2025
03/16/25
Briana Cruga receives another Travel Award, this time from Penn’s Biomedical Graduate Studies, to present her work on how CRISPR systems adapt to viral RNA at the annual ASBMB2025 Conference in Chicago!
03/13/25
Ariana Treat receives the School of Arts & Sciences, Dean’s Travel Grant to present her work on archaeal CRISPR adaptation at the annual ASBMB2025 Conference in Chicago!
02/05/25
Unfortunately, our funding (grant R00GM147842) was cut prematurely today. There have been recent changes in NIH priorities, such that it has been decided the MOSAIC (Maximizing Opportunities for Scientific and Academic Independent Careers) program should be terminated.
The MOSAIC program was part of NIH’s efforts to enhance diversity in the biomedical research workforce. It was designed to provide “support for promising postdoctoral researchers and new investigators from diverse backgrounds embarking on careers at research-intensive institutions.”.
01/27/25
Briana Cruga receives the ASBMB DEI Travel Award to fund her trip to present her work on how CRISPR systems adapt to viral RNA at the annual ASBMB2025 Conference in Chicago!
2024
10/04/24
We escaped the room with time to spare!!
Ice cream on a warm fall day to refuel after lab clean-up!
09/16/24
Ariana Treat, Shirley Yuan, Cat Nguyen, Phelps Tin and Tiffany Chang present their research to colleagues and CRISPR luminaries like Prof. Michael P. Terns at Penn’s Fall Research Expo!
07/03/24
We say goodbye to Vinh with a heavy heart! As the first lab member of the lab, Vinh walked so we could run 😀
06/28/24
Achievement Unlocked: “Green Day Band”
More than 50% of the lab thinks green shirts are fashionable?
06/12/24
Briana Cruga passes her Ph.D. candidacy exam!!! 😀
05/31/24
First mass journal club meeting where lab members split into groups to analyze a paper using the CREATES process. + Taking the opportunity to hang out near the bio-pond!
05/24/24
The gang gets together for Briana’s candidacy practice talk!
04/27/24
Achievement Unlocked: “The buffer must flow.“
Vinh and Andrew connect 2 of 5 columns to our shiny new AKTA!
The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology highlighted our work for DNA Day!
04/23/24
Ariana Treat has been awarded the Ruth Marcus Kanter College Alumni Society Undergraduate Research Grant, from Penn’s Center for Undergraduate Research & Fellowships!
Shirley Yuan has been awarded the Ernest M. Brown, Jr. College Alumni Society Undergraduate Research Grant, from Penn’s Center for Undergraduate Research & Fellowships!
04/11/24
Briana generously bakes gluten-free banana-walnut bread to fuel morning lab meeting! 😀
04/05/24
03/07/24
Penn’s Center for Undergraduate Research & Fellowships has selected us to receive a Grant for Faculty Mentoring Undergraduate Research award to support stipends and research expenses of the undergraduates in our lab!
02/29/24
Penn’s Center for Undergraduate Research & Fellowships has selected us to receive a Penn Undergraduate Mentorship award to support early research experiences of three more undergraduates in our lab for Summer 2024!
02/28/24
Lab equipment is getting installed – The Wet Lab space is starting to look good! 😀
02/07/24
Shirley Yuan joins us for research experience as a first-year undergraduate!
01/30/24
Ariana Treat comes aboard for research experience as a first-year undergraduate!
01/22/24
NIH’s NIGMS approves the R00 stage of Dr. Santiago-Frangos’s MOSAIC K99/R00 grant, for research at UPenn!
01/17/24
Achievement Unlocked: There’s no “i” in team.
The team doubles in size! Vinh Dang comes aboard as a Research Specialist till the summer, when he’ll transition to med school!
01/01/24
The lab opens!
2023
09/01/23
The lab website goes live! 😀