David Lab Wins MGM Decorating Contest Two Years in a Row

In a team-building exercise that’s becoming an annual tradition, members of the David Lab took time out of their busy schedules to participate in the MGM Department’s Seasonal Decorating Contest. (Left to right: postdoc Kylie Reed, graduate student Caroline Rivera, undergraduate Piper Epstein, and graduate student Jacob Hiatt)

The past year was a strong one for the David Lab, which not only welcomed a half-dozen new members to the team but also clinched several grants, awards, and publications. But the proverbial cherry on top was a late-December victory of a less scientific nature. For the second year in a row, the lab won the Department of Molecular Genomics and Microbiology’s Seasonal Decorating Contest in a landslide victory, claiming 56 percent of the overall vote.

Spearheaded by graduate student Jacob Hiatt and undergraduate Piper Epstein, the lab decided on a gingerbread theme this year. "I really enjoyed working with Piper on this project. A former lab member did a wonderful job last year, and I was a bit hesitant to take it over,” says Jacob, who is also the volunteer chairperson of MGM Outreach. “Everyone came together to make their own gingerbread person. It was great for team building.”

The diorama features 21 members of the lab plus a FedEx courier on a Santa sleigh and an attic filled with “ghosts of failed experiments.” Holiday-themed riffs of current lab projects are scattered throughout the four-story gingerbread house, including hot cocoa-filled beakers, a model of Twizzler DNA, and a PCA biplot of a holiday cookie.

“My favorite part of the door was how unique each room and gingerbread person was to our lab—everyone’s role and personality shined through. Everyone had such clever ideas for lab items that we could transform into gingerbread-themed props,” says Piper, who has interned at the David Lab since 2022 and will graduate from Duke University this spring. “This was a great end to my semester and do something creative alongside the other lab members!”

Last year’s entry, “Deck the Bowels,” was equally unique to the David Lab and its research interests. A plush model of the small and large intestines was dotted with cartoon foods clad in winter attire.