For our 2026 Cohen Lab Retreat, we did Night Science workshops on “Interdisciplinary and Renaissance Minds” and “What Puzzle are you in?” followed by tasty lunch and a little healthy competition during bowling at Lucky Strike, Durham.

Today was bitter sweet as we went to Top of the Hill to say good-bye to our fabulous undergraduate research assistants Disha, Malvika, and Rene. Disha is moving on to the PRISM program at UNC, Malvika will work as a clinical assistant, and Rene is continuing his education through a masters of statistics at NC State. We will miss you all!!

We are thrilled to present Dr. Shannon Rhoads as the second Cohen Lab PhD graduate! Co-mentored by Todd Cohen, Shannon used multispectral imaging to reveal that neurons and astrocytes have distinct organelle signatures and responses to neurodegenerative disease-associated stress. Congratulations, Dr. Rhoads!

The Cohen Lab had a spectacular time at Cell Bio 2024 in San Diego. Sarah co-chaired a session on “Lipids in Organelle Form and Function,” Shannon and Maria Clara gave talks, and Sherry and Vickie presented posters. Plus yummy Italian food. See y’all next year in Philadelphia!

We enjoyed a joint Lab Retreat with the Diering Lab. We held Night Science workshops on “Improvisational Science” and “The Two Languages of Science,” before heading to Jordan Lake for a picnic and stand-up paddle boarding.

We celebrated acceptance of papers in JCB (Windham et al., 2024) and Contact (Miner et al., 2024) with a lab dinner at Chuy’s Tex Mex. Yum!

We had a great time at Cell Bio 2023 in Boston, MA. Sarah co-chaired a session on “Lipids in Organelle Form, Function, and Communication,” and gave a talk in the “Beyond Pretty Pictures” Subgroup, while Maria Clara, Shannon, and Sherry presented posters. A highlight was seeing Maria Clara and Sherry’s gorgeous images on the Zeiss Microscopy WOW Wall!!

Today we celebrated a major milestone – the defense of the first Cohen Lab PhD student! Congratulations, Dr. Windham!!! Ian will soon move on to a postdoc position in the Alushin lab at Rockefeller. We are proud of you, best of luck!

We had a fantastic Lab Retreat in Saxapahaw! We did a Strengthsfinder activity that allowed us to learn about the shared and unique strengths of our team members. Then we had lunch at the Saxapahaw General Store and paddled on the Haw River.

We had a great time attending Cell Bio 2022, an ASCB/EMBO Meeting, in Washington, DC. Ian gave a talk and Greg, Maria Clara, Shannon, and Joey presented posters. We also ate lots of yummy food and saw the monuments on the National Mall at night!