2018 wrap up

As 2018 comes to an end, I am going to be out of office the rest of the month. It’s been a busy year, probably the busiest since starting this lab. thanks are due to my students (and former members) of the lab as we pushed on through some setbacks and limited resources at times.

I’ll use this opportunity to reflect on some significant things this year

New people

We were joined this year by Ph.D student James Alfieri. We also welcomed several undergraduate researchers who are working various project in the lab: Jarred, Grace, Lauren, Lisa, Reina, Savannah, Elizabeth, Dani and Chris.

Missed but not forgotten

Two lab members left the lab and moved on in 2018. Charlotte Heike (postdoc) moved on to take a position at the office of biosafety at TAMU. Kubra Zozik (MS) graduated and will be starting a Ph.D position in the fall.

Research, papers, and presentations

This was a busy (and sometimes frustrating) year for research in our lab. We continued our progress on wooden breast genomics, and new analyses (by Shawna) promises to provide new insights. Analyses (and reanalysis) of existing data was a major theme this year in preparation of manuscripts and proposals.

Writing and submitting proposals for funding used up a whopping 426 hours of my time just in the summer months. Our manuscripts in review suffered frustrating delays with reviewers. The less said about that, the better.

All my student presented last year at a major national/international conference. One of them (Travis) even won first place the student competition, so things going well there.

Moolah!

Yes, still waiting for the greenest of green $$. Some success in the form of USDA Animal Health funds keeping us moving forward.

Good times