September 20, 2023
Welcome LUNCH for victoria!
The lab went out to lunch to celebrate the arrival of our new postdoc, Dr. Victoria Marando, who comes to us from the the other side of the river at MIT after finishing up her Ph.D. with Laura Kiessling. The weather was great, and we can’t wait to see what Victoria does as she gets started here!
January 13, 2023
Annual White elephant gift exchange!
After our second group meeting of 2023, we had our annual White Elephant gift exchange! This year everyone seemed to be quite happy with the gift they ended up with - not very much stealing happened at all!
October 28, 2022
MICROBIOLOGY Halloween costume contest!
This year, the Walker Lab participated as a group in the annual Microbiology Dept. Halloween costume contest. We dressed collectively as a protein ladder, and our costume won the top prize in the group costume category!
June 13, 2022
julia page’s defense!
Now-Dr. Julia Page successfully defended her thesis work on the biochemical and structural characterization of peptidoglycan hydrolase-activator complexes. It was a great defense, and the celebration afterwards was a lot of fun! We’re sad that she won’t be around as much anymore, but luckily for us, she’ll still be around Boston for the next two years finishing up her M.D. (and hopefully dropping by the lab from time to time).
June 8, 2022
Summer student welcome lunch
It’s a busy summer in the Walker Lab, with two summer undergrads and a new rotation student! To welcome them all, we went out to Restaurant Row to enjoy Thai and Mexican food for lunch. Despite the rain, it was a great time!
May 6, 2022
HIM10 2022 Lab Olympics
After a hiatus in 2020, the biannual Harvard Institutes of Medicine 10th Floor (HIM10) Olympics returned! Split amongst various teams, Walker Lab members performed admirably, with Julia Page on the bronze medal-winning team and Bailey Schultz on the team that took home the silver. Events included (but were not limited to!) human curling, dizzy DNA gel-loading time trials, and find-the-gold-Eppendorf-tube-in-a-pool-of-packing-peanuts. It was a great way to spend a Friday afternoon - thanks to the Rudner lab for organizing!
May 2, 2022
jake muscato’s thesis defense
Now-Dr. Jacob Muscato successfully defended his thesis work on the discovery and characterization of a compound that inhibits a cell envelope-related glycosyltransferase in S. aureus and re-sensitizes methicillin-resistance S. aureus (MRSA) strains to beta-lactam antibiotics. He did an amazing job, and though we’ll miss him in lab, we’re excited for his next steps at Bowdoin College!
February 7, 2022
Winter 2022 Ski trip
We decided we were in need of some fun, so we took Monday off and hit the slopes at Pat’s Peak in New Hampshire! (The weekday group discount is a pretty good deal.) Some of us went down a double black diamond or two, while others stuck to the green circles, but it was a great time for all involved!
June 18, 2021
lab happy hour
The lab had an impromptu happy hour to celebrate the end of the week and enjoy the beautiful summer weather, with drinks courtesy of our PI, Suzanne! (Thanks, Suzanne! And, thanks to Youngseon as well for becoming our lab’s official selfie-taker!)
May 11, 2021
celebrating a year of successful pqe’s
The lab had an academic year full of qualifying exams, with our G2s Forrest, Bettine, Jenny, and Youngseon all passing with flying colors. The image above is from our celebration of our final PQE-taker, Youngseon. We gathered on the quad to eat Union Square Donuts from the nearby Time Out Market in Fenway. Congrats to all our G2s!
March 1, 2021
atsushi taguchi’s thesis defense
Now-Dr. Atsushi Taguchi successfully defended his thesis work on the biochemical characterization of peptidoglycan polymerases and hydrolases. While the defense itself took place over Zoom, we were able to have a socially distanced celebration outside afterwards! We will miss him very much, but we’re excited to see what he does next at Osaka University in Japan! (Oh, and thanks for the buffers, Atsushi!)
August 3, 2020
anthony hesser’s thesis defense
The lab had our first Zoom thesis defense in August, with now-Dr. Anthony Hesser successfully defending his Ph.D. work on lipoteichoic acid length regulation and its physiological impact in S. aureus. We are very sad to see him go, but we’re excited for his new job as a senior analyst at Health Advances! Visit us soon, Anthony!
January 10, 2020
Truc do’s thesis defense
The lab had a great start to 2020, with now-Dr. Truc Do successfully defending her Ph.D. work on the identification and characterization of a peptidoglycan amidase that regulates cell growth and division in Staphylococcus aureus. Though we’ll be sad to see her go, we’re excited to see what she does next as a postdoctoral fellow at Princeton!
December 18, 2019
department of microbiology holiday party
Nine members of the Walker Lab (plus one lab alumna and a sibling!) attended the Microbiology Department’s annual holiday party—this year hosted at the Harvard Club of Boston. The food and the atmosphere were great, and it certainly didn’t hurt that it started before 5pm on a Wednesday!
December 16, 2019
Annual white elephant gift exchange
After our last group meeting of 2019, we celebrated the end of the year with an annual Walker Lab tradition—a white elephant gift exchange! Amongst the most coveted gifts this year were a plush monoclonal antibody and a full yard of Twix candy bars.