Lamason Lab News

We are a curious bunch, with a love for discovering cool new biology. Come follow our journey!

July 30, 2024: The third and final PhD. defense of 2024 is in the books! Dr. Cassandra Vondrak defended a fantastic thesis today (and has the sword to prove it!).

July 19, 2024: The final version of our paper using BONCAT to identify rickettsia secreted effectors has been published at Nature Communications!

July 16, 2024: The lab had a great time at the annual ASR meeting, with wonderful posters from Allison Scott, Brandon Sit, and Caroline Anderson and a fantastic talk by Hannah Margolis.

June 25, 2024: The lab’s latest preprint details the discovery of a novel interaction between the secreted effector Sca4 and clathrin. Check out this new story by Cassandra and Brandon and our collaborators Nam and Kevin in the Macaluso lab.

June 4, 2024: The lab had a great time at BBM this year, starting with Patrick’s fantastic talk in the morning and then two poster honorable mentions for Brandon and Allison. Way to go team!

April 19, 2024: Congrats to Dr. Yami Acevedo-Sánchez on a beautiful PhD defense today!

March 16, 2024: Our preprint describing new genetic tools for inducible gene expression and targeted gene silencing in Rickettsia has landed. Thanks to authors Jon, Annie, Desmond, and David for their hard work!

February 27, 2024: Graduate student Allen Sanderlin successfully defended his thesis today. Well done Dr. Sanderlin!

February 14, 2024: Check out this research highlight from the CDMRP Tick-borne disease research program. It discusses the growing concern over tick-borne diseases and our work developing tools to better understand the mechanisms of rickettsia pathogenesis.

February 5, 2024: Congrats to Brandon for publishing his invited review about using Rickettsia spp. as model microbes. A huge community effort has made much of our current work possible and we appreciated the opportunity to highlight these prior contributions alongside the many questions still open for investigation.

January 23, 2024: Welcome to our newest undergraduate researcher, Clara Zhu! Clara is working with Brandon and brings her enthusiasm for both science and art to the team. Welcome!

November 17, 2023: If you love effectors as much as us, go check out our latest preprint from Grad students Allen Sanderlin and Hannah Margolis, and summer student Abby Meyer, using BONCAT to find new effectors secreted by Rickettsia parkeri.

September 14, 2023: Congrats to Yami on her beautiful talk at the CSHL Microbial Pathogenesis & Host Response meeting!

July 31, 2023: Welcome to our new technician, Maisie Smith. Maisie recently graduated from Haverford College, and we’re excited for her to join the team.

July 8, 2023: Brandon represented team rickettsia with a great talk at the annual meeting for the American Society for Rickettsiology. Way to go!

July 7, 2023: Farewell to our amazing technician Annie. She is headed off to get her Ph.D. at BU. Good luck Annie!

June 13, 2023: Allen gave a spectacular talk at the Boston Bacterial Meeting today, wowing the crowd with his work on rickettsial secreted effectors.

June 6, 2023: Yami’s preprint was just posted to bioRxiv detailing an exciting new interkingdom membrane contact site formed between the endoplasmic reticulum and Rickettsia parkeri.

June 5, 2023: Welcome to the lab Abby Meyer! Abby will be working with Hannah this summer as a member of the MSRP-Bio program.

May 17, 2023: Welcome to our newest lab member, Caroline Anderson. Caroline was an undergraduate at Duke University and is now a graduate student in the MIT Microbiology program.

April 25, 2023: Congrats to former UROP Desmond Edwards for being named a Paul and Daisy Soros Fellow!

January 9, 2023: New year, new lab member. Today we welcomed our newest UROP to the lab, Ana (Alex) Velarde. She’ll be working with Ruth to tackle determinants of listeria pathogenicity.

December 12, 2022: Farewell to Pooja Suresh! Pooja has joined an exciting start-up in the area called CytoTronics. Good luck on your newest adventure!

October 3, 2022: Allen presented his exciting work using BONCAT in Rickettsia parkeri at the 2022 Lakeside Conference on Protein Toxins and Effectors.

July 19, 2022: Postdoctoral fellow Brandon Sit was just awarded an NRSA F32. Congrats Brandon!!! Looking forward to seeing what you discover about rickettsia-host interactions!

July 7, 2022: The lab was just awarded its second R01!! This R01 is from the NIGMS and will fund our work looking at how microbes control host intercellular communication to spread through tissues.

July 1, 2022: The lab was just awarded a grant from the Ferry Innovation Fund via MIT Science. This one-year award will help us launch some exciting new proteomic and genetic approaches to study listeria and rickettsia pathogenesis.

May 27, 2022: Farewell to Desmond Edwards who graduated from MIT today. Desmond was recently awarded the 2022 Outstanding UROP award for his work in the lab, and now he heads off to Stanford for his Ph.D. as a Knight-Hennessy Scholar. We were lucky to have him in the lab for the last 3.5 years and we’re excited to see what he does in the future!

May 23, 2022: First-year Biology graduate student and NSF fellow Hannah Margolis has joined the lab. Welcome, Hannah!

May 10, 2022: Congratulations Desmond on receiving the Ned Holt Prize from MIT Biology!

April 18, 2022: Welcome to the lab, Pooja Suresh! Pooja was a graduate student in Sophie Dumont’s lab at UCSF, and is joining the lab as a postdoc where she will use her expertise in biophysics to study bacterial pathogenesis.

April 4, 2022: Graduate student Ruth Hanna and undergraduate Desmond Edwards have both been awarded NSF graduate fellowships. Way to go you two!!

March 25, 2022: Our MSRP-Bio alum Bailey Bowcutt was just named a Barry Goldwater Scholar. Congratulations Bailey!!

February 25, 2022: Preprint alert! Grad students Allen Sanderlin and Ruth Hanna have a new story out about the function of RARP-1 during Rickettsia parkeri infection.

February 1, 2022: Rickettsia parkeri is the Microbe of the Month at Trends in Microbiology. Thanks to authors Allison, Cassandra, and Allen for a great feature on this pathogen.

January 31, 2022: Congratulations to Patrick Woida for being named a Damon Runyon Fellow! This postdoctoral fellowship will support his exciting work into pathogen cell-to-cell spread, and its implications for cell biology and cancer. Way to go, Patrick!!

November 22, 2021: UROP Desmond Edwards’ feature article hits the front page of MIT news. Excited for all of you to get to know this stellar scientist in our lab!

September 7, 2021: Today we welcomed our newest member, Brandon Sit! Brandon was a graduate student in Matt Waldor’s lab at Harvard Medical School and he has joined our lab as a postdoc.

August 11, 2021: More great funding news - we got our first R01! Thank you to the NIAID for funding our work on the molecular mechanisms of Rickettsia parkeri pathogenesis.

July 28, 2021: Exciting funding news! The lab has just been awarded an Idea Development Award from the DoD. This 3-year award will fund our efforts to expand the genetic and biochemical toolkits in rickettsia to discover and study critical regulators of infection.

July 27, 2021: Check out this wonderful profile on our MSRP-Bio summer student, Bailey Bowcutt.

July 1, 2021: This week we said farewell to David Brinkley who is off to graduate school. Good luck at the University of Washington, David! We also got to say hello to our newest member, Annie Wen. Annie will be taking over for David as our technician. Welcome to the team, Annie!

June 3, 2021: Congratulations to Desmond Edwards on receiving the Whitehead Prize!! Each year the Biology Department selects an undergraduate for this award who demonstrates outstanding promise for a career in biological research through academic scholarship as well as contributions to research and the MIT community. Way to go, Desmond!

June 2, 2021: Welcome to this summer’s MSRP-Bio student Bailey Bowcutt! Bailey is teaming up with Yami to investigate Listeria cell-to-cell spread.

May 14, 2021: Welcome to our newest recruit, Ruth Hanna. Ruth is a Biology graduate student who completed her third rotation with us, and we’re thrilled to have her on the team!

April 5, 2021: Publication alert! Jon’s review “The enigmatic biology of rickettsiae: recent advances, open questions, and outlook” is out as an advanced online article with Pathogens and Disease. Read more about why these microbes are not your typical intracellular pathogens, how the field has explored the molecular mechanisms of pathogenesis, and why rickettsiae are key to expanding our understanding of host-pathogen interactions.

March 30, 2021: We’re hiring! The Lamason Lab is looking for a lab technician. Applicants should apply using the link here. Please be sure to include a cover letter expressing why you’re interested in the lab and a resume outlining your work experiences in (and out of) the lab.

March 23, 2021: Two congratulations are due for some Lamason labbers! Current grad student Allison Scott just received an honorable mention for her NSF GRFP application, and former MSRP student Brittany Robaina-Caicedo was awarded the NSF GRFP. Way to go you two!

March 30, 2021: We’re hiring! The Lamason Lab is looking for a lab technician. Applicants should apply using the link here. Please be sure to include a cover letter expressing why you’re interested in the lab and a resume outlining your work experiences in (and out of) the lab.

February 28, 2021: Congratulations to Cassandra Vondrak for being selected to present her work on the Rickettsia secreted effector Sca4 at the virtual UK Cellular Microbiology Network Meeting this week. 5 am here we come!

February 11, 2021: To celebrate Women in Science Day, check out the latest Biogenesis podcast episode “Breaking the Mold” from a stellar woman in our lab - Yami!

January 28, 2021: This week we say farewell to rotation student Erika Wirachman and hello to our newest rotation student Gabriella López Pérez. Both first-year students from the Microbiology and Biology programs, respectively, are teaming up with current graduate students to tackle some of our newest questions about Listeria and Rickettsia pathogenesis.

December 18, 2020: Farewell Emily O’Rourke! Emily graduated early from MIT this semester and finished her UROP in the lab. Emily is currently interviewing for graduate school and we wish her luck as she moves on to an exciting Ph.D. program.

November 2, 2020: Welcome to the lab, Patrick Woida! Patrick was a graduate student with Karla Satchell at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and joins our lab as a postdoctoral fellow.

August 11, 2020: Welcome to the Lamason Lab’s newest recruit, Allison Scott! Allison just joined the lab as a new graduate student from the Department of Biology.

July 31, 2020: Farewell Julissa Burgos! Julissa will be starting her Ph.D. studies at Vanderbilt University after working in the lab as a summer MSRP student and then a technician. We wish her luck in graduate school.

June 23, 2020: Round 3 of the virtual MIT Biology rotations has started and we’re excited to welcome Allison Scott, Christian Loyo, and Michelle Peters.

June 1, 2020: Welcome to the lab Brittany Robina-Caceido! Brittany will be joining us for a virtual MSRP-Bio summer program.

May 21, 2020: This month we restarted our lab rotations after the shutdown and we’re happy to welcome MIT Biology student Chloe Maybrun for her virtual lab rotation with us.

April 1, 2020: In January, Emily was selected to attend the “Evolution of an epidemic” course run in South Africa. Check out the profile detailing her path to MIT and our lab, as well as her experiences with this special course.

March 31, 2020: This month brought some big changes for the lab as we shuttered our operations in the face of COVID-19. Despite this chaotic event, we are still excited to share some good news - both Yami and Julissa received Honorable Mentions for their NSF applications. Congrats to you both on this distinction!

January 6, 2020: New Year, new lab member! Today we welcomed back Julissa Burgos who joins the team as a lab technician.

November 8, 2019: Jon was just awarded a prestigious Damon Runyon Postdoctoral Research Fellowship for his work in our lab. CONGRATULATIONS Jon!!!

November 6, 2019: Congratulations to Allen and Cassandra for passing their Ph.D. candidacy exams this semester!

November 1, 2019: Congratulations to Desmond for being accepted into MIT’s Laureates & Leaders program. This program supports highly motivated and talented undergrads in their pursuit towards graduate education.

August 26, 2019: Welcome to the lab David! David Brinkley, a recent graduate of Amherst College, joins the team as our lab technician.

August 9, 2019: Farewell to our first Lamason Lab MSRP student, Julissa Burgos. Thanks for an awesome summer and good luck in the future!

August 1, 2019: Listeria are on the cover of MBoC! Read up on our RNAi screen for cell-to-cell spread regulators and see the MIT News Brief here.

July 25, 2019: New funding for the Lamason lab!! We were just awarded a Surdna Junior Faculty Research Fund from MIT!

June 26, 2019: The lab’s first manuscript was just accepted at MBoC! Thanks to Allen, Cassandra, and Arianna, as well as our collaborators Indro and Vida for their help getting us to this big milestone.

June 12, 2019: Cassandra gave a fantastic talk about her work on the secreted effector Sca4 at this week’s Building 68 MIT Biology retreat.

June 3, 2019: Welcome to the lab Julissa! Julissa Burgos will be working in the Lamason lab this summer as part of the MIT Summer Research Program (MSRP-Bio).

May 28, 2019: This week we welcomed our newest lab member, Yamilex Acevedo-Sánchez! Yami is a first-year graduate student in the Department of Biology who will be joining our quest to explore the mechanisms of pathogen spread. Welcome to the team, Yami!!

May 10, 2019: CONGRATULATIONS to Desmond! Desmond was awarded the Peter J. Eloranta Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship. This award was established in 1969 and is given to select students planning creative and student-led summer research projects.

April 22, 2019: CONGRATULATIONS to Emily! Emily was selected to be a Johnson & Johnson UROP scholar. This program will fund her full-time work in the lab this summer, as well as provide scholars with valuable networking and career guidance from MIT faculty.

April 14, 2019: Cassandra and Allen set-up a creative and fun way to describe the work we do in the lab for the MIT Microbial Fair today. Even the littlest Lamason got to join in on the fun and practice her cell-to-cell spread.

April 4, 2019: The lab’s newest paper is live on bioRxiv. In this paper, we did a targeted RNAi screen focused on host intercellular communication regulators and came up with 22 genes that are important for Listeria cell-to-cell spread. This work reveals novel host factors that are hijacked by pathogens, and highlights how studying the process of spread could help us understand the regulatory mechanisms of host intercellular communication better.

March 12, 2019: Biology graduate student Elizabeth Hemenway started her second rotation with us this week. Welcome to the lab!

February 19, 2019: The Lamason Lab keeps growing. This week we welcomed MIT Undergraduate Desmond Edwards to the lab as our newest UROP. Welcome!

February 5, 2019: Yamilex Acevedo-Sanchez from the Biology department just started in the lab for her first rotation. Welcome Yami :)

January 7, 2019: New year, new rotons! This month we welcome Microbiology student Mandy Levine to the lab for her rotation.

December 20, 2018: We’re hiring! The Lamason Lab is looking for a lab technician. Applicants should apply using the link here. Please be sure to include a cover letter expressing why you’re interested in the lab and a resume outlining your work experiences in (and out of) the lab.

December 10, 2018: This week we welcomed our newest lab member, Jon McGinn! Jon got his Ph.D. at The Rockefeller University and just joined the lab as a postdoctoral fellow. Welcome :)

September 24, 2018: The Lamason lab welcomes its newest lab member, Emily O’Rourke. Emily is an MIT undergraduate student who has started a UROP position with us. Welcome to the lab Emily!

August 1, 2018: Our new scope is finally here! We are having so much fun playing with our new toy.

July 23, 2018: Becky was selected to hold the Robert A. Swanson (1969) Career Development Professorship in the Life Sciences. We are very grateful to MIT and the Swanson family for this generous gift! See the news story here, and check out this video profile to hear more about what we do in the lab. 

June 8, 2018: New funding for the Lamason lab!! We were just awarded an MIT Research Support Committee grant from the James H. Ferry Jr. Fund for Innovation in Research Education. 

June 1, 2018: Welcome to our newest lab members, and first Lamason Lab graduate students (!) - Allen Sanderlin and Cassandra Vondrak. Allen is a student in the Department of Biology and Cassandra is a student in the Microbiology Program. Keep an eye out for all of the exciting work they'll be doing.

May 3, 2018: Our recent bioRxiv submission reporting our Rickettsia parkeri transposon mutagenesis screen was officially published in PLoS ONE today.

April 9, 2018: We said goodbye to another set of fantastic rotons this week. Thanks Alex and Brian! 

March 6, 2018: Round 1 biology department rotations are over and we just said goodbye to our first ever rotons! Thanks for your hard work, Allen and Anna. 

February 13, 2018: This week completes our back-to-back Olympus scope demos. We're finally done with the parade-of-scopes!

December 11, 2017: Nikon is taking over the scope room for demo #3. Getting closer to decision time!

December 1, 2017: Round two of scope demos starts today with the Leica TCS Sp8 Confocal. 

November 20, 2017: Our newest member, Arianna Scricco has joined the lab! Arianna hails from Furman University where she got her B.S. in Neuroscience, and has joined the team as our Senior Research Support Associate. Welcome Arianna!

November 2, 2017: Scope demos are starting! Next week we are testing out the Zeiss LSM 880 with Airyscan. Registration is open for others to test drive the system too. 

October 16, 2017: The Lamason Lab is growing. Gina Lee has started as our new administrative assistant. Welcome Gina!!

September 12, 2017: News feature welcoming the Lamason and Davis labs to MIT! 

September 1, 2017: The Lamason lab opens September 2017! We are looking for new members to join this exciting, multidisciplinary team. Go to the Contact page to see more.