The 2021 Annual Molecular Biology Departmental Retreat was held this past weekend at Princeton and we were happy to have three of our lab members present their work!

Robbie gave an oral presentation on “Multi-pathway innate immunity antagonism by Hepatitis E virus ORF1 protein”, Saori presented a poster entitled “Profiling the SARS-CoV2 spike protein interactome using proximity labeling”, and Tomo presented a poster titled “Generation and characterization of genetically and antigenically diverse infectious clones of dengue virus (DENV) serotypes 1-4”.

We all enjoyed learning about their work and the research done by all the labs in our department! We also want to thank the Molecular Biology department and Terry MacFarland for doing preparing a wonderful event!

The Ploss lab is excited to welcome SEVEN new undergrads to our ranks!

Already diving in for some summer research are rising seniors Debby Park ‘22, Daniel Beard ‘22, and Mansi Totwani ‘22. It’s been great having their energy in lab and to see how quickly they’re learning the ropes!

Their mentors also have some very nice things to say about them. Stephanie, who’s working with Mansi, says “I’m really enjoying running around with my chickadee and showing her how to become a virus queen!” Yongzhen, who works with Debby, reports that “she is excited after getting her positive cells!” And according to Keith, “Daniel has got some beautiful qPCR results!”

Come September, we’ll also be joined by Maricar Almeda ‘22, Olivia Sakaguchi ‘23, Christine Nguyen ‘23, and Brian Li ’24. See you all soon!

Look at those worker bees getting stuck into their summer research! Lab life feels like it’s gradually getting back to normal!

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Congratulations to Alex, who was recently awarded first place at the BioNJ Company and Pitch Presentation Competition! Held as part of BioNJ’s 11^th Annual BioPartnering Conference, and in partnership with JP Morgan and Johnson & Johnson Innovation, the competition allowed life scientists and entrepreneurs from across the US to present work from their companies and start-ups.

As president of Acurasset Therapeutics, Alex pitched the start-up’s efforts to develop small-molecule therapeutics against HBV infection.

Princeton’s press release can be found here. And a full press release from BioNJ can be read here.

The Ploss lab is happy to announce we have received a grant titled “Combatting fetal-maternal mortality caused by enterically transmitted viral hepatitis” from the Center for Health and Wellbeing, for Michael Schwoerer’s work with hepatitis E virus!

Infection with hepatitis E virus (HEV) has presented a trenchant threat to global health and wellbeing for decades, with annual infections in the tens of millions. HEV infection poses a particularly deadly risk to pregnant women, with mortality rates of nearly 30%. In collaboration with the MacMillan lab, Michael aims to identify host factors that are essential for the life cycle of this virus. Results from this work hold promise to define novel targets and will highlight new, more effective intervention strategies for treating patients afflicted by this dreadful disease.