Hi folks! It has been quite a while since I last updated you all on what I have been up to in the lab. It has been a busy time these past few months and I have not found as much time as I would like to keep LabScribbles up to date. Better late than never! Here is what I have been up to:

1. I have been making lots of different huntingtin protein samples to send to the Lashuel lab at EPFL to assess differences in the decoration of huntingtin protein samples with post-translational modifications derived from different expression systems.
2. A pesky contaminating band in my huntingtin preps was potentially identified in some mass spectrometry experiments I completed with Suzanne Ackloo.
3. I purified lots and lots and lots and lots of huntingtin samples to share with different collaborators including samples I shared with Dr. Tam Maiuri in the Truant lab for her investigations into PAR binding by huntingtin.
4. I attempted to purify huntingtin protein whilst retaining bound Sf9-derived nucleic acid to generate a complex as well as other samples for biophysical and structural analysis.

I have also been busy travelling around and giving various talks which has been great fun:

1. I presented on my research in a talk titled “Leveraging open science policies to make an impact in rare disease research” at the Huntington Society of Canada Annual Board meeting. 
2. I participated in Open Access week by giving a talk at McMaster Library on “Equity Driven Open Science Policies in Biomedical Research: A New Model for Drug Discovery in Rare Diseases?”.
3. I organised and ran a workshop at the Huntington Society of Canada Toronto Chapter Community Education Forum about the importance of HTT structural biology to research for a cure for HD.
4. I travelled to CHDI offices in Los Angeles to present my talk on “Using recombinant huntingtin protein samples as tools for HD drug discovery”.
5. I spoke at the inaugural Montreal Neurological Institute Open Science in Action on “Open lab notebooks: how we got here and what’s next?” where I discussed using open notebooks to advance discovery in neurodegenerative diseases. 

Its been a great few months but I think my New Years resolution for 2020 will definitely be to stay on top of updating my notebook!