Team Updates: Fall 2022 and Winter 2023 terms
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day-by-day updates, 2014-2022
09 September 2022 The team returns from a retreat at the Shotpouch Cabin in the coastal range followed by time on the central Oregon coast. We're ready for the Fall!
19 August 2022 The team submits a pre-proposal to the Templeton Foundation Cultural Evolution program: The Bodhi Lab: a Transdisciplinary Buddhist Approach to Biological Research Culture. Fingers crossed!
10 August 2022 Join us at the 2022 OSU Contemplative Studies Initiative non-residential retreat focused on nature, connection and tools for well-being. Subi and Dee are co-organizers :)
09 July 2022 The Oregon Seed Council awards the Denver and Mc Donnell labs a new grant to continue research on slug-parasitic nematodes!
05 July 2022 The lab moves to the Coast Range Building while Cordley Hall undergoes renovation for two years. Time to start unpacking!
01 July 2022 Two undergraduates join the team for summer research! Congratulations to Triet Ho on his Summer Undergraduate Research Experience award, and Keoe Hoe for her New Beginnings for Tribal Students internship award!
27 May 2022 Join Dee, Vrushali Bokil, Rebekah Sinclair, and Kameron Kadooka on May 31, 7:00 pm for an author event on the OSU campus (LINC 210) to celebrate the publication of The Dharma in DNA! The event is co-sponsored by the OSU College of Science, Contemplative Studies Initiative, and Grass Roots Bookstore. It is free and open to the public - bring friends and family!
3 May 2022 Congratulations to Max Brune for successfully defending his undergraduate thesis about banana slug genetics: An analysis on the population-genetic structure of Ariolimax columbianus around Corvallis, Oregon. Go Max!
02 Apr 2022 Check out Dee's new website - deedenver org - focused on his book, The Dharma in DNA: Insights at the Intersection of Biology and Buddhism. The book's publication date is 22 Apr 2022, and is available for pre-order at Oxford University Press and other booksellers.
11 Mar 2022 Two new graduate students will join the team in 2022-23! Welcome to Brenna Prevelige from Bucknell University and Jazlee Crowley from Northern Arizona University!
22 Sep 2021 New paper published! Our collaboration with Rory Mc Donnell's team leads to new insights into the host range of Phasmarhabditis hermaphrodita slug-killing nematodes. Check it out here.
25 Aug 2021 The 2021 cohort of Bodhi Tree Project students were selected to give a plenary presentation at the 2021 OSU Summer Undergraduate Research Symposium! They present on Sep 13 at 11:00 - register to watch the group presentation here.
24 Aug 2021 Lex Anderson transitions to pursue a career in clinical mental health. Thank you for spending a year with us - you will be missed!
20 Aug 2021 A pre-proposal is submitted to the Templeton Foundation, in collaboration with Rebekah Sinclair. The project title is: Decolonizing Biodiversity: Infusing Buddhist, Maori, and Native American Epistemologies into Biological Thinking, Research, and Education. Fingers crossed!
15 Jul 2021 Sulochana transitions to an Instructor position in Integrative Biology at OSU. Go Sulochana!
05 Mar 20 Great news - Alexis Anderson was awarded a 2020-21 OSU Graduate Diversity Advancement Fellowship and will join the IB Graduate Program and Denver lab as a PhD student this summer!
11 Jan 20 Congrats to Anton for preparing and presenting a great poster about his slug-parasitic nematode research at the OSU STEM Leaders Research Symposium!
01 Jan 20 Happy New Year! Congratulations to Anh for successfully defending her PhD and transitioning to a postdoc position in the Aylward lab at Virginia Tech!
20 Sep 19 Denver lab shines at the Center for Genome Research and Biocomputing Fall Conference! Anh presented her metagenomic research as a lighting talk, and Rebekah shared the latest on Bodhi tree chloroplast DNA diversity as a poster.
15 Jun 19 Professor Denver begins his sabbatical, performing research in Hawaii, India, New Zealand, and Singapore! See bodhitreeproject.org to learn more about his sabbatical projects!
22 May 19 Sushovita Pal from Purbanchal University in Nepal will join the Denver Lab and the OSU IB graduate program as a PhD student in Fall 2019!
20 May 19 The Kheyntse Foundation, a Buddhist non-profit, awards an Ashoka Grant to our team to further advance the Bodhi Tree Project!
07 May 19 Sulochana leads publication of her first PhD chapter in Frontiers in Microbiology! Her research provides new insights into the evolution of Wolbachia-nematode symbioses. Check it out here.
04 Feb 19 Ian successfully defends his PhD! Dr. Morelan is now off to begin a Research Associate position with the USDA in Davis, CA. He will study the microbiomes associated with wine grapes :)
11 Oct 18 Amanda leads publication of research on Wolbachia - Cardinium dual symbiosis in nematodes!
13 Sep 18 Christina shares her Bodhi tree scientific illustrations at the 2018 OSU Summer Undergraduate Research Symposium. Check out the Lab Photos!
05 Sep 18 Rachel Grant from the University of Edinburgh joins us for a bioinformatics internship!
15 Jul 18 Sulochana presents research posters at the 2018 International Symbiosis Society Congress, and the annual meeting of the Society of Nematologists. Check out the Lab Photos!
16 Jun 18 Dee visits Shenzhen, China for an invited seminar at the Woodenfish Foundation Forum on Buddhism, Science, and the Future.
12 Jun 18 Anh publishes her first PhD chapter in Frontiers in Microbiology. Read about her phage evolutionary genomics research here.
30 Apr 18 Emily, a recent PhD graduate, publishes a paper in Ecology and Evolution on anemone symbiosis and evolution in Panama. Read it here.
15 Nov 17 The Khyentse Foundation awards an Ashoka grant to advance the Bodhi Tree Project!
01 Nov 17 The Denver and Estes labs team up again for a new paper in Genome Biology and Evolution about adaptive evolution under extreme drift!
16 Aug 17 Dee returns from Sri Lanka with dozens of Bodhi tree leaves to study!
01 Jun 17 Emily successfully defends her PhD! Congratulations to Dr. Bellis!!!
20 Apr 17 Ian is selected as a Fulbright US Student scholar! He will work in Norway next year on a microbial ecology project. News story here.
01 Feb 17 The lab is awarded an Agricultural Research Foundation grant to study the genetic diversity and distribution of Wolbachia symbionts in nematodes. Woot!
18 Nov 16 Emily awarded a grant from the Coral Reef Alliance to answer this question:
'What is the probability that reef-building corals can adapt to rising temperatures by the year 2100?' Go Emily!
15 Nov 16 Our discovery of Wolbachia endosymbionts in plant-parasitic nematodes as a potential new biocontrol strategy makes the news! Read it here.
17 Oct 16 Amanda leads a paper reporting on the evolutionary genomics of Wolbachia endosymbionts in plant-parasitic nematodes! Read it here.
15 Sep 16 Serendipity! Ross, Estes, and Denver labs team up on Molecular Biology and Evolution paper reporting unexpected paternal transmission of mitochondrial DNA in C. briggsae. Read it here
09 Sep 16 New insights into mitochondrial genome evolution published with Zasada lab in BMC Genomics! Article here.
04 Aug 16 Denver lab and Zasada lab team up for an Opinion piece on Genome Skimming in PLoS Pathogens! Read it here.
28 Jul 16 Denver lab has a pool party to celebrate Amanda's new position as an Assistant Professor at Texas Tech University!
26 Jul 16 Alex gets a job with Quantapore, a next-generation DNA sequencing company in San Francisco!
21 Jul 16 Sulochana wins a Bayer Student Travel Award at the SON meeting!
17 Jul 16 Dee, Dana, and Sulochana visit Montreal for the GLOBAL collaboration meeting and joint annual meeting of the Society of Nematologists and Organization of Nematologists from Tropical America!
02 Jul 16 Amanda travels to Australia to participate in the Wolbachia Conference, and the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution Meeting!
02 Jun 16 Riana successfully defends her PhD and transitions to a job at the University of Washington!
30 May 16 Ian wins an Oregon Sea Grant Mamie L. Markham Endowment grant to study microbiomes in coastal sea anemones!
29 May 16 Ian wins a MCB Collaboration Catalyzer award!
25 May 16 Ian passes his oral qualifying exam!
13 Apr 16 Riana leads publication of a Frontiers in Genetics paper about the evolutionary and transmission dynamics of mitochondrial DNA mutations in oxidatively stressed C. elegans!
15 Mar 16 Anh and Sulochana are each awarded OSU Zoology Research Fund awards!
29 Feb 16 Emily leads publication of a BMC Genomics paper about the population genetics and evolution of Aiptasia anemone genomes!
01 Feb 16 Dee coauthors a Nature Genetics paper about the evolutionary genomics of parasitism in the Strongyloides clade of animal-parasitic nematodes!
17 Jan 16 Dee visits Jackson Hole, WY and Pocatello, ID to launch the new GLOBAL Collaboration on potato cyst nematode genomics!
14 Sep 15 Dana wins the OSU College of Science Outstanding Faculty Research Assistant Award!
14 Sep 15 Dee visits the University of Miami for a seminar about Buddhism and Biology!
01 Sep 15 Amanda leads publication of a Genome Biology and Evolution paper focused on the evolutionary genomics of symbiosis in Xiphinema americanum plant-parasitic nematodes!
13 Jul 15 Denver lab welcomes DNA Biology and Bioinformatics STEM camp middle school students!
04 Jun 15 McKinley Smith passed her Honors thesis defense!
17 Apr 15 Amanda Brown awarded an American Association of University Women Postdoctoral Fellowship!
22 Jan 15 Emily Weiss passed her oral qualifying exam - woo hoo!
23 Dec 14 Reid Edlund awarded a URISC grant to study the evolution of symbiosis in Aiptasia!
- Subi successfully defended her MS in Integrative Biology and transitions to a new Contemplative Coordinator role with the lab!
- Dana and Dee coauthor a 2023 article in Agronomy about slug-associated nematodes in the mid-Atlantic!
- Dee provided another successful offering of BI 175: Genomes, Identities, and Societies with the OSU Difference, Power and Discrimination program. Brenna and Jazlee were awesome TAs!
- Jazlee and Brenna become the first lab trainees to integrate a graduate-level Buddhist philosophy course into their graduate programs of study!
- A great new cohort of Bodhi Tree Project students join the lab through the OSU Undergraduate Research, Scholarship, and the Arts Program!
- Emily Taylor, 2022 BS in Biology from Iowa State University, will join the lab in Fall 2023 as a new graduate student!
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day-by-day updates, 2014-2022
09 September 2022 The team returns from a retreat at the Shotpouch Cabin in the coastal range followed by time on the central Oregon coast. We're ready for the Fall!
19 August 2022 The team submits a pre-proposal to the Templeton Foundation Cultural Evolution program: The Bodhi Lab: a Transdisciplinary Buddhist Approach to Biological Research Culture. Fingers crossed!
10 August 2022 Join us at the 2022 OSU Contemplative Studies Initiative non-residential retreat focused on nature, connection and tools for well-being. Subi and Dee are co-organizers :)
09 July 2022 The Oregon Seed Council awards the Denver and Mc Donnell labs a new grant to continue research on slug-parasitic nematodes!
05 July 2022 The lab moves to the Coast Range Building while Cordley Hall undergoes renovation for two years. Time to start unpacking!
01 July 2022 Two undergraduates join the team for summer research! Congratulations to Triet Ho on his Summer Undergraduate Research Experience award, and Keoe Hoe for her New Beginnings for Tribal Students internship award!
27 May 2022 Join Dee, Vrushali Bokil, Rebekah Sinclair, and Kameron Kadooka on May 31, 7:00 pm for an author event on the OSU campus (LINC 210) to celebrate the publication of The Dharma in DNA! The event is co-sponsored by the OSU College of Science, Contemplative Studies Initiative, and Grass Roots Bookstore. It is free and open to the public - bring friends and family!
3 May 2022 Congratulations to Max Brune for successfully defending his undergraduate thesis about banana slug genetics: An analysis on the population-genetic structure of Ariolimax columbianus around Corvallis, Oregon. Go Max!
02 Apr 2022 Check out Dee's new website - deedenver org - focused on his book, The Dharma in DNA: Insights at the Intersection of Biology and Buddhism. The book's publication date is 22 Apr 2022, and is available for pre-order at Oxford University Press and other booksellers.
11 Mar 2022 Two new graduate students will join the team in 2022-23! Welcome to Brenna Prevelige from Bucknell University and Jazlee Crowley from Northern Arizona University!
22 Sep 2021 New paper published! Our collaboration with Rory Mc Donnell's team leads to new insights into the host range of Phasmarhabditis hermaphrodita slug-killing nematodes. Check it out here.
25 Aug 2021 The 2021 cohort of Bodhi Tree Project students were selected to give a plenary presentation at the 2021 OSU Summer Undergraduate Research Symposium! They present on Sep 13 at 11:00 - register to watch the group presentation here.
24 Aug 2021 Lex Anderson transitions to pursue a career in clinical mental health. Thank you for spending a year with us - you will be missed!
20 Aug 2021 A pre-proposal is submitted to the Templeton Foundation, in collaboration with Rebekah Sinclair. The project title is: Decolonizing Biodiversity: Infusing Buddhist, Maori, and Native American Epistemologies into Biological Thinking, Research, and Education. Fingers crossed!
15 Jul 2021 Sulochana transitions to an Instructor position in Integrative Biology at OSU. Go Sulochana!
05 Mar 20 Great news - Alexis Anderson was awarded a 2020-21 OSU Graduate Diversity Advancement Fellowship and will join the IB Graduate Program and Denver lab as a PhD student this summer!
11 Jan 20 Congrats to Anton for preparing and presenting a great poster about his slug-parasitic nematode research at the OSU STEM Leaders Research Symposium!
01 Jan 20 Happy New Year! Congratulations to Anh for successfully defending her PhD and transitioning to a postdoc position in the Aylward lab at Virginia Tech!
20 Sep 19 Denver lab shines at the Center for Genome Research and Biocomputing Fall Conference! Anh presented her metagenomic research as a lighting talk, and Rebekah shared the latest on Bodhi tree chloroplast DNA diversity as a poster.
15 Jun 19 Professor Denver begins his sabbatical, performing research in Hawaii, India, New Zealand, and Singapore! See bodhitreeproject.org to learn more about his sabbatical projects!
22 May 19 Sushovita Pal from Purbanchal University in Nepal will join the Denver Lab and the OSU IB graduate program as a PhD student in Fall 2019!
20 May 19 The Kheyntse Foundation, a Buddhist non-profit, awards an Ashoka Grant to our team to further advance the Bodhi Tree Project!
07 May 19 Sulochana leads publication of her first PhD chapter in Frontiers in Microbiology! Her research provides new insights into the evolution of Wolbachia-nematode symbioses. Check it out here.
04 Feb 19 Ian successfully defends his PhD! Dr. Morelan is now off to begin a Research Associate position with the USDA in Davis, CA. He will study the microbiomes associated with wine grapes :)
11 Oct 18 Amanda leads publication of research on Wolbachia - Cardinium dual symbiosis in nematodes!
13 Sep 18 Christina shares her Bodhi tree scientific illustrations at the 2018 OSU Summer Undergraduate Research Symposium. Check out the Lab Photos!
05 Sep 18 Rachel Grant from the University of Edinburgh joins us for a bioinformatics internship!
15 Jul 18 Sulochana presents research posters at the 2018 International Symbiosis Society Congress, and the annual meeting of the Society of Nematologists. Check out the Lab Photos!
16 Jun 18 Dee visits Shenzhen, China for an invited seminar at the Woodenfish Foundation Forum on Buddhism, Science, and the Future.
12 Jun 18 Anh publishes her first PhD chapter in Frontiers in Microbiology. Read about her phage evolutionary genomics research here.
30 Apr 18 Emily, a recent PhD graduate, publishes a paper in Ecology and Evolution on anemone symbiosis and evolution in Panama. Read it here.
15 Nov 17 The Khyentse Foundation awards an Ashoka grant to advance the Bodhi Tree Project!
01 Nov 17 The Denver and Estes labs team up again for a new paper in Genome Biology and Evolution about adaptive evolution under extreme drift!
16 Aug 17 Dee returns from Sri Lanka with dozens of Bodhi tree leaves to study!
01 Jun 17 Emily successfully defends her PhD! Congratulations to Dr. Bellis!!!
20 Apr 17 Ian is selected as a Fulbright US Student scholar! He will work in Norway next year on a microbial ecology project. News story here.
01 Feb 17 The lab is awarded an Agricultural Research Foundation grant to study the genetic diversity and distribution of Wolbachia symbionts in nematodes. Woot!
18 Nov 16 Emily awarded a grant from the Coral Reef Alliance to answer this question:
'What is the probability that reef-building corals can adapt to rising temperatures by the year 2100?' Go Emily!
15 Nov 16 Our discovery of Wolbachia endosymbionts in plant-parasitic nematodes as a potential new biocontrol strategy makes the news! Read it here.
17 Oct 16 Amanda leads a paper reporting on the evolutionary genomics of Wolbachia endosymbionts in plant-parasitic nematodes! Read it here.
15 Sep 16 Serendipity! Ross, Estes, and Denver labs team up on Molecular Biology and Evolution paper reporting unexpected paternal transmission of mitochondrial DNA in C. briggsae. Read it here
09 Sep 16 New insights into mitochondrial genome evolution published with Zasada lab in BMC Genomics! Article here.
04 Aug 16 Denver lab and Zasada lab team up for an Opinion piece on Genome Skimming in PLoS Pathogens! Read it here.
28 Jul 16 Denver lab has a pool party to celebrate Amanda's new position as an Assistant Professor at Texas Tech University!
26 Jul 16 Alex gets a job with Quantapore, a next-generation DNA sequencing company in San Francisco!
21 Jul 16 Sulochana wins a Bayer Student Travel Award at the SON meeting!
17 Jul 16 Dee, Dana, and Sulochana visit Montreal for the GLOBAL collaboration meeting and joint annual meeting of the Society of Nematologists and Organization of Nematologists from Tropical America!
02 Jul 16 Amanda travels to Australia to participate in the Wolbachia Conference, and the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution Meeting!
02 Jun 16 Riana successfully defends her PhD and transitions to a job at the University of Washington!
30 May 16 Ian wins an Oregon Sea Grant Mamie L. Markham Endowment grant to study microbiomes in coastal sea anemones!
29 May 16 Ian wins a MCB Collaboration Catalyzer award!
25 May 16 Ian passes his oral qualifying exam!
13 Apr 16 Riana leads publication of a Frontiers in Genetics paper about the evolutionary and transmission dynamics of mitochondrial DNA mutations in oxidatively stressed C. elegans!
15 Mar 16 Anh and Sulochana are each awarded OSU Zoology Research Fund awards!
29 Feb 16 Emily leads publication of a BMC Genomics paper about the population genetics and evolution of Aiptasia anemone genomes!
01 Feb 16 Dee coauthors a Nature Genetics paper about the evolutionary genomics of parasitism in the Strongyloides clade of animal-parasitic nematodes!
17 Jan 16 Dee visits Jackson Hole, WY and Pocatello, ID to launch the new GLOBAL Collaboration on potato cyst nematode genomics!
14 Sep 15 Dana wins the OSU College of Science Outstanding Faculty Research Assistant Award!
14 Sep 15 Dee visits the University of Miami for a seminar about Buddhism and Biology!
01 Sep 15 Amanda leads publication of a Genome Biology and Evolution paper focused on the evolutionary genomics of symbiosis in Xiphinema americanum plant-parasitic nematodes!
13 Jul 15 Denver lab welcomes DNA Biology and Bioinformatics STEM camp middle school students!
04 Jun 15 McKinley Smith passed her Honors thesis defense!
17 Apr 15 Amanda Brown awarded an American Association of University Women Postdoctoral Fellowship!
22 Jan 15 Emily Weiss passed her oral qualifying exam - woo hoo!
23 Dec 14 Reid Edlund awarded a URISC grant to study the evolution of symbiosis in Aiptasia!
