Review on coordinated behaviour

Marietta’s, Ilya’s and Prisca’s review on coordinated behaviour was published in ‘Current Opinion in Cell Biology’ today. If you are interested in learning more about the design principles of coordinated behaviour across scales, check out this interesting review.

5 year anniversary

Today we celebrate the 5th year anniversary of the Liberali lab with flowers and champagne!

Nicole and Koen start in the lab

With the new year our lab also welcomes two new members. Nicole Repina who did her PhD at UC Berkeley in the lab of David Schaffer and Koen Oost who did his PhD at the Netherlands Cancer Institute in the lab of Hugo Snippert both started their PostDoc. Their start coincides with Epiphany where Swiss traditionally eat the ‘Dreikönigskuchen’ - a ring of sweet bread buns with a little plastic king hidden in one of them. The person finding the king in their bun gets to wear a golden paper crown - and both Nicole and Koen were the lucky ones. We welcome our new queen and king to the lab and wish them all the best for their projects!

Urs defends his PhD and leaves FMI

Our year concludes with Urs’ PhD defense. Urs - who started his PhD in 2016 - first presented his PhD project in front of family, friends and colleagues and afterwards was examined by Prisca, Susan Gasser, Luca Giorgetti, Darren Gilmore and Marc Bühler. He received a ‘Summa cum laude’ for his outstanding performance. His hat was decorated with a confetti-throwing volcano that depicted the hurdles of a PhD. This also marked the end of Urs’ time at FMI. The group will miss him and wishes him all the best for his future!

Denise leaves FMI

Today marked the last day of Denise, the first student finishing her PhD and leaving the Liberali lab. We celebrated our time together over lunch and Italian pastries. After a well deserved holiday, Denise will join Kim Jensen’s lab at BRIC, Copenhagen, Denmark, in January for her PostDoc work. We wish her all the best for her future endeavours and will miss her dearly!

Ilya's PhD defense

Our week of celebrations continues with Ilya’s PhD defense. Ilya - who started as Prisca’s first PhD student in August 2015 - first presented his PhD project in front of family, friends and colleagues and afterwards was examined by Prisca, Jörg Betschinger, Matthias Lutolf and Nancy Hynes. He received a ‘Summa cum laude’ for his outstanding performance. The lab prepared a hat incorporating his love for mountains and technical details in form of a revolving imaging plate. The day ended with Ilya’s greatest passion - enjoying good beer!

Denise's PhD defense

Today was a special day for the lab as Denise defended her PhD thesis as the first student of the lab. Denise - who started her PhD in November 2015 shortly after the lab was established - first gave a presentation of her PhD project in front of family, friends and colleagues and afterwards was examined by Prisca, Dirk Schübeler, Anne Grapin-Botton and Filippo Rijli. Her excellent performance was honoured with ‘Summa cum laude’ and an extensively decorated PhD hat. This exciting day ended with celebrations among friends and colleagues.

FMI Annual Meeting 2019

This year’s FMI Annual Meeting took us to Grindelwald, Switzerland. The program was filled with exciting talks from our colleagues, including one from Qiutan, and the keynote speaker, Sir Adrian Bird from the Welcome Centre of Cell Biology, Edinburgh, UK. Traditionally, we also enjoyed scenic hikes in the Swiss Mountains and a Gala dinner with the infamous follies with a contribution of Prisca.