This Holiday season we surprised Dr. Golos (aka Ted, aka my PI, aka placenta researcher extraordinaire) with a "ugly" Christmas sweater!! 
I had the idea to compose a placenta from felt with cheesy holiday accents & my coworkers sewed it together to become a reality! 

I think it's safe to say he loves it..

Cheers,
​AM

As I begin 2019, I am also wrapping up my coursework and preparing to prelim for my graduate program. 
For those not familiar, UW-Madison defines his step as:
"The preliminary examination is a significant milestone in a doctoral student’s academic career. It is given to assess knowledge of areas within the academic discipline. Passing of the preliminary area exam, obtaining approval of the minor if the major program requires it, and completing all the major course requirements culminate in admission to candidacy for the doctoral degree."​

This semester in the lab I am focusing on analyzing preliminary bioinformatic microbial communities from 16S Sequencing of fecal sample obtained from pregnant primates.  I am also collecting placental and decidual samples for later microbial analysis to determine the sterility or presence of bacterial communities in the reproductive tract. This is very exciting but also requires hours of coding and programming (Thank the Lord for Google Scholar & Github!) as well as generating images to represent the microbial communities in a view friendly manner.

On April 18th I will present my work in progress to my graduate program (Cellular & Molecular Pathology). Those interested in attending can email me for details. 

Cheers,
Anna Marie

P.S. Pictured below are the lovely women whom I share not only office and lab space with, but have become my family away from home.