NEWS
FELLOWSHIPS & AWARDS!
August - December 2024
Lots to celebrate! Sara Gelles-Watnick was awarded an F31 Predoctoral Fellowship, Jessica Liu was awarded a Silliman Senior Mellon Grant, and Liz Bailey was awarded an ACS Postdoctoral Fellowship.
LIZ WINS A POSTER AWARD AT THE FASEB VIRUS STRUCTURE & ASSEMBLY CONFERENCE
July 2024
Allison & Liz had a great time at the 2024 FASEB Virus Structure & Assembly conference in Southbridge, MA. Allison presented a guide to the academic job search and Liz presented a poster about her work on ORF68 and its homologs - winning a poster award on the last night!
HARRY HWANG WINS THESIS AWARD FOR WORK ON ORF68
May 2024
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Harry graduated from Yale-NUS with a Bachelor of Science with Honors. He received the Prize for Outstanding Capstone Project in Physical Sciences for his work to understand the role of the oligomeric state of ORF68, a viral protein of unknown function required for viral genome packaging.
JAMIE SHIAH & SHANNON HENRY JOIN THE LAB!
April 2024
Shannon earned her B.S. in biochemistry and molecular biology from the Honors College at the University of South Carolina. During my time there, she focused on conducting structural research on proteins associated with the pathogenesis of agricultural pests. She then completed a one year post-bacc at the National Institutes of Health in the HIV dynamics and replication program. She is very excited to continue her research at Yale in herpesvirus structural virology. Beyond her academic pursuits, she is passionate about exploring new destinations through travel, and finds joy in creative endeavors such as painting and baking treats for friends.
Jamie grew up in the Bay Area, California and earned her undergraduate degree from UC Berkeley, where she majored in Molecular and Cell Biology with an emphasis in Biochemistry and minored in Anthropology. Prior to starting graduate school, she worked as a research assistant at UCSF on cancer biology and antibody engineering projects. In the Didychuk Lab, Jamie is excited to study how herpesviruses package their genomes. Outside of lab, she enjoys painting, pottery, and watching films.
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LAURA MEIßNER JOINS THE LAB!
November 2023
Laura studied biochemistry and biophysics in Bayreuth, before she completed her PhD in Dresden (Germany). She worked on microtubule motor proteins and is excited to investigate the viral motors of the packaging machinery. Outside the lab, she enjoys biking, cooking and reading.
OLAIDE ADEYEMI JOINS THE LAB!
May 2023
With a background in Biochemistry and Physical Chemistry, Olaide is super excited about using biophysical methods in unraveling the role of essential factors involved in the KSHV packaging machinery. Outside of the lab, she finds pleasure in the art of photography and watching movies as it ignites her creativity. She loves the Yale community, and she looks forward to breaking new boundaries over the next few years in the Didychuk Lab
NICK DOAK & LIZ BAILEY JOIN THE LAB!
April 2023
Liz earned a Ph.D. in Chemistry at Columbia University as an NSF GRFP Fellow studying bacterial transcription-translation coupling and cryptic prophages. Previously, she earned an M.A. in Chemistry from Princeton University and a B.A. in Chemistry and Studio Art from Kenyon College. Outside the lab, Liz enjoys kayaking, hiking, and writing. Her writing — on algorithmic art, a forgotten female scientific illustrator, and the mechanisms of mass extinctions — has appeared in Scientific American and the Kenyon Review. Links to her publications etc. can be found at Liz’s personal website: https://elizabethjbailey.com/.
Coming from a background of ecology and chemistry, I’m so excited to immerse myself in the biochemistry of herpesviruses and master a new, wide array of virological techniques. For my graduate studies, I’m especially interested in parsing out the sequence & structure - function relationships of the KSHV late transcription complex through deep mutational scanning and assessing the exact structure of individual components. Outside of the lab I am an aspiring tango dancer (Join the Yale Tango Club!), fitness nerd, lover of all things coffee, and always look for any excuse to go outdoors. I love to call Yale home and am looking forward to training these next few years alongside everyone in the Didychuk lab.
XINYU CHEN JOINS THE LAB!
October 21, 2022
Xinyu is a BS/MS student in the MB&B Department at Yale interested in late gene transcription!
SARA GELLES-WATNICK JOINS THE LAB!
October 10, 2022
Sara completed her BS/MS in Biochemistry at Brandeis University working with Dr. Dorothee Kern. She brings a wealth of molecular biology experience to the team and is excited to learn more about ORF68!
MAYTE AND GIANCARLO START IN THE LAB!
July 11, 2022
Giancarlo is from Naples, FL and studied molecular biology at Yale. He is excited to learn about how herpesviruses employ molecular motors to package their genomes. Giancarlo looks forward to exploring more of New Haven and hopes to break into the local cycling scene.
Mayte comes from the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez. She is excited to learn new things in the research field, meet new people and create new memories! She’s also looking forward to see some of Connecticut’s beautiful hiking trails!
THE DIDYCHUK LAB OPENS!
July 1, 2022
KARA, ALLISON, DEQUINA, AND TINA PUBLISH "SCENTIFIC LIFE" PIECE IN TIBS DESCRIBING THE TRANSITION PHASE WHEN PREPARING TO LAUNCH A LABORATORY
May 26, 2022
We wrote this article to help incoming assistant professors navigate the time between accepting their job offer and starting their lab. We hope it helps demystify (and destress) this exciting but confusing time!
