Timeline:

2017

December 8 - Dr. Kiss’s (Dan hereafter) last day as a postdoc in the Schoenberg lab at The Ohio State University.
December 8 - Dan’s FHIT ribosome profiling is accepted for publication at Molecular Cancer (PMID: 29282095).

2018

January 2 - The Kiss RNA Lab is now officially open as the third lab in the Biomarker Research Program at the Houston Methodist Research Institute in Houston, TX.

March 1 - Dan presents his cytoplasmic capping research at the Baylor College of Medicine’s RNA Club in Houston, TX.
March 5 - Dan joins the Houston Methodist RNACore as a consultant and becomes part of the RNA Therapeutics Program.
March 7 - Dan’s FHIT-mediated translational control paper is accepted for publication at BMC Research Notes (PMID: 29540221).
Mid March  – Capital equipment and ordered lab supplies all begin to arrive.

April 5 - Dan presents his FHIT research at the Baylor College of Medicine’s RNA Club in Houston, TX.
April 17 - The lab’s key reagents (cell lines, banked samples, plasmid constructs, etc.) are safely received from the Schoenberg lab.
April 23 - Rolando Alvarado accepts a position as a Research Assistant I.
April 25 - Dan performs the lab’s first experiments.

May 14 - Rolando starts his Research Assistant I position becoming the Kiss RNA Lab’s first member.

May 28 – June 2  - Dan attends & presents a poster on the lab’s cytoplasmic capping work at the 23rd Annual RNA Society Meeting in Berkeley, CA.

August 17 - Rolando presents a poster about the lab’s cytoplasmic capping research at the 6th Annual Houston Methodist Cancer Symposium.

September 4 – 8 - Dan attends & presents a poster on the lab’s cytoplasmic capping work at the Translational Control Meeting in Cold Spring Harbor, NY.

November 16 - The Kiss RNA Lab’s first preprint is live on BioRxive.
November 19 - The Kiss RNA Lab’s first independent paper is submitted to FEBS Letters.

December 3 - Dr. Trinh Tat joins the lab as a Research Associate I.

2019

January 2 - The Kiss RNA Lab joins to the Department of Cardiovascular Sciences as part of the Cardiovascular Regeneration Program.
January 8 - Reviews of the lab’s first paper come in. They are positive and we get started on the reviewer’s suggestions for submitting a revised paper.
January 12 - Dan demonstrates DNA extraction and delivers a talk about being a scientist to a broad audience of kids (elementary to high school) in a Houston neighborhood. The demonstration was organized by STEM-E, a Houston-based non-profit focused on educating kids in STEM disciplines.

February 4 - We submit our revised manuscript.
February 22 - The Kiss RNA Lab’s first independent paper is accepted for publication in FEBS Letters. (PMID: 30810230).
February 27 - The Kiss RNA Lab moves to the 10th floor of the Research Institute. We are now right next door to the RNA Core.

March 1 - Rolando presents a poster at Baylor College of Medicine’s Dan L Duncan Comprehensive Cancer Center’s 16th Annual Symposium in Houston, TX.
March 18 - FEBS Letters Selects the lab’s first paper as an Editor’s Choice article.

April 4 - Dan presents the lab’s ongoing cytoplasmic capping research at the Baylor College of Medicine’s RNA Club in Houston, TX.

June 3 - Dr. Keisha Hardeman joins the lab as a postdoctoral fellow.

July 29 – August 1 - Dan attends the Basic Cardiovascular Sciences 2019 Scientific Sessions sponsored by the American Heart Association in Boston, MA.

August 16 - Dan presents a talk about RNA therapeutics and cancer treatments at the 7th Annual Houston Methodist Cancer Symposium.
August 16 - Dr. Hardeman and Rolando present posters at the 7th Annual Houston Methodist Cancer Symposium.
August 23 – August 24 - The lab attends the Gulf Coast Vascular Research Consortium hosted by Houston Methodist.
August 30 - Dan livestreams a journal club describing the lab’s first paper.

September 26 - Trinh was selected for an Elife-sponsored travel fellowship to present a poster of her research at the 2019 Cold Spring Harbor Genome Informatics meeting.

October 18 - Dan was awarded a Career Development Award by the American Society for Gene and Cell Therapy to pursue the lab’s first RNA therapeutic project.
October 25 - Trinh and Rolando present posters at the 2019 Rustbelt RNA Meeting RRM in Cleveland, OH.
October 26 - Dan presents a talk detailing the lab’s cytoplasmic capping research at the at the 2019 Rustbelt RNA Meeting in Cleveland, OH.
October 28 - Dan gives an invited talk about the lab’s cytoplasmic capping research at the at the Annual Pelotonia Fellowship Symposium in Columbus, OH.
October 30 - Dr. Hardeman participates in the highly selective SACNAS Postdoc Leadership Institute prior to the Annual SACNAS conference in Honolulu, Hi.
October 31 – November 2 - Dr. Hardeman uses a travel fellowship from NCI to attend and present a research talk about her melanoma work at the Annual SACNAS conference in Honolulu, HI.

November 6-9 - Trinh presents a poster of her research at the 2019 Genome Informatics meeting in Cold Spring Harbor, NY.
November 13  – The lab attends the George and Angelina Kostas Research Center for Cardiovascular Nanomedicine’s Sixth Annual International Meeting hosted at Houston Methodist.

2020

February 21 - Dan presents the lab’s ongoing cytoplasmic capping research at the Baylor College of Medicine’s RNA Society-sponsored RNA Salon.
February 25 - Trinh is awarded a travel award by the RNA Society to attend the 25th Annual Meeting of the RNA Society in Vancouver, Canada (the meeting is later canceled due to COVID-19).

March 1 - Dan is featured as a past Pelotonia Research Fellow from his postdoctoral fellowship at The Ohio State university.
March 13 - The lab begins to wind down non-COVID-19 research.
March 20 - The lab joins the RNA Core’s effort to develop an RNA vaccine for COVID-19. We also initiate a project to develop an RNA therapy to treat COVID-19 patients.
March 23 - The first of several COVID-19-caused work from home weeks begins for all members of the lab.
March 30 - The lab is awarded funds from the Houston Methodist Research Institute to develop a new type of RNA vaccine for COVID-19.

April 1 - Dan is the featured postdoc alum in the Ohio State University’s Office of Postdoctoral Affairs.
April 6 - Our COVID-19 projects commence, the rest of the lab’s research resumes in the following weeks as COVID-19 cases dip in Houston.

May 8 - Dr. Hardeman leaves the lab to take a postdoc as a PROVIDES fellow at UT Southwestern in Dallas.

May 26 – June 1 -   The lab (virtually) attends the 25th Annual Meeting of the RNA Society.
May 26 – June 1 -  Trinh’s poster is presented (online) during the Annual Meeting of the RNA Society.

June 11 - Dan serves on an NIH study section for the first time.
June 17 - Dan is awarded a Career Development Award from the American Heart Association to study cytoplasmic capping in endothelial cells.
June 18 – 19 - The lab attends London Calling (online) 2020 hosted by Oxford Nanopore.
June 22 - The Kiss RNA Lab files its first invention disclosure for an RNA therapeutic.

July 1 - Dan’s Career Development Award to study cytoplasmic capping in the cardiovascular system from the American Heart Association begins.
July 17 - 2nd COV-IRT COVID-19 virtual Symposium.
July 27-30 - Dan attends the Basic Cardiovascular Sciences 2020 Scientific Sessions (online) sponsored by the American Heart Association.

August 3 -  Dan receives the official Notice of Award for his R35 grant to study cytoplasmic capping. The Kiss RNA Lab is in business for at least 5 years!
August 7 - The lab attends (virtually) the 8th Annual Houston Methodist Cancer Symposium.
August 15 - The R35 grant to study the molecular mechanisms of cytoplasmic capping officially begins.

September 1-4 - The lab (virtually) attends the Cold Spring Harbor Translational Control Meeting.
September 1-4 - Trinh’s poster is presented (online) during the Cold Spring Harbor Translational Control Meeting.
September 15 & 16 - Dan attends (virtually) the The American Society of Gene & Cell Therapy’s COVID-19 Symposium.

October – December 2020 - Amelia Khoo, an ENMED medical student joins the lab for a rotation project.
October 8-9 - Trinh (virtually) attends the Complex Life of RNA Meeting hosted by EMBL.
October 23-24 - The lab (virtually) attends the 2020 Rustbelt RNA Meeting.
October 25 - Dr. Min Zhang officially joins the lab.
October 29 - Dan is awarded a Career Cornerstone Award by the HMRI for his successful R35 proposal.

November 1 - The lab’s COVID-19 RNA vaccine candidate is featured in the Cardiovascular center’s annual report.
November 9-10 - The lab (virtually) attends the 8th International mRNA Health Conference.
November 11-13 - The lab (virtually) attends the RNA at the Bench and Bedside II conference.
November 13  – Trinh’s book chapter focusing on the m6Am RNA modification is submitted as a preprint to Preprints.org.
November 25  – Trinh’s book chapter focusing on the m6Am RNA modification is accepted for publication in the Springer Nature book Epitranscriptomics.

December - Rolando is promoted to a Research Assistant II. Congrats for all the hard work!

2021

February 1 - Blake Melton joins that lab as an undergraduate researcher/ research technician I.
February 8 - Shaun A. Stevenson joins that lab as an undergraduate researcher/ research technician I.
February 15 – 19 - A deep freeze hits Texas & knocks out power to much of Texas including most parts of Houston. Thankfully, Houston Methodist and all the lab’s samples were spared, but every lab member lost power at home for at least 24 hours, and some of us were out longer.
February 26 - Dan presents the lab’s research to the RNA Society-sponsored RNA Salon at the Baylor College of Medicine.

March 30 - Dan participates in STEM-E‘s Day in the life of a scientist series.

April 5 - Dr. Nada Bejar joins the lab as a postdoctoral fellow. She’ll work on cytoplasmic capping and RNA therapy projects.
April 29 - The lab (virtually) attends the 6th Annual RNA Medicine Symposium, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

May 11, 2021 – May 14 - Min and Dan (virtually) attend The Annual Meeting of the American Society for Gene and Cell Therapy.
May 11 - Dan presents “Construction of circular RNAs to block miRNA-driven oncogenic transformation” as a talk at The Annual Meeting of the American Society for Gene and Cell Therapy.
May 25 – June 4 - The lab (virtually) attends the 26th Annual Meeting of the RNA Society.

June 1 - Shaun’s and Blake’s start their full-time summer lab experience.
Early June - Dan joins the RNA Society’s Membership Committee and begins helping write the Member Spotlight series.
June 7 - NIH sends word that both Shaun’s and Blake’s grant supplements will be funded.

July 1 - Both Blake’s and Shaun’s NIH-funded research projects begin.
July 28 - Minyi Chen joins the lab as a visiting scholar.

Mid August - Blake’s and Shaun’s summer research seasons end and they take well-earned breaks before starting classes.
August 13 - Dan presents “Grant writing as an Early Career Researcher” and is an expert panelist in The American Society for Gene and Cell Therapy’s Career Seminar Series.
August 25 - The lab submits its second research manuscript. A collaborative paper with labs at MD Andersen and UT Health. Rolando (co-first), Nada, and Dan are among the authors.

August, September & October - Several lab members join Houston Methodist’s volunteer initiative for processing plasma/serum samples from COVID-19 patients for the Hospital’s Biorepository Core.

September 10-11 - Dan attends the 2021 Rustbelt RNA Meeting (virtual). In addition, Dan was session chair for the Translational Control Session!

October 18 - The entire lab (virtually) attends the George and Angelina Kostas Research Center for Cardiovascular Nanomedicine Annual International Meeting. Dan is a session co-chair.
October 18 - Dan presents presents a poster detailing Trinh’s work on circular RNAs.
October 18 - Trinh presents a poster detailing her work on PCIF1 and cytoplasmic capping.
October 18 - Nada an Rolando present a poster on the lab’s COVID-19 vaccine candidate.
October 18 - Min presents a poster on her RNA therapy candidate to target transcription factors.
October 18 - Congratulations to Nada and Rolando! Their poster wins second place at the George and Angelina Kostas Research Center for Cardiovascular Nanomedicine Annual International Meeting!
October - Dan and the lab’s work is featured in the Center for RNA Therapeutics video.

November 4 - Nada and Trinh’s review article titled “RNA therapeutics – the next generation of drugs for cardiovascular diseases” is submitted for peer review.
November 7 - Trinh is promoted to a Research Associate II. Congrats!
November 11 - Dan serves as a panelist for the RNA Therapeutics Round Table Workshop as part of the Gulf Coast Consortia (GCC) for Quantitative Biomedical Sciences Innovative Drug Discovery and Development (IDDD) Consortium.
November 24 - A preprint of Nada and Trinh’s review article focusing on RNA therapeutics for the cardiovascular system is submitted to Preprints.org.
Late November - Dan and Min contribute to a book chapter about Hospital-based mRNA therapeutics.
Late November - The lab designs an Omicron-focused COVID-19 vaccine.

December 13 - Rolando and Nada’s paper gets positive reviews. A few changes need to be made, but things are looking good!
December 14 - The book chapter about RNA Therapeutics to which Min contributed is accepted for publication. Congrats Min!
December 14 - Rachel’s grant supplement is submitted to NIH.
December 15 - Dan moves into his new office (now R10-113).
December 17 - The lab attends the Center for RNA Therapeutics and Cardiovascular Regeneration’s joint Holiday party.
December 21 - Minyi successfully defends her thesis in Vienna, Austria. Congratulations Dr. Chen!
Late December - The materials needed for the lab’s Omicron-specific vaccine construct arrive & we begin construction.

2022

January 3 - Dr. Rachel Kieser joins the lab as a postdoctoral fellow. She’ll work on the lab’s cytoplasmic capping project.
January 6 - The preprint for Min’s chapter in the Springer/Nature book titled Messenger RNA Therapeutics goes live.
Mid January - Minyi’s time as a visiting scholar comes to an end. Congrats Minyi, it was great to have you in the lab! Best of luck on your postdoc!
January 25 - Nada and Trinh’s review article titled “RNA therapeutics – the next generation of drugs for cardiovascular diseases” is accepted for publication in Current Atherosclerosis Reports. Congrats Nada and Trinh!

February 1 - We hear that our first collaborative manuscript is provisionally accepted!  Congrats to Rolando (co-first author) and Nada on the paper!  We’ll post a link as soon as we can.
February 9-11 - Members of the lab (virtually) attend the EMBO workshop on the Epitranscriptome.
February 14 - The online early version of the lab’s first collaborative paper is out in Human Molecular Genetics!

March 1 - We hear that Blake and Shaun were jointly awarded an RNA Society Research Presentation Fellowship to present their work as a poster at the 27th Annual Meeting of the RNA Society in Boulder, Colorado in early June! Congrats to both Blake and Shaun!
March 4 - Rolando hears that he’s been accepted to the University of Houston Medical School! CONGRATULATIONS ROLANDO!! Wait, I need to fix that…CONGRATULATIONS to the future Dr. Alvarado!!
March 13 - The lab hears that we’ve been awarded research funds from the Center for RNA Therapeutics Fund which is funded by donations to The Methodist Hospital Foundation.
March 24 - Min welcomes her family’s newest addition! CONGRATULATIONS on Adeline Zhang’s arrival! Enjoy your time with the your little one!

April 1 - Dan presents one of the lab’s RNA therapy projects at the RNA Society-sponsored RNA Salon at the Baylor College of Medicine.
April 2 - Nada and Trinh’s review article “RNA therapeutics – the next generation of drugs for cardiovascular diseases” is officially published in Current Atherosclerosis Reports.

May  – Dan reviews abstracts for SACNAS travel and presentation awards for the Annual Diversity in STEM Conference.
May 12 - Dan serves on a study section evaluating grants for the American Heart Association.
May 18-20 – Members of the lab (virtually) attend Nanopore’s London Calling 2022 conference.
May 20 - We hear that Rachel’s postdoctoral grant supplement from the NIH will be funded! CONGRATS to Dr. Kieser! Here’s to an exciting project and an exciting future!
May 24 - The lab receives the Notice of Award for Rachel’s postdoctoral grant supplement from NIH in record time (4 days! which includes a weekend!).  Congrats again to Dr. Kieser!
May 27 - In a happy (but sad) moment, four years and two weeks after he started in the Kiss RNA Lab, Rolando’s time in the lab comes to an end. Rolando was the the first member of the lab & was a key to many of the lab’s successes.  We’re proud of all your accomplishments & know that you’ll become a fantastic physician.  Work hard in medical school. We will miss you.
May 31 - Four members of the lab (Dan, Trinh, Shaun and Blake) are off to the 27nth Annual Meeting of the RNA Society in Boulder, Colorado.

June 1-5 - Four members of the lab (Dan, Trinh, Shaun and Blake) attend the 27nth Annual Meeting of the RNA Society in Boulder, Colorado.
June 3 - Blake and Shaun present their poster at the 27nth Annual Meeting of the RNA Society in Boulder, Colorado.  Their poster generates alot of traffic and they get fantastic feedback and advice from ~25-30 people.
June 13 - It’s Ms. Tiara Watson’s first day! She’s our new Research Assistant, and will be assisting both Blake and Shaun this summer, with more skills and eventually her own research project afterwards.
June 15 – Dan reviews a grant proposal for the  Medical Research Council in the United Kingdom.
June 19 - CONGRATULATIONS to Trinh as she’s promoted to Program Project Manager in the RNA Core and as part of the Center for RNA Therapeutics. Specifically, she’ll lead innovation in the RNA Core. She’ll continue to give half of her efforts to her projects in the Kiss RNA lab at least through the end of the year.
June 20-24 - Ms. Daniela Azevedo rotates through the lab as part of her experience in the Kadoorie Summer Internship Program for undergraduate students hosted by Houston Methodist.
June 22 - Dan gives a lecture on vaccines in general and RNA vaccines in particular to the students in the Kadoorie Summer Internship Program.
June 23 - Dan’s editorial piece titled EDITORIAL: mRNA Translational Control as a Mechanism of Post-transcriptional Gene Regulation summarizing the special section he and four other professors edited for the journal Frontiers in Molecular Biosciences is published.

July 9-10 - Rachel heads to Maine to attend this year’s Gordon Research Seminar (GRS) on Post-Transcriptional Gene Regulation.
July 10-15 - Rachel attends and presents her poster (a collaboration with the Mukherjee Lab at the Presidency University, Kolkata) at the 2022 Gordon Research Conference on Post-Transcriptional Gene Regulation.
July 25 - It’s the lab’s new Lab manager’s, Ms. Suchitra Sridhar, first day.  Suchitra will be helping across multiple different projects and will help coordinate key aspects of the lab to make things run more smoothly.

August  – Dan reviews abstracts for SACNAS travel and presentation awards for the Annual Diversity in STEM Conference.
August 12 – Blake and Shaun’s full time Summer research experience comes to an end.  They are both taking some deserved time off before they get back to classes for their senior year at TSU.

September 1 – The lab hears that we’ve been awarded a new seed grant by the Rice University and Houston Methodist 2022 Seed Grant Program in Cardiovascular Bioengineering. We will be working with Dr. George J. Lu‘s lab to develop a novel way to encapsulate RNA therapies. We look forward to this new adventure.
September 6-10 – Dan presents the Trinh’s latest results regarding her cytoplasmic capping project as a poster at the Cold Spring Harbor Translational Control meeting.
September 19  – Our newest postdoc, Dr. Shaheerah Khan joins the team.  She’ll be working both on cytoplasmic capping and RNA therapy projects.
September 19-23 – We pack up the lab for its move into our new (and larger!) space. The days of our tiny tissue culture room are almost over!
September 26-28 – The lab move into the newly-renovated space designated for the Center for RNA Therapeutics labs happens & goes REALLY well. We now have enough space for everyone (and a couple more people too!).

October 4 – A revised manuscript (Min’s co-first author paper from her prior lab that she finished as part of this lab) is submitted to NAR.
October 10 – The lab’s newest Research Associate, Dr. Kathrina Castillo, Kat for short, joins the lab. She comes to us from Texas A&M & has tons of RNA experience.  She’ll be working on both the cytoplasmic capping and RNA vaccine projects.
October 13, 14 – Blake and Shaun present their research poster at Tennessee State University and at an Honors College Research Consortium event at Fisk University. They share a presentation award for their work! 
October 18 The Kiss lab lands the Center for RNA Therapeutics’ first NIH grant directly for an RNA therapy! In other words, the paperwork for it has arrived & it’s official! We are working with collaborators (Dr. David Burkhart and Dr. Jay Evans) at the University of Montana to make second generation RNA vaccines for Tuberculosis!
October 18 The Center for RNA Therapeutics hears positive news from another funder!  It’s too early to share details, but the Kiss lab will be a key contributor to this project.
October 24 – Nearly every member of the lab attends “The New Frontier of RNA Nanotherapeutics” presented by the George and Angelina Kostas Research Center for Cardiovascular Nanomedicine. You can see a short meeting video summary here.
October 24 – Rachel’s abstract is selected for a flash talk during “The New Frontier of RNA Nanotherapeutics” presented by the George and Angelina Kostas Research Center for Cardiovascular Nanomedicine. She shares a presentation award for third place!

November 8 – 10 – Members of the lab virtually attend the mRNA Health Conference. We have dueling talks (with RNA Bench to Bedside III Conference) set up in a conference room.
November 8 – 10 – Members of the lab virtually attend the RNA Bench to Bedside III Conference. We have dueling talks (with the mRNA Health Conference) set up in a conference room.
November 9 The Kiss lab lands the Center for RNA Therapeutics’ second NIH grant directly for an RNA therapy! Just like before, the paperwork for this second project has arrived & it’s official! As before, we are working with collaborators (Dr. David Burkhart and Dr. Jay Evans) at the University of Montana to make second generation RNA vaccines for Monkeypox!
November 10 – Dan attends the George P. Noon Conference on Research & Transplantation that is hosted by Houston Methodist.
November 12 – The lab submits our next manuscript.  It’s a collaborative effort on the cytoplasmic capping project with Dr. Chandrama Mukherjee and her students at the Presidency Universtiy (Kolkata). A version is live on BiorXive here.
November 17 – Dan accepts an invitation to join the editorial board of Frontiers in Molecular Biosciences, as a Review Editor in the RNA Networks and Biology section.

December 8  – Dan agrees to review a grant for Genome British Columbia, a Canadian non-profit.
December 8  – The lab heads out for a well-earned lunch to celebrate some of our wins during 2022!
December 16  – The Centers for RNA Therapeutics and Cardiovascular Regeneration have their annual Holiday party.
December 19  – Nada presents some of the lab’s circular RNA vaccine research at the 20th Annual International Biotechnology Days in Tunisia!

2023

January 9 - Dr. Luisa Orlando joins the team! She’ll contribute to the lab’s cytoplasmic capping and RNA therapy projects.
January 14 - The lab submits our latest RNA Therapy-focused review article (a mini-review this time) for peer review.  Preprints.org has the pre-print with an extended citations section – the journal limited us to 50 for a mini-review – will be available at this link.
January 20 - Dan reviews a grant for the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) in England.
January 27 - The lab submits our first patent application for work coming from our RNA therapeutics research!

February 4 - We submit the revised version of our collaborative cytoplasmic capping manuscript with Dr. Chandrama Mukherjee and her students!
February 4 -  Kiss Lab alumnus Rolando Alvarado presented some of his work from his time in the Kiss Lab as a poster (co-first author) at the Latino Medical Student Association’s Southwest regional conference. Major Congrats to Rolando as he won the Poster Award for the “Best in Basic Sciences” category. You can check out Rolando’s post and photos on his LinkedIN page here.
February 8 - We hear that our revised manuscript has been accepted! Congrats to our postdoc Dr. Rachel Kieser and Dr. Chandrama Mukherjee ‘s team (Avik Mukherjee and  Safirul Islam) on a job well done!
February 16 - The lab did an escape room as a team building exercise. We saved the world from the evil wizard & we did it with almost 10 minutes & hints to spare! Most heartening each member: 1. helped solve multiple puzzles, 2. led the whole team for a part of the escape & 3. we worked as a team.

March 1 – Our collaborative manuscript titled ““Long noncoding RNAs are substrates for cytoplasmic capping enzyme” is put online by FEBS Letters.
March 9 – Our newest review on RNA therapeutics “The Dawning of a New Enterprise: RNA Therapeutics for the Skin” was accepted for publication in the Journal of Dermatology and Skin Science. Congrats to all three (Rachel, Shaheerah, and Nada) co-first authors!
March 17 – Dan delivers his talk entitled “Circular RNAs as Vaccine Candidates” to the RNA Society-sponsored RNA Salon at the Baylor College of Medicine.
March 22-25 – The lab attends (virtually) the Cold Spring Harbor meeting on Nucleic Acid Therapeutics.

April 13 - Rachel’s manuscript from her previous lab titled “Anaplastic Transformation in Thyroid Cancer Revealed by Single Cell Transcriptomics” was accepted for publication in The Journal of Clinical Investigation.  (Middle author)
April 28 - Dan attends the Houston Methodist Hospital’s Neal Cancer Center’s Annual Retreat in Galveston, TX.

May 9 – Both Blake and Shaun’s last day in the lab. Best of luck in the next stage of their journeys. 
May 13 - Both Blake and Shaun graduate from Texas Southern University.
May 16 - Dan delivers his “Fireside Chat” to the Houston Methodist Academic Institute.  The talk focuses on his background and personal history and particularly how they have shaped his career and how they inform his focus on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in Science.
May 17 - Dan delivers his talk entitled “Circular RNAs as a Therapeutic Platform” to the assembled members of the Houston Methodist Academic Institute.
May 17-19 - Members of the lab (virtually) attend Nanopore’s London Calling 2022 conference.

June 15 - The lab goes out to lunch to welcome our new postdoc and to celebrate some wins.
June 19 - Dr. Chotiwat Sephetdee joins the lab as a new postdoc. He’ll be working both on our circRNA therapy and cytoplasmic capping projects.
June 27 - Rachel’s manuscript titled “High throughput single cell long-read sequencing analyses of same-cell genotypes and phenotypes in human tumors” was accepted for publication in Nature Communications. She’s co-first author of this paper that was started in her previous lab and finished here.