​Two of our genome editors, Helen Rueckert and Ralph (Casey) St. Luce, are about to hang up their DNA pens for a while. Ralph joined our lab as a sophomore back in spring of 2016 and has contributed to several projects, but his lasting legacy will be in epitope tagging of tbx20.  Helen joined our lab for both semesters of her senior year after summer research in Ireland and has worked on mutagenesis of the aldh1a2 gene. Before the Temple Biology Poster session where the photos below were taken, they did a nice job cleaning up on the awards front as well: Helen received the Dr. Nina W. Hillman Memorial Award and Ralph received the AMP Award for Research. Ralph is will pursue his MD degree at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, while Helen will take a gap year before – you guessed it – applying to Medical School as well. Both are going to make terrific doctors one day!

Congratulations to our alumni Nicole Lester and Rachel Paul for matching with their #1 choices for Genetic Counseling MS programs! Nicole graduated from Temple University in 2014, and her undergraduate research was on testing human enhancers in zebrafish, while Rachel is a 2017 graduate who worked on fli1a/fli1b double mutants.