News

January 2025 Congratulations to Haley for being awarded a postdoctoral traineeship from the Genome Sciences Training Program!

August 2024 Welcome Haley Brown who joins the lab as a postdoctoral fellow following her impressive PhD at Indiana in Justin Kumar’s lab!

July 2024 Excited to share our review “Exploring the reciprocity between pioneer factors and development”. Out now in Development!

June 2024 Audrey Marsh rocked her defense in style yesterday. Congrats Dr. Marsh!

March 2024 Congrats to Tyler Gibson for receiving the Raymond L Erickson Exceptional Thesis Award from the CMB program!

Feb 2024 Tyler’s paper is now online at Nature Structure Molecular Biology!

Jan 2024 We are excited to welcome Genetics graduate student Yadwinder Kaur to the lab.

July 2023 Check out our paper on silencing of repetitive elements by the pioneer factor GAF now online at Developmental Cell. free access until Sept 8 2023

June 2023 Melissa is promoted to Professor! 

May 2023 Our review on 3D chromatin in the early embryo is online now at Curr Open Struct Biolfree access until July 11 2023

May 2023 Congrats to Tyler for being awarded the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Impact Award from the CMB program. A great testimony to his impact beyond the bench.

May 2023 Annemarie smashed her prelim! Great job.

May 2023 Congratulations to Sam Krabbenhoft on his thesis defense! We will miss him as he returns to complete his MD and become Dr. Dr. Sam Krabbenhoft.

April 2023 Tyler is now Dr. Gibson. Congrats on an outstanding defense.

February 2023 Congratulations to Eliana for being selected for a postdoctoral fellowship from the Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine Center.

August 2022 We are thrilled to welcome Alex Theis to the lab. She is joining us as a postdoc following her incredibly successful PhD in the Sussel lab at the University of Colorado.

August 2022 So proud of the amazing thesis defense by the now Dr. Gaskill. Way to go Marissa!

July 2022 Our new manuscript is out now in G3 “Premature translation of the Drosophila zygotic genome activator Zelda is not sufficient to precociously activate gene expression”.

June 2022 Congrats Meghan on passing your prelim! Can’t wait to see what exciting research comes next.

June 2022 We are excited to welcome Hope Hawthorne to the lab for the summer. She is visiting us from the University of Pennsylvania as part of the Biological Interactions Summer Research Program.

June 2022 We are so proud of Liz for being awarded the Sigrid Leirmo Biochemistry Award for her outstanding research and her selfless support of the lab and IPiB.

April 2022 Liz is now officially Dr. Larson! What a fantastic defense. We will be sad to see her leave the lab, but are excited for her future at Promega.

December 2021 CMB student Annemarie Branks joins the lab. We are so excited.

December 2021 Check out our recent publication in Nature Communications. A fun collaboration with the lab of Cheng-Yu Lee at the University of Michigan in which we investigate the role of Zelda in larval neural stem cells.

October 2021 Congrats to undergraduate Steven Huang on winning a first place poster award at the Midwest Fly Meeting!

October 2021 We are excited to welcome new postdoctoral fellow Eliana Torres-Zelada, who just finished her PhD with Vikki Weake at Purdue.

April 2021 We are so proud of the amazing undergraduates working with us in the lab and so pleased that Steven Huang and Zoe Fitzpatrick have been recognized by a Hilldale Fellowship and a Genetics and Genomics Distinguished Undergraduate Fellowship, respectively. Way to go!

March 2021 Our paper on the essential role of GAF in early embryonic development is online now at eLife. Way to go Marissa and Tyler.

March 2021  Check out our review on pioneer factors during development in Molecular Cell. Congrats Liz and Audrey.

February 2021 Congrats to Sam on his NOA for his F30 fellowship! Looking forward to more exciting science.

December 2020 We are so excited to welcome new grad student Meghan Freund to the lab! Can’t wait to see the great things to come.

November 2020 Check out our collaboration with Peter Lewis’s lab on the oncoproteins H3 K27M and EZHIP now out in Mol Cell.

August 2020 Congratulations to Sam on passing his prelim. Way to start year two on a high note.

June 2020 Congrats to Audrey for passing her prelim. She was backed to win and didn’t disappoint!

June 2020 Excited to welcome Fernando Vera Urbina from University of Puerto Rico as member of our lab for  the summer. Wish you could be here in person.

May 2020 Kate Vietor graduates from UW Madison and joins the lab as a Research Intern. Congrats and welcome!

May 2020 Melissa receives an H.I. Romnes award to fund ongoing research in the lab.

May 2020 The Harrison lab receives an R35 to fund their research on pioneer factors that activate the zygotic genome! We are excited to continue these studies and are looking for new team members.

February 2020 Our paper demonstrating the developmental regulation of the pioneer factor Grainy head was accepted at Development.

January 2020 The Harrison lab is “Looking Fly” in our profile in the UW Carbone Cancer Center newsletter. https://www.uwhealth.org/news/looking-fly/53042

December 2019 Our paper with Catherine Fox’s lab generating a model of Meier Gorlin Syndrome in Drosophila is online at Genetics.

October 2019 Dr. Stephen McDaniel finished up his postdoctoral fellowship and started as a Senior Research Scientist at Promega. Congrats! We are happy you got the job you wanted  even if we miss you.

August 2019 Markus defended his PhD. He will be joining the Duronio lab at UNC in the new year. Congrats Dr. Nevil!

July 2019 MD/PhD student Sam Krabbenhoft joins the lab. Welcome Sam!

June 2019 Tyler Gibson passes his oral exam. Great job!

May 2019 NOA on R01 to study role of Zelda in neural stem cells! We are looking for great folks to join our team.

April 2019 First-year graduate student Audrey Marsh receives NSF GRFP! Well deserved, Audrey!

March 2019 Congrats to undergraduate researcher Jack Schnell who will be starting his graduate studies at USC in the fall!

February 2019 Excited that our paper detailing optogenetic inactivation of the pioneer factor Zelda is online at Molecular Cell.

December 2018 Our review on zygotic genome activation is out in Nature Reviews Genetics. Great to be a part of this fast-paced and exciting field.

December 2018 Excited that our review of the MZT in Drosophila is out in Open Biology.

December 2018 Welcome new graduate student Audrey Marsh! We are excited to have you join us.

November 2018 Undergraduate Anna Branstad is awarded a Trewartha senior thesis award. Way to go, Anna!

August 2018 Danielle dominates in her defense. Go Dr. Hamm! Congratulations.

July 2018 Katharine successfully defends her thesis. Congrats Dr. Schulz!

June 2018 Liz and Marissa are now dissertators! Congrats to them on passing their qualifying exams.

April 2018 Congratulations to Research Specialist Constantine Bartolluti who has accepted graduate school admission to the MCB program at Berkeley!

Feb 2018 The Divisional Committee approves Melissa’s tenure application! Congratulations to lab members past and present on this tremendous accomplishment.

Feb 2018 The Harrison Lab joins Twitter (@harrisonflylab). Better late than never?

Dec 2017 Welcome new CMB grad student Tyler!

Dec 2017 Our paper using Cas9-mediated genome editing to identify a regulatory domain in Zelda has been accepted to PLoS Genetics.

July 2017 Lab welcomes Yinan Chen from USTC in China! Yinan will be doing research with us for the summer.

March 2017 Lab receives Research Scholar Grant from ACS!

Dec 2016 Markus’s paper is accepted to Genetics!

Dec 2016 Lab welcomes new grad students Liz & Marissa!

Dec 2016 Katharine’s abstract selected for a talk at the Fly Meeting in March.

Nov 2016 New post-doc Stephen McDaniel joins the lab!

August 2016 Lab wins Vallee Foundation Young Investigator award! Click for info.

July 2016 Yi mao joins us from China for the summer!

April 2016 Lab manager Ellie Bondra officially accepts offer to attend UC Berkeley for grad school!

Jan 2016 Undergrad Kelsey Marshall joins the lab!

August 2015 Katharine and Ellie’s paper is accepted to Genome Research!

July 2015 Xiechao Zhan joins us from USTC in China for a couple months of research. Welcome!

July 2015 Melissa’s R01 is funded!

April 2015 Congrats Markus on passing your prelim!

March 2015 Katharine wins a prize for her poster at the Drosophila Research Conference

March 2015 Danielle’s abstract is selected for an oral presentation the Drosophila Research Conference

Feb 2015 Danielle and Ellie’s paper is published in JBC!

April 2014 Congrats Danielle on passing your prelim!

Feb 2014 Melissa receives a New Investigator Award from the Wisconsin Partnership Program

Jan 2014 Welcome to the lab, Ellie!

Jan 2014 Melissa receives a Basil O’Connor Starter Research Scholar Award from the March of Dimes.

Dec 2013 Welcome to the lab, Markus!

May 2013 Our collaboration with the O’Connor-Giles and Wildonger labs showing CRISPR-mediated genome engineering in Drosophila is available online at Genetics (Gratz et al.)!!

April 2013 Congratulations Danielle for being awarded an NSF Predoctoral Fellowship.

Dec 2012 Welcome to the lab, Danielle and Katharine!

Sept 2012 Eric Brooks joins the lab as an undergraduate researcher

Jan 2012 Regen is the first member of the Harrison lab.

Jan 2012 Harrison lab moves into BSB