you know those products where a few engineers clearly dialled their shit in without caring about the user experience or accessibility. Anyway, today I used Moodle for the first time.

and the perfect cherry on top - congrats to my second last University of Alberta student, Alisha Duggal, for successfully defending her MSc thesis!!

You have no idea how proud I am of of this paper from the lab showing that RANK signalling affects the development of Tuft and BEST4 cells in the zebrafish gut, with in vivo evidence indicating that BEST4 cells contribute to defences against enteropathogens

Celebrate the good times and acknowledge those that bring you there. These moments will always make research such a joy!

Good morning Bluesky!

An album cover for #Caturday

The moment you transition from 24 manuscript drafts to proofs...

Another #FluorescenceFriday jewel from Cora looking at expression of the BEST4 cell marker cftr in magenta and the progenitor cell marker her15.1 in cyan in this villus from an adult fish gut.

For #FluorescenceFriday, celebrating some more good paper news with this really pretty image labeling prefrontal cortical neurons with projections to the locus coeruleus with chemogenetic receptors. Image credit to @rehg-j.bsky.social @jorge-miranda.bsky.social 🧠🧪🔬

I've never been a fan of our insistence on hypothesis building, so it's really nice to read this fascinating insight into the history of gut organoids by Hans Clevers

Sure, Dr. Manhattan put a smiley face on the surface of mars, but did he ever do it with a coffee cup on his desk at work?

I dunno. I see all these chats about using AI in writing, and I just don't want it. I like that all those papers and grants are my words, even the ones that burned up on entry. You do you, but I think I'll stick to putting my own touch on everything I write.

*** GRC Developmental Biology 2027 - Jan 17-22 @ Renaissance Tuscany Il Ciocco Resort *** Join us for a fabulous 2027 Gordon Conference on all things #devbio & the trainee-led GRS! More info on registration, abstract submission, et al., here: www.grc.org/developmenta... #GRCDevBio2027 🧬🐭🐟🪰🌱❤️

This Friday, Cora swapped fluorescence for immunohistochemistry and she slayed with this stunning image of a fish gut labelling goblet cells in blue and PCNA+ proliferating cells in brown 💅

Trevor Project released its annual LGBTQ youth mental health report. The results are shocking. 40% of trans youth seriously considered attempting suicide in the past year. Trans youth who wanted hormones but couldn’t access them were nearly twice as likely to attempt suicide than those who could.

Do dogs run election reports at the BBC?

Maria may have only joined the lab this week, but she's already slaying science like a seasoned pro!

Huge congrats to lab PhD alumna Vil Fernandes on winning this prestigious award!

“Now let’s tear this world apart and build a better one.” ❤️

Bacterial immune proteins have repeatedly evolved to become parts of eukaryotic immunity. But how? Our new preprint uncovers a recent horizontal transfer event & shows how eukaryotes co-opted a toxic bacterial immune protein 🦠🧪🧵 1/

After four months, I'm confident this was the right career move. One of the things that strike me is the impact working in an inclusive environment has on your comfort and interest in participating. Even in these grim times, we can all take small steps to help people know they belong.

A special #FluorescenceFriday. Our first in situ from Bath!! Cora did an amazing job visualising expression of the BEST4 cell marker cftr in magenta and the progenitor cell marker her15.1 in cyan in this villus from an adult fish gut.

I want Julia Roberts to play me in any movie they make about my efforts to secure a research project license

Since #FluorescenceFriday usually gets the spotlight, taking today to give brightfield microscopy some love with this really beautiful image of a Nissl stain in the dorsal raphe nucleus of the human 🧠. Image credits to @ishbeldelrosario.bsky.social @svitlanabach.bsky.social 🔬👩‍🔬🧪

#Caturday purrs from this lap-warming scamp!

This #FluorescenceFriday fish fabulousness comes courtesy of Cora and Tori. A larval foregut, packed with a fluorescent lipid in cyan and surrounded by phagocytes in magenta 💅. Phagocytes always have “that cool kid you knew who could do the splits” energy.

Every two weeks I go to the fish facility to check on the little kiddos, and it's so uplifting to get this visual confirmation that we are beginning to start a new lab with new ideas in a new setting.

Umm..a neighbour just told me in a very non-creepy way that my hair was looking "stunning" today, and this day just keeps getting better!

We just got an acceptance letter on a paper I'm so freaking proud of! I don't remember when I last felt this moved by a publishing decision.

I'm beginning to believe my fish only love me for the snacks.

A lot of musicians doing the right thing these days, but this is one of my favourites

Happy spring Monday to the #NativePlants 🌱 feed. My Black Chokeberries (Aronia melanocarpa) are now in full bloom. I love the delicate white flowers on these, but also really like the glossiness on the leaves!

Ackk!! I just replied all!!!

Excellent news as RSV vaccine in pregnancy protects babies from developing RSV and massively reduces risk of getting seriously ill and needing Hospitalisation

We did it!! Our first IHC in Bath!!! Cora captured this gorgeous image of Alcian blue+ goblet cells, as well as PCNA+ epithelial cells in an adult gut. We still have fine-tuning to do, but these beautiful/simple views of such a complex structure will always make me smile.

And some love for the human 🧠 for #FluorescenceFriday. I like these zoom outs where you can see a whole structure - here, striatum. Green is MBP and outlining the white matter tracts, 🟣 is DRD1 and if you zoom in (see zooms in following posts) there is 🔴 for RXFP1 marking clusters of island cells.

Swapping #FluorescenceFriday for something new 🌸 Our latest heat-map colour scheme is inspired by flowers from Bath, giving our data a refreshing spring freshness.

One quick type and suddenly I'm working on inflammatory vowel diseases.

Each publication in a #Microbio26 journal helps fund 4 student travel grants. Please publish with us if you can!

In the alternate approaches section

I miss Vibrio. This is absolutely fascinating science.

This week's #FluorescenceFriday offering comes from Tori McCabe: a sneak peak into a gut showing a spic+ dendritic cell in cyan and a cftr+ BEST4 cell in magenta. I always liked how clearly you could see the dendritic cell patrolling directly below the epithelium.

You know what would be great? If we could spend a few days focusing on things other than debating the existence and rights of trans people. It feels like we’ve got bigger fish to fry right now.

A welcome editorial message. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

If cell diversity and developmental biology are your thing, my talk will extremely be your jam. Come for the whole-mount spatial transcriptomics and 14Tb light-sheet videos, stay for the humble RNA in situs. Everyone loves in situs 🧪🐟🧅

Me, laughing maniacally "They called me crazy for studying flies. Well who's crazy, now?"

Fuck. Another photo where they caught me sneezing! This is so embarrassing!!

It's a rainy Easter and I'm working on draft 22 (😢) of this manuscript, so here's a mental reset #FluorescenceFriday peek at some wonderfully busy magenta-labeled phagocytes crawling along a lipid-rich (in cyan) larval fish intestine.

Pride in STEM is 10 this month, and we are so proud to celebrate these 10 change-makers who were proposed and voted in by the community. Read about their work, their impact, and their commitment to improving the lives of LGBTQIA+ people in STEM and beyond, here: prideinstem.org/2026/04/01/t...

Knuckle tattoos that on one hand says “necessity” and the other “sufficiency”