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ASB 2022

Daisies

NEWS

!!!🚨🚨🚨!!!

Erika is currently looking for a Postdoc opportunity! Research interests broadly range from phylogenomics, systematics, genomics, and conservation. Ideal start date would be January 2025, though start date is negotiable. Please contact Erika if you are interested and have an opening or would like to submit a fellowship together!

Ongoing

Erika presents at CBio

Erika presented an informal talk about her recent trip overseas to the Center for Biodiversity Research at the University of Memphis. It was a great crowd!

August 23, 2024

Mandel Lab hosts meeting in Memphis

The Mandel Lab is excited to host collaborators from Auburn University and the University of Georgia at the University of Memphis to discuss project updates.

August 5-7, 2024

Jen and Erika head overseas!

Jen Mandel and Erika head to London, England to visit the Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew to meet with collaborators and give talks, and then head to Madrid, Spain to attend IBC 2024 to give talks and posters! 

July 2024

TPCA 6th annual meeting

Erika attended the Tennessee Plant Conservation Alliance (TPCA) meeting, held virtually this year, to hear about conservation efforts throughout TN. Very happy to hear the great progress TPCA members are making for rare/endangered plants!

June 13, 2024

Memphis Area Master Gardeners

Erika and Mike Ballou gave a talk to the Memphis Area Master Gardeners that introduced herbaria, discussed their importance in research, and how Master Area Gardeners can help herbaria persist! It was a great time and a great way to meet other plant lovers in Memphis!

May 9, 2024

City Nature Challenge

Erika worked with Overton Park Conservancy to validate taxonomy of Shelby County plant species on iNaturalist to help with the City Nature Challenge!

May 1, 2024

Mandel Lab heads to ASB 2024!

Many Mandel Lab members head to the Association of Southeastern Biologist (ASB) conference in Chattanooga, TN. Two undergraduate students, Paris and Mariah, are presenting their phylogenomic and morphological work on an arctic species complex in Packera

March 20-23, 2024

Mandel Lab heads to PAG31!

Erika, Sam Drewry (Master's student), Paige Ellestad (Postdoc), and Jen Mandel (PI) head to PAG31 in sunny San Diego!

Erika: Talk - Tuesday, January 16th @ 10:50am (Compositae session) & Poster - Monday, January 15th @ 3:00-4:30pm (PO0271)

Sam: Poster - Monday, January 15th @ 3:00-4:30pm (PO0231)

Paige: Poster - Monday, January 15th @ 10:00-11:30am (PO0262)

January 11-17, 2024

2023 Graduate! 🎓

Erika graduates from the University of Memphis with her PhD in Biological Sciences! Erika will continue her research with Jennifer Mandel as a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Memphis. Stay tuned for more research in the large and wonderful sunflower family 🌻!

December 17, 2023

Mandel Lab hosts local highschoolers

Mandel Lab hosted three local high school students and one visiting undergraduate student (Rice University) to learn what it is like to work in a lab and assemble plastid genomes 🌿

October 20, 2023

Mandel Lab continues the search for the 'vert'

Jennifer Mandel, Sam Drewry, Paige Ellestad, and Erika head to middle Tennessee to try to find more Helianthus verticillatus populations. Although unsuccessful, it was great to get out in the field!

October 4, 2023

Laura Lagomarsino visits UofM

Erika recently hosted Dr. Laura Lagomarsino from Louisiana State University (LagoLab) to come to the University of Memphis and give a talk about her work in phylogenomics and systematics of Andean plants! Great work by a great lab!

September 28, 2023

Mandel Lab welcomes new post-doc!

The Mandel Lab is growing (again!) with the addition of the new Post-Doc, Paige Ellestad. Paige recently graduated from Boise State University and joined our lab to look more into Asteraceae genomes!

September 2023

Successfully 
defends Dissertation!! 🥳

Erika successfully defends her Dissertation titled "Investigating the impact of reticulate evolution and paralogy in phylogenomic studies using the complex genus Packera (Asteraceae: Senecioneae)"! 

September 21, 2023

Mandel Lab heads to TPCA!

Jennifer Mandel, Sam Drewry (Master's Student), Shelby Green (Master's Student), and Erika head to the West Tennessee Plant Conservation Alliance (TPCA) to be updated on current conservation work in TN! Thanks Cooper Breeden for hosting a great event!

September 13, 2023

Capitulum
Vol. 3 Issue 1 OUT NOW!

Capitulum Volume 3 Issue 1 is out now! This is a themed issue centered around Island Biogeography!
Visit compositae.org to see our latest issue(s)! Contact Erika, or any other handling editors, if you want to submit a manuscript to this up-and-coming peer-reviewed journal!

September 4, 2023

Mandel Lab heads to Botany 2023!

Mandel Lab heads to Boise, ID to attend Botany 2023! 

Check out talks and posters if you get a chance:

Erika: Talk - Monday, July 24th @ 9:30am (420B) & Poster - Monday, July 24th @ 5:30-6:15pm (LOC#135)

Sam: Poster - Monday, July 24th @ 6:15-7:00pm (LOC#182)

Serena: Poster - Monday, July 24th @ 5:30-6:15pm (LOC#219)

Jen Mandel: Talk - Tuesday, July 25th @5:45pm (400C)

July 23-27, 2023

Visit to Auburn University

Jennifer Mandel and Erika head to Auburn University to meet with the Burke Lab and CapituLab to discuss interesting genomes projects coming soon! Thanks Daniel Jones & members for hosting a great event!

July 2023

Mandel Lab heads to TPCA!

Jennifer Mandel and Erika head to the East Tennessee Plant Conservation Alliance (TPCA) to be updated on current conservation work in TN! Thanks Cooper Breeden for hosting a great event!

March 31, 2023

Mandel Lab heads to ASB!

Jennifer Mandel and Erika head to ASB 2023 conference in Winston-Salem, NC!

Check out their talks and posters if you get a chance:

Erika: Poster (P183 - 3/24 from 8:00-10:00amEST) + Talk (66 - 3/24 from 1:15-1:30pmEST)

Jennifer: Poster (P326 - 3/25 from 3:00-5:00pmEST) + Talk (160 - 3/25 from 10:45-11:00amES)

March 23-26, 2023

Visit from Winthrop University

The Mandel Lab had the pleasure of hosting Dr. Kunsiri "Pum" Grubbs and her undergraduate student Zach from Winthrop University to learn about population genetics wetlab work. 

March 13-18, 2023

New grad student in Mandel lab!

The Mandel Lab is growing (again) with the addition of new Master's student, Sam. Sam was an undergraduate student in our lab for the last year and has decided to continue their science journey by working on the endangered, whorled sunflower, Helianthus verticillatus!

January 1, 2023

Mandel Lab in the news 😲

Erika's PI, Jennifer Mandel, made it on Memphis News for her new awarded NSF PGRP grant! In collaboration with Daniel Jones (Auburn) and John Burke (UGA), work from this grant will generate new genomic resources across Asterales, Dipsacales and Apiales to address broad questions related to capitulum development and evolution! A more complete description can be found here. 🌻

September 1, 2022

CAPITULUM Vol. 2 Issue 1 OUT NOW!

CAPITULUM Volume 2 Issue 1 is out now! Visit compositae.org to see our latest issue(s)! Contact Erika, or any other handling editors, if you want to submit a manuscript to this up-and-coming peer-reviewed journal!

August 30, 2022

New grad student in Mandel Lab!

The Mandel Lab grew by one this semester, with the new addition of Serena from California State University-Sacramento! Excited to welcome another grad student to the lab! Woo! 🎉

August 2022

Mandel Lab heads to Botany 2022

Jennifer Mandel, Jorge Gomez, and Erika packed their bags and headed to Anchorage, AK to attend Botany 2022! Erika is giving a talk on the phylogenomics of Packera (link to presentation), Jorge presented a poster that compared two probe sets: Composite-1061 and 2424 (a new probe set designed for functional genes), and Jennifer presented the opening talk, along with Mauricio Bonifacino (Universidad de la República), at the Vicki Funk symposium organized by herself, Mauricio, Jun Wen (Smithsonian Institute), Warren Wagner (Smithsonian Institute), and Erika. 

July 24-30, 2022

Mandel Lab's first HMW  extraction

Erika, Sam Drewry (UG), and Keiana Fields (recently graduated UG) sent off High Molecular Weight (HMW) DNA extractions for a new and upcoming project! This was their first time doing these extractions, so they are extra nervous (😬) but excited to see how they went. Stay tuned to find out what this exciting new project will be!

July 12, 2022

Student visit in Mandel Lab

The Mandel Lab is hosting PhD student Brannan Cliver at the University of Memphis. Brannan is a recent addition to Dr. Daniel Jones Lab (The CapituLab) at Auburn University. The Mandel Lab will train Brannon on the lab work needed to sequence for Target-Enrichment data, while Brannan will show Mandel Lab members how to extract high-molecular weight (HMW) DNA.

June 27-July 1, 2022

Second TICA Talk of the year!

The second TICA Talk of the year was hosted by Dr. Makeli Garibotti Lusa, from Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Brazil, who presented some of her work on phytomelanins within Asteraceae. Interested in TICA Talks or potentially presenting? Visit compositae.org/tica_talks.org to learn more!

June 27, 2022

First TICA Talk of the year!

The first TICA Talk of the year was this recent Monday where Dr. Tim Collins, from New South Wales, Australia, presented some of his work in the Australian Gnaphalieae. Interested in TICA Talks or potentially presenting? Visit compositae.org/tica_talks.org to learn more!

May 9, 2022

PGO 2022

Erika attended Plant Genomes Online (PGO), a new, free, virtual, 24-hour conference led by multiple plant researchers from around the globe. If you are interested in seeing the talks, visit their YouTube page that has all the recorded talks and lectures!

April 27-28, 2022

ASB 2022

Erika presented conservation genetic work on Helianthus verticillatus at Association of Southeastern Biologists (ASB) conference in Little Rock, AR. She also was a panelist for DEI workshop: “Hitting the ground running with your graduate school applications”. 
Erika was awarded 
the Southern Appalachian Botanical Society (SABS) Richard and Minnie Windler Award for “Best systematics paper published in CASTANEA during the previous year” (https://doi.org/10.2179/0008-7475.87.1.147), the SABS Student Presentation Award for “Best oral presentation” at ASB 2022, the ASB Student Research Award for “Best oral presentation and associated published paper” at ASB 2022, and an SABS Conference Support Award.

April 1, 2022

Seminar Talk

Erika presented her updated work on Packera to the University of Memphis department. Currently, all of the specimens needed for her project are sequenced and now it's time to write!

March 29, 2022

CAPITULUM Vol. 1 Issue 2 OUT NOW!

CAPITULUM Volume 1 Issue 2 is out now! Visit compositae.org to see our latest issue(s)! Contact Erika, or any other handling editors, if you want to submit a manuscript to this up-and-coming peer-reviewed journal!

January 29, 2022

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