Haven't posted in a while. So here's a picture of my lab enjoying some large floats in celebration of my two Ph.D students passing their Qualifying Exams recently. 🙂🍨 #NewPI

Shout-out to the worker that was frantically trying to turn off the door alarm that randomly went off during this morning plenary. 😅 #2025ISMPMI

After a week in Europe traveling with my wife (both refreshing and fun), now it's time to lock in for the #2025ISMPMI conference in Cologne, Germany!

As graduation season is upon us, I want to take a second to acknowledge my two awesome @washu.bsky.social undergrads I had in my lab in my first year as faculty! While this role is a lot of work, mentoring/training people at different career stages is one of the best parts. 🎉🔬

My birthday was last Friday and my lab members made me a card. I have such a great lab 😅😂😂

Another nice thing about ExPOSE is its versatility. We used it to observe biomolecular condensates in Arabidopsis protoplasts and transcription factors in maize protoplasts at an enhanced resolution. 🧵

This method can be coupled with other imaging techniques such as HCR and immunofluorescence to visualize RNA and proteins, respectively, to greatly enhance the spatial resolution of biomolecules. 🧵

With ExPOSE we achieve robust expansion - including subcellular components. The average cell expansion is about 10-fold, with a linear expansion factor of 4.🧵

Expansion microscopy (ExM) provides a way to physically enlarge biological tissues to image at nanoscale level on any optical microscope. It's commonly used in biomedical systems, but it's challenging in plants due to their cell wall. We used protoplasts to develop a new ExM method called "ExPOSE" 🧵

I debated sharing this, but given today is both MLK and inauguration day, maybe seeing it would inspire somebody. I sent this email to my lab members a couple days after the election in November. I personally believe that no matter who's in power, we still have a role in helping our communities.

In case anyone's wondering how the Midwest Winterstorms been, here are three pics - the first pic is my driveway yesterday after the first snowfall, the second pic is after I cleared it, and the third pic is what I woke up to this morning. Over 10+ inches!! 😭😭

Last Wednesday we had our last lab meeting of the year. Consisted of a fun White Elephant Gift Exchange and me providing the State of the Lab Address for the first time! Great way to end off year one of the lab before the break!

Took the lab out to Dave & Busters for a fun Lab Holiday Party. It was a lot of fun - especially with this group I'm grateful to lead! 🎉❄️