It’s been a while since the last post! (I have a feeling this won’t be the last time that happens…) Let’s attempt to fill in some gaps in the timeline:

Since my last post, the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Our wet lab was shut down for months, and we shifted toward data analysis, planning future experiments, and computational projects. Thankfully we’re now back in action in a careful, socially distanced mode. Despite the challenges of the moment, we’ve managed to see each other in person from time to time:

One of those occasions was when Maryam finished her >2 year tenure with us! :cry: (See photo below – including social-distancing-friendly elbow bumps.) But she’s going on to bigger and better things with the CUNY Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology (MCD) PhD Program. We’ll miss you, Maryam – but at least you won’t be too far away!

On the flip side, we’ve had some fantastic new additions to the lab. First up: Virgil Woods, a new PhD student from the CUNY Biochemistry PhD Program. Second: Yingxian Tan, an undergraduate student from The City College of New York. You can read more about both over on our Members page. Welcome, Virgil and Yingxian!

We are also very excited to begin working with Dr. Ali Ebrahim, currently at Diamond Light Source, on some avant-garde new crystallographic experiments – more to come on our projects together quite soon…

On the science side: in October, Daniel gave a “virtual” talk on our (ongoing!) efforts to develop allosteric small-molecule modulators of PTP1B at the American Chemical Society national meeting. Thanks to our collaborators at Atomwise, you can view it here.

Finally, the lab has published its first multi-author paper on which Daniel is a corresponding author, initially as a bioRxiv preprint but with a peer-reviewed journal article to come soon. Blake did an admirable job shaping this up and getting it out to the world. Check out qFit 3 on GitHub and try it yourself!

We have several other interesting stories cooking right now – so stay tuned for more in the not-too-distant future…