Happy Halloween! 🎃 We are celebrating Yaffe lab style, with some tricks (Tiffany's cool data) and treats (candy and donuts) 🍬

Prost! 🍻 October isn't truly over in the lab until we go out and celebrate Oktoberfest! 🇩🇪

Check out one of the most recent articles from @MIT news, in which they interviewed our very own UROP Charvi Sharma about her research in the lab and her experience as a Course 6-7 major:

news.mit.edu/2023/giving-st…

You can check out Alex's work done with @BertKooij and @haicovanattikum here:

nature.com/articles/s4146…

Question 3: If you could be any lab instrument, what would it be and why?

The PCR machine (including a tube of NEB HiFi/Gibson Assembly Mix and Q5 Polymerase). Q5 is a cheat code and Gibson Assembly is an incredibly powerful tool that has enabled my research to happen.

Question 2: What is your favorite Yaffe lab memory?

Our lab Octoberfest outing to enjoy some german beer and food.

...employing these new tools to define the complex cellular signaling cross-talk that happens at a DSB in order to ensure proper repair and DNA integrity.

Question 1: What is the tl;dr of your project in the lab?

My project aims to study DNA DSB signaling with multicolor fluorescent reporter systems. It has involved everything from the design, engineering, and optimization of fluorescent reporter systems, all the way to...

Happy Friday science twitter! The official™️ Yaffe lab social media manager went on a brief hiatus to do experiments, but we are back with another Friday profile! This week, we caught up with Alex Kruswick, a PhD student

New pre-print from the lab! Fanconi anemia proteins not only repair DNA interstrand crosslinks, but also DNA double-strand breaks. Great work by @BertKooij, Fenna van der Wal, in collaboration with @marcelvanvugt, @altmeyerlab and @LabYaffe!
biorxiv.org/content/10.110…

You can read all about Jesse's work here:

cell.com/cell-systems/f…

aacrjournals.org/cancerres/arti…

Question 3: If you could be any lab instrument, what would it be and why?

The deconvolution microscope, because it readily generates beautiful images and the math behind it is really quite amazing.

Question 2: What is your favorite Yaffe lab memory?

Seeing my work contribute to the initiation of a clinical trial, and then being able to meet one of the patients that was on the clinical trial.

interested in including Plk1 inhibitors combined with the antiandrogen abiraterone acetate (zytiga) or combined with drugs that target microtubule polymerization.

Question 1: What is the tl;dr of your project in the lab?

Most of my work has been on identifying drug combinations that synergistically kill cancer cells with an emphasis on combo’s that include inhibitors of the mitotic kinase Plk1.  There are two combinations we are...

For the sake of gender balance, up next for a #Yaffelab Friday profile is our own @Jpatterson____, who is a research scientist in the lab!

Tune in next week for another profile! Robin will be applying to Ph.D. programs in the fall - she is an amazing scientist, and we can't wait to see where she lands!

Question 3: If you could be any lab instrument, what would it be and why?

A cell sorter. I've used them a lot and it still blows my mind that they can do what they do.

Question 2: What is your favorite Yaffe lab memory?

Our lab outings to State Park!

Question 1: What is the tl;dr of your project in the lab?

My main project is investigating the role of DNA repair pathways in the response to chemotherapies in ovarian cancer. I also help Jesse with his projects and helped a previous grad student with an in vivo CRISPR screen.