This week the report on the sequencing of the Aiptasia genome was published in PNAS. Congrats to Sebastian on this nice piece of work and crucial resource for the growing Aiptasia community!
Summer BBQ with the Holstein lab
To celebrate the Heideberg summer, Thomas Holstein invited his lab and us for a BBQ in his beautiful garden in the Heidelberg Altstadt. The unique setting was accompanied by amazing wines from the Pfalz and Banyuls as well as with tasty food including a fantastic selection of Italian antipasti, German meats and French cheese. And let´s not forget about the deserts!
Guest researcher from KAUST visiting the lab
Sebastian Baumgarten from the Voolstra lab at KAUST has arrived to spend some weeks with us in the lab. It´s going to be great science and lots of fun:-)
Field Trip to Okinawa: Coral Spawning 2015
From the 24th of May until the 20th of June, the Guse lab including Liz, Madeline, Iliona, Natascha and myself went to Okinawa Japan to join the Masayuki Hatta lab (Ochanomizu University), the Minagawa lab and the Ueno Lab (NIBB Okazaki) at Sesoko Marine Station on Okinawa to collect coral larvae for comparative field studies in different areas coral biology. All participants shared a lab at Sesoko station to rear coral larvae and perform experiments. Coral spawning was predicted to occur bon the 3rd of June. Unexpectedly, spawning occurred already on the 31st of May. Luckily, we had arrived a early enough to witness this impressive annual event. Please check out the images below for some impressions of our trip. Our trip was generously supported by the Excellence-Initiative of Heidelberg University.
SESOKO MARINE STATION:
THE GROUP:
COLLECTION SITES:
COLLECTED CORALS IN WATERTABLES
THE NIGHT OF SPAWNING
THE DAY AFTER SPAWNING: CORAL GAMETES WERE WASHED TO SHORE
FIELD WORK FUN
Philipp Voss joins the lab!
Philipp joins the Guse lab to start his PhD as a member the new Graduate Research Training Group: Evolutionary Novelty & Adaptation – from Molecules to Organisms. This Graduate Training Group is funded by the Baden-Württemberg Landesgraduiertenförderung and unites nine diverse research groups at Heidelberg University and Karlsruhe Institute of Science and Technology (KIT) with a common interest in evolutionary, developmental and cell biology as well as ecology. Together with Philipp, eight new PhD students will start their PhD projects in 2015 within this program.
DARWIN 2.0: NEW TOOLS TO GO THROUGH TIME
We are happy to announce the COS Symposium 2015! The biannual COS Symposium takes place on the 17th of June at the Bertalanffy Lecture Hall and will feature an international list of speakers that will “take us through time” by covering many aspects of evolutionary biology at different time scales using a diverse array of tools and emerging model systems as depicted on the poster. Free registration is open until the June 3rd.
Thinking Hands Workshop – new ways to visualize our science
On September the 26th, the workshop “Thinking Hands” was held in the Guse Lab. It was lead by Stephanie Guse, an artist living in Vienna, and Katrin Funcke , a freelance illustrator living in Berlin. This one-day workshop focused on teaching us visual means such as graphics, illustrations and collages to visualize scientific content with an emphasize on collaboration by working together on the same piece and by adding into each others drawings. We also tried to make our particular research interests understandable to non-scientists by breaking down our scientific questions into their most basic aspects. After one day of hard work and lots of fun, we produced a series of images that represent very well our science: Thinking Hands
For some impressions of the day, check out the pictures below:
The state of the lab in September 2014
But who is who?
Awards & Summer BBQ
July was an exciting month in the Guse Lab. Iliona was selected to get the 2014 award of the Dr. Alexander and Dr. Rosemarie-Stiftung. Each year, this award supports the career development of one young scientist undertaking a PhD in the areas of biology or chemistry at Heidelberg University by sponsoring a stay in another lab of the awardees choice. Iliona will take her award money to visit the John Pringle lab at Stanford University.
Moreover, Desiree got her BSc degree awarded and can soon start her MSc studies. Congratulations to both of you!
After so many awards, the Guse Lab embarked on a little trip to Ziegelhausen for a chilled summer BBQ with burgers and a couple of drinks…
Iliona & Desiree with their certificates
Lab BBQ in Ziegelhausen
Lab BBQ in Ziegelhausen
Iliona visits the Hatta lab in Japan
In June, Iliona left Heidelberg to visit the Masayuki Hatta lab at Ochanomizu University in Tokyo, Japan. Under the kind guidance of Masayuki, Iliona learned how to work with coral larvae, how to induce metamorphosis and how to handle settled coral polyps. Her trip was a great success and paved the way to our planned comparative field work during the next spawning season in 2015. Thanks again to Masayuki Hatta for all his help!
