With the final week of the semester approaching, Williams lab has been busy wrapping up. This past Friday was the Mt. David Summit. Mt. David is a chance for over 250 students to present their work and research they have conducted at Bates. The projects range from poetry readings and dance performances to organic synthesis and public health research. Quang and Alex gave presentations on their research while Jacob and Maddie presented their work in one of the three poster sessions. This was a great opportunity to not only share the Williams lab teams hard work, but also practice conveying complicated scientific information to an audience that may not have any science background. It challenged us to think about the bigger picture of our projects as well as make connections between our research and its potential effects on human health. In all it was a great afternoon that celebrated all of the amazing academic work that happens throughout the year at Bates.

Now in the last week of the semester there are a few more big events to come. This Thursday, Alex is defending her honors thesis! Her panel will include three faculty members from Bates as well as Dr. Archana Dhasarathy from the University of North Dakota. Dr. Dhasarathy has been using CHiP in her research and will also be giving a talk this Thursday on her work with the transcription factor SNAIL. The rest of the team will be turning in their theses this week as well. This is an exciting, but bittersweet time for the lab. Almost a year’s worth of work is coming to a close, but there will be fun to come in short term with Jacob continuing on his project and Maddie teaching some of the next year’s lab members the basics of the lab.