News

February 13, 2024

Our lab would be nothing without the illustrious, industrious, conscientious, sedulous, diligent, amazing, incomparable, fantastic, and all-time favorite lab manager, Krissey! Dr. Dan Joh and the lab surprised Krissey with cupcakes for her birthday during Rachel's group meeting. Happy Birthday, Krissey!

Lab surprising Krissey for her birthday

December 17, 2023

Josh and his wife Amber hosted an incredible white elephant holiday party for the lab. The gift exchange included multiple plants, a shockingly pleasant island-themed calendar, childhood toys, and even an appearance by Tosh! Happy Holidays, everyone!

 The lab at a holiday party with Tosh's face in the background

November 11, 2023

Congratulations to Josh and Amber on their beautiful wedding! We were thrilled to celebrate their marriage with a gorgeous ceremnoy and a reception so lit that there was a fire alarm on the 28th floor. We can confidently say that the Chilkoti lab excels both at the bench and at the dance.

 

Not pictured: Josh, newly married

October 28, 2023

The lab fell in love with Fall! Kat and Rachael organized an excursion to a local pumpkin patch for some wonderful pumpkin spice lab bonding. We talked intrinsically disordered proteins on a tractor ride, drug delivery on a cow ride, compared our pumpkins, and got lost in a corn maze. 10/10 would Fall again!

Blinded by the light

Lab Photo Pumpkin Patch 1

Showing off our pumpkins

Small Group with pumpkins

Enjoying what was sold as a "cow ride"

Cow Ride

Enjoying an actual tractor ride

Lab on a tractor

October 14, 2023

The Chilkoti Lab rolled in deep to the BMES conference! Anya, Max, Josh, Zach, and Dr. Yulia all gave excellent talks, while Parul, Joanna and Jonathan gave some really ~strong~ poster presentations!

Chilkoti BMES Squad!

BMESsquad_small

Anya Presenting

Anya Presenting

Max Presenting

Max Presenting

Josh Presenting

Josh Presenting

Zach Presenting

Zach Presenting

Yulia Presenting

Yulia Presenting

Parul Presenting

Parul Presenting

Joanna Presenting

Joanna Presenting

Jonathan Flexing

Jonathan Presenting

August 19, 2023

Kat, Rachael, Rachel, Afi, and Zach (a.k.a. The First Years and Zach) planned an incredible lab retreat! This year we went to the Blue Ridge mountains of North Carolina, where we had a relaxing weekend of lab-based games, hiking, and generally relaxing. Things got heated during a close game of pipette basketball, we found out that Uno actually has a slapping mechanic, and Dan learned the hard way that picking up a cactus knob will lead to hours of picking tiny needles out of his bare hands. Overall we had a blast exploring the beautiful nature of Appalachian North Carolina! 

Take a look:

Lab loving the view at the top of Stone Mountain:

Dan learns about Cactus Trichomes:

The lab cools off:

Parul slays:

 

And finally, our beautiful lab retreat patio!

Thanks everyone for making our 2023 retreat so awesome!

 

July 11, 2023

Hamed's work was written up in a press release from the Duke Pratt School of Engineering! He created a gravity-powered microfluidic device that can control how droplets move and interact without any outside power. Great stuff! Read more here: https://pratt.duke.edu/about/news/gravity-power-device

June 20, 2023

The lab had a fantastic time at our departmental retreat, and more than a few congratulations are in order!

Congrats to Anya for winning the BME Department Outstanding Departmental Service Award for four years of leadership in the BME PhD Peer Mentoring program! The peer mentoring program has been an integral part of the department, connecting older PhD students with newbies to help them navigate the ins and outs of our PhD program!

Plus, congrats to Zach for winning an Outstanding Teaching Assistant award and 3rd place at the poster competition!

 

 

 

June 11, 2023

A huge congratulations to Anya for being elected as one of the co-chairs for the 2025 Gordon Research Seminar on Cancer Nanotechnology! Anya had the opportunity to present her work and connect with brilliant scientists in the field. Learn more about the 2023 Cancer Nanotechnology GRS here. We look forward to attending a conference and seminar organized by our very own!

March 23, 2023

Huge news from the entrepreneurial side of the Chilkoti lab: Isolere, a company founded in 2017 by Tosh, Kelli Luginbuhl, who recieved her PhD in the Chilkoti lab, and Joe McMahon, partner at Bioventure Partners, has been acquired by Donaldson Company, a global maker of filtration products. Isolere harnesses the power of protein phase separation to purify gene therapy vectors at yeilds significantly higher than the current standard. Congrats to Tosh, Kelli, Joe, and the rest of Isolere, including CSO Mike Dzuricky, who also got his PhD in the Chilkoti lab!

Read about the whole history of Isolere here: https://otc.duke.edu/news/isolere-bio-inside-the-journey-of-a-duke-biotech-start-up/

Official press release from Donaldson: https://www.donaldson.com/en-us/news/donaldson-acquires-isolere/

January 4, 2023

The good press continues! Dr. Schaal's pancreatic treatment was highlighted by CBS news - watch the segment here: https://www.cbs17.com/news/local-news/durham-county-news/duke-researcher...

December 19, 2022

Dr. Jeff Schaal's work on an injectable, radioactive gel was just highlighted on the NIH website! Congratulations Jeff and co-authors!

Read more here: https://www.nibib.nih.gov/news-events/newsroom/injectable-radioactive-ge...

October 21, 2022

Congrats to Jeff Schaal, Garrett Kelly, Soumen Saha, Josh Milligan, Samagya Banskota, and Xinghai Li on their newest publication in Nature Biomedical Engineering! Jeff et al. attached a radioactive nuclide to ELPs to create an injectable "depot" that slowly irradiates pancreatic cancer. This radioactive depot, combined with paclitaxel, a potent anti-cancer drug, is able to essentially dissolve tumors in a mouse model! Read more in the newest press release from Duke Biomedical Engineering: "Gel-Like, Radioactive Implant Obliterates Pancreatic Cancer in Mice".

October 20, 2022

A HUGE congratulations to Tosh on winning 2022 Outstanding Postdoc mentor at Duke! 

From the press release: "A current postdoc wrote: When I met Tosh as a graduate student, I already had a postdoc position at another university and was determined to go there. However, Tosh's energy and his willingness to listen to my thoughts persuaded me to come to Duke. He allowed me to pursue various directions based on my interests. When I applied for the K99, Tosh put huge effort into my training plan. HE REALLY CARES! That is the best thing about him as a mentor."

https://postdoc.duke.edu/duke-postdoctoral-awards/outstanding-postdoc-mentor-duke-hall-fame

 

April 30, 2022

Chilkoti lab had a great time at BME retreat, and we ~swept~ the end-of-the-year BME awards (and the social hours, of course)!

Congratulations to:

  • Anya on winning best poster at retreat! Data: exemplary. Style: tasteful. Color Palette: 4. 
  • Josh on receiving recognition for Service to the BME Department! Designing and printing New Student Handbook: $.10/page. New students hitting the ground running: priceless. 
  • Zach on his Honorable Mention for the Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award! Preparing assignments for Intro to Biomedical Data Science: install.packages("how_to_use_R"). Winning an award: print("Well Deserved!").

Photo of the chilkoti lab on a hike

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