Spring & Summer 2021

May / 1

Mixed news ahead: firstly, we are finally back in person! Over the next few months, we say goodbye to some of our team members, including undergraduate researcher Thuy-Anh Bui who graduates from UCLA, Giulia Calafato that goes back to Italy at the end of her productive internship, Emily Kohl who is moving on to her gap year and will work at Columbia University and Lexi Omholt that is joining Kite for a stint in biotech. Emily and Lexi were part of our first undergraduate researcher cohorts and have been with us ever since, and an absolute force in lab. Congrats to all, we are so very proud of you (but will miss you dearly)!
On the positive side, Luda Lin joins us as a graduate student and our own Huyen Thi Lam Nguyen got accepted to the UCLA MBIDP graduate program and will continue in lab as a grad student - Congrats!!

Probably about 15 months have passed since we last managed to enjoy a sit down meal together.
So happy that vaccines allowed us to get to this point, and we had so much to celebrate! pic.twitter.com/CQxcYfGpGR

— Soragni:Lab (@soragnilab) May 6, 2021

MAY / 2

Our third paper - and second preprint - is ready for primetime! Very proud of the team for this work on chordoma organoids.
Access the preprint here: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.05.27.446040v1​
Read more about the preprint here: https://twitter.com/soragnilab/status/1398317354765983745

June

Alice is invited to speak at the AACR Virtual Special Conference on Sarcomas.

Sarcoma Model Systems:
Alice @SoragniLab, Genevieve @KendallLabNCH, Janai Carr-Ascher @ucdavis, and Angela Hirbe @WUSTL will address this topic in a plenary session during the AACR Virtual Special Conference on Sarcomas, June 28-29:https://t.co/xC9gGA9Lbc#AACRsarcoma21 pic.twitter.com/pWOEB5zTIs

— AACR (@AACR) June 24, 2021

JULY

Alice gets re-elected to the Board of the Society for Functional Precision Medicine.

We want to thank all of our SFPM Members for voting in our election.
Congratulations to the newly elected @TheSFPM Board Member @Diana_Azzam_PhD and re-elected @JoanMonte and @soragnilab!

— The Society for Functional Precision Medicine (@TheSFPM) July 16, 2021

AUGUST/ 1

Our preview on cervical organoids is published on Cell Stem Cell. Congratulations to our postdoc Sara! 
Access the paper here: https://www.cell.com/cell-stem-cell/fulltext/S1934-5909(21)00292-7

AUGUST / 2

Alice is interviewed for Communications Biology.
Read the Q&A here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s42003-021-02390-w​

Alice Soragni, PhD, of the #UCLAJCCC spoke with @Naturecomms about her research on #organoids, the importance of learning from peers while starting an independent research career and of creating inclusive and diverse lab practices.

Read. ➨ https://t.co/RGuecMo5pt

— UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center (@UCLAJCCC) August 10, 2021

AUGUST / 3

A few good new from the lab: congratulations to Peyton that was awarded a JCCC Fellowship for his work on organoids and to William, whose work will be covered by an NCI supplement to continue his work on ovarian cancer!

It's good news Thursday (and if that's not a thing, it is now)!
Want to share some recent positive news from the lab, hope you all join me in congratulating our trainees. First up, we just learned today that our graduate student Peyton @peytontebon was awarded a JCCC Fellowship! pic.twitter.com/hvmw174BLl

— Soragni:Lab (@soragnilab) August 19, 2021

SEPTEMBER

And our latest R01 is now officially funded! This award will propel our studies on rare neuroendocrine tumors in collaboration with Dr. Patricia Dahia (UTHSCSA).

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