Mechanical Engineering of Wet-materials (MEOW) Laboratory

After more than a year staying indoors for group activities, MEOW lab finally ventured out to the wilderness. On a sunny Sunday morning, we switched to the mode of hunting and gathering for food, instead of swiping cards.

We picked apples and pumpkins. We spent our time selecting the best produce.

We applauded Jackson for the efforts to pick high hanging apples!

We were charmed by the good weather and the fall colors.

Breaking apple contest is a MEOW tradition.

Look at the pumpkins. They were quite heavy and could be repurposed as self-defense weapons!

We went home with loaded trunks of apples and pumpkins. It was a day of accomplishment!

On last day of October, we greeted  the beginning of the holiday season by celebrating Halloween.

This year, we dressed up as princesses. Assorted princesses with fancy hairdos, accessories and imperial attitudes showed up at our Friday group meeting.

We had a blast playing princesses! Happy Halloween everyone!

We are every honored to host Dr. Yen-Ping Hsueh, the Director of Max Plank Institute for Biology, for her visit to Johns Hopkins. Ping is an expert in inter-species interaction. Her research on the molecular mechanism behind the killing of worms by fungi is world-renowned. Ping gave a fascinating seminar talk “Fungi That Eat Worms: Nature’s Tiny Predators at Work” during her visit. We learned a lot!

Picture: Ping with MEOW lab members tour the Bloomberg building after a good lunch at the Telescope Institute (NASA) cafeteria.

Thank you for your visit. We hope there will be opportunities to work together!

We welcome Prof. Jonathan Woodward from University of Tokyo for his much anticipated 5-day visit to Johns Hopkins and the lecture in the special seminar “Microspectroscopic Detection of Magnetic Field Sensitive Radical Pair Processes in Biological Systems”.

Jonny is the pioneer in quantum biology and our close collaborator in engineering magnetosensitive proteins to control biochemical reactions and modulate cell behaviors. Over the years,  our two groups have made interesting findings together.

We were very excited to have Jonny visit us. Excitedly, we introduced landmarks in the Homewood campus, near the medical school and at the inner harbor.

Of course, we also dined together, exchanging scientific notes and sharing anecdotes.

We had a great time learning from Jonny and brainstorming new experiments. We are very glad to return the great hospitality provided by Jonny and his wonderful group when Yun visited Tokyo earlier this year.

Thank you for the collaboration- we are very fortunate.

We are happy to have Dr. Taro Kumitomi from Juntendo University visit us on this breezy Friday in May.

As a physician, Taro came to receive a short-term clinical training at Johns Hopkins Hospital for two weeks. He efficiently combined the visit to MEOW lab in the same trip.

We exchanged ideas about research in biophysics and medicine. Taro participated in our lab meeting and toured our laboratories.

We are touched that Taro’s interest in joining our research team in the near future. A over-due group dinner to welcome our visitors and to celebrate Eileen’s and Daniel’s birthdays ensued after the busy day.

The dinner was an echo of another pleasant dinner with Taro, Dr. Takehiro Yasukawa and other colleagues in Tokyo back in this past February.

We hope to see you soon, Taro!