Sisi Falcone was awarded an F31 from NICHD. Congrats, Sisi!
Sisi & Co publish MicroPublication
Congrats to Sisi, undergraduate researcher Salaam, and former undergraduate researcher Annalise!
Falcone S, Weber A, Awad S, Rieder L. 2026. The histone gene family in Drosophila simulans carries consistent species-specific nucleotide polymorphisms distinct from that of Drosophila melanogaster. microPublication Biology. 10.17912/micropub.biology.002085.
Tommy graduates, starts postdoc!
Tommy graduated from Emory with his PhD and has moved to Michigan for hist postdoc at the Van Andel Institute. We will miss him! Good luck, Tommy!
Tod passes qualifying exam!
Tod is now a PhD CANDIDATE! Congrats, Tod!!!
Catherine wins poster prize at Dros26!
Undergraduate student Catherine Nguyen, who attended her first conference (Dros26) and gave both a talk and a poster, won second place in the undergraduate poster competition. Congrats, Catherine!
Lab attends 2026 Drosophila Reserach Conference in Chicago!
Look out for these lab members attending the Drosophila Research Conference!
Sisi Falcone (poster, 287T): Thursday, March 5, 2-3pm
“Family Matters: Understanding expression of histone sibling genes”
Nicole Roos (oral, 131): Saturday, March 7, 10:30-12pm
“Comparing mechanisms of histone locus body initiation and maintenance throughout development”
Tod Butenschon (poster, 306F): Friday, March 6, 2-4pm
“Home is where the histones are: mechanisms of nuclear body localization”
Catherine Nguyen (poster, 725F, “Spotlight on Undergradaute Research”): Thursday, March 5, 8-10pm
“Exploring histone locus body initiation mechanisms throughout development”
Sisi submits micropublication!
Sisi made an interesting (and useful) observation about the histone genes in D. simulans, compared to D. melanogaster. We submitted it today to Micropublication Biology! Congrats, Sisi!
Abnormal oocyte collaboration published!
Our collaboration with Harmit Malik’s lab on how Abnormal oocyte (Ao) influences histone gene expression is published in Genetics!
The Drosophila maternal-effect gene abnormal oocyte (ao) does not repress histone gene expression
Congrats to Rieder lab co-authors Eric, Shilpi, and Casey!
Tommy defends PhD!
Tommy defended his PhD thesis, “epigenetic regulation of the canonical histone genes during development” on January 15th! It was a great defense!
Congratulations, Tommy!
Congrats to Tommy: News and Views in NSMB!
Congrats to Tommy, whose News & Views was published today in Nature Structural and Molecular Biology:
A negative feedback mechanism controls histone gene expression
Nicole publishes "Worm Birth"
At the MBL Embryology course, Nicole and her collaborators captured a rare event: egg laying in C. elegans! They’ve published the video—and the imaging tour de force—at microPublication Biology!
Balachandar Thendral S, Roos N, Vertiz J, S. Wokasch A, Maier P, R. Sherwood D. 2025. Time-lapse imaging of C. elegans egg-laying with high spatiotemporal resolution. microPublication Biology. 10.17912/micropub.biology.001914.
Welcome, Salaam!
We are excited that Emory Undergraduate Salaam has joined us to work under Sisi’s mentorship and make some Drosophila hybrids!
Nicole's mouse image is the cover of Development!
See the latest issue of Development, with Nicole’s stunning mouse image on the cover, here:
Nicole wins MBL Embryology image contest!
Nicole and her partner Anthony took a stunning image of a mouse embryo— and they won the MBL Embryology course image competition!
Vote for Nicole's stunning mouse embryo image!
Nicole attended the MBL Embryology course this summer and took so many stunning images. She entered this image of a mouse embryo, which she bisected perfectly, in the Node’s image competition (Nicole’s is #20 at the end):
https://thenode.biologists.com/vote-for-your-favourite-image-from-the-mbl-embryology-course/photo/
Please visit and vote for your favorite gorgeous image from the MBL course!
Nicole attends MBL Embryology course!
Nicole is off to the prestigious MBL Embryology course. We’ll miss her for the summer, but can’t wait to hear about everything she learns!
Nicole earns F31!
Congratulations to Nicole who was recently awarded an F31 from NICHD!
Welcome aboard, Tod!
Our lab got a little brighter with the permanent addition of Tod, a first year GMB PhD student. We’re so happy to have you, Tod!
Good luck, Lauren!
We are so proud of Lauren, the first PhD out of the lab, who recently started her postdoc with Dr. Erica Larschan at Brown University!
Meet us at the 2025 Drosophila Research Conference!
Many of us will be attending (and presenting) at the 2025 Drosophila Research Conference in San Diego at the end of March. Leila is a co-organizer! Come join us!