Today we had the honor of a visit from former lab manager Katia Troha, who delivered an outstanding seminar on her PhD Thesis work in the Buchon and Lazzaro Labs at Cornell University. Katia was in the Vance Lab from 2008-2012. Her claim to fame in the Vance Lab was running the ENU mutagenesis project that identified the STING-deficient goldenticket mouse, now in use in laboratories around the world. Katia was also the first to propose that STING might be a direct receptor for cyclic-dinucleotides (an idea foolishly dismissed by her PI at the time). During her PhD, Katia has uncovered a very interesting role for the CrebA transcription factor in mediating tolerance to infection. We can’t wait to see who will win the sweepstakes to have Katia join their lab as a postdoctoral fellow!
