Last week, the SlugLab celebrated the successful wrap up of the Summer 2023 research season.

There will be many posts to come discussing the rather amazing work we completed this summer: intriguing data on memory manipulation, a transcriptional time course for a very long-lasting form of memory, and a raft of amazing sequencing projects… it’s going to take a while to process all we’ve done.

More important than the work was the way we did it: with lots of laughs, team spirit, and rigor.

At the end of July, PUMA-STEM scholars Zayra Juarez and Leslie Valdez had the opportunity to attend the PUMA-STEM summer research conference and present their summer projets from the SlugLab. Despite a bit of initial anxiety, Leslie and Zayra crushed it. Oh, and Elmhurst turns out to have an ok-ish campus; nothing compared to murderThatcher woods, though.

Thanks to black-hat Hacker Jash ZT for the photoshop work — She manipulating memories about our memory manipulation work… very meta.

I am not a robot, that’s what!

One of this year’s slug squad members, Theresa Wilsterman, has created some album-themed artwork of Irina and me. I don’t have words— the look; the millions of little details from the lab; the fact that Theresa worked on these while also being a rockstar in the lab, completing an insane running regimen (at least last summer), and trying (but FAILING) to beat my 1 mile time.

Anyway; there are lots of cool things that have come out of the Sluglab, but this may be the most insanely awesome thing yet. Enjoy.

Just in case you don’t know, here are the originals