In the recent BSDB-the Node virtual art exhibition, Tahani Baakdhah’s crocheted embryo models were selected as the Judges’ Choice runner-up in the ‘Science-inspired art’ category. We briefly caught up with Tahani to find out more about her research and the story behind the creation of the artwork.
Crocheted models of embryonic development Tahani Baakdhah (Krembil Research Institute, University of Toronto) Crocheted model of 5 days, 1 week, 2 weeks and 2 months gestational embryonic development.
What is your background?
I am a retinal stem cell researcher currently working as a postdoc fellow at the Donald K. Johnson Eye Institute – Krembil Brain Institute (University of Toronto) with a background in medicine, molecular genetics and stem cell biology.
What are you currently researching on?
I am working on developing an enrichment protocol using a 3D retinal organoid system in order to replace the retinal neuron most commonly lost in glaucoma called the retinal ganglion cells.
Can you tell us more about the story behind the creation of the crocheted embryo models?
I created this model during my PhD to explain my project during my participation in public science events in Toronto. Using this model, I tell my audience the story of human embryonic development and how the retina was built in order to see the world around us.
As a science communicator, I like to be creative in explaining complex science concepts. This will make science easy to understand and fun to learn.
You were featured in our SciArt series in May 2022. What have you been working on since, and what are you thinking of working on next?
Since then, I have been working on a new retinal collection. After crocheting all retinal neuron types (my book can be purchased on Amazon ), I have decided to crochet the subtypes of each retinal neuron starting with the retinal ganglion cells (full project was shared on my instagram page). When completed, this project will help both scientists and the general public understand the physiology and the function of the retina despite its complexity.
As we reach the final month of 2023, the Node, preLights and FocalPlane have created an end-of-year quiz to share some festive fun with all of you. Thank you to everyone who have read and contributed to the three community sites in the past year.
Over the next few weeks, each day you will find a new question on our social media channels. Look out for the hashtag #preNodePlaners on X/Twitter and Mastodon.
If you want to have a sneak peek at all the questions (or if you don’t use social media) and answer the quiz for a chance to win a prize, fill in this form.
All the answers can be found on the three community sites or in our journals.
“In spite of the remarkable medical advances of the last four decades, AIDS still claimed one life every minute in 2022. So how can we end this epidemic for good?”
Dr Emma Werner
Today is World AIDS Day 2023.
In the latest episode of the Genetics Unzipped podcast, we’re looking back over four decades of AIDS, from the earliest whispers of a mysterious new disease to fighting back against this deadly virus.
If you enjoy the show, please do rate and review on Apple podcasts and help to spread the word on social media. And you can always send feedback and suggestions for future episodes and guests to podcast@geneticsunzipped.com Follow us on Twitter – @geneticsunzip
Hello, my name is Elena Camacho-Aguilar, and I am excited to be contributing to the “New PI Diaries” section on The Node. As you might have already deduced, I am a new PI. A few weeks ago, on November 9th, I joined the Andalusian Center for Developmental Biology (CABD for short) in Seville as a María de Maeztu Junior PI. My lab will leverage stem cell research, mathematics, and computational methods to study early embryonic development. We are interested in uncovering mechanisms by which cells interact and interpret dynamic signaling to transition into different cell types and create spatial patterns, with a focus on embryonic-extraembryonic interactions. If this sounds like something you might be interested in, don’t hesitate to contact me, as we are looking for motivated scientists to join our team! In particular, we are actively looking for a lab technician/research assistant. Our website is still in the making, but I hope to be able to share it soon! In the meantime, feel free to follow me on X for more regular updates.
Not going to lie, these past months have been a bit of a rollercoaster. I feel like I started to blink last April, when I accepted my new position, and when I opened my eyes, it was already November. During these past seven seconds months, I had to get ready to finish my postdoctoral position at Rice University and start as a new PI at the CABD. Among other things, I had to finish manuscript revisions, finish some experiments, submit a grant, learn a new experimental technique, put all my data and code together in a way someone else can find it and use it, start MTAs to transfer cells across the Atlantic, contact vendors to set up my new lab, as well as get married and prepare for an international move1. Luckily, it all happened quite smoothly, and I can say I’m safe and sound in Seville.
Figuring out what to say in this blog post allowed me to reflect on the peculiar aspects of this transition that I had not realized. First, after 10 years abroad, I am very lucky to be coming back to my hometown, where I left as a newly graduated college student. Secondly, while I left as a newly graduated pure mathematician, I am coming back to set up a quantitative stem cell research lab. What I mean is that, while I am coming back to a familiar city and culture, there are many things that I still need to adapt to and figure out. I am back to the same geographical point but under a very different condition. However, I am very lucky that my past mentor and new colleagues are helping a lot in making this transition easier; they have been incredibly welcoming and supportive of me. In the following months, I will have to finish ordering materials, receive our cells (wish me luck at border control), interview candidates for our technician position, and start doing experiments. I can’t wait to see how the lab develops and do our first experiment in Seville! Will keep you posted!
1 I also completed the SDB New Faculty Bootcamp, which I totally recommend if you feel a bit anxious about the different aspects of becoming a new PI. I learned many things from project management, managing your budget, grant writing, mentoring, etc., and the virtual meetings were a lot of fun.
How was the most famous long noncoding RNA in mammals discovered? This was the subject of the round-table session “30 years of Xist/XIST discovery”, held during the 2023 X-inactivation conference in Berlin. The guests – Andrea Ballabio, Carolyn J. Brown, Neil Brockdorff and Sohaila Rastan – represented the three different teams of researchers that in three separate studies in 1991 reported the discovery of a long transcript with no coding potential associated with the inactive X chromosome, either in mouse or human. As for many other scientific discoveries, this was a journey combining hard work and dedication with serendipity. Importantly, competing teams would share data with each other – the sequences of Xist/XIST travelled across the Atlantic in floppy disks. Hosted by two PhD students, Antonia Hauth (Edith Heard’s lab) and Emmanuel Cazottes (Claire Rougeulle’s lab), the session ends with final messages to early career researchers.
In the recent BSDB-the Node virtual art exhibition, Oliver Anderson’s ‘The Maw at Etna’ was selected as the Judges’ Choice in the ‘Scientific images’ category. We briefly caught up with Oliver to find out more about his research and the story behind the image.
The Maw at Etna Oliver Anderson (Australian Regenerative Medicine Institute)
In this image, microtubules are shown in red/yellow, and nuclei in white. Cells rush to fill an opening in the colony, with their jagged flame-like microtubules roaring into the centre like the devouring forge-flames of Cyclopean Etna. (Aeneid Book VIII: Lines 416-425) Human induced pluripotent stem cells, imaged using a Zeiss LSM780 confocal microscope. Cells are labelled with DAPI (white), and immunostained for alpha-tubulin (red-yellow).
What is your background?
I did a Bachelor of Science Advanced Research (Honours) at Monash University, majoring in Genetics and Immunology. My honours project focused on modelling metabolic disease in Drosophila. I am now undertaking a PhD at the Australian Regenerative Medicine Institute in the lab of Dr Jennifer Zenker, where I am examining microtubule dynamics in human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs).
What are you currently researching on? Currently, I am investigating and manipulating the microtubule cytoskeleton of hiPSCs in order to uncover the relationship between the structural aspects of pluripotent cells and their overall identity. Our current understanding of pluripotency is more heavily focused on genetic and metabolic aspects, and so microtubules are comparatively understudied at this stage of development.
Can you tell us more about the story behind your image ‘The Maw at Etna’? This is one of my favourite immunostains of hiPSCs where I looked at alpha-tubulin. In this colony of hiPSCs, a hole of sorts was present in the centre of the colony, and I was struck by how the jagged intrusions looked like teeth, or even stalactites. Colouring the microtubules in red-yellow gave the appearance of fire, reminding me of Vulcan’s workshops below Etna mentioned in Aeneid Book VIII(Lines 416-425), where there’s wonderful imagery of living flames breathing through the forges, tended to by cyclops.
What is your favourite technique? Anything that gets me on the (confocal fluorescent) microscope! Immunostaining has always given me beautiful samples that I can image slowly overnight, and techniques like transfection with fluorescent plasmids and live dyes often give fascinating live imaging data.
What excites you most in the field of developmental and stem cell biology? There is such a huge amount we don’t understand about the beginnings of an organism’s life, and how the identities of cells transform over the course of development. Everywhere you look, there are so many questions unanswered, and to me that’s deeply exciting for the future.
The webinar on 14 November 2023 was chaired by Development Senior Editor Alex Eve and featured talks from three early-career researchers studying development and disease. Below are the recordings of the talks.
Mauricio Rocha-Martins (Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência)
Talk and Q&A by Mauricio Rocha-Martins
Nicole Edwards (Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center)
Talk and Q&A by Nicole Edwards
Cecilia Arriagada (Rutger’s University)
Talk and Q&A by Cecilia Arriagada (1 votes) Loading...
In this SciArt profile, we caught up with Lauren Moon, a PhD student in developmental biology who enjoys creating science-themed calligraphy and hand-painted ceramic plates.
Can you tell us about your background and what do you work on now?
I started my undergraduate degree in anatomy and developmental biology at King’s College London. Though my anatomical studies really inspired me and brought out my artistic creativity, the classes I enjoyed the most were embryology. I did a research project on zebrafish neural tube formation in my third year, which cemented my drive to pursue research in this field. I am now in the final year of my PhD, working on the mechanics of neurulation in avian embryos.
Red neural tube – Painted ceramic plate, after a confocal image of a memRFP transgenic chick anterior neural tube undergoing closure.
Were you always going to be a scientist?
Growing up, I was equally torn between literature and biology. I realised very quickly that whilst I wasn’t brilliant at describing what I wanted to portray in written words, expressing it in art came naturally and my passion for sketching and painting grew. For a while, I thought I could be an illustrator for manuscripts or books, creating beautiful calligraphy with art in the margins. Biology was just as interesting and sparked my curiosity in a very different way but was more practical as a career choice (Younger me was devastated to find out there wasn’t really a call for those kind of books and manuscripts these days). As I got older and focused more on science, I realised what fascinated me the most was the small details, the underpinning bits of cell biology and tissue structures that built up to create such varied organisms, and that set me on the path to where I am now.
Kidney relations – Calligraphic representation of the structures that abut the posterior of the kidneys, colour coded for muscle (green), bone (orange) and vasculature. Alcohol markers on toned paper.
And what about art – have you always enjoyed it?
Art is something I think I’ve been doing for as long as I can remember, though when it started to be recognisable as anything more than broad strokes of colour and smudged outlines is a different story! I went through many different styles as my interests and the materials I had access to changed, but I settled on my love of calligraphy and playing with form and geometry in my late teens after being gifted a book on it by my great aunt, who noticed I always used to like her ornate handwriting. I do still take the chance to sit in the V&A for an afternoon to sketch their marble busts and statuary whenever I can though, there is something very relaxing about just a pencil and paper and the curve and flow of limbs and draped fabric that has stayed with me through all my stylistic changes.
Anatomical surfaces of the pelvis, Ink on toned paper.
What or who are your most important artistic influences?
It depends on what style or medium I’m working in really, but one of my biggest influences for the calligraphic pieces is Henry Vandyke Carter. I spent a lot of time studying Gray’s Anatomy for my undergrad, and those pieces stemmed from trying to create study aids for myself that meant I could procrastinate by doing art but still have learned something at the end. My pottery pieces, and some of my paintings and digital pieces, are more inspired by what I see down the microscope or in the lab than a specific artist or style. Confocal fluorescent images of my work are very inspiring to me; at such a high magnification translating the images to art gives an abstract view that lets me pick out shapes and colours but still connect to the biology underlying the images.
Painted ceramic plate, after a confocal image of a chick embryo showing the closing neural folds. Sample was stained for nuclei (DAPI, blue) and neural fate (Sox2, green).Painted ceramic plate, after a confocal image of a chick embryo showing the closed neural tube and somites. Sample stained for nuclei (DAPI, blue), neural fate (Sox2, green) and actin (Phalloidin, red).
How do you make your art?
I use all sorts, but you will most often find me with either a pencil, a fountain pen or an ink brush in hand. The calligraphy is a mix of sketched outlines and ink or alcohol markers depending on the scale, with a lot of cross referencing various anatomy textbooks and personal notes and sketches. My ceramics are most often plates I picked up from homeware stores painted very painstakingly with hundreds of tiny dots using ceramic paint, based on microscopy images taken on a confocal. More recently, I have bought an artist’s tablet that plugs into my laptop and am exploring with more digital methods. So far, I have used drawing programs like Affinity for graphic designs for prints and outreach projects, as well as sculpting software to manipulate virtual clay for schematics and animations of tissue scale biological processes.
Calligraphic representation of the brachial plexus in situ. Alcohol markers on toned paper.
Does your art influence your science at all, or are they separate worlds?
My science very much influences my art, but the other way around? I would say it does, but perhaps not always in the most helpful way! It certainly elevates my drive to improve and push the boundaries of what my microscopy can reach, pushing me to learn more about different microscope types and builds, refractive indices and optical aberrations to achieve the greatest clarity possible in the tissues I work with. That definitely makes my eventual data collection much easier to analyse and work with, but early on did come at the cost of unfortunately huge file sizes whilst I found the balance. It also helps in thinking about how to frame my science in a way that I can easily communicate to others and where to go next; drawing a mock graphical abstract or giving a chalk talk where I need to draw out what I say helps see where the missing piece of the composition is.
The Gurdon Institute in Cambridge, where I’m based, also does a lot of public engagement and that is a part of my science that is definitely influenced by my art. One of the projects the amazing outreach team run that I got involved in is Tattoo My Science. Researchers from different labs create a design that represents their work, which is turned into temporary tattoos we can give out at outreach days. It really makes you think hard about your work and your understanding of what you do, to try and distill it into a small simple image that would appeal to (and you then have to explain to) anyone from five to one hundred and five. It also gives me a chance to bring my science out of the lab and to a new audience; last year I exhibited some of my pottery pieces at the Heong Gallery in Cambridge as part of a Fine Art prize I won and got the chance to talk about them with people from many different backgrounds.
Selection of temporary tattoo designs based on projects within the lab. Left to right, they are 1) overlaid stages of primary neural tube closure, 2) Example of culture technique using filter paper and 3) a project involving the role of Nodal in zebrafish development. Graphical tablet using Affinity Designer.
What are you thinking of working on next?
I am (very slowly) working on creating enough of the anatomy sketches to put together an atlas with them as a long term creative goal, though once complete it will probably just sit on my shelf as a reference book and I’ll move on to the next big project! In the nearer future, I’ve been tasked with creating a logo and t shirt design for our next lab retreat, so that will be a fun departure from what I’m used to.
“We became humans who could tell each other stories, who could imagine mutual futures, who could say, ‘I love you, and I can imagine us spending the rest of our lives together.’ We became fundamentally different perhaps as quickly as wasps acquired the ability to recognise faces.”
Rebecca Coffey
In the latest episode of the Genetics Unzipped podcast, author and science journalist Rebecca Coffey chats with us about some amazing adaptations and Darwinian delights from her book, Beyond Primates. She tells us about wasp facial recognition genes, how yeast epigenetics explain the Dutch Hunger Winter and a dinner party tale of spider cannibalism.
Our next Development presents… webinar is on the topic of germ cell development and will be chaired by Development Editor, Swathi Arur (MD Anderson Cancer Center).
Tuesday 5 December 2023 – 15:00 GMT
Gabriele Zaffagnini (Centre for Genomic Regulation) ‘Why don’t oocytes get Alzheimer’s?’
Diego Sainz de la Maza (University College London) ‘Somatic cells support germ cell survival by shuttling glycolytic products’
Güneş Taylor (Francis Crick Institute) ‘The role of FOXL2 in pregranulosa cell specification within the vertebrate ovary’
The webinar will be recorded to watch on-demand. To see the other webinars scheduled in our series, and to catch up on previous talks, please visit: thenode.biologists.com/devpres
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