Congratulations to Jani who has been selected for support from the CHOP training program in neurodevelopmental disabilities!
Matt is elected to ASCI!
Congratulations to Matt for his election to the American Society of Clinical Investigation!
Matt gets the tenure!!
And just like that, in the blink of an eye, only 25 years after his first lab gig, Matt is promoted to Associate Professor!
SOOOOO many thanks to incredible colleagues, mentors, and friends along the way. Now, we celebrate!
Another R01 gets funded!
We are super excited to receive an R01 in collaboration with the Bonini Lab to study sleep and brain degeneration.
Linda Montague Pechenik Award
Congrats to Matt who received the 2022 Montague Award for “outstanding mid career faculty” at Penn Med! What an honor! And it means - Matt is mid career. that part is depressing.
Welcome to the lab, Jani!
We are so excited to have Jani Bilchak, PhD join us from Drexel. Jani is a postdoctoral fellow who will be studying NF1 and social behaviors in fruit flies. She will also learn to love Radiohead given her proximity to Ben and Milan.
Welcome Hayle and Ella!
Hayle Kim and Ella Valencia are two new fabulous Penn undergrads who are joining the lab, and we are lucky to have them!
Welcome to the lab Jenny!
We are so excited to have Jenny Luong, PhD joining us as a Senior Research Specialist. Jenny has lived in Australia and Greece and now sadly must endure actual winter.
Welcome to the lab Hannah!
Hannah Deutch has joined the lab for her PhD thesis, woohoo! Hannah promises to also organize birthday celebrations in the lab so we properly respect the aging process.
Welcome to the lab Jeff!
We are thrilled to welcome Jeff Rosa, PhD to the lab as a postdoctoral fellow, coming to us from UCLA. Jeff will be working on sleep. and development. of the brain. like the rest of us!
The lab lands an R01
we are pumped to have received an R01 from NINDS/NIH to study how sleep circuits get wired properly in the (fly) brain. thanks NINDS, we love you!
Natalie defends her thesis!!!
Congratulations to Dr. Natalie Gong Phd on her amazing thesis defense today!! 🎉🎉🎉Truly an honor to be her colleague over the past few years. She’s best of the best of the best of the best can’t wait to see what she does next!
Anyara receives a Velay Fellowship
Huge congratulations to undergrad Anyara Rodriguez who received a Velay Women’s Science Research Fellowship!
A COVID-safe lab hang, thank you vaccines
So very nice to be social
Natalie and Leela's paper published in Science Advances
Thrilled to see our latest work out! Natalie and Leela led this effort in which we show how sleep disturbances might be a core phenotype in neurodevelopmental disorders, not secondary to broad cognitive/behavioral symptoms.
Farewell Emilia!!
We are thrilled to announce that Emilia landed an amazing job as a Scientist at Johnson & Johnson. Emilia was there from the beginning of the lab, and will be deeply missed. Especially her very clean sense of humor. We celebrated her departure along with original Kayser Lab gang Ben and Dave. Other people came too don’t worry, we just didn’t care to take pictures of them.
NF Research Program Young Investigator Award
The lab has received funding from Department of Defense to investigate neurobiological mechanisms underlying social disturbances in Neurofibromatosis Type 1 (NF1). Thanks to Emilia for laying the groundwork!!
Welcome Kyla!
Kyla Mace joined the lab for a rotation just as COVID started. Now she is doing her thesis with us and we are thrilled! However, we still have never seen her unmasked face, it’s pretty crazy what a pandemic can do.
Black Lives Matter
We are horrified and condemn the harassment and murder of innocent Black men, women, and children across this country. There is no middle ground in our commitment to being anti-racist, and as PI, I must strive to be a stronger listener, learner, ally, and advocate. Many of our closest Black colleagues rightfully question whether the current events will really translate to systemic change, in science and beyond. We cannot let complacency rule, and instead need to examine our own roles and privileges towards identifying how to contribute to actionable change. How can we help address discrimination in admissions processes? Funding? Hiring? How can we help create a more diverse lab, student body, and faculty, both now and for the future? Can we help remake the very walls we work in, which currently display almost exclusively white, male faces? As a lab, we are committed to fighting racism in all forms. We will work to notice and call out everything from microaggressions to overt bias, at all levels, in our lab, at Penn, and beyond. As PI, I will work hard to model this at all times. We are committed to meaningful change in science and society. These are not topics to only discuss in hushed voices, but instead to loudly fight for; our system needs reinvention, not fixing.
Farewell Christine!
We are thrilled to announce Christine Dubowy will be starting as a professor at Hagerstown Community College …asap! Congratulations Christine, we will miss you! We look forward to future collaborations…don’t be a stranger…