ASCB was fun, invigorating, and exhausting, as always. Amy co-organized a Saturday subgroup: the 5th bi-annual Frontiers in Cytokinesis session. She filled in for an invited speaker who couldn’t make it, with a talk about contractile oscillations in cytokinesis. Later that day, undergraduate Anusha Doshi presented her work in a special poster session for undergraduates. She flew back red-eye that same night to try to beat the snow storm! Michael came in early for the same reason, and arrived in time to celebrate with the Cytokinesis community at a huge happy hour at Tivoli Bar, which boasts being the oldest establishment in San Diego. The event was well-attended and was sponsored by Molecular Devices, Journal of Cell Science, eLIfe, Biochemistry, Nikon, and Zeiss. On Sunday we had a delicious fish taco lab reunion dinner at the South Beach Bar and Grill in Ocean Beach. Daniel was selected to speak in a Minisymposium on Motors organized by Julie Welburn and Michael Ostap. Though he had to wait to speak last, he did a great job! With Jan Skotheim, Amy co-organized a minisymposium that took place Tuesday. Michael wrapped up a well-attended, awesome session with a terrific talk! Discussions continued at a relaxing dinner afterward. Paul and Amy re-connected with the younger set of Salmon lab alumni, and zoomed around town on Lime scooters.

Three of the 11 current undergrads in the lab wrapped up their semester of research for course credit with poster presentations. We are grateful for their contributions!

Amy was honored to be invited to speak in a conference put together by undergraduates in the Molecular Biology Club at Istanbul Technical University. The students were incredibly professional in their hosting of the symposium in a huge, beautiful auditorium. 500 undergraduates from around Turkey registered for the symposium and traveled for this 3-day event. Amy did not know a single one of the 24 other outstanding faculty, hailing from Hong Kong, Japan, Germany, the UK, Spain, Jerusalem, Canada, and other countries! With the students’ attentive help, we shared meals and toured the city, which boasts a population of 15-20 million, and sprawls over the bits of Europe and Asia that meet at the Bosphorus.

Dylan graduated from UNC with a double major in Statistics & Operations Research and Applied Math. He has been working with other Math-Biologists at UNC on macroscopic problems of collective behavior. Now Dylan is working with both live-cell imaging and agent-based modeling to study the cytoskeletal and shape change dynamics of the cytokinetic ring. We’re thrilled to have him on board!

Congratulations to Dr. Rehain-Bell, who defended her thesis work on the differential regulation of actomyosin contractility in stable germline bridges and the dynamic cytokinetic ring, by GCK-1 and CCM-3. She published a paper in Current Biology, a methods piece in Methods in Cell Biology, a preview in Current Biology. Her work on cytokinesis is forthcoming! She TAed, taught, served on committees and trained and coordinated many, many work-study students and rotation students.
Katie immediately started a teaching position at Fayetteville Tech, where the students are sure to love and appreciate her!!
Congrats to Katie on her work, contributions to the community, great presentation, and ceiling-tile champagne-cork dent!
We will miss her!

As of July 1, Michael Werner will hold the post of Research Assistant Professor. Michael received his PhD for work at the IMP in Vienna and at the University of Chicago with Michael Glotzer. Dr Werner then did post-doctoral work first with Robert Bacallao at the IUPUI in Indianapolis, and later with Brian Mitchell at Northwestern University. Michael came to UNC early in 2015 and has worked on cytokinetic shape changes, the structure and regulation of the C. elegans germline syncytium, and the “interactome” of conserved structural proteins. He has become expert at data analysis in Excel and image analysis in Matlab and other programs. He has trained several undergraduate researchers and rotation students, and mentors many colleagues in the Maddox labs and our wider cell and developmental biology community at UNC. Michael has also taught Cell Biology and guest lectured on thesis writing and oral presentations. The Research Assistant Professor position is therefore befitting of his depth of expertise and many meaningful leadership roles.

Together with the labs of Paul Maddox, Bob Goldstein, and Kerry Bloom, we enjoyed a weekend retreat at Sunset Beach, NC. Special guest Sadie Wignall, from Northwestern University spoke on campus on Friday and accompanied us to the beach. Florian Jug from the Max Planck CBG also joined us and regaled us with his work, while down at the beach. We played in the waves, competed in mini-golf, and enjoyed delicious cooking by the lab members.

Vincent Boudreau, a PhD student in the lab of Paul Maddox, and Carlos Patino Descovich, a former member of Amy Maddox’s lab currently a PhD student in Scott Williams’ lab, will be inducted into the Frank Porter Graham Honor Society. The Honor Society (FPGHS) recognizes outstanding service provided to the University and community (https://gradschool.unc.edu/studentlife/fpghs/), and includes a very select group of faculty and graduate students. Vincent and Carlos’ contributions to research science are deeply appreciated by their peers and colleagues. These contributions include research discoveries, computer vision software, and orchestrating conferences including the popular Triangle Cytoskeleton Meeting.

Amy was pleased and proud to receive the news that she’s promoted and tenured! She is grateful to all who provided letters of reference, and to the UNC colleagues who advocated her dossier as it went through the system. Many thanks to the terrific lab members whose exciting discoveries and hard work make it all possible!

Congratulations to dad and mom and proud big sister.