The 2026 Biology Graduate Research Day was a great success! The organizers did a fantastic job, and the day was full of great talks and posters by grad students from across the Department of Biology. Congrats to Patrick for winning an award for his excellent poster, and congrats to Ranim for winning the Outstanding Research Publication Award in Physiology!
The Scott Lab had a great weekend at the Annual Comparative Physiology and Biochemistry Workshop at Rice Lake this year. The workshop featured many great student presentations, including awesome posters by Derek, Evelyn, and Patrick. Good times!
Graham and Ranim represented the Lab the 40th Congress of the International Union of Physiological Sciences (IUPS) in Frankfurt, Germany. There was lots of inspiring talks in fundamental and comparative physiology, and the Scott Lab’s research was very well received. Great science was mixed with some fun opportunities for sightseeing, and of course some delicious schnitzel!
Congratulations to Caileigh Tomas on a successful defense of her MSc today! Caileigh conducted great research on the role of the microbiome in high-altitude adaptation, she wrote an excellent thesis, and her oral defence was outstanding. Great job Caileigh!!
Kayla and Zainab are taking some exciting next steps in our work on the world’s highest dwelling animal, the Punta de Vacas leaf-eared mouse (Phyllotis vaccarum) (See “Studying the World’s Highest Dwelling Animal!” from May 2024). We had a fantastic trip to Mendoza Argentina to collaborate with Paola Sassi and her research group at the Argentinian Institute for Arid Zone Research (IADIZA) to examine how these impressive animals cope with chronic hypoxia. Great science, great new friends, excellent wine, and delicious asado!
The Scott Lab had a great time at the 2025 Canadian Society of Zoologists conference in Waterloo! The excellent zoological research in Canada was on full display, with lots of great talks and posters from across the country. The lab was well represented with excellent talks by Derek, Caileigh, and Ranim, and great posters by Jess and Patrick. Well done Scott Lab!
A big congrats to Ranim, who also won the George F. Holeton Prize for the most outstanding student poster in Comparative Physiology and Biochemistry. Way to go Ranim!
Congratulations to the Scott Lab’s fantastic undergrad thesis students – Ben, Jessica, Mei Le, and Robin – for their excellent thesis presentations in the 2025 McMaster Biology Undergraduate Symposium! Awesome job everyone!
The Scott Lab was well represented at the 37th annual Ontario Biology Day conference at Carleton University! Thesis students Jessica Yemen, Robin Brown, and Ben Winchester presented their thesis research among undergrad students from across the province. Congrats on jobs well done!
Extra congrats to Jessica for winning the Canadian Society of Zoologists Best Poster award! Well done Jess!!
Research in the Scott Lab was well received at this year’s International Hypoxia Symposium in Lake Louise! It was an excellent and inspiring meeting filled with great research on hypoxia from physiological, molecular and cellular, comparative, and clinical perspectives. Thanks to the organizers, Rob Roach and Peter Hackett, for a great event and for running the meeting for so many years!
Congratulations to Caileigh Tomas for winning a best oral presentation award at the Faculty of Science’s annual Graduate Research Symposium! Click below to check out the article about Caileigh’s award by Jay Robb.
Scott Lab @ McMaster