The Corthals Lab Blog

When working intensely on a project, it is nice to get a day spent opening our minds to new horizons. So on Friday, we celebrated lab milestones achieved over the last two weeks with an outing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, prefaced by LOTS OF FOOD at Joe's Shangai and their famous soup dumplings ! Eating soup dumplings requires caution and practice . Observe the concentration! From left to right: Ramatu (UG, Stony Brook), Laura (Graduated UG, John Jay), Bridgette (Graduate, John Jay), Sanah (UG, Jonh Jay), Paul (Corthals Lab groupie/roadie), Margarita (UG, John Jay), Carlos (graduated UG, John Jay), Dr. C (evil master) At Joe's Shangai, we discovered just how much Dr. C was going to have to spend on feeding Carlos in Egypt...  Dr. C better double the food budget for Egypt... Despite a weather forecast predicting rain, the day was gorgeous and we strolled (some of us, others had to be pushed - hint, hint Bridgette...) through Central Park to the Met and i

This is us totally fangirling over ImmunoMatrix's founder, inventor and scientist extraordinaire: Dr. Kasia Sawicka (She of the needle-less vaccine patch!) From left to right: Ramatu (exhibiting the patch prototype), Bhavana (exhibiting the cover prototype), Sanah, Margarita and the illustrious Dr. Kasia! And we got an autographed prototype!!!! And Kasia mentioned us in Twitter!!!

Because science is an art...  Margarita's great lab book art work on the olfactory vomeronasal anatomy.

Our fail proof bones and tissues classification system 'Nough said.  Aah, the fresh feeling of organization...

Our first steps in the Davalos Lab John Jay REU's Margarita and Sanah are all settled in their dorms and ready for a summer of research at the Davalos Lab.  The first steps are the most important... and here Margarita, Sanah and Bavnah are taught about PCR by UG Davalos Lab student, Ramatu and PhD Davalos Lab student, Laurel Yohe... Bavana is paralyzed by PCR fear... Sanah is taking it all in strides though PhD student Laurel Yohe is wagging her finger so much, that the camera just can't... It's all good in the end, but Bavana can't shake off the fear...

First lab virtual meeting Summer is in full swing, this means research is in full swing at the Corthals-Davalos Lab. Our two locations, John Jay College in the city and Stony Brook on Long Island, means that our labs have to telecommute a lot because our fearless leader, Dr. C, can be at either one of the locations. And this is what it looks like. :) Ouch my eye! Carlos "Noon-Whistle", Laura "Sus", Erica "Scrofa", Bridgette"I can 3D that" Laura is looking dubious about what was just said Minions at attention

Previous activities at the Corthals Lab (pre-blog) including research days (Laura Singh), research trips in PA, field trips in Egypt (with Kyle Zavinsky), can be found here : http://www.aspcorthals.net/Site/University_galleries/Pages/John_Jay_College_of_Criminal_Justice.html Kyle Zavinsky (right) and Dr. C (Left) in the C3 tomb at Gurna, Luxor, southern Egypt, January 2012 Alumni of the Corthals Lab are on this page:  http://www.aspcorthals.net/Site/Alumni.html Manchester University Master Students Class 2006-2007. From left to right: Andrew Briscoe, Brittany Dement, Nur Farehan M. Asgar, Dr. C, Sharen Lee, Oliver Smith Manchester University Master Students Class 2007-2008. From left to right: Dr. C, Robert Montgomerie, Juliet Davies, Christopher Garwood, Louise Thomas, Roger Forshaw, Dina Jaidy, Jennifer Innes More updates coming soon!

Archived news coverage of the Corthals Lab research and students achievements can be found here: http://www.aspcorthals.net/Site/Lab_News/Lab_News.html And shared research and students achievements news with the Davalos Lab can be found here: http://life.bio.sunysb.edu/ee/davaloslab/News/News.html

First (physical) joint lab meeting of the Davalos and Corthals labs at SUNY Stony Brook Dept of Ecology and Evolution Exciting beginning of the summer for the Davalos and Corthals labs: our joint CUNY-SUNY REUs (Research Experience for Undergraduate, funded by the NSF), Margarita Bartasunaite and Sanah Afzal are here!!! At the weekly lab meeting, all the students make a ppt presentation to show what they have achieved during the week and what their plans are for the next week. It is also an opportunity to catch up on the science literature with a journal club. Our lab meeting in session, with some members from abroad joining us via skype! We are so cosmopolitan!

Welcolme to our lab blog!  Our lab has three main foci of research: a) on the evolution of autoimmune and infectious diseases, as well as sensory systems in mammals (with the Davalos lab at SBU Ecology and Evolution ) b) on the role of lipids in MS (with Stony Brook Medicine MS Center and Dept of Pathology) and, c) the histomorphology of trauma in decomposed and cremated tissues (with Dr. Petraco and Peter Diaczuk, John Jay College of Criminal Justice )  Our posts will not just be about the science produced at the lab, but also the people, fun activities, achievements, set-backs (negative results!) and the everyday life of a diverse lab. Together with the Davalos Lab, we believe that every student in our labs should have a rounded education. This is why a stay at our labs is not just about the science our students will produce, but also about philosophy, economics, sociology, anthropology, music, literature, the plastic arts, and many more fields as all will