The Bourne lab closed out 2019 in high spirits, welcoming THREE new graduate students!!
Here is our last gathering for 2019, traditional Thai Delight dinner….. 🙂
Left to Right: Amy Tan, Dr B, Shengfeng Ruan, Jeff Tu, Kaitlyn Terrell, Julia McGuillick, Michelle Holt (trying to hide!), Jake Davis, and Kevin Snead.
Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night…….
The lab made our annual pilgrimage to the Great Plains Infectious Disease research conference – this year held at the University of Missouri.
Amy Tan, Kaitlyn Terrell, Jake Davis, Julia McGillick, Kevin Snead, & Dr. B
The talks and attendees were really engaging, and we were treated to a tour of the BSL3 labs.
The BourneLab was well represented with posters by Kevin Snead, Julia McGillick, and Amy Tan (pics below). 
Fall 2019 – Rotation 1 is in the books! The Bourne Lab is wishing the best as our two fab students move on to Rotation 2….
Michelle Holt and Tristan Haight
July 17, 2019 – our latest paper is out online at Microbiology Open!
*Update: finally made it to the printed version for October – bonus – we made the inside cover!!
Summary: We tested 9 different ParE toxins from the ParDE sub-family and discover that, at least when over-expressed in E coli,
– resulting toxicity is not equivalent.
– cells filament in the absence of toxicity!
– ParE over-expression affects DNA replication by increasing the copy number of the “origin” relative to the DNA “ends” – consistent with inhibition of DNA gyrase.
Our Oklahoma INBRE undergraduate student this year is Amy Tan – she presented her work at the annual poster presentation and won a scholarship for transfer students! 
She is sticking around to continue this exciting project on understanding how to stick compounds into the Dihydroneopterin Aldolase (DHNA) binding site!
Another successful year! The lab had a presentation by Kevin, and we got to say hello to Dr. Muthuramalingam! She brought a poster on her fantastic structural work with the Pickings lab. Great times!
Welcome to our summer INBRE student, Amy Tan! Any guesses as to what her project for the summer involves?
The end of the semester is always bittersweet….. I am so proud of our graduates, Payton Wright, M.S., and Tamiko Murphy, B.S. – both of these amazing people are heading to medical school in the Fall!
Payton and Christina at the inaugural OU College of Arts and Sciences Masters hooding ceremony above) – and Tamikos graduation picture right)!
And… a final lab dinner to celebrate the end of the semester. This is a great group of people – thank you all so much for your hard work!
L to R: Kevin Snead, Payton Wright, Dr. B, Tamiko Murphy, Julia McGillick, Collyn Kellog, and Maya – our special guest!
Missing Dr. Landon Moore and Ryan Zhu……
Great representation of the lab at today’s FYRE and Senior thesis poster session!
Thanks to our FYRE student Ryan Zhu (left), and to our thesis student Collyn Kellogg (right) – fab job!!
I love to catch up with previous students from the lab – the delightful Jacob McKinney (former “gel master”) stopped by with a graduation announcement – congrats, and it was great to catch up!
Dr. Bourne was invited to speak at the first ever EMBO TA Systems workshop, held in Windsor, UK, at the beautiful Cumberland Lodge. The meeting content was fantastic, and it was great to have the TA Systems community together.
The meeting organizers put together an afternoon tour of Windsor Castle – so many sparkly things in one place! Here’s a quick pic of one of the amazing gardens.
Dr. Bourne took advantage of the international travel to stop in to Dublin, Ireland, and say hello to former lab member Jessica Ames. #JesssGoesToGradSchool is in full swing!
Lovely hike along the coast Quick tour of Trinity Library
Dublin at night
Freshly-squeezed beer
Congratulations to M.S. student Payton Wright –
she passed her final oral exam with no difficulty!
Good luck in medical school this fall – we know you’ll be great!!
So far this year we’ve been keeping our collective heads down and working hard, with manuscript submissions a primary focus…….
