LITTLE FRIENDS
The Little Friend ecosystem in the lab’s office space has become surprising dense in the past several years. Here are some of its residents.
The birthday cell was the first little guy in the Hope Lab office space. He keeps an impeccable Google Calendar and rotates between lab members’ desks on their birthdays.
THE BIRTHDAY CELL
Big Pants is an IKEA rat named after a hamster named Pants. He is the most senior stuffed animal in the office.
BIG PANTS
Rat is also an IKEA rat that Dr. Margarete Akens very kindly allowed to live in our office after her retirement. Rat and Big Pants hang out and do rat things.
RAT
Thing Two is the second thing Amanda ever crocheted. He lives in a nest made out of foam netting used to package fruit.
THING TWO
CLAUDINE
Claudine is a seagull.
“An… ugly chicken?” - Dr. Courtney Jones, 2025
CLAUDETTE
Claudette is a miniature crochet goose who is all-knowing and a little scary.
Sylvester (Sly for short) is a crab who is always up to something. In his spare time, Sly likes “borrowing” things.
SLY
DAISY
Daisy is an avocado who lives on Pratik’s desk. She likes to wear earmuffs to block out the haters.
Alfred is an alpaca who is very soft. His primary research interests lie in hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) fate-decisions and division dynamics.
ALFRED
Olivia is an octopus who doesn’t actually go here, but she’s in our office frequently enough to deserve her own webpage profile.
OLIVIA
“LITTLE GUY”
Little Guy is just a little guy. Recently, Little Guy learned how to read.
Kevin is a ketchup bottle. He has a twin brother named Ketchup Guy who lives somewhere else, but sometimes they email.
KEVIN
TIBIA
Tibia is a jerboa who joined the lab in celebration of Charlotte’s defence. She is queen of the rats.
Small is a very recent but active addition to the lab. His hobbies include looking up at people’s computer screens and being earnest.
SMALL
Elizabeth is an alpaca. She enjoys being high up so she has a good vantage point from which to view her subjects and enemies.
ELIZABETH
Franklin is a mug that Pratik inherited from Ava. Franklin has a menacing energy that not everyone appreciates but is a vital part of the office ecosystem nonetheless.
FRANKLIN
Eyelis is a cat toy that Lance found at HomeSense. He makes a squeaking noise when disturbed, which happens often.
EYELIS
IgG-PhD joined the lab after being acquired at a conference. She is optimistic to an unsettling degree.
IgG-PhD
Popcorn is a little crochet elephant who lives on Amanda’s desk. Sometimes she likes to snack on popcorn and other little morsels but only when no one’s looking.
Popcorn