
See what
we've been doing...

May 28th, 2025
We joined with James Schnable's group to wish Fangyi great success as she returns to China. It worked! Within the month she had a desirable offer. :D From left to right, clockwise around the table: Harshita Mangal, Cailin Smith, Diptadeep Basak, Rebecca Roston, Vladimir Torres-Rodriguez, Chidu Ullagaddi, Joslin Ishimwe, Samira Mahboub, Fangyi Li, Jensina Davis, James Schnable, Sofiya Aurora, and Nikee Shrestha (photo credit).
May 16th, 2025
We celebrate Evan & Jeremy's successful defenses at the Biochemistry graduation ceremony.


May 13th, 2025
Dr. Evan LaBrant defends his dissertation, "Screening for Chloroplast Inner Envelope-Thylakoid Membrane Contact Site Proteins"
Evan had a lifetime's supply of misfortune during graduate school, but presented his science like the rigorous scientist he is. See the preprint here!

March 28th, 2025
Dr. Jeremy Brown defends his dissertation, "APPLICATIONS OF ARCHAEAL ANTIOXIDANT COENZYME M AS AN AGRICULTRUAL BIOSTIMULANT"
January 3rd, 2025
We gather at Tiru's Ethiopian to wish Jithesh Vijayan a fond farewell as he departs from the lab to his homeland, India. Left to right, Fangyi Li, Jithesh Vijayan, Huang Li, Joslin Ishwime, Evan LaBrant, Jeremy Brown, Connor Hines, Julie Stone, Rebecca Roston, Asha Kumari.


November 13th, 2024
Fangyi Li defends her dissertation
December 20th, 2024
Dr. Li is hooded by co-mentor James Schnable and myself
April 9th, 2024
Zachery Shomo successfully defended his dissertation


April 8th, 2024
Aline Rodrigues de Queiroz
successfully defends her dissertation


Tea Treat
We celebrate Zach's 1st author paper in Plant Phys!
"All members of the Arabidopsis DGAT and PDAT acyltransferase families operate during high and low temperatures" by Zachery D Shomo, Samira Mahboub, Hathaichanok Vanviratikul, Mason McCormick, et. al.) https://buff.ly/3IhKbjG
And we celebrated with caffeine @ShareTea on February 6th, 2024
A bit of fun rewinding the GC guard column

All Zach Halloween
We all dressed up like Zach. Especially Zach.
And Zach, Zach, Zach, and Zach (i.e., Aline, Cailin, Fangyi, and Zach) made a PCR machine pumpkin complete with a PCR mausoleum for "Forgot to add water", "Two left primers", and "Forgot template DNA" reactions.
October 31st, 2023
Air Clay Crafting Party!
We celebrated Fangyi's comprehensive exam in a joint clay crafting party with the Schnable lab!
October 25th, 2023


Just A Small Party
We celebrated Cailin's comprehensive exam success with a shrinky-dink party. Cailin made "PAGE Gel" earrings!
Friday the 13th, October 2023
Pre-Primed Prodigious Painting Party Photo
Celebrating Comprehensive Exam Success
We emjoyed the day and painted some figurines in a lovely departure from other difficult endeavors. July, 2023


2023 Farewell Party
Joslin Ishwime, Hailey Olberding, and Pacifique Muzigura all move forward to bigger and better things and we wish them the absolute best!

2023 Publication Success!
Co-authors celebrate the success of our recently published review paper. It compares different antioxidants' effects on plants. Left to right: Jithesh Vijayan, Seema Sahay, Katarzyna Glowacka, Rebecca Roston, Jeremy Brown, Julie Stone, Aline Rodrigues de Queiroz
End (?) of Pandemic Party
August 2021: We celebrated the departure of REU awardee Elizabeth Balzani and fabulous researcher Tom Ramaekers. They're off to their next stages and we wish them well!

Allison Barnes Graduates! May, 2019
Lab Time with Upward Bound, March 30th 2019
We Escaped!
Februrary 2019: We celebrated being awarded an NSF-CAREER award by going to an escape room. The escape room was bio-terror related, with us ransacking a "lab" to find the cure (NaCl--really?). We escaped with fifteen minutes to spare, but only managed to save Canda from the ravages of the disease...
Go team!

Sunday with a Scientist, March 11th 2018

The Limei and Roston labs prepare for Sunday with a Scientist!
Plant Biology Recruitment, Jan. 19th 2017
![]() Jenny Myers showing how to take samples. | ![]() Jenny Myers showing how to grind samples. | ![]() Rebecca Roston narrating Jenny's demo so Jenny can focus. |
---|---|---|
![]() Rebecca Roston still narrating. |
Raising Nebraska at the State Fair, 2016

Allison Barnes talking to State Fair-goers of all ages about membrane adaptation to cold.
August, 2016

Featured in UNL news today!

At Agronomy and Horticulture's Women in Science day, 2016.
Plant Biology 2016, Annual meeting of ASPB
![]() Allison presenting her poster to Professor Yan Lu of Western Michigan University. | ![]() Allison chairing a session on Abiotic Stress Tolerance. | ![]() Allison presenting her research. |
---|
Midwest Section Meeting of ASPB, Mar. 2016





Summer 2015
The Roston Lab Travels First Class
Back row: Alexi Lauray, Samira Mahboub, David Logan
Middle row: Ali Meyers
Front row: Allison Barnes, Carol Roston, Rebecca Roston