To celebrate the holiday season, we gathered at Nadine’s home earlier this month to celebrate Dutch Santa Claus (Sinterklaas). This included a ‘white elephant gift exchange’ in which a tea towel became the source of a heavy battle. We mixed it up with some Australian culture and enjoyed a delicious “Aussie Barbie” lunch thanks to Shai and his advanced BBQ-ing skills. Meanwhile, we got a gift every day in the lab, as well. Sabrina made a typical German Advents calendar for which she – atypically - used pipet tip boxes. The boxes were filled with goodies by all of us and each day in December we could open one of these boxes. We got face masks, cookie cutters and two remote controlled cars (!!), but mostly we ate a lot of candy. We wish you all a wonderful end of the year and a happy, healthy and successful 2017.

Last October, after 2 years of hard work our master student, Lucia Selfa, graduated with distinction from the Master's Program "Regenerative Biology and Medicine”! She carried out one of her lab rotations and her Masters Thesis in the Vastenhouw lab. She was a fantastic member of the lab, contributing both scientifically and socially. She thoroughly enjoyed the time spent in the Vastenhouw lab and will always remember the interesting scientific discussions and fun lab outings. She will miss all the special people she has met in Dresden, inside and outside the labs and institutes! The Vastenhouw lab wishes her lots of success in her future endeavours!

This week we celebrated the arrival of Camilo to the lab. We went to a local beer garden and enjoyed the seasonal goose. Welcome to the lab Camilo!!