Scientific Training in the Kielian Lab
Students and postdoctoral fellows in our lab receive experimental training in a wide variety of methods and approaches including virology, molecular biology, protein chemistry, and cell biology. The lab is very interactive, and reagents and methods (and chocolate!) are shared. There are also many opportunities for training in the important skills of scientific writing, reading, and presentation.
Each member of the lab meets with me on at least a weekly basis to discuss experiments and results. After initial planning, lab members write the first drafts of their papers and prepare figures, and we work on subsequent drafts together. We also work together in preparation for work-in-progress talks in the department or presentations at meetings. Lab members receive detailed career guidance during informal meetings and in a yearly discussion of individual development plans. The college also offers an extensive series of career development seminars.
We have a weekly lab meeting in which one person presents each week, covering everything from the rationale of their project to detailed technical aspects. Once a month we have a lab journal club in which we all read and discuss relevant papers in virology and cell biology in depth. This has been very useful in helping people learn how to critically evaluate papers and also in bringing everyone up to speed on the important background for our research. We also read and discuss manuscripts of most of the papers that the lab submits. This is very helpful for the authors of the papers, who benefit from the lab’s suggestions, and it also helps to enhance everyone’s writing skills. Lab members attend and present at a variety of national and international meetings, and subsequently report on the meeting to the lab.
Awards to lab members:
Dr. Rebecca Brown was awarded the 2020 Dennis Shields Postdoctoral Research Prize. She received a Charles H. Revson Senior Fellowship in Biomedical Sciences for 2018-2020, and a Ruth L. Kirschstein NRSA F32 Postdoctoral Fellowship from the NIH for 2017-2019.
Dr. Maria Guadalupe Martinez received the best poster presentation/travel award at the 2014 Dennis Shields Awards for Outstanding Postdoctoral Research.
Dr. Katie Stiles received the best poster presentation/travel award at the 2013 Dennis Shields Awards for Outstanding Postdoctoral Research.
She also received the best poster award at the 2012 FASEB Virus Structure And Assembly Conference.
Dr. Catherine Liu received the 2011 Julius Marmur Graduate Research Award.
Dr. Claudia Sánchez-San Martín received the 2009 Dennis Shields Postdoctoral Research Prize.
Dr. Maofu Liao received the 2006 Julius Marmur Graduate Research Award.
Dr. Gwen Taylor received the Cellular Microbiology prize for the best poster at the 2006 FASEB Meeting on Virus Assembly.
Dr. Don Gibbons received the 2004 Harold M. Weintraub Graduate Student Award. He also received the 2003 Julius Marmur Graduate Research Award.