstitute.org/events/lake-... #LakeConference