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Tips and tricks for the final thesis push

October 23, 2018June 17, 2019

Mental health chat: Progress

October 18, 2018June 14, 2019

Meet the Scientist – Dr Jaclyn Bell

October 8, 2018June 17, 2019

Meet the Scientist- Melanie Jackson

July 12, 2018June 17, 2019

Meet the Scientist- Kathryn De Abreu

June 20, 2018June 17, 2019

Real science vs movie science

June 8, 2018June 14, 2019

Skincare secrets

May 25, 2018November 28, 2018

The truth about hay fever

May 17, 2018November 28, 2018

Meet the Scientist- Kirsten Hawkins

May 10, 2018June 17, 2019

How do Plants know when to flower?

April 24, 2018November 28, 2018

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I'm Learning R!! 👩‍💻 - - - For anyone who doesn't know, R is a programming language used for statistics and graphics. - I didn't learn R in my PhD, and a lot of the people I knew didn't really use it either... so I never really thought about it.But, last year a new postdoc in the lab, who was pretty darn good at R, made me realise how good it is! - So, this year I decided to sign up to a beginners introduction to R. My first session was monday, and my second part is this afternoon. It is going to take a while to fully get it, but I am already beginning to get the hang of it... maybe?! With the help of a few others I have successfully made my first graph in R! 😁 - So right now, I am feeling pretty successful and chuffed!! - I am looking forward to getting more stuck into R and learning even more! - Are you guys learning anything new this year? - - #science #instascience #instascientist #biology #plantscience #postdoc #postdoclife #learning #newskills
Happy New Year Everyone! - - I am back in the lab after having a very nice relaxing xmas holidays. I decided to also to have a complete break from all social media 🤳 across the holidays so sorry for the lack of posts/ responses, but I am now back! - - On todays agenda: - remembering what I was doing before my break 🤔 - writing a to do list for the week of my most important things - easing myself back into work by doing a few of the quick experiments 👩‍🔬 (as photographed- running a few starch samples through the counter counter... basically cataloguing starch granule number and size) - wrestling with my computer trying to make it realise that it also is back to work - copious amounts of tea drinking - - What are you guys getting on with on your first days back? - - - #postdoc #postdoclife #academia #science #plantscience #biology #scicomm #instascientist #instascience #whatascientistdoes #womeninstemm #womeninscience
Agroinfiltration 🌱 - - Following on from my post last week about transient transformation thought I would share a video of agroinfiltration in action! - Not the best video, it was hard to position the leaves in a good position and infiltrate at the same time 🙈 often you can get the entire leaf infiltrated with from just one spot rather than a few like I have done here! - Infiltration is super easy, you use some agrobacterium (containing your gene of interest) and using a syringe, press it against the bottom of a tobacco leaf and watch the solution go in! If you look close at the leaf you can see all the dark green spreading out across the leaf, showing the agro infiltrating all the leaf. - - In a few days time I will extract the protein from the leaves and blot! - - #plantscience #biology #science #plantbiology #agrobacterium #postdoc #scientist #instascience #scicomm
Protein extraction!! - - On Monday I utilised the amazing ability of agrobacterium (a bacteria that causes tunours in plants) to transiently transform some tobacco. (I have a full blog about this on my site so won't go into all the detail) but basically, agro has the ability to put its own DNA into the genome of the plant that it is infecting. We utilise this ability by putting a gene of interest into agro, and then infecting tobacco leaves with the agro. The agro will add its genes, and therefore your gene of interest, into the genome of the tobacco leaf- enabling the tobacco leaf to express that gene and product! It's super nifty! - After infiltration on monday, I left the tobacco for a few days to be able to make its product, and then today harvested leaf discs from the infiltrated leaves before extracting the protein. On the second photo you can just about see the little rings showing where I used a syringe to infiltrate the leaves with agro. - Transient transformation is great for looking at short term effects of gene expression, gene knockdown and small scale protein production. It's very easy to use and super quick, and you can even use multiple agro strains at once (each containing different genes) to help synthesise complex proteins. - This method has also started being used for production of vaccines! From identification of a vaccine antigen, to the production of vaccines can take a matter of weeks- which is absolutely amazing! - - - #plantscience #biology #plantbiology #instascience #science #postdoc #gradchat #scicomm
When you think of plant science, what do you think of? 🤔 - I bet photosynthesis was the first thing that came in to your head, right? Or how about GMOs? - When I was a PhD and did some human biology work, my research was always greeted with 😯. Now I work mainly in plants I instead get "oh...". Once I give a bit more info I then get a "oh, actually... that's quite interesting!'. - I think about the perception of plant science quite a bit- (and have even written about it!)- plant science is just seen as wayyy less important or interesting than work in human cells (both are important btw). Maybe, it's in part because people don't really know what we do? So what is plant science? And what sort of science do we do? - Plant science very broadly, is the science of plants. Most plant scientists will work on a 🌱 of some description, but the work we do can be anything from chemistry, to genetics, to mathematical modelling.  For example, I look at 🌾, and mainly do biochemistry. This science helps us to look at improving crops, develop new medicines, help plants survive our increasingly hostile environments, help our diet... the list goes on! - Plants are everywhere around us and are an integral part of our lives and wellbeing, but they are often dismissed as unimportant or simply as a backdrop. There is in fact a term for this "plant blindness". Plants are underrepresented in the curriculum, there are no tv shows about plants, and plant science news rarely makes headlines despite the importance. - In Norwich we are lucky to be able to talk regularly talk to the public about our planty work, but I know in other places plant science really isn't talked about or promoted. - As scientists, we should help raise awareness and showcase the amazingness of plants, and their importance in our worlds! So, let's share some 🌱💕! If you work on plants tell us know what you work on 👇 - - #plantscience #plantbiology #plants #plantblindness #science #instascience #postdoc #scientist #instascience #sciencecommunication
WORK/ CHANGE / FREEDOM - - I missed a few days of the gratitude challenge so combining a few things! - - This year has been HUGE!! This time last year I was working on a short term contract based on potato starch. Since then I have graduated from my PhD program, and began work as a postdoc in a new lab (swipe to see my new lab!) - - These changes have been great, but also sad. The end of a era! During my PhD I gained so many amazing friends, but as with myself, they have now moved on to new places for new work. - One of the hardest parts of academia is making friendships, knowing that they may well be short term- a lot of my best friends have gone back to their home countries- Italy, Germany... it is hard to say goodbye, and hard to start making friends again. - I found this really hard when I first started my postdoc- although I was in the same institute I had done my PhD in, I was in a new lab group, working in a completely new area, and my friends had all begun to move away 😅 it was harddd. At the time I also had a flare up of anxiety where I hated that I had no friends, but also didn't want to go out and make new friends, so got unhappy about having no friends... (you see where this is going!). - Fast forward a few months and I have gone through the change. I am trying super hard to keep in contact with all my friends wherever they are in the world (something I am not good at, especially if my mental health has a down period), and get myself out of my comfort zone to go to new places and make new friends. - I love my new role as a postdoc, its pretty darn different from a PhD! I love the academic freedom I have, and the chances I have to develop different areas of my skill set (especially teaching). Its been a pretty steep learning curve, but I am glad I chose this route. - - #gratitude30 #academia #postdoc #postdoclife #science #biology #gradchat #work #changeisgood

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I'm Learning R!! 👩‍💻 - - - For anyone who doesn't know, R is a programming language used for statistics and graphics. - I didn't learn R in my PhD, and a lot of the people I knew didn't really use it either... so I never really thought about it.But, last year a new postdoc in the lab, who was pretty darn good at R, made me realise how good it is! - So, this year I decided to sign up to a beginners introduction to R. My first session was monday, and my second part is this afternoon. It is going to take a while to fully get it, but I am already beginning to get the hang of it... maybe?! With the help of a few others I have successfully made my first graph in R! 😁 - So right now, I am feeling pretty successful and chuffed!! - I am looking forward to getting more stuck into R and learning even more! - Are you guys learning anything new this year? - - #science #instascience #instascientist #biology #plantscience #postdoc #postdoclife #learning #newskills
Happy New Year Everyone! - - I am back in the lab after having a very nice relaxing xmas holidays. I decided to also to have a complete break from all social media 🤳 across the holidays so sorry for the lack of posts/ responses, but I am now back! - - On todays agenda: - remembering what I was doing before my break 🤔 - writing a to do list for the week of my most important things - easing myself back into work by doing a few of the quick experiments 👩‍🔬 (as photographed- running a few starch samples through the counter counter... basically cataloguing starch granule number and size) - wrestling with my computer trying to make it realise that it also is back to work - copious amounts of tea drinking - - What are you guys getting on with on your first days back? - - - #postdoc #postdoclife #academia #science #plantscience #biology #scicomm #instascientist #instascience #whatascientistdoes #womeninstemm #womeninscience
Agroinfiltration 🌱 - - Following on from my post last week about transient transformation thought I would share a video of agroinfiltration in action! - Not the best video, it was hard to position the leaves in a good position and infiltrate at the same time 🙈 often you can get the entire leaf infiltrated with from just one spot rather than a few like I have done here! - Infiltration is super easy, you use some agrobacterium (containing your gene of interest) and using a syringe, press it against the bottom of a tobacco leaf and watch the solution go in! If you look close at the leaf you can see all the dark green spreading out across the leaf, showing the agro infiltrating all the leaf. - - In a few days time I will extract the protein from the leaves and blot! - - #plantscience #biology #science #plantbiology #agrobacterium #postdoc #scientist #instascience #scicomm
Protein extraction!! - - On Monday I utilised the amazing ability of agrobacterium (a bacteria that causes tunours in plants) to transiently transform some tobacco. (I have a full blog about this on my site so won't go into all the detail) but basically, agro has the ability to put its own DNA into the genome of the plant that it is infecting. We utilise this ability by putting a gene of interest into agro, and then infecting tobacco leaves with the agro. The agro will add its genes, and therefore your gene of interest, into the genome of the tobacco leaf- enabling the tobacco leaf to express that gene and product! It's super nifty! - After infiltration on monday, I left the tobacco for a few days to be able to make its product, and then today harvested leaf discs from the infiltrated leaves before extracting the protein. On the second photo you can just about see the little rings showing where I used a syringe to infiltrate the leaves with agro. - Transient transformation is great for looking at short term effects of gene expression, gene knockdown and small scale protein production. It's very easy to use and super quick, and you can even use multiple agro strains at once (each containing different genes) to help synthesise complex proteins. - This method has also started being used for production of vaccines! From identification of a vaccine antigen, to the production of vaccines can take a matter of weeks- which is absolutely amazing! - - - #plantscience #biology #plantbiology #instascience #science #postdoc #gradchat #scicomm
When you think of plant science, what do you think of? 🤔 - I bet photosynthesis was the first thing that came in to your head, right? Or how about GMOs? - When I was a PhD and did some human biology work, my research was always greeted with 😯. Now I work mainly in plants I instead get "oh...". Once I give a bit more info I then get a "oh, actually... that's quite interesting!'. - I think about the perception of plant science quite a bit- (and have even written about it!)- plant science is just seen as wayyy less important or interesting than work in human cells (both are important btw). Maybe, it's in part because people don't really know what we do? So what is plant science? And what sort of science do we do? - Plant science very broadly, is the science of plants. Most plant scientists will work on a 🌱 of some description, but the work we do can be anything from chemistry, to genetics, to mathematical modelling.  For example, I look at 🌾, and mainly do biochemistry. This science helps us to look at improving crops, develop new medicines, help plants survive our increasingly hostile environments, help our diet... the list goes on! - Plants are everywhere around us and are an integral part of our lives and wellbeing, but they are often dismissed as unimportant or simply as a backdrop. There is in fact a term for this "plant blindness". Plants are underrepresented in the curriculum, there are no tv shows about plants, and plant science news rarely makes headlines despite the importance. - In Norwich we are lucky to be able to talk regularly talk to the public about our planty work, but I know in other places plant science really isn't talked about or promoted. - As scientists, we should help raise awareness and showcase the amazingness of plants, and their importance in our worlds! So, let's share some 🌱💕! If you work on plants tell us know what you work on 👇 - - #plantscience #plantbiology #plants #plantblindness #science #instascience #postdoc #scientist #instascience #sciencecommunication
WORK/ CHANGE / FREEDOM - - I missed a few days of the gratitude challenge so combining a few things! - - This year has been HUGE!! This time last year I was working on a short term contract based on potato starch. Since then I have graduated from my PhD program, and began work as a postdoc in a new lab (swipe to see my new lab!) - - These changes have been great, but also sad. The end of a era! During my PhD I gained so many amazing friends, but as with myself, they have now moved on to new places for new work. - One of the hardest parts of academia is making friendships, knowing that they may well be short term- a lot of my best friends have gone back to their home countries- Italy, Germany... it is hard to say goodbye, and hard to start making friends again. - I found this really hard when I first started my postdoc- although I was in the same institute I had done my PhD in, I was in a new lab group, working in a completely new area, and my friends had all begun to move away 😅 it was harddd. At the time I also had a flare up of anxiety where I hated that I had no friends, but also didn't want to go out and make new friends, so got unhappy about having no friends... (you see where this is going!). - Fast forward a few months and I have gone through the change. I am trying super hard to keep in contact with all my friends wherever they are in the world (something I am not good at, especially if my mental health has a down period), and get myself out of my comfort zone to go to new places and make new friends. - I love my new role as a postdoc, its pretty darn different from a PhD! I love the academic freedom I have, and the chances I have to develop different areas of my skill set (especially teaching). Its been a pretty steep learning curve, but I am glad I chose this route. - - #gratitude30 #academia #postdoc #postdoclife #science #biology #gradchat #work #changeisgood
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