Recent Scott lab member Alaina Richard met Tyler Lefevre when they both started in the UM Program in Chemical Biology and now they start another phase of their journey in life together. It was a beautiful ceremony at which we were all delighted to celebrate the two of them.

Biological Chemistry graduate student Olivia Kohler recently passed her prelims to advance to candidacy. Nicely done, Olivia! And introducing us to raspberry chocolate croissants from Cannelle by Matt Knio was a celebration for us all!

Biological Chemistry graduate student Alexi Chabez presented her CYP7B1 project at the Great Lakes Drug Metabolism Discussion Group Meeting held in Purdue this year. First year graduate students Elise Tahti and Olivia Kohler attended as well, showing early interest and investment in careers in the pharmaceutical industry.

Biophysics graduate student Autumn Pilarski traveled to Menlo Park, CA to take part in the awesome week-long X-ray crystallography training that SSRL offers each year. She got to collect data in person, learn about data processing from some of the leading software developers, and meet some of the wonderful, wonderful staff who make SSRL such a great place.

Former Scott lab trainee Lily Kim just graduated with her Pharm.D. from UM College of Pharmacy and is headed into the Ph.D. part of her training. Congratulations Lily!

The Scott lab volunteered to do demos for Science Night at Bishop Elementary School in Yipsilanti. Ellie demonstrated at the silver mirror table, Elise and Alexi showed kids how to make lava lamps from oil, water, food coloring, and Alka-Seltzer, while Autumn and I got to share our crystallization skills. Perfect for an X-ray crystallography lab, right?

Undergraduate student Chelsea Ohaka has been working with graduate student Alexi Chabez this academic year to improve a P450 ligand binding assay. Chelsea did so as part of the UM Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program (UROP) and presented her final poster at their annual symposium in the Michigan League.

All last year Biophysics graduate student Autumn Pilarski worked steadily to complete her Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Certificate. A ceremony was held to recognize all who successfully completed the program.

On the very same day Biophysics graduate student Autumn Pilarski passed her Checkpoint 2 exam (with flying colors!) and Biological Chemistry graduate student Alexi Chabez presented her departmental seminar (in amazing style!). Great milestone achievements for both of them, we celebrated with a comfort food mac-and-cheese bar back at the lab.

Former Scott Lab postdoc Fernando Estrada (now Associate Professor at University of Buffalo ) won the 2025 Richard Okita Early Career Award from the Drug Metabolism and Disposition Division of ASPET. Fernando presented his award talk sharing highlights from his lab's use of NMR to probe cytochrome P450 structure and function at the ASPET annual meeting in Portland. Congratulations Fernando!

A quick look at the outcome of a get-to-know you exercise that found its way to the lab whiteboards and continued to blossom from there.

Every year the Scott Lab celebrates Pi day with pies from our very favorite Michigan Source: Grand Traverse Pie Company. Whether it's cherry crumb or oreo or key lime, their's is the best. And this year we got to enjoy it on a very nice spring day!

Pharmacology Ph.D. student Ellie Frydendall is a student no more--she's Dr. Frydendall! After an amazing defense presentation, we celebrated with family and friends--and chocolate fondue, of course! Ellie will be off to a high-power consulting job shortly, but until then we're thrilled to have her staying on for a short postdoc. Congratulations, Ellie!

We are thrilled to welcome Biological Chemistry graduate student Olivia Kohler and Pharmacology graduate student Elise Tahti joining the Scott Lab to complete their Ph.D. degrees. It will be fun to see where their journeys in human P450 structure and function take us all!

Our overdue holiday pottery class outing finally got scheduled at Yourist Studio. Owner Kay taught us how to center our clay, throw pots, and pull up the walls on a pottery wheel. We had a lot of fun producing some slumped bowls but also some pretty cool pieces we are looking forward to seeing when they some out of the kiln.

On MLK Day, the Scott Lab spent the morning sorting food for Food Gatherers, a local food rescue/food pantry in North Ann Arbor. While it was disappointing the amount of food that had to be culled, Emily, Ellie, Alexi, Autumn, Olivia, and Sage saved about 1000 pounds of produce, diary, and other foodstuffs that went out the next day to area centers. Nice job ladies!