Assistant Professor in the Department of Biochemistry at UPenn. Interested in innate immunity and molecular mechanisms of cell death. Views are my own. (he/him)
Early X-Mas 🎁! My lab's first paper is finally out
@CellReports
and our 2nd collaborative paper with
@BrodskyIgor
and
@SunnyShinLab
redefining how the Casp11 inflammasome forms has been accepted. Stay tuned for the final version of that but first, a 🧵👇🏾
Hi all, my name is Cornelius Taabazuing and I'm postdoc
@sloan_kettering
. My research aims to understanding how the innate immune system is regulated. I'm broadly interested in programmed cell death. Outside lab, I try to recruit the next gen scientists.
#blackinimmunorollcall
My name is Cornelius Taabazuing. I'm a postdoc
@sloan_kettering
studying pyroptosis but an incoming Asst. Prof.
@BB_UPenn
. My lab opens January 2022 and we will focus on mechanisms of cell death and how that impacts immunogenicity. We are recruiting at all levels!
#BIIRollCall
That moment in lab when you get a REALLY interesting result and you're the only person in the world who knows this - it never gets old! Also, it's the day before a holiday and not a single soul is around so you can shout in celebration. Bonus! Happy holidays folks. Stay safe!
Beyond excited to share that the Taabazuing lab will be opening in January 2022
@BB_UPenn
. I could not have done it without the support of FAMILY, FRIENDS, AMAZING mentors
@DBachovchin
@knappchem1
Nate Schnarr, Tom Cech, Zane Barlow, Guy Salvesen, and colleagues
@MSKEducation
It's NOA day! The lab was awarded our first major
@NIH
grant. We got an
@NIGMS
R35 MIRA award to study the spatiotemporal regulation of innate immunity. Thanks to all my mentors and especially the trainees who helped us get to where we are!!
#newPIachievement
#cheers
Just in time for job apps! Happy that the NIAID
@NIH
has funded my K99/R00 application. Equally excited to share that I was also selected to receive the E. E. Just Postgraduate fellowship. BIG THANKS to everyone who's helped me get here, especially my current mentor
@DBachovchin
!
Boldly announcing our existence with this new sign! Join us and increase our atomic mass. We are well funded and looking to hire a postdoc to work on uncovering the mechanisms of how the innate immune system activates adaptive immunity. Experience with mice is preferred. RT!!
In the last 2 weeks, the lab recieved 2 grants and notice that our 1st manuscript is accepted! Thankful for this amazing group of scientists that are pushing us to new heights!! Cheers to many more celebrations 🍾
#happynewPI
@TheBourneImmuno
@PatrickExconde
@_RachelMari3
#BlackInImmunoRollCall
I'm Cornelius, an Assistant Professor
@Penn
in the Biochemistry Department
@BB_UPenn
. My lab is focused on understanding innate immune regulation and how it communicates with adaptive immunity. Passionate about science, good mentoring, & improving DEI!
Beyond excited to share the first preprint from my lab!! We identified IL-18 and IL-1Beta as direct substrates of the noncanonical inflammasomes and uncover the molecular basis of IL-1Beta recognition and processing.
#happyNewPI
.
Great start for the week and school year for the lab. We finally got the NOA for the R00 Award. We are looking for grad students interested in uncovering mechanisms of cell death to work on these exciting projects!!
#happynewPI
Immortalizing today...ladies and gentlemen, we have DNA! First PCR and DNA gel was a success. Feeling like a real PI now that we had our first lab meeting too. I'm grateful for this wonderful group.
First lab outing. Lots to celebrate - past present and future rotation students, our SUIP student leaving, the start of the first grad student and tech, and the submission of the first proposal as faculty. Loving the momentum and thankful that I get to do this for a living!
I just won the postdoc lottery!! Excited to welcome Chris
@TheBourneImmuno
to the team. Looking forward to doing great science and putting in the work outside of the lab to improve DEI!!
#firstpostdoc
#HAPPYnewPI
IT'S OFFICIAL! I will be joining the Taabazuing lab
@taabaman
for my postdoc this summer! After a long and fruitful interview circuit, the opportunity to work for a PI like Cornelius was too good to pass up.
I got the travel award to attend
@ASBMB
in Seattle. It's the first grant awarded as a
#NewPI
! Excited to present and connect w/ folks. My incoming superstar postdoc
@TheBourneImmuno
was also awarded the first postdoc fellowship we applied for - a day after his B-Day!
#happyNewPI
Today, everyone in the lab dressed up as me for Halloween 🤣🤣🤣. They made shirts with some of my common sayings. Really grateful for this fun group of diverse individuals. I will introduce them separately soon. Happy Halloween!🎃👻
This year, we had a record number of graduate applicants. As interviews are starting, we created a resource 👇🏾 to help students prepare for the interview and get into their dream schools. If folks have additional advice, please share below. Good luck!
Today is the Taabazuing lab LABIVERSARY! I had a personal goal to submit a manuscript by the anniversary, and thanks to the amazing trainees, we are drafting our first manuscript now. Not usually one for long threads, but I will share 3 things I learned that may help
#newPI
.
They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Well, we now have pictures of proteins! The first western blot from my lab by the talented
@BHillPayne
was a success!
#happyPI
The lab welcomed the first (of many to come) summer student from the CBio program here
@Penn
. I got my start 13 years ago from a similar program intended to improve representation in STEM, HHMI's EXROP program. Happy to be in a position to pay it forward!
#RepresentationMatters
!
My son starts elementary school for the first time this fall. I was angry and sad about Buffalo, and now I'm just heartbroken. Not only am I not safe, now I have to worry about my kids too. Condolences to all the victims and their families.
#SaveOurKids
#EndGunViolence
I am honored to receive the 2024
@BlackinCancer
Young Investigator Award! Thanks for providing the space to share our work and for supporting our research. Thank you for all you do to advocate for health equity research. Thank you, Emerald Foundation! 🙏🏾
#bicconf24
Had a BLAST catching up with
@JoelBabdor
after his AMAZING seminar on the multi-omic approach he uses to understand how the gut microbiome influences patient immune functions. He even helped me make history as he captured the moment I got my official faculty ID!
#officialnewPI
MSK can and will do better! Had a productive meeting to discuss an action plan to improve diversity and fight racisn. Proud to be at
@sloan_kettering
! To all the people that supported the petition, THANK YOU! They heard us and it's time to take action. Stay tuned for details...
Excited to share the second manuscript from my lab, a collaboration with
@BrodskyIgor
and
@SunnyShinLab
. Here, we show that rather than the inflammasome activating Casp11, Casp11 needs to be active and autoproteolyzed to form the inflammasome!
Really ENJOYING my first
@KeystoneSymp
on Innate Immunity! Thanks to the organizers for arranging an incredible meeting with GREAT science and colleagues. We just submitted the lab's first paper on the work I shared at the meeting.
#HappyNewPI
#BeNiceReviewer2
#PodiumSelfie
Introducing the updated TaabazuingLab. Meet the team . We welcome a new postdoc, new grad student, and new undergraduate to the team. Lots to celebrate! 2 papers in revision and 1 internal grant awarded. Feeling blessed to work with this diverse group!
The Immunology Graduate Group
@IGGPenn
retreat yesterday was AMAZING! I got to meet most of the first year students. What a great group of young scholars. Also passed by the lab and we are on schedule to open in January 2022! We are hiring at all levels.
Great week for the Taabazuing lab. Welcome Pat, the first grad student who officially joined the lab after an awesome rotation. Pat recieved his BA in Chemistry/Biochemistry from College of the Holy Cross. Excited to do science with this rising star!
#happynewPI
Excited to announce the launch of a new initiative
@Penn
, the annual Juneteenth Seminar. In partnership with
@PennMicro
MicroIDEAS,
@IDEAL_Research
@UPennEEJust
, we are honored to host the inaugural speaker, Dr. Darren Higgins from
@HarvardMicro
. Join us on 6/16 for this event!
My ❤️ is full! Yesterday, Dr. Freeman Hrabowski delivered a powerful message about ways in which institutions can create INCLUSIVE EXCELLENCE to an audience of ~675 faculty, students, and staff for our second annual Juneteenth Lecture.
@Penn
@PennMedicine
@BB_UPenn
@PennCDB
Our deli fridge just arrived! Last major piece of equipment so looking forward to a steady state of productivity soon. That's how it works right?
#HappyNewPI
Celebrated the last day of 2023 with a review submission and a bottle of Green Lable from South Africa.
In 2023, we had 2 DEI papers published, 2 research articles accepted (1 published). 1 review submitted, hired 2 postdocs, and 3/7 grants awarded, 2 pending.
#2023wasepic
!
Hard to say goodbye to a new friend and colleague, Dr. Kojo Elenitoba-Johnson, who welcomed me to
@Penn
with open arms. Huge loss for us but excited to see all you will accomplish
@MSKCancerCenter
. Both are fantastic places to do science! They are lucky to have you my friend!!
HAPPY LABIVERSARY to us!! What a fun 2 years it's been! EXTREMELY GRATEFUL for all the trainees and colleagues who have supported us!🍾🍻
For incoming faculty, would it be helpful if current Assistant Professors wrote a review of the equipment they bought w/ pros and cons?
Excited to announce the launch of the website at the
@BMBGGUPENN
retreat. Honored to have been featured on the retreat poster. Our atomic mass is 2 right now but still recruiting.
I am excited to announce that I'll be joining the University of Pennsylvania as an Asst. Professor in the Department of Systems Pharmacology and Translational Therapeutics. The
#BabdorLab
will study the dialogue between the
#Microbiome
& the
#ImmuneSystem
for
#PrecisionMedicine
.
Happy Juneteenth! The inaugural seminar
@Penn
was a huge success. Inspiring seminar by
@HigginsLabHMS
to a packed auditorium. Powerful messages, "if you can't see it, you can't be it." Let's all change science, "be an upstander!".
Thanks to UPenn Dept. of Biochemistry and Biophysics for hosting PI Darren Higgins for the inaugural Juneteenth seminar. Kudos to all the organizers and especially Dr. Cornelius Taabazuing for developing such a wonderful forum to celebrate the holiday and diversity in science.
Having a blast hosting the
@BB_UPenn
at our house for the new faculty meet and greet! What a great group of scientists! Love my colleagues and couldn't be any happier to be a part of such a great department!
#happynewPI
@Penn
Really enjoying my first
@ASBMB
conference! Excited to share some of our work at 3:30 pm in room 618 - 620 at the cancer signaling and apoptosis session. Come check us out.
#DiscoverBMB2023
Extremely proud of rotation students
@BHillPayne
and
@PatrickExconde
for presenting the first posters from the Taabazuing lab. Their western blots were the talk of the town! That feeling of being the corresponding author on the poster for the first time...incredible!
#newPI
I absolutely love my science family. Grateful for these wonderful colleagues. Thanks
@BB_UPenn
and especially my chair
@KristenWLynch1
for organizing a department baby shower for my family. We feel so blessed to have you all in our lives!
#HappyNewPI
#BlessedAndGrateful
👏 Congratulations to Cornelius Taabazuing (
@taabaman
) who was named to
@CellPressNews
' 100 inspiring Black scientists in America.
Cornelius is a research fellow in the Bachovchin lab studying functions of enzymes in normal and pathological processes.
After months, we found the right person! This week we welcomed our technician, Claudia, to the lab. Claudia just completed a postbac program
@UMBC
and will be applying to graduate schools in 2 years. Excited about our momentum! Still hiring postdocs! Formal job post coming soon.
Toasting to another trip around the sun with my birthday twin
@DanPBall
from my postdoc lab
@DBachovchin
@dan
. Truly appreciate my lab and extended lab members! Loved the surprise today!
#happynewPI
Ran into an old friend yesterday and he reminded me of something, "haste makes waste". Celebrate the success of others but don't feel like you're falling behind, run your own race! Happy Friday all!
#FridayThoughts
Such a pleasure and honor to go back to
@UMassAmherst
where it all began as the keynote speaker for
@UMassChemistry
ResearchFest 2022. Great catching up with
@knappchem1
and others. Western mass is so gorgeous!
We are beyond excited to welcome our 1st Emerging Scholar speaker, the amazing
@taabaman
to Yale on November 12th! He will share his work in talk designed for a broad scientific audience. You don’t want to miss it! DM for details!
Tonight, I'm toasting to good data and
@PatrickExconde
absolutely crushing his talk at the Institute for Infectious and Zoonotic Diseases (IIZD) symposium today
@pennvet
.
@BMBGGUPENN
. So many people mentioned what a great talk he gave to me.
#ProudPI
It's happening tomorrow! I'll be sharing my work on proteolytic regulation of pyroptosis with the Yale community tomorrow. Tune in if you've ever been curious about our work.
Beyond excited for the event on Thursday 4/25 in Smilow 11-146 at 3pm. I've been sharing more of the unfiltered version of what it's like to be a Black scientist in America. This is part of a series of events leading up to our Juneteenth lecture by Dr. Freeman Hrabowski. Join us!
Happy to see the work from our first collaboration with the incredible
@BrodskyIgor
and
@SunnyShinLab
out. HUGE KUDOS to
@DanielAkuma5
who led this elegant work that forces us to reconsider how inflammasomes form. Congrats all and looking forward to more fun collaborations!
Excited to share our story on noncanonical inflammasome assembly . This is the fruition of a lot of hard work by outstanding
@CAMBUpenn
MSTP student
@DanielAkuma5
, collab w new friend/colleague
@taabaman
& long-term collaborator/partner
@SunnyShinLab
🥰🧵
Great food, even better company! Excited to welcome the new postdoc
@madhurak_12
to the lab! Lots to celebrate - 2 fellowship submissions and 2 papers published to start the year. Cheers to more fun ahead 🍻
Perfect day for this to drop - in celebration of Juneteenth! Check out our latest review on the NLRP1 and CARD8 inflammasomes out now in Immunological Reviews. Thanks to my co-authors
@DBachovchin
@AndrewGriswold6
. Happy Juneteenth!
Being a
#newPI
there are many firsts. Truly honored to host another faculty for the first time as faculty, our Raiziss Seminar speaker today, the great
@TGOliver2
. Join us today in the Austrian Auditorium at 12pm today to hear her work on how Myc regulates SCLC plasticity.
🚨 New Publication Alert 🚨
How do caspases recognize thier substrates? Check out our latest review
@mbiojournal
spearheaded by the talented
@PatrickExconde
and
@TheBourneImmuno
detailing the latests insights of caspase substrate specificities.
New Publication 🚨! Excited to share our latest review out today in Cells. We describe innovative ways, including oncolytic viruses and LNPs, to induce pyroptosis and rewire the tumor microenvironment to elicit antitumor immunity. Best month to drop! 😉
It was such an honor to stand in solidarity with 52 other black scientists and contribute to this piece that discusses the barriers to creating a truly diverse and equitable scientific enterprise.
@sloan_kettering
has been an amazing place to work at - one of the best! I'm sad to leave but ecstatic about what lies ahead. My lab will focus on uncovering mechanisms of how cell death impacts immunity. If that interests you, we will be hiring postdocs and techs, please DM me.
Great News: Blanton Tolbert, Vice President for Science Leadership and Culture at HHMI and leader in RNA structural biology, is joining our Department and the Institute for RNA Innovation at Penn starting in July! Welcome, Blanton, to the Penn community!
Help us welcome Teni (
@BlackinCancer
mentoring program undergraduated intern), Matilda (high school), and Robbie (
@IGGPenn
graduate) to the lab
@Penn
! Huge thanks to
@BWFUND
for providing funding for the intern. Honored to help shape thier scientific journeys!
#growinglab
Absolutely amazing time at my first
@GordonConf
on proteases and their inhibitors. Loved sharing our work to develop a new probe and inhibitor led by the talented postdoc
@TheBourneImmuno
in collaboration with
@GMBurslem
lab with this community. Tuscany 🇮🇹 was a great location!
Dr. Bourne
@TheBourneImmuno
will be joining us this July. Dr. Bourne is the recipient of the
@Penn
Penn Provost Postdoctoral Fellowship and a
@BWFUND
PDEP Fellow. Excited to have the first postdoc join and looking forward to his contributions!
Join us for the next InflammaZoom webinar on the 24th of April 3pm GMT with 2 exciting talks from
@taabaman
and Dr. Youssef Aachoui! More details soon.
@InflammaZoom
Check out this awesome graphic that will be used for my lab website that was professionally made by the talented
@Na_y_ak
from the amazing
@janetiwasa
lab. Thanks for working with me on this!
Finally getting the chance to meet and hang out with the great
@taabaman
at the
@ASMBM
Annual meeting! So many amazing scientists in one place!
#DiscoveryBMB
Congrats to all the winners and THANK YOU everyone that voted. It means a lot to me as these are the last few events I'll participate in as a postdoc
@sloan_kettering
. What an amazing journey it's been!!
Our summer student, Jan Lopez, absolutely crushed his project and presentation today! He did a chalk talk part way through. All the SUIP students did a fantastic job. Excited to host more students next year.