Well….that failed. Thank goodness I set a “just in case you could sleep all day” alarm. 😅🙈

I just realised that tomorrow, for the first time since August 31st, I will not wake up to an alarm! Now if only the night owl in me would just go to bed…. 😆

Commence attempt #2 to get to the wedding!

Guess what!? I got #matched! Another year of letter writing in the Letters to a Prescientist program commences! Let’s see what curious questions and new ideas my penpal and I will share! #TogetherLPSConnects #STEMforAll #STEMPenPals

Update: Despite an airport sprint, I didn’t make it. 😢 Stuck at an airport hotel and trying again tomorrow! #Lufthansa #BOS

Would it even be travelling if there wasn’t a delayed plane or a sprint to a gate? Send some good karma for me to make the big connection in Frankfurt! #flying #wedding #gogogo!

🧠🥤 Sugary Drinks Influence the Psyche – via the Gut A new study reveals a striking connection: soft drink consumption may impact not only metabolic health but also mental well-being – especially in women. ➡️ Read more: t1p.de/zui14

And I thought saving a man from his burning house today was going to be the most exciting thing that happened! 😅 (was glad to see the fast response of the Bonn Feuerwehr!) 🚒 🔥 💨 👀

Read the @diabresearch-dzd.bsky.social press release our our paper on soft drinks and mental health out today in @jamapsychiatry.com led my the amazing @neurometabolic.bsky.social! www.dzd-ev.de/en/article/z...

Out today in @jamapsychiatry.com! Led by the fabulous and forward thinking @neurometabolic.bsky.social! Read the paper here: 10.0.3.233/jamapsychiat... or better yet, the podcast here: edhub.ama-assn.org/jn-learning/... #softdrinks #brain #mentalhealth

It’s been an amazing time bringing so many research expertise and experience together for #GAINN2025! Thanks to the @dfg.de for supporting this initiative to establish new collaborations with African partners!

Grant number 4 of 2025 was rejected today. Two more still open. What are the chances at least one gets through?

Great first day of #GAINN2025! All partners made it to Bonn to open up the workshop exploring the future frontiers of nutrition and neuroscience.

Quick turnaround at home and now off to Bonn before sunrise to greet the African and German partners coming for the #GAINN2025 meeting! Thanks to @dfg.de for supporting the initiative! Will be a week of scientific exchange, deep discussions and new collabs in nutritional neuroscience research! 🧠

Such a wonderful community of scientists! So happy I was able to join this wonderful meeting and to reconnect with so many brilliant and interesting people!

Update. A bit of running, and a lot of sweating and stress later….and I managed to make the flight! 💪

I swear, after this bout of trips. I’m not leaving my apartment for at least a month! Today’s new experience? Someone set off a fire in the london stansted airport security line. Fire alarms, chaotic and high chance of missing my flight. ✈️

The 7th International Melanocortin Meeting is underway: researchers from diverse fields are meeting over 3 days to share insights and breakthroughs in melanocortin biology 📈 This afternoon they're taking a break from the lecture halls to explore the beautiful Cambridge by punt! 🛶

Listening to Sir @stephenorahilly.bsky.social give the first talk at the 7th International Melanocortin Meeting! Excited to be immersed in melanocortin biology!

First plenary talk at the 7th International Meeting from the incomparable Prof Sir Steve O’Rahilly

#DOHaD2025 opening ceremony yesterday in the beautiful UBA Medical Faculty! Looking forward to a new day of inspiring talks and learning about new research findings. #brain #nutrition #development #research

Nothing I hate more than a sweaty sprint to catch a 12 hour flight. Glad I packed my folding fan. 🪭 (and deodorant 🤣😅🥵) #sweaty #tired but #madeit! #DOHaD2025 I’m on my way!

Well hello old friend, nice to see you again. (Although I wish it was earlier!) Anyone else off to #DOHaD2025 tomorrow?

I’ve become Germanised to the point that when I pay extra to book a seat specifically in the quiet train car, I get reallllly annoyed with people who talk on their phones! Be quiet already! Read the signs! (Note: Not yet Germanised enough to actually say something though)

When something you’ve been working on tirelessly starts to feel like sand falling through your fingers. I hope this is just in prep for the heat to make the glass! #pleasework

Can tell it’s been grant writing time lately….every single edible thing in my office is rapidly disappearing. #bananas #apples #olives? #chickpeas? #ohmy!

The pain of an EU based researcher. These damn waiting circles. #soslow #everystep #everysave #😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫

Well looks like at least another hour in office for me. #rainraingoaway

Pretty much.

Exactly 11 years ago today, I had my very first day at @mpi-metabolism.bsky.social! Who knew that JCB taking a chance on me would lead to a career and life in #Deutschland. So grateful for that chance and the community of scientists and friends I’ve made over the years here!

Some days, if you scroll through all the tabs that I have open on my computer, you’d think 30 different people are using my internet browsers.

Somehow I find this very hard to believe. Nothing against German cuisine, I love a good schnitzel or Döner, but “romantic” isn’t exactly what I’d call it. 🍺 🥨 🇩🇪

Somehow I feel my water “repellent” jacket and jeans is not going to win in this rainy ride home. #heregoesnothing #gonnabesoaked ☔️ 🌧️ 🧥

After quite a saga, our collaborative work with Sebastian Brachs (@ChariteBerlin ) is out in Biology of Sex Differences (@BioMedCentral) looking at sex differences in energetic demand in the pre plaque stage in an Alzheimer's disease model. 🧠👀 rdcu.be/ewIBw

🍪 📋 ☑️ How do you set your deadlines and rewards? 🤓

Maybe also some sort of parody of #academiclife tucked in there somewhere…..🤓

Today, I stepped out of the train to a fire on the track (a trash can in flames), calmly opened my water that I conveniently just bought on the way, and proceeded to put out the fire and still catch my bus. You never know what you’ll see when those train doors open. 😅😅

Excited to share that our collaboration w/ @francescacirulli.bsky.social and her team is online at Molecular Psychiatry (@natureportfolio.nature.com). It's been a stimulating time getting to exchange ideas about the role of nutrition in early brain development! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Every Trump headline these days is a bit like a Mad Lib: “Trump announces ____(number)___% tariff on goods from ____(country)___” 🙈

Are you an astronomy student (Master & above) or junior researcher based in Germany or Thailand? Interested in learning about cosmology and galaxies for a week in Thailand? 🧪☄️🔭 Then apply for this school by July 11 for full funding (incl. travel & accommodation!): indico.narit.or.th/event/223/ov...

After volunteering for the National Hunger Study and seeing may food banks, people accessing it need support, with many just getting by. Cutting support programs will hurt the most vulnerable. An Alabama food bank braces for big increase in demand if SNAP cuts take effect one.npr.org/i/nx-s1-5453...

Add paper rejected to that today too. What a day.

GRANT REJECTED. What a great “Welcome back to the lab, Rachel!” Monday. Science is hard.

Discovering really cool local places walking distance from me! #DieAlteGarage and live music on a Saturday night!

When it’s 1am (thanks to jet lag) and you realise that…for the first time in forever….YOU DON‘T HAVE TO SET AN ALARM FOR THE MORNING! ⏰ ❌ I’m almost too excited to sleep! 😂

Woohoo! No need for another course (for this topic at least 😂) for five years! #GeneTechnology #PILife

One of the never ending sides of being a #PI is all the “other” roles you have to take on. All day training in German Gene Technology law for the legally mandated refresher course. Grateful to @dkfz.bsky.social for making it possible in English!

From the USA to Berlin, time for some discussion on Science, Fiction and Transfer with some intelligent hive minds!

After 18 hours in transit, more plane delays in travel, rainstorms and lack of sleep, I’m finally home from #ADASciSessions. Met lots of people, new and old and stimulated some new ideas in the fight to end #diabetes! Grateful for @diabresearch-dzd.bsky.social support of our presented project!