Lab news
2021
November 17th: Dr. Cheryl Arrowsmith visits our lab and department, and gives talk on "Chemical and Biochemical Tools to Probe the Epigenome” !
October 23rd: Nathan successfully defended his PhD at Stanford Medical School !
October 19th: Blerta gives guest lecture on messenger RNA modifications to incoming graduate students !
October 6th: Brandon joins the lab for his PhD !
August 25th: Ariana joins the lab !
August 20th: Blerta co-hosts with Drs. Tanya Paull and Kyle Miller the 2021 Molecular Biosciences Symposium on "It takes two to tango: RNA & DNA in genome integrity" ! Very exciting speakers and science !
July 15th: Our method paper is published in Methods in Enzymology: RNA modification enzymes !
July 14-15th: Blerta serves on the NIH ZRG1 F04B-H (20) L Fellowships: Chemistry, Biochemistry and Biophysics Study Section !
June 11th: Alexia leaves the lab to pursue a Master of Sciences in Public Health in Miami FL with a full scholarship, followed by Medical School. Although we will miss her, we wish her the bright future she deserves!
May 18th: Our collaborative research paper with the Miller lab is published in Journal of Cell Biology !
May 3rd: Shilpa was awarded a University-wide Endowed Presidential Scholarship !
April 13th: Sravan was awarded a Summer Fellowship from the College of Natural Sciences !
March 22nd: Blerta's editorial of the Special Issue on "Biological functions of RNA modifications" is published today in Briefings in Functional Genomics !
March 4th: Our research paper is published in Oncogene ! Congratulations to all authors, especially to co-first authors Calder, Hélène and Nathan !
March 2nd: Our collaborative research paper with the Horner lab is published in Cell Reports !
February 25-26th: Blerta serves on the NIH Cancer Molecular Pathobiology [CAMP] study section !
February 8th: Le Hoang joins the lab !
January 18th: Our review is published in Briefings in Functional Genomics !
January 15th: Calder leaves the lab to work at Prescient HG biopharma strategy firm. We wish him every happiness and success in his exciting new career !
2020
November 16th: Calder defends his PhD thesis !
October 29-30th: Blerta serves as an ad hoc member of the NIH CSR panel, Fellowship Cell Biology, Developmental Biology, and Bioengineering (F05-U) !
October 20th: Blerta gives guest lecture on messenger RNA modifications to incoming graduate students !
September 30th: Blerta gives an invited talk and co-chairs the first session of the virtual Keystone 2020 meeting on "RNA Editing and Modification: From Biology to Therapy" ! It was an amazing experience !!!
September 22nd: Our collaborative paper with the Miller lab was just published in Molecular Cell !
September 1st: Enrique joins the lab !
August 19th: Ellen leaves the lab to start her PhD in Microbiology at UT Austin, we are so excited for her !
August 6th: Blerta is appointed as graduate student advisor for the Cellular and Molecular Biology graduate program !
August 5th: Our collaborative paper with the Horner and Mason labs is posted on bioRxiv !
July 29th: Our collaborative review was just accepted in Essays in Biochemistry !
June 1st: Our lab partially reopens !
May 13th: Sravan passes his prelim exam on Zoom and becomes a PhD candidate !
April 6th: Calder is awarded a Summer Fellowship from our College of Natural Sciences !
March 16th: Our University and lab is in lockdown due to COVID-19 pandemic...
February 18th: Shilpa receives the College of Natural Sciences Second Year Excellence Award !
January 1st: Blerta receives funding from APX for a high risk, high reward project in collaboration with Dr. Yuebing Zheng in Mechanical Engineering !
2019
November 21st: Our collaborative paper was just published in Genes & Development !
November 20th: Dr. Eda Yildirim, from Duke University, visits our lab and department, and gives a fantastic talk on "Regulation of Chromatin Architecture and Transcription by Nuclear Pore Complex Proteins” !
October 22nd: Blerta gives guest lecture on messenger RNA modifications to ICMB graduate students !
October 1st: Shilpa joins the lab !
September 15th: Hélène leaves the lab, we will miss her so much, but wish her best of luck with her life and her career in Biotechnology !
September 6th: Blerta gives talk at the ICMB retreat !
September 4th: Blerta meets with the MBS postdoc association to talk about international science !
September 1st: It is official, Blerta becomes Associate Professor !
August 31st: Margot leaves the lab to continue her Master of Genetics in Paris, we wish her all the best !
July 20th: Sarah leaves the lab after graduating with a BSA in Biology! We wish her all the best with her medical studies!
June 24th: Our paper was accepted in PLOS Genetics ! Congratulations to Calder, Hélène, Nathan and all other authors !
May 24th: Blerta gives invited talk on "Targeting RNA interference in cancer" at the first Texas Chemical Biology Conference !
May 2nd: Blerta is a DoD YIP Info Session “Ask Us Anything” panelist !
April 24th: Sravan joins the lab for his PhD !
April 16th: Our paper was accepted in JoVE !
April 9th: Dr. Rachel Green visits our Department, and gives talk on "Insights into Translation Elongation Regulation from High Resolution Profiling” !
April 1st: Margot joins the lab !
February 15th: Blerta just heard the wonderful news that her application for promotion to associate professor and tenure was approved !
February 4th: Sravan rejoins the lab as a rotation student !
January 16th: Samantha, our lab's first PhD student, leaves the lab to start her dream job at 10x Genomics in San Francisco, CA ! We wish her the bright future she deserves !
2018
December 12th: Dr. Yunsun Nam visits our Department, and gives talk on "Chemical Regulation of Functional RNAs" !
December 4th: Samantha defends her PhD thesis with honors !
November 27th: Blerta gives invited talk at the Livestrong Cancer Institutes Research Retreat !
November 19th: Turja joins the lab !
October 19th: Blerta gives invited talk at the Dean's Scholars Friday lunch !
October 10th: Sarah joins the lab !
September 27th: Blerta gives invited talk at the SBBM "Understanding the Epitranscriptome" Symposium in Chile !
September 15th: Blerta gives talk at the EMBO Workshop on piRNAs and PIWI proteins in Montpellier, France !
August 31st: Sravan leaves the lab to start his PhD, we wish him all the best !
August 23rd: Blerta gives tenure talk !
August 20th: Ellen joins the lab !
August 3rd: Paiges finishes her summer fellowship in the lab, we wish her a great senior year at Texas Tech !
July 26th: The plasmids from our Shelton et al. paper are now available on Addgene !
July 18th: Adam leaves the lab to start Medical School, we wish him all the best !
July 10th: Blerta gives invited seminar at Ohio State University College of Medicine in Columbus, Ohio !
May 29th: Paige joins the lab !
April 26th: Samantha is awarded a Graduate School Summer Fellowship !
April 11th: Blerta gives invited seminar at University of Vermont in Burlington, VT !
April 9th: Blerta is awarded an R01 grant from the National Institutes of Health !
March 13th-14th: Blerta serves as an Early Career Reviewer for NIH in San Francisco, CA !
March 12th: Blerta gives invited seminar for the Gene Regulation and Genomics Seminar Series at UT Southwestern in Dallas, TX !
February 26th: Our collaborative paper was accepted in J Biol Chem !
February 5th: Alexia joins the lab !
January 10th: Our paper was just accepted in Cell Reports ! Special congratulations to first author and PhD student, Samantha Shelton !
January 3rd: Adam joins the lab !
2017
November 16th: Blerta gives talk at the "RNA Modifications & Epitranscriptomics" Cold Spring Harbor Asia meeting in Suzhou, China !
August 31st: Mélina leaves the lab to continue her Master of Genetics in Paris, we will miss her and wish her all the best !
August 16th: Blerta gives talk at the Center for Systems and Synthetic Biology !
July 3rd: Blerta gives talk at the Babraham Research Campus in Cambridge, UK !
June 30th: Dr. Eric Miska visits our lab and department !
June 7th-8th: Blerta presents poster at the Nucleic Acids Gordon Research Conference at Biddeford, Maine !
May 5th: Our collaborative paper is published in Angewandte Chemie !
April 3rd: Mélina joins the lab !
March 4th: Samantha presents her work in a selected talk and poster at the Department of Molecular Biosciences annual retreat at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center !
March 1st: Blerta gives talk at the LIVESTRONG Cancer Institutes Basic/Translational Research Retreat !
January 17th: Our paper was just accepted in J Am Chem Soc ! Special congratulations to co-first authors Marvin and Nathan !
2016
December 8th: Blerta gives invited talk at the 38th Asilomar Chromatin, Chromosomes and Epigenetics Conference at Pacific Grove, California !
October 25th: Blerta gives third year review talk at the Departement of Molecular Biosciences !
October 9th: Nathan gives a poster presentation at the Cell Symposium on : Technology. Biology. Data Science at Berkeley !
September 8th: Prof. Ali Shilatifard visits our lab and institute !
September 3rd: Samantha wins best student poster presentation award at the ICMB retreat and presents her work in a short talk !
August 24th: Blerta gives an invited seminar at the Wagoner Center for Alcohol & Addiction Research !
August 17th: Sravan joins the lab !
July 21st: Our review paper is published in Plos Genetics !
July 11th-15th: Blerta gives guest lectures to the first ever class of Dell Medical School on some of her favorite things: RNA world, Epigenetics and the Fundamental dogma of Molecular Biology !
November 17th: Dr. Cheryl Arrowsmith visits our lab and department, and gives talk on "Chemical and Biochemical Tools to Probe the Epigenome” !
October 23rd: Nathan successfully defended his PhD at Stanford Medical School !
October 19th: Blerta gives guest lecture on messenger RNA modifications to incoming graduate students !
October 6th: Brandon joins the lab for his PhD !
August 25th: Ariana joins the lab !
August 20th: Blerta co-hosts with Drs. Tanya Paull and Kyle Miller the 2021 Molecular Biosciences Symposium on "It takes two to tango: RNA & DNA in genome integrity" ! Very exciting speakers and science !
July 15th: Our method paper is published in Methods in Enzymology: RNA modification enzymes !
July 14-15th: Blerta serves on the NIH ZRG1 F04B-H (20) L Fellowships: Chemistry, Biochemistry and Biophysics Study Section !
June 11th: Alexia leaves the lab to pursue a Master of Sciences in Public Health in Miami FL with a full scholarship, followed by Medical School. Although we will miss her, we wish her the bright future she deserves!
May 18th: Our collaborative research paper with the Miller lab is published in Journal of Cell Biology !
May 3rd: Shilpa was awarded a University-wide Endowed Presidential Scholarship !
April 13th: Sravan was awarded a Summer Fellowship from the College of Natural Sciences !
March 22nd: Blerta's editorial of the Special Issue on "Biological functions of RNA modifications" is published today in Briefings in Functional Genomics !
March 4th: Our research paper is published in Oncogene ! Congratulations to all authors, especially to co-first authors Calder, Hélène and Nathan !
March 2nd: Our collaborative research paper with the Horner lab is published in Cell Reports !
February 25-26th: Blerta serves on the NIH Cancer Molecular Pathobiology [CAMP] study section !
February 8th: Le Hoang joins the lab !
January 18th: Our review is published in Briefings in Functional Genomics !
January 15th: Calder leaves the lab to work at Prescient HG biopharma strategy firm. We wish him every happiness and success in his exciting new career !
2020
November 16th: Calder defends his PhD thesis !
October 29-30th: Blerta serves as an ad hoc member of the NIH CSR panel, Fellowship Cell Biology, Developmental Biology, and Bioengineering (F05-U) !
October 20th: Blerta gives guest lecture on messenger RNA modifications to incoming graduate students !
September 30th: Blerta gives an invited talk and co-chairs the first session of the virtual Keystone 2020 meeting on "RNA Editing and Modification: From Biology to Therapy" ! It was an amazing experience !!!
September 22nd: Our collaborative paper with the Miller lab was just published in Molecular Cell !
September 1st: Enrique joins the lab !
August 19th: Ellen leaves the lab to start her PhD in Microbiology at UT Austin, we are so excited for her !
August 6th: Blerta is appointed as graduate student advisor for the Cellular and Molecular Biology graduate program !
August 5th: Our collaborative paper with the Horner and Mason labs is posted on bioRxiv !
July 29th: Our collaborative review was just accepted in Essays in Biochemistry !
June 1st: Our lab partially reopens !
May 13th: Sravan passes his prelim exam on Zoom and becomes a PhD candidate !
April 6th: Calder is awarded a Summer Fellowship from our College of Natural Sciences !
March 16th: Our University and lab is in lockdown due to COVID-19 pandemic...
February 18th: Shilpa receives the College of Natural Sciences Second Year Excellence Award !
January 1st: Blerta receives funding from APX for a high risk, high reward project in collaboration with Dr. Yuebing Zheng in Mechanical Engineering !
2019
November 21st: Our collaborative paper was just published in Genes & Development !
November 20th: Dr. Eda Yildirim, from Duke University, visits our lab and department, and gives a fantastic talk on "Regulation of Chromatin Architecture and Transcription by Nuclear Pore Complex Proteins” !
October 22nd: Blerta gives guest lecture on messenger RNA modifications to ICMB graduate students !
October 1st: Shilpa joins the lab !
September 15th: Hélène leaves the lab, we will miss her so much, but wish her best of luck with her life and her career in Biotechnology !
September 6th: Blerta gives talk at the ICMB retreat !
September 4th: Blerta meets with the MBS postdoc association to talk about international science !
September 1st: It is official, Blerta becomes Associate Professor !
August 31st: Margot leaves the lab to continue her Master of Genetics in Paris, we wish her all the best !
July 20th: Sarah leaves the lab after graduating with a BSA in Biology! We wish her all the best with her medical studies!
June 24th: Our paper was accepted in PLOS Genetics ! Congratulations to Calder, Hélène, Nathan and all other authors !
May 24th: Blerta gives invited talk on "Targeting RNA interference in cancer" at the first Texas Chemical Biology Conference !
May 2nd: Blerta is a DoD YIP Info Session “Ask Us Anything” panelist !
April 24th: Sravan joins the lab for his PhD !
April 16th: Our paper was accepted in JoVE !
April 9th: Dr. Rachel Green visits our Department, and gives talk on "Insights into Translation Elongation Regulation from High Resolution Profiling” !
April 1st: Margot joins the lab !
February 15th: Blerta just heard the wonderful news that her application for promotion to associate professor and tenure was approved !
February 4th: Sravan rejoins the lab as a rotation student !
January 16th: Samantha, our lab's first PhD student, leaves the lab to start her dream job at 10x Genomics in San Francisco, CA ! We wish her the bright future she deserves !
2018
December 12th: Dr. Yunsun Nam visits our Department, and gives talk on "Chemical Regulation of Functional RNAs" !
December 4th: Samantha defends her PhD thesis with honors !
November 27th: Blerta gives invited talk at the Livestrong Cancer Institutes Research Retreat !
November 19th: Turja joins the lab !
October 19th: Blerta gives invited talk at the Dean's Scholars Friday lunch !
October 10th: Sarah joins the lab !
September 27th: Blerta gives invited talk at the SBBM "Understanding the Epitranscriptome" Symposium in Chile !
September 15th: Blerta gives talk at the EMBO Workshop on piRNAs and PIWI proteins in Montpellier, France !
August 31st: Sravan leaves the lab to start his PhD, we wish him all the best !
August 23rd: Blerta gives tenure talk !
August 20th: Ellen joins the lab !
August 3rd: Paiges finishes her summer fellowship in the lab, we wish her a great senior year at Texas Tech !
July 26th: The plasmids from our Shelton et al. paper are now available on Addgene !
July 18th: Adam leaves the lab to start Medical School, we wish him all the best !
July 10th: Blerta gives invited seminar at Ohio State University College of Medicine in Columbus, Ohio !
May 29th: Paige joins the lab !
April 26th: Samantha is awarded a Graduate School Summer Fellowship !
April 11th: Blerta gives invited seminar at University of Vermont in Burlington, VT !
April 9th: Blerta is awarded an R01 grant from the National Institutes of Health !
March 13th-14th: Blerta serves as an Early Career Reviewer for NIH in San Francisco, CA !
March 12th: Blerta gives invited seminar for the Gene Regulation and Genomics Seminar Series at UT Southwestern in Dallas, TX !
February 26th: Our collaborative paper was accepted in J Biol Chem !
February 5th: Alexia joins the lab !
January 10th: Our paper was just accepted in Cell Reports ! Special congratulations to first author and PhD student, Samantha Shelton !
January 3rd: Adam joins the lab !
2017
November 16th: Blerta gives talk at the "RNA Modifications & Epitranscriptomics" Cold Spring Harbor Asia meeting in Suzhou, China !
August 31st: Mélina leaves the lab to continue her Master of Genetics in Paris, we will miss her and wish her all the best !
August 16th: Blerta gives talk at the Center for Systems and Synthetic Biology !
July 3rd: Blerta gives talk at the Babraham Research Campus in Cambridge, UK !
June 30th: Dr. Eric Miska visits our lab and department !
June 7th-8th: Blerta presents poster at the Nucleic Acids Gordon Research Conference at Biddeford, Maine !
May 5th: Our collaborative paper is published in Angewandte Chemie !
April 3rd: Mélina joins the lab !
March 4th: Samantha presents her work in a selected talk and poster at the Department of Molecular Biosciences annual retreat at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center !
March 1st: Blerta gives talk at the LIVESTRONG Cancer Institutes Basic/Translational Research Retreat !
January 17th: Our paper was just accepted in J Am Chem Soc ! Special congratulations to co-first authors Marvin and Nathan !
2016
December 8th: Blerta gives invited talk at the 38th Asilomar Chromatin, Chromosomes and Epigenetics Conference at Pacific Grove, California !
October 25th: Blerta gives third year review talk at the Departement of Molecular Biosciences !
October 9th: Nathan gives a poster presentation at the Cell Symposium on : Technology. Biology. Data Science at Berkeley !
September 8th: Prof. Ali Shilatifard visits our lab and institute !
September 3rd: Samantha wins best student poster presentation award at the ICMB retreat and presents her work in a short talk !
August 24th: Blerta gives an invited seminar at the Wagoner Center for Alcohol & Addiction Research !
August 17th: Sravan joins the lab !
July 21st: Our review paper is published in Plos Genetics !
July 11th-15th: Blerta gives guest lectures to the first ever class of Dell Medical School on some of her favorite things: RNA world, Epigenetics and the Fundamental dogma of Molecular Biology !
June 22nd: Blerta gives invited talk at the FASEB conference on "Biological Methylation: Fundamental Mechanisms in Health & Disease" and falls in love with Lisbon !
May 5th: Blerta receives Breast Cancer Breakthrough Award from the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program !
April 29th: Calder passes his PhD Candidacy exams too !
April 25th: Samantha passes her PhD Candidacy exams !
March 29th: Blerta co-hosts with Dr. Sharon Dent the Abcam Symposium on "Chromatin, non-coding RNAs and RNAPII regulation in development and disease" and gives an invited talk !
February 18th: Dr. Beat Fierz visits our lab and institute !
February 5th: Blerta gives an invited talk at the Dan L Duncan Comprehensive Cancer Center, Baylor College of Medicine/MD Anderson Cancer Center Joint Symposium !
January 20th-21st: Blerta presents at the Kouzarides lab reunion at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom and meets old and new friends !
2015
October 20th: Blerta gives chalk-talk at the Faculty Discussion Group !
September 1st: Jesús joins the lab !
August 20th: Blerta gives an invited talk at the SGC Symposium on "Epigenetic Methyltransferases; Structure, Mechanism and Inhibition" in Toronto, Canada !
July 10th: Nakul leaves the lab to attend Medical School at Washington University, we will all miss him !
May 31st: Our collaborative paper is published in eLife !
May 22nd: Nakul receives a Dean's Honored Graduates award !!!
April 29th: Calder passes his PhD Candidacy exams too !
April 25th: Samantha passes her PhD Candidacy exams !
March 29th: Blerta co-hosts with Dr. Sharon Dent the Abcam Symposium on "Chromatin, non-coding RNAs and RNAPII regulation in development and disease" and gives an invited talk !
February 18th: Dr. Beat Fierz visits our lab and institute !
February 5th: Blerta gives an invited talk at the Dan L Duncan Comprehensive Cancer Center, Baylor College of Medicine/MD Anderson Cancer Center Joint Symposium !
January 20th-21st: Blerta presents at the Kouzarides lab reunion at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom and meets old and new friends !
2015
October 20th: Blerta gives chalk-talk at the Faculty Discussion Group !
September 1st: Jesús joins the lab !
August 20th: Blerta gives an invited talk at the SGC Symposium on "Epigenetic Methyltransferases; Structure, Mechanism and Inhibition" in Toronto, Canada !
July 10th: Nakul leaves the lab to attend Medical School at Washington University, we will all miss him !
May 31st: Our collaborative paper is published in eLife !
May 22nd: Nakul receives a Dean's Honored Graduates award !!!
April 16th: Nakul is in the spotlight !
February 17th: Calder joins the lab !
2014
December 5th: Blerta finishes her first BIO344 teaching !
November 11th: Samantha gives short talk at the RNA & DNA club !
September 15th: Hélène joins the lab !
September 1st: Nathan joins the lab !
August 31st: Solène leaves the lab to continue her Master of Genetics in Paris, we wish her all the best !
July 17th: Our collaborative paper is published in Analytical Chemistry !
May 2nd: Blerta gives a talk at the Abcam Conference on "Crossing Boundaries: Linking Epigenetics to Metabolism" and wins a selected presentation award !
April 2nd: Blerta receives grant from the Welch Foundation !
April 1st: Solène joins the lab !
January 16th-17th: Blerta attends the TAMEST’s 11th Annual Conference on "The Computational Revolution in Medicine, Engineering & Science" as a protégé of the Texas Academy of Medicine, Engineering & Science !
January 17th: Nakul joins the lab !
2013
December 12th: Blerta presents at the Center for Systems and Synthetic Biology !
December 2nd: Samantha joins the lab !
November 25th: The lab gets highlighted in the Catalyst !
November 8th-9th: Blerta is a judge for the Siemens Competition in Mathematics, Science and Technology !
September 15th: Marvin joins the lab !
September 1st: The XHEMALCE LAB JOURNEY STARTS!!!
2014
December 5th: Blerta finishes her first BIO344 teaching !
November 11th: Samantha gives short talk at the RNA & DNA club !
September 15th: Hélène joins the lab !
September 1st: Nathan joins the lab !
August 31st: Solène leaves the lab to continue her Master of Genetics in Paris, we wish her all the best !
July 17th: Our collaborative paper is published in Analytical Chemistry !
May 2nd: Blerta gives a talk at the Abcam Conference on "Crossing Boundaries: Linking Epigenetics to Metabolism" and wins a selected presentation award !
April 2nd: Blerta receives grant from the Welch Foundation !
April 1st: Solène joins the lab !
January 16th-17th: Blerta attends the TAMEST’s 11th Annual Conference on "The Computational Revolution in Medicine, Engineering & Science" as a protégé of the Texas Academy of Medicine, Engineering & Science !
January 17th: Nakul joins the lab !
2013
December 12th: Blerta presents at the Center for Systems and Synthetic Biology !
December 2nd: Samantha joins the lab !
November 25th: The lab gets highlighted in the Catalyst !
November 8th-9th: Blerta is a judge for the Siemens Competition in Mathematics, Science and Technology !
September 15th: Marvin joins the lab !
September 1st: The XHEMALCE LAB JOURNEY STARTS!!!