Lab Culture & Activities

Lab BIRTHDAY!

2025/7

Group of diverse people sitting at a long restaurant table with food and drinks, smiling for the photo.
Group of people in a kitchen, exchanging paper fortunes or notes, with a man in the background holding a glass.
Five people standing in a row indoors, engaging in a cake decorating activity with piping bags, with cake on a table and a red container on the floor.
Poster with the Olympic rings and text 'Temecula 2025' taped to a white wall.
Four people smiling and holding signs that say "Get out of 1:1 Free Card" in a room with framed artwork on the wall.

Annual lab retreat at beautiful Temecula - where we had LAB OLYMPICS! #Temecula2025

2025/4

A group of people gathered in a cozy living room, smiling and sitting on a red sectional sofa and around a coffee table, with some standing in the background. The room has white walls, decorative paintings, and a window with natural light. There are floor and ceiling beams, a mirror, and houseplants visible.
Group of five friends celebrating around a wooden table, holding test tubes with clear liquids, in a cozy kitchen with stone walls and pendant lights.
A woman with earrings, glasses, and a watch sits at a wooden table, holding a small packet of sugar or sweetener. In front of her is a bowl of salad with leafy greens and vegetables, and a small cup of yogurt or dessert. There are three other people in the background, two women and one man, all seated at the table, some with papers or food in front of them.
Flyer for JIN Lab Happy Hour event featuring Cupid with a bow and arrow, flying with wings, surrounded by pink hearts and laboratory beakers with colored liquids. The event is on February 28 at 4 PM in the DNC lobby, celebrating science, love, and knowledge.

We hosted a(nother) special happy hour to celebrate research and embrace curiosity!

2025/2

Group of diverse people gathered in a room with large windows and curtains, some holding flowers, with snack tables and a large monitor in the background.

Joint happy hours with our colleagues and collaborators at Salk and UCSD!

2025/2

Several Christmas gift bags filled with presents are placed on and around two chairs, with one gift wrapped in floral paper with a red bow on top. There is a wrapped box on the floral paper-wrapped gift, and a holiday-themed gift bag with a Santa Claus design. The chairs are positioned in front of a whiteboard.
A woman in a red cap presenting a slide about learning, traveling, and exercising in 2025. The slide features images of snow sports, science, running a half marathon, and various related icons. The slide also displays a running distance of 5.22 km with time details and a group of people jogging in the background image.
A woman presenting a slideshow about a wedding, with pictures of a couple and a reception venue on the screen, in a conference room.
Presentation slide showing a collage of photos including two women in a city, a couple in nature, people on a beach, a kitten, a group at an event, a person in a hallway, hiking in a mountain area, and cats, with the text '2024' and 'Passed Candidacy'.
A woman wearing a yellow beanie and a yellow shirt is giving a presentation in a conference room. The presentation slide behind her shows a timeline of monthly highlights from January to November 2024, with photos and labels for each month.
A person in a gray sweatshirt and black beanie pointing at a collage of photos on a digital display. The collage includes images of group gatherings, food, travel destinations, and events, with text indicating months, leaving Bay Area, moving to San Diego, and traveling back home in July 2024.
A group of about 16 people sitting at a long dinner table in a restaurant decorated for Christmas.
A woman with glasses and braided hair holding a large white towel with blue text and design, standing in a room with chairs, a whiteboard, and a Christmas gift box in the background.
Woman standing in front of a large screen displaying a collage of photos, including kids at the beach, a smiling boy holding a box, and various food dishes; she gestures with her hand towards the screen.

Lab holiday party!

2024/12

We celebrate the new year together with an end-of-the-year presentation, a white elephant, and a happy meal together!

A woman in a Christmas sweater giving a presentation in a conference room with a large screen displaying a collage of photos from 2024, including outdoor scenes, group photos, and a theater poster.
Group of diverse young people standing outside in front of a modern building, smiling for a photo, surrounded by a decorative border with sun, tropical leaves, flowers, and sea creatures. The text reads: "Sending you & yours our warmest wishes from the Jin Lab."

Happy holidays!

2024/12

Group of diverse young adults posing for a photo in a room with scientific equipment, some wearing clothing and stickers featuring DNA helix designs.

Lab halloween!

2024/10

We are designer genes/jeans!

Group of diverse young adults in a classroom or office, wearing paper cutouts of DNA helix models and labels, some posing with thumbs up, all smiling and celebrating.
Four people playing arcade games in a brightly lit arcade with neon signs and colorful lighting.

Lab outing!

2024/10

Lab outing at an arcade!

Two girls playing arcade ski game with bright neon lights and colorful wall art in the background.
People playing a game of pool in a colorful, neon-lit arcade with arcade machines and bright patterns on the floor and walls.
Group of young people playing air hockey at an arcade, surrounded by colorful neon lights and arcade machines.
A young woman with long dark hair smiling and standing with arms raised in front of a large neon-style graffiti mural of a clown's face with a red brain, green face, and colorful features. The floor is covered with a black light reactive pattern of neon stars and dots, in a brightly lit arcade or entertainment venue.
Group of diverse people sitting around a long dinner table in a restaurant, smiling and enjoying a meal together.
Group of five women smiling outdoors in front of a concrete building, with one holding a cup, two wearing glasses, and one with a badge clipped to her pocket.

Jin lab meet Dr. Katalin Karikó!

2024/9

Lab was absolutely buzzing meeting the incredible Dr. Katalin Karikó! 👩‍🔬 Ellie Petty got to share her work and soak up some wisdom from the legend herself. Truly inspiring for us all 🌟

A group of people seated at a long dining table in a cozy restaurant, enjoying food and drinks while watching a baseball game on multiple TVs.
A group of women sitting around a wooden table at a restaurant, smiling, with drinks and plates of food. One woman in a cream shirt is holding a mug and looking at it. There are various framed photos and a stereo on the wooden wall behind them.

Lab summer party!

2024/7

Summer party at Pacific Beach to farewell Kayla!

Two young adults, a man and a woman, standing in line in an office kitchenette area, with the man holding a bubble tea drink. The table in front of them is filled with multiple cups of bubble tea in different flavors. Behind them, there are office shelves with boxes and a large orange artwork of tree branches on the wall.
Group of six people in a kitchen or break room, standing in line and holding drinks, smiling at the camera, with a table beside them holding cups and snacks, and a colorful orange fall-themed decoration on the wall behind them.

Lab birthday!

2024/7

We celebrate our lab birthday with limited edition OMOMO bubble tea (per the lab’s request)!

A group of people enjoying a meal together outdoors under orange umbrellas on a sunny day.

Farewell lunch with graduating members!

2024/6

We had a farewell lunch to celebrate the achievements of our UCSD interns and research technicians (incoming graduate students)!

A group of people walking along a sandy trail surrounded by colorful orange and yellow flowers and green shrubbery, with houses and trees on a hill in the background.
Three young adults on a wooden swing set hanging from a tree, with two sitting and one crouching on rocks nearby in a wooded area.
People playing beach volleyball on the sandy shore at sunset, with the ocean in the background.
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Lab outing at the La Jolla beach!

2024/5

We took a walk along the La Jolla Cove and spent some quality time on the beach with sandwiches and gelato!

Featuring Amber fending off aggressive seagulls to protect our beach neighbor’s food!

2024 graduate recruitment weekend activities!

2024/3

Patrick Thompson gave a brilliant talk at the recruitment weekend on his thesis work!

The 2nd Annual Lab Retreat!

2024/2

The 2024 lab retreat at the Santa Ysabel Valley was a blast! We discussed science with a lake view, got creative playing with clays, went on a few local hikes, and climbed some trees!

We hosted the January Happy Hour!

2024/1

We are thrilled to host a cozy Happy Hour 🍻 – warm cider, toasty s'mores, and friendly campfire chats. If the new year has been a whirlwind🌪️ this is the space to unwind, share some laughs & enjoy good company! #ComfortHour

Lab holiday celebration!

2023/12

Celebrating holidays with the lab: lunch by the La Jolla shore, white elephant gift exchange (when Boli received a knit hat deceptively packaged in an iPad box), and we share our 2023 retrospect & 2024 goals both in and out of the lab!

Lab hike at San Elijo Lagoon Reserve!

2023/9

A hike with lab at the San Elijo Lagoon Reserve to welcome new members and toast for our first cohort of students passing PhD candidacy exams with flying colors!

Our superstar undergrads are going to grad schools this Fall!

2023/6

Anjali Srinivasan is joining UCSD Bioinformatics & Systems Biology program; Josh Park is joining Harvard BBS program with an NSF GRFP fellowship.

What an honor to support them and behold their growth and success. Almost can’t wait to see what you are about to discover!

We won the best costume award effortlessly at the Baseball Night Happy Hour!

2023/5

The Lab tries their hand at Axe Throwing!

2023/4

We attended and presented at the GRC!

2023/4

Xinhe Zheng gave a fantastic poster presentation. Xin is looking forward to co-vice chair this GRC in 2025!

Wine and Paint with our beloved neighbor Stowers Lab!

2023/2

We hosted our debut happy hour at DNC!

2023/1

We celebrate the multi cultural new year traditions, including 12 grapes, champagne, chocolate gold coins, wishes on the tree, dumplings, and red packets!

We reviewed the moments in 2022 and look forward to new adventures in 2023!

2023/1

Holiday lab dinner + white elephant gift exchange with our neighbor Ye Lab!

2022/12

Happy holidays!

2022/12

We have a new group photo!

2022/11

The first lab retreat at the Joshua Tree National Park!

2022/10

We had a fun time climbing rocks and talking science!

Lab outing: we painted ceramic potteries together today!

2022/08

Abdullah gave a fantastic talk at the 2022 Summer Research Conference!

2022/08

August birthday cake celebration with our neighbors!

2022/08

We have a photo session today! Serious face only

2022/7

July Lab adventure: ocean kayaking at the La Jolla shore, followed by tacos!

2022/7

Abdullah receives the Ledell Family Research Scholarship for Science & Engineering!

2022/6

Welcome our first-year students joining the lab!

2022/5

We successfully escaped a room at 49:36! Followed by happy hour toasts and a groufie

2022/3

February birthday cake time!

2022/2

In vivo Perturb-seq: a Cutting-edge Technique for Studying Gene Perturbations at Single-cell Resolution

2022/2

‘The technique has proved its value already by helping us build single-cell atlases of different tissues, but hopefully this is just the beginning, as it can help us answer so many biological questions.‘

Happy holidays from our lab to yours!

2022/1

Lab dinner at Bahn Thai!

2021/11

Jin lab Halloween theme — we are all ‘Single cells’!

2021/10

Paper Chat: Perturb-Seq reveals abnormalities associated with autism risk genes

2021/9

Xin was featured in the American Society of Human Genetics Postcast, Genetically Speaking.

Jin lab surfing day!

2021/8

GSA Presidential Member Expressions: Xin Jin

2021/6

‘Encouraged by my grandpa, who is a taxonomist, I drew pictures of tropical plants and learned how to distinguish two species with slight differences. Twenty years later I have clearly failed my dream to become a plant biologist. But many of these concepts remain central in my current research, to catalog and classify brain cells based on their transcriptomic similarities and hopefully to use these approaches to understand brain function as well as dysfunction.‘

Piecing together the puzzle of autism risk genes with a scalable genetic screening approach

2021/4

‘The in vivo Perturb-Seq protocol developed by Jin et al. represents a promising new screening tool for studies of complex disorders and diseases. Even more exciting is that this study only scratches the surface of what is possible with this method.‘

Autism genes affect development of neurons and glia

2020/12

‘This approach represents a new area of neurobiology—by connecting genomic technology development with rigorous dissection of molecular mechanisms, we hope to gain new insights about how complex inputs are integrated in the developing brain.‘

A Systems Genetics Approach for Psychiatric Disorders

2020/12

‘This approach represents a new area of neurobiology—by connecting genomic technology development with rigorous dissection of molecular mechanisms, we hope to gain new insights about how complex inputs are integrated in the developing brain.‘

New technology to investigate autism spectrum disorder

2020/12

‘Scientists apply ‘Perturb-Seq’ method to a living organism for the first time.‘

A large-scale tool to investigate the function of autism spectrum disorder genes

2020/12

‘The field has been limited by the sheer time and effort that it takes to make one model at a time to test the function of single genes. Now, we have shown the potential of studying gene function in a developing organism in a scalable way, which is an exciting first step to understanding the mechanisms that lead to autism spectrum disorder and other complex psychiatric conditions, and to eventually develop treatments for these devastating conditions.’