News
2026
Parent lab featured on the JVI cover
2025
"How viruses know what's theirs"
https://natsci.msu.edu/news/2025/2025-8-how-viruses-know-what%E2%80%99s-theirs.aspx
Congratulations to Hazel McGuffin, winner of MSU's 3-Minute Thesis competition.
https://x.com/msumgi/status/1898041930556358778?s=46
2024
Parent lab has an opening for a research associate:
https://careers.msu.edu/en-us/job/518150/research-associatefixed-term
Parent lab work featured on the cover of Structure along with a highlight publication preview in, Structure: Multiple Masks of a Shigella Podophage.
https://www.cell.com/structure/fulltext/S0969-2126(23)00442-2
2022
Check out our phage hunting animation. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCK5chHBM8w
2021
Congratulations to Kendal Tinney on graduating with a B.S. from Michigan State!
"Large metabolic rewiring from small genomic changes between strains of Shigella flexneri"
Published in the Journal of Bacteriology: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33753469/
#WhatthePhage: Phage Hunting with Lincoln Southwest High School.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16WIRuLFi0k&feature=youtu.be&disable_polymer=true
2020
Congratulations to Mitch Engel for graduating from MSU.
Congratulations to Dr. Sarah Doore for starting her tenure track position at the University of Florida.
Congratulations to undergraduate Neeraj Padmanabhan for acceptance into medical school!
Review paper in the Annual Review of Virology published. Ecology, Structure, and Evolution of Shigella Phages
Sarah Doore won the BMB Outstanding Postdoctoral Researcher Award!
New paper published in Cell: Structural and Proteomic Characterization of the Initiation of Giant Virus Infection
College of Natural Science press release: New study shines light on mysterious giant viruses
Kristin elected to the American Society for Virology with the title, Councilor, Prokaryotic Virology.
2019
Undergraduate Kendal Tinney received the departmental BMB Undergraduate Research Fellowship.
Phage Virus Assembly Meeting (PVA) 2019
Doing the "Samba": NatSci's Kristin Parent awarded MSU's first PATH grant
Jason Schrad receives the Jack Throck Watson Graduate Fellowship in Biochemistry
Lab publication in eLife: The phage L capsid decoration protein has a novel OB-fold and an unusual capsid binding strategy
Feature in Scientia
A Three-Dimensional Approach to Connecting Biology and Chemistry
2018
Hailee Perrett wins the Anderson Endowed Undergraduate Research Prize for 2018.
The Parent lab featured in MSU Today in a video titled, "Under the Microscope: Big Possibilities For Human Health".
Kristin Parent named James K. Billman Jr. M.D. Endowed Research Professor
The Talos Arctica microscope has arrived!
Recent publication featured in ASM's Microcosm.
Published:
Published:
Kristin wins the NSF Early career award!
Photo courtesy of Harley Seeley
2017
CryoEM job posting:
Hailee Perrett receives the MSU College of Natural Science Undergraduate Research Support Scholarship for Fall 2017.
Natalia presents a poster at ASM
Natalia graduated -- Kristin's first graduate student!
Kaitlynne graduated and won the College of Natural Sciences Outstanding Senior Award
March 2017
Jason Schrad's image and publication featured on the cover of Viruses.
3/28/17
Work also featured in MSUToday
New Publication from the Parent lab:
Schrad JR, Young EJ, Abrahao JS, Cortines JR, Parent KN. (2017) Microscopic Characterization of the Brazilian Giant Samba Virus. Viruses 2017, 9(2), 30.
2016
Kristin receives the 2017 ASM Young Investigator Award, which recognizes early career scientists for research excellence and potential in microbiology and infectious diseases.
Natalia receives the 2017 ASM Raymond W. Sarber Award, which recognizes undergraduate and predoctoral students for research excellence and potential.
https://natsci.msu.edu/news-events/news/2016-10-msu-natsci-faculty-member-student-receive-asm-awards
New Publication from the Parent lab:
Dover JA, Burmeister AR, Molineux IJ, and Parent KN. (2016) Evolved Populations of Shigella flexneri Phage Sf6 Acquire Large Deletions, Altered Genomic Architecture, and Faster Life Cycles. Genome Biol. Evol. 8(9):2827–2840.
2015
Kristin received AAAS Marion Milligan Mason Award
http://www.aaas.org/page/aaas-marion-milligan-mason-award-recipients
Video:
http://www.aaas.org/news/videos-and-photo-gallery-awards-ceremony
Featured in Science (30 October 2015)
2014
The lab's first Cryo-EM structure!
Bacteriophage procapsid.
Visiting researcher Cathy Jin (left), UCLA (Gelbrat-Knobler group)
Natalia Porcek (left) awarded Rudolph Hugh Fellowship