Comparative Metabolic
Physiology Lab
Lab News!
5/1/2022 The waxworm on BBC Earth!
The waxworm sneaked its way into a BBC Earth documentary, check out our little video here.
4/15/2022 Congrats Hillary!
Hillary will be continuing her waxworm research in the lab this Summer as she was recently granted a Summer NSERC USRA, well done!
3/5/2022 Le waxworm en Francais!
Great coverage of our favorite plastivores in Bol de Science from Jean-Eric Ghia
12/4/2021 The waxworm in Australia!
We had a nice chat with Sharon Carleton (ABC Science) about some of our recent work on the plastivores as part of a broader theme of using evolutionary novelty to develop new technologies, check it out here.
11/20/2021 Another waxworm study out!
The waxworm strikes again, with a study featuring the collaborative work of Harald, Paola, and Bryan Cassone using an integrative approach to understand the effect of an LDPE diet on waxworm metabolism, check it out here
10/15/2021 A backlog of good news!
Being on sabbatical and all the other things happening in the world, I have slacked at sharing the many great lab news, so in no particular order:
Paola was awarded an NSERC CGS scholarship for her work on the impact of LDPE on the physiology of the waxworm, well done!
Nick successfully defended his M.Sc. work on PGC-1alpha CRISPR zebrafish mutants in May, congratulations Nick!
Harald defended his M.Sc. thesis on the famous waxworm “plastivores” last September, congrats H-man!
In september, Ana Borego joined the LeMoine/Cassone labs to work on multiplexed pathogen detection, a very exciting collaborative project ahead.
01/15/2021 The waxworm on the radio
Liz Tung did an awesome piece on PBS/NPR/WHYY, with a short interview on the plastic problem and the waxworm, check it out here!
08/28/2020 Congrats Sachi!
Lab member Sachi Villanueva was just awarded a Research Manitoba Graduate studentship, congratulations!
08/11/2020 Nick’s honours thesis published
The collaborative work lead by Nick Kurchaba started during his honor thesis has just been accepted for publication, it’s open access check it out here!
08/07/2020 Don’t go chasing waterfalls…
Raphael’s work on the iconic climbing gobies is now published in PBZ , we’re very excited about this collaborative work spearheaded by Raphael during his Company of Biologist funded visit to BU a few summers ago.
05/13/2020: Welcome Paola!
Paola Geronimo has just joined our ranks as a graduate students (co-supervised with B. Cassone). Coming from University of Winnipeg, for her M.Sc. she is interested in working on our very hungry caterpillars and their strange abilities to munch on plastics. Welcome to BU Paola!
03/10/2020: The waxworm goes viral!!!
Our recent work on the role of the microbiome went viral these past few days including
CNN, USA today, Forbes, Radio Canada, CTV and many other news outlets around the
world. It’s thrilling that these little guys are making a hit, as we have lots more to do to
figure out how they are involved in plastic biodegradation, stay tuned!
08/14/2019: End of Summer Lab lunch
Today we had our end of Summer lab lunch, to celebrate all the hard work the lab has done this Summer. It was also an occasion to bid farewell to our great USRA student Ellie Duncan (second from right) who will be leaving the lab shortly in order to start Veterinary school in Saskatchewan. Ellie did a lot of work with Nick to characterize our growing zebrafish CRISPR lines. From left to right: Courtney Geer, Sachi Villanueva, Nick Kurchaba, Chris LeMoine, Ellie Duncan and Harald Grove
08/10/2019: ICCPB 2019
Last week, I attended the International Congress of Comparative Physiology and Biochemistry in Ottawa where I was invited to give a talk about mitochondrial plasticity and our recent work on gene knockdown/knockout in zebrafish. It was a great week amazing science, visiting, and meeting up with new and old friends. Thanks to the LOC for organizing it!
06/04/2019: Coverage of our DEET work on Radio Canada
Very happy that our paper with Bryan Cassone an led by Cody Koloski on the effect of DEET on ticks was recently covered by Jean-Eric Ghia for Radio-Canada (in French): https://ici.radio-canada.ca/premiere/emissions/le-6-a-9/segments/chronique/120518/jean-eric-ghia-deet-insecte
05/31/2019: Graduation!
Congrats to all the students graduating today at BU! And specially to lab members Caleb, Charlotte, and of course Sachi (who managed to track me down for a picture)!
05/16/ 2019: CSZ conference
Nick and Harald traveled to Windsor and did a great job presenting their work
at the annual Canadian Society of Zoologists meeting. Can’t wait for next year,
it’ll be even closer in Saskatoon!
05/021/2019: New Paper out!
Very happy to see Caleb Northam’s undergraduate Thesis/USRA work published today, great work Caleb, and good luck at U of Manitoba for your M.Sc.!
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1095643318303490
05/01/2019: Welcome Ellie!
Ellie has joined the lab as an NSERC-USRA for the summer, working on some CRISPR fishies!
04/08/2019: NSERC-scholarship
Congrats to Sachi again! She secured a prestigious NSERC Graduate Scholarship as she (re)joins the LeMoine lab as a M.Sc. student.
03/08/2019 International Women’s day
Today we celebrate all the social, economic, cultural and political achievements
of women, including our many friends and colleagues all over the world. We are
very proud to have many outstanding women in the lab, including our honours
student Sachi Villanueva that was recognized yesterday for all of her hard work
and dedication to our community. Well done Sachi!
03/01/2019 U of Manitoba Seminar
I took a little trip down Trans-Canada to give a seminar (Plastic physiology: tales from the zebrafish and the very hungry caterpillar) and meetup with friends and colleagues in the Biology Department at UofM. It was fun meeting with many grad students over lunch and catch up with the physiologists of the department!
11/02/2018 Our work featured in Research Connection
We wrote a little summary of our recent research efforts to understand the effects of microplastics in aquatic organisms, check it here!
10/09/2018 NSERC scholarship for Harald
Congrats to Lab member Harald Grove for receiving Alexander Graham Bell Canada Graduate Scholarship-Master’s Award. This will help him in his quest to understand the hungry hungry waxworms! Check the BU News article
09/12/2018 Microplastics paper is published
Happy to announce that our latest #microplastics work on zebrafish larvae is out! Our collaborative efforts show little impact of high MP concentrations overall, except for quick & transient changes in gene expression, stay tuned! MP paper
