Happy #MitoAwarenessWeek!
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1st European PhD and Postdoc Symposium
Last week, the Quintana lab attended the 1st European PhD and Postdoc Symposium held in the beautiful, Pompeian Style, Palauet Casades in Barcelona, Spain. The international event was possible through the ENABLE (European Academy for Biomedical Science) initiative, part of the European Union Horizon 2020, for young researchers in Life Sciences. It was a very successful initiative with more than 250 participants of 26 different countries.
The 3-day symposium was (amazingly!!) organized by PhD students and Postdocs from four European centers, and was aimed at promoting excellence in the Biomedical Sciences in Europe as well as at fostering collaborations with industry and engagement with society. In addition to the outstanding scientific lectures, we could benefit from the top-level Masterclasses given by established researchers as well as the informal Career Chats with professionals, to learn about different career paths outside the bench. We also enjoyed the interesting Workshops on useful topics such as “Setting Goals & Time Management”, “Intellectual Property” or “Science Communication and Public engagement”.
It has been a very inspiring event… and Pati and Pablo could also show our latest research advances!!
Now the torch has been passed…we are looking forward the next vibrant ENABLE symposium in Copenhagen 2018!!
The wheels are running!
Wow! what a busy time this past year has been!
Many (good) things and (good) news to explain! New members, new papers, exciting science… here you are a picture of the lab just before summer break!
First of all, we are glad to announce three! new additions to the lab: Kelsey, Fabien and Patrizia. (disclaimer: they have already been with us for some months, but hey, I told you we have been really busy!)
Kelsey Montgomery has re-joined the lab as a part-time research technician/MSc student (Bioinformatics). She graduated (BSc. Genetics) from the University of Georgia (2013) and worked at Seattle Genetics (2013-2015) before joining the Quintana lab in Seattle (2015). We are excited to have her with us again on the other side of the pond!
Fabien Menardy (aka Fab) has joined the lab as a postdoctoral fellow and is our resident optogenetics/in vivo electrophysiology expert. Fabien graduated (PhD Neurosciences) from the University of Paris Sud (2012) under the supervision of Dr. Catherine del Negro, where he worked on elucidating neural responses involved in zebra finch vocal communication signaling. After obtaining his PhD, he joined the lab of Dr. Daniela Popa and Dr. Clément Lena, at the École Normal Supérieure, Institut de Biologie (Paris), as a postdoctoral researcher (2013-2016) where he focused on understanding the role of the cerebellum in Parkinson’s Disease. He is now interested in understanding the electrophysiological alterations (and their implications in circuit signal processing) in neurons with mitochondrial dysfunction.
Patrizia Bianchi joined the lab as a postdoctoral fellow and is an expert in mitochondrial dynamics. Patrizia graduated (PhD Biomedicine) from the Universitat de Barcelona (2016) under the supervision of Dr. Aurora Pujol (IDIBELL), where she worked on elucidated the alterations in mitochondrial dynamics in X-linked adrenoleukodystrophy. She is now focusing on characterizing the underlying deficits in mitochondrial dynamics in animal models of Leigh Syndrome.
We are glad to have such talented scientists in the lab!
Last, but not least, and even though there will be other posts providing brief summaries, we are glad to have had two articles recently accepted! Hooray!
Here you are the links, for those interested:
Striatal GPR88 modulates foraging efficiency (Journal of Neuroscience)
Will keep you updated!!