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 Michael Welte will receive the 6th annual Alberta Gotthardt and Henry Strage Award for Aspiring Young Science Faculty. The award ceremony and lecture will be held June 9, 2004, at 3 p.m. in Abelson 131.
Lab meeting for May/June will be held Thursdays at 10 a.m. in the 3rd
floor conference room
Graduate student Kim Dae-Hwan joins the lab
Graduation party for Sushrut Jangi, Eric Maklan, David Lieberman, and Omar Kamal
Four of our seniors graduate from college:
Sushrut Jangi
Omar Kamal
David Lieberman
Eric Maklan
Two of our graduating seniors pursued senior research and wrote senior theses, for which both of them received highest honors:
Sushrut Jangi "Molecular analysis of klar alleles"
Eric Maklan "Characterization of Halo-like 3 and 5 embryonic expression"
Two of our seniors defend their senior theses:
Sushrut Jangi: "Molecular analysis of klar alleles"
Eric Maklan: "Characterization of Halo-like 3 and 5 embryonic expression"
Sophomore Ankit Jain receives a fellowship from the Undergraduate Research Program (URP) to pursue summer research in the Welte lab.
Brandeis Fly Fest 4/30/04
The Hall lab will present.
Molecular Genetics Journal Club 4/26/04
Claudio Pikielny from Dartmouth Medical School will present his work on "Chemosensory B proteins and pheromone response in Drosophila"
At the Annual Drosophila conference in Washington, D.C., Michael Welte gave a talk about our new work on how the lipid-droplet associated protein LSD2 modifies transport of embryonic droplets. Yi Guo and Susan Tran presented posters on Klar and Halo, respectively.
First year graduate student Jennifer Greenberg starts her rotation project.
Undergraduates Ankit Jain, Sean Cotton and Steven Shamah join the lab as lab assistants.
Brandeis Fly Fest 2/20/04
Jennifer Mehren and Aki Ejima from the Griffith lab will talk about learning and sensory processing of pheromonal cues
Molecular Genetics Journal Club 1/5/04
Susan Tran and Flavia Sousa from the Welte lab present two research papers about "Unconventional behavior of 'conventional' myosin - unexpected roles for myosin II during Drosophila development"
First year graduate students Luke Riservato and Kim Dae-Hwan start their rotation projects.
Molecular Genetics Journal Club 1/12/04
Paul Garrity from MIT speaks about sensory neuron positioning and sensory behavior in Drosophila
Weekly lab meetings for the spring semester will be on Thursday at 2 p.m. in the 3rd floor lunch room of the Rosenstiel Center.
Brandeis fly fest
Yi Guo and Michael Welte present ongoing research in the Welte lab
December 2
Kosow super group meeting
Kosow room #207
Michael Welte will present "Voyage to the center of the embryo: a directionality determinant for microtubule-based transport"
We will present a poster on our ongoing analysis of the directionality determinant Halo at the meeting of the American Society of Cell Biology in San Francisco.
Eva Nokes, a first year graduate student, joins our lab for her second rotation.
Graduate student Yi Guo presents a talk at the Second Annual Brandeis Graduate Research Symposium (11/23/03).
Invited speaker, Joint Biochemistry/Biology seminar, William M. Saxton, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN: "Making things move in oocytes and neurons: A whale of a problem."
Natasha Levin joins the lab as research technician.
Invited speaker, Molecular Genetics Journal Club, Yashi Ahmed, Dartmouth Medical School, Hanover, NH; "A Fly Eye's View of the APC Tumor Suppressor".
 Our paper on the new directionality determinant Halo is published in
Current Biology and is featured on the cover (click image at right for larger view).
Suvi Jain, a first year graduate student, begins
her first rotation in our lab.
Flavia Sousa, previously at UMass Boston, joins
the lab as our new Postdoctoral
Fellow.
Undergraduate Dave Lieberman starts doing research
in the lab.
Weekly lab meetings for Fall semester:
Thursdays at 2:30pm
Rosenstiel 3rd floor conference room
Gordon Conference "Motile and Contractile Systems", New London, NH. Michael Welte is invited to talk on how Halo determines the directionality of lipid droplet transport.
Postdoctoral positions available immediately.
Undergraduate Dave Lieberman, a sophomore, joins
the lab as Lab Assistant.
Brandeis Fly Fest 6/27/03
Sumana Datta (Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics,
Texas A&M University), "Neuroblast division in the
larval CNS: proteoglycans, Hedgehog and Bnl signaling".
Weekly lab meetings for the
summer:
Fridays at 1:30 p.m.
Rosenstiel 3rd floor conference room
Irene Beaupré graduates, senior thesis "Green eggs
(no ham)",
will attend the Ph.D. program at the University of Pennsylvania.
Graduate student Susan Tran joins the lab.
Three undergraduates receive fellowships for their summer research:
Sushrut Jangi - Howard Hughes Summer Research Fellowship, Eric
Maklan - Undergraduate Research Program (URP), Omar Kamal -
Posse Foundation.
Brandeis Fly Fest 5/2/03
Scott Waddell (University of Massachusetts Medical School)
talked about his work on neuropeptides, mushroom bodies and
memory in Drosophila.
Brandeis Biochemistry/Biophysics retreat, May 21 and 22
Graduate student Yi Guo gives a talk on Halo, a regulator of
transport directionality.
Brandeis Fly Fest 5/23/03
Postdoc Matthias Soller (White lab) presents his work on Elav
and regulation of alternative splicing in neurons.
Invited speaker, Molecular Genetics journal club: Anil G. Cashikar, Whitehead
Institute, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, "Mechanism of protein disaggregation
by Hsp104".
Annual Drosophila Research Conference in Chicago: Graduate student Yi
Guo presents a poster on her work on Klarsicht. Michael Welte presents a platform
talk on a directionality determinant for droplet transport.
Our Lab Assistants, Natasha Kapoor and David Nugent, began doing fly research
with us.
Invited speaker, Welte Lab Meeting: Joseph Gindhart, University of Massachusetts
Boston, presented his work on kinesin interacting proteins and axonal transport.
David Nugent, a sophomore, joins the lab as a Lab Assistant.
We presented a poster on Kraig Kumfer's genetic screen on regulators
of organelle transport at the meeting of the American Society of Cell
Biology in San Francisco.
Natasha Kapoor, a sophomore, joins the lab as a Lab Assistant.
Invited speaker, Joint Biochemistry/Biology seminar series: William Theurkauf from the University of Massachusetts Medical Center, "Regulating centrosome
function and spindle assembly in response to genotoxic stress".
Lab outing: Apple picking in
Berlin, Mass.
A chance to observe our favorite organism in its natural environment.
Brandeis Fly Fest
10/17/02
A presentation by William M. Gelbart of Harvard University and Flybase:
"Accessing Insect Genomic and Genetic Databases"
Program
Project Grant from the National Institute
of Neurological Disorders and Stroke to study the interaction between
genes and behavior.
-- This five-year grant will support collaborative projects in the laboratories
of six members of the biology department at Brandeis University: Michael Rosbash,
Jeffrey Hall, Kalpana White, Leslie Griffith, Piali Sengupta, and Michael Welte.
Brandeis Fly Fest
9/24/02
The first of a series of monthly meetings of the Brandeis fly groups.
-- An opportunity to get to know the other people at Brandeis working with
Drosophila
Learn techniques, make friends, eat munchies!
Molecular Genetics Journal Club
9/23/02
Yi Guo & Michael Welte: "Targeting microtubule motors to membranes"
References:
- Klopfenstein DR, Tomishige M, Stuurman N, Vale RD. "Role
of phosphatidylinositol(4,5)bisphosphate organization
in membrane transport by the Unc104 kinesin motor." Cell
109(3):347-58 (2002)
- Muresan V, Stankewich MC, Steffen W, Morrow JS, Holzbaur
EL, Schnapp BJ. "Dynactin-dependent, dynein-driven
vesicle transport in the absence of membrane proteins:
a role for spectrin and acidic phospholipids." Mol
Cell 7(1):173-83 (2001)
Weekly lab meetings for the fall semester:
Mondays at 4:30 p.m.
Rosenstiel 3rd floor conference room
Technicians Maureen Barlow and John
Griner join the lab.
Michael Welte wins a Kimmel
Scholar award from the Sidney
Kimmel Foundation for Cancer Research.
Undergraduate Sushrut Jangi
performing his first lipid experiment in the lab.
Just released: A cartoon
of clearing and clouding in the Drosophila embryo.
Kraig Kumfer will pursue a combined M.D./Ph.D. degree at the University
of Wisconsin, Madison. Senior thesis project: "A Genetic Screen
for Regulators of Microtubule-Based Organelle Transport".
B.S./M.S. student Kraig Kumfer graduates with highest
honors, and wins the Biology Department award for excellence
in research and the Doris Brewer Cohen award.
Graduate student Yi Guo and B.S./M.S. student Kraig Kumfer present posters at the 43rd Annual Drosophila
Research Conference, San Diego.
Visiting scientist: H. Arno Müller,
Institut für Genetik, Heinrich-Heine-Universität
Düsseldorf, Germany; Informal seminar.
Junior Irene Beaupré and Sophomore Omar
Kamal win fellowships from the Undergraduate
Research Program for their summer research projects.
The Center for Complex Systems and Biology Retreat,
Woods Hole.
Michael Welte presents:
"Developmental control of organelle transport:
how fabulous fly fat manages multiple molecular motors".
Our article "Coordination
of opposite-polarity microtubule motors" is
published in the Journal of Cell Biology.
-- In this publication, we provide evidence that in vivo opposing motors on
the same cargo do not simply engage in a tug-of-war, so that the "stronger" ones
win. Instead, motor activity appears carefully regulated.
Basil O'Connor Starter Scholar Research Award from
the March
of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation for Michael Welte.
B.S./M.S. student Kraig
Kumfer is featured in a Brandeis
Review article on undergraduate research (PDF document).
Invited speaker, Molecular
Genetics Journal Club: Gregory Pazour,
University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester,
MA.
"Intraflagellar Transport Defect Causes Retinal Degeneration and Polycystic
Kidney Disease".
Invited speaker, Joint
Biochemistry/Biology seminar series: Eric
Wieschaus, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ.
"Membrane trafficking and changes in the embryonic cytoskeleton at the Drosophila
mid-blastula transition".
Molecular
Genetics Journal Club: Yi Guo & Michael
Welte
"Direct visualization of RNA movement"
References:
- Wilkie, G.S., and I. Davis. 2001. Drosophila wingless
and Pair-Rule Transcripts Localize Apically by Dynein-Mediated
Transport of RNA Particles. Cell. 105:2l09-219
- Cha, B., B.S. Koppetsch, and W.E. Theurkauf. 2001.
In Vivo Analysis of Drosophila bicoid mRNA Localization
Reveals a Novel Microtubule-Dependent Axis Specification
Pathway. Cell. 106:35-46
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