McAllister Lab

It’s that time of year again and we had our 3rd annual Chemical Biology Christmas Symposium with the Kawamura group. We had a packed schedule of talks, interspersed with secret santa, a chirstmas quiz and a brand new smash hit game – “Will it sink or will it float”. All organised again this year by Emma, Tim and Tom from Akane’s group.

Above: Talks, quiz and secret santa. Below: Will it sink, or will it float?

Chemical Biology 2024

13/12/2024

We held our first Chemical Biology lab away day with the Kawamura group in Durham at the beginning of June. Supported by Newcastle University SAgE Faculty’s People Fund, 20 members of the lab comprising students, research associates, technical staff and the PIs spent a morning Dragon-boating on the river Wear, developing our teamwork to drive the boat along. (It was all going well until we got a bit out of sync and nearly capsized; how we didn’t all end up in the river is still a mystery to everyone!)

After some lunch on dry land, we then had an afternoon of skills training; a master class in curve fitting from Akane and making attractive presentations by Tim. Tom also organised some small group acivities around team work and communication; building the tallest spaghetti tower that could support a marshmallow (2 out of 5 were standing at the end!) and reproducing a lego model without being able to see it.

Overall it was a great day and made a measurable improvement to promoting the positive research culture we strive for within the group. A survey of team members conducted before and after the day out, revealed a significant increase in the scores reported for collaboration and collegiality, and how well people felt they knew the rest of the group.

Away days like this one help foster a healthy and positive work environment, and enhance team-based skills, which are essential for achieving collective success. We are very grateful for the financial support from Newcastle University SAgE Faculty’s People Fund for this activity.

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07/06/2024