The Golden Pipette
The origin of the Golden Pipette remains clouded in mystery. It is thought that the pipette was first owned by the great James Dooley, endowing him with the ability to work 20 hour days and produce more data than any mortal scientist could possibly do unaided. It is said that when used on thymic epithelial cell preparations, the pipette would release a stream of micro-bubbles, gently extracting the epithelium from the extracellular matrix with a greater purity than could be reached by a regular pipette. In 2016, James graduated from his PhD after successes that have already passed into legend, and released the Golden Pipette out into the world. The Golden Pipette can now only be found by performing an experiment of such striking elegance that it unerringly attracts the Golden Pipette to its new owner. Each talented owner has just a year to make use of the Golden Pipette before it seeks a new home.
In 2017, Dr Oliver Burton won the Golden Pipette for the generation of a flow cytometry protocol so pure it could detect IL-2 expression by regulatory T cells. Once possessing the pipette he was able to stain Foxp3 with a simple dishwashing detergent permeabilizing the cells.
In 2018, Dr Emanuela Pasciuto won the second Golden Pipette by generating a novel mouse model to study brain Tregs. The data was so clear that just a single flow plot stunned her audience into spontaneous applause. Her Golden Pipette experiments are redefining neuroimmunology.
Dr Carlos Roca won the third Golden Pipette award for developing an elegant approach to flow cytometry data analysis that will rock the field. No more spending days looking at plots in FlowJo, one-click and it is all done! With the pipette in his hands, he solved the mathematics of flow cytometry compensation too!
Dr Carly Whyte won the fourth Golden Pipette for stumping the entire lab with mystifying data on how IL-2 does different things, depending on which cell made it. With the Golden Pipette the next experiments will explain why!
Steffie Junius won the fifth Golden Pipette for her work on Treg cell fate. It was the first time that the pipette had been held by a PhD student.
In 2019, Dr Wenson Karunakaran won the sixth Golden Pipette for individually imaging and counting Every. Single. T cell. In. The. Mouse. Brain. Wenson will need to give up the Golden Pipette prematurally, as he is starting an exciting new industry position back home in India.
Dr Lidia Yshii won the seventh Golden Pipette for her stunning discovery of a new treatment approach for traumatic brain injury. Patent and paper on the way soon - if this works even half as good in humans we will revolutionise the treatment of brain injury.
In 2020, Julika Neumann won the eight Golden Pipette at the first virtual lab retreat. Identifying a new primary immunodeficiency gene is always impressive, and crystal structure modelling clearly identifies why this Calcium channel is no longer working!
In 2021, Ntombizodwa Makuyana won the ninth Golden Pipette. Tombi generated a new approach to creating an anti-inflammatory environment in the lung. It is early days yet, but here is hoping this translates to a virus-agnostic way to prevent respiratory infection deaths, before we get to the COVID zeta variant.
In 2022, Orian Bricard won the tenth Golden Pipette. Orian generated a new set of reagents, protocols and analysis code for massively parallel retrogenic TCR testing, generating fundemental insights into the origin and reactivity of tissue-resident regulatory T cells. An amazing technique that will transfer how we do science in the lab!
In 2023, Amy Dashwood won the eleventh Golden Pipette. Amy ran a series of elegant (but time-consuming!) experiments, creating a genetic chimera system to analyse microglia homeostasis. Amy was also recognised for being an outstanding lab citizen and mentor to undergraduate students
Who will hold the Golden Pipette next?
