It’s been a great December for current and former lab members.  Congratulations are in order for:

Phil Uribe (Ph.D. student, Neuroscience) passed his preliminary exam and advanced to doctoral candidacy.

Chau Nguyen (B.S. 2013) was accepted to medical school at the University of Washington.

Matthew Kruger (M.S. student, Biology) was accepted to graduate school (PhD) at the University of Maine.

Undergraduates Sarah Neveux and Nicki Smith, and graduate student Phil Uribe, all received travel awards from WSU Vancouver.  All three will present their research at the 2015 Association for Research in Otolaryngology mid-winter meeting.

Congratulations to all of them for their success!

We recently received a three-year research grant from Action on Hearing Loss to support our ongoing research on the hearing protective capabilities of MM-201.  Our collaborators are Drs. Joe Harding and Leen Kawas (WSU Pullman and M3 Biotechnology) and Dr. Peter Steyger (OHSU).  We look forward to partnering with Action on Hearing loss on our research.

Congrats to lab manager Heather Wiedehoft for her article on herring in Prince William Sound, published in the fall edition of North Pacific Focus, a regional fisheries publication.

Congratulations to technician Cassie Black on her recent wedding! Many Coffin lab members came to celebrate with Cassie…and to help with clean up after the celebration.  Best wishes to Cassie and Brent on their life together.

Mr. Matthew Kruger presented his research at the International Conference on Zebrafish Development and Genetics in Madison, WI. While there, Matthew also won a trip to Italy to participate in a zebrafish husbandry course.  Congrats Matthew and have a great trip to Europe!

Mr. Phil Uribe and Dr. Coffin presented their research at the Gordon Research Conference on the Auditory System in Lewiston, ME.

Coffin Lab members and their colleagues had fun at the 2014 campus research showcase!  Left to right: Meghal Sheth, Lauren Hayashi, Megan Slaker (Sorg Lab), Elena Mahrt (Portfors Lab), Alex Young, Dustin Manning, Anthony Vu (Portfors Lab), and Nicki Smith. Megan won the graduate student poster award!

Allison Coffin won the audience choice award at the 2014 U.S. FameLab final in Washington, D.C. Sponsored by NASA and National Geographic, FameLab is an international science communication competition aimed at making science accessible and fun for non-scientists. Watch the final event here!

There are so many great things going on in the lab that’s it’s hard to fit it all into one post, but here goes:

Doctoral student Phil Uribe and high school intern Meghal Sheth each presented their research at the 2014 Association for Research in Otolaryngology mid-winter meeting in February.  Both did an exemplary job showcasing their work to the auditory community.

Meghal Sheth won first place at the Southwest Washington Science and Engineering Fair (SEF)! This win earns her a spot a the International SEF for the second straight year. Meghal also took first place in the Washington Junior Science and Humanities Symposium.  For both competitions Meghal presented her recent research on the potential effects of BPA on hearing. We wish Meghal the best of luck at the National/International competitions!

Several Coffin Lab members presented their research at the 2014 Northwest Developmental Biology meeting in Friday Harbor. Presenters are: Phil Uribe, Lauren Hayashi, Matthew Kruger, Dustin Manning, Nicole Smith, Alex Young, and Cathrine Black.  Congrats to Nicki Smith for winning an undergraduate poster presentation award!

Dr. Coffin was recently selected to compete at the U.S. finals of FameLab, a science communication competition sponsored by NASA and National Geographic. The Finals are Saturday, April 5th in D.C.  Locals, come cheer her on!

Congrats to doctoral student Phil Uribe for his travel award courtesy of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology. This award will allow him to present his research at ARO’s upcoming meeting.

Undergraduate researcher Chau Nyugen won a best poster award at the WSU Vancouver Research Showcase on 4/18/13.  Chau’s work the steelhead lateral line was recently published in PLoS One. Congratulations Chau!