First of all, a big congratulations to trainee Laura Suttenfield, on her successful doctoral defense! Dr. Suttenfield defended her thesis on January 17th in a presentation entitled The Evolution of Transmission Mode of a Temperate Transposable Virus of P. aeruginosa and Its Effects on the Host. A major part of her thesis is a recently released paper in mSystems. The paper, named Editor’s Pick, is entitled Phage-mediated resolution of genetic conflict alters the evolutionary trajectory of Pseudomonas aeruginosa lysogens. Give it a read, and give the new doctor well wishes on her journey to a postdoc at Harvard Med!

UIUC trainee David Vereau Gorbitz (Heath/Vanderpool labs), released his first paper on Biorxiv in October. Titled Plasmid transmission dynamics and evolution of partner quality in a natural population of Rhizobium leguminosarum, this work details his efforts to more deeply understand plasmid populations in a model symbiont. We’re excited to see it in print soon!

Big news from the hive! GEMS researchers Dr. Ed Hsieh (who recently defended his thesis, congratulations Doctor!) and his faculty advisor Dr. Adam Dolezal, recently got a feature from the University of Illinois News Bureau. The article describes their recent manuscript, published in Science of the Total Environment, about methods to bolster bee resilience. Great job, Ed and Adam! And best of luck with your next venture, Doctor!

In October, multiple GEMS trainees traveled to Chicago to help put on a massive outreach event at the Museum of Science and Industry. The event was hosted by the UIUC IGB, with every theme from the IGB contributing to a table of interactive activities and visuals. The IGOH table was designed by Sierra Bedwell with assistance from the IGB Comms team, and trainees Sierra, Jason Zheng, Meghan Blaszynski, Hannah Murray, Allison Megow, and Sierra Raglin volunteered throughout the weekend, talking to the public about their exciting science!