iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Sally Lowell @cellysally.bsky.social · 10/04/2026

Just look at this graph (Fig 5A,B from Koeber et al). Amazing. Congratulations to the Pollard lab and all authors. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Data. A mouse model of glioblastoma leads to inevitable death within 50 days. Delivery of HSV+TK plus IL2, driven by a strong and specific synthetic superenhancer, allows almost all mice to survive even after nearly 150 days. From Fig5 of Koeber et al 2026

22613

Sally Lowell @cellysally.bsky.social · 24/03/2026

And the @bsdb.bsky.social Waddington medal goes to... @jamesbriscoe.bsky.social. Could not be more highly deserved, I'm so delighted to hear this 👏

Pictures of james briscoe, one avec mullet

1312

Sally Lowell @cellysally.bsky.social · 05/12/2025

A special #PUFFFIN -filled day as we celebrate the successful viva of Dr @lebektamina.bsky.social! Many thanks to @aidarodrigo.bsky.social and @tristanrodriguez72.bsky.social for examining and huge congratulations to the brilliant Dr Lebek!

Tamina Lebek wearing an amazing hat topped with puffins and covered in images from her PhD

A white cake with jelly ice cubes and many small puffins

a felted puffin who lives on top of Tamina's PhD hat

0130

Sally Lowell @cellysally.bsky.social · 28/07/2025

Speaker update for our Generative Biology workshop: we are delighted to have @nmoris.bsky.social join us. See full list of speakers on the attached flyer or on our website. Apply by 15th August. Places available for short talks. royalsociety.org/science-even...

Flyer for Royal Society Generative Biology workshop. Full list of speakers can also be found on the website linked to in the post.

0115

Sally Lowell @cellysally.bsky.social · 07/04/2025

A small good thing in these difficult times. The always-impressive Aisling Fairweather treated us to some particularly delicious data in lab meeting today #BakeYourData #NeighbourLabelling

A tasty cheese and veg quiche decorated with a FACS plot. Axis are labelled 530 and 610 using courgettes, the axis are asparagus spears, the data is presented as chopped red pepper (610+ cells) and chopped courgette (530+ cells) and the gate is drawn using rosemary leaves. It is marvellous. The same data is represented ina more conventional format in the adjacent photo.

A FACS plot. Axis are labelled 530 and 610 . The data shows that 74.6% of cells are expressing mCherry (610+). The same data is represented in the form of a vegetable quiche in the neighbouring photo.

0201

Sally Lowell @cellysally.bsky.social · 01/04/2025

Thanks Richard for a great day. There was a real buzz around the institute after your excellent talk. ...and in >20 years of living in Edinburgh, this was my first time getting the special table with the castle view at dinner. The benefits of dining with a celebrity... 😊

Restaurant table with a view of Edinburgh Castle

2110

Sally Lowell @cellysally.bsky.social · 27/03/2025

Now @steveroyle.bsky.social tells us the many ways that not-for-profit publisher @biologists.bsky.social supports and funds the activities of biologists. Stark contrast to some other publishers, who suck £££$$$ out of science and into the pockets of shareholders #biologists100

Steve Royle presenting a slide inviting people to apply to organise a CoB funded workshop

0142

Sally Lowell @cellysally.bsky.social · 26/03/2025

Exhausted at the thought of having to resubmit your paper to a new journal after rejection? 🙁 Did you know you can transfer your paper+reviewers reports from any journal to any of @biologists.bsky.social journals, and get a quick decision, from editors who are working biologists 😃 #biologists100

James Briscoe presenting the many reasons you should consider publishing in Development

02310

Sally Lowell @cellysally.bsky.social · 26/03/2025

Starstruck to meet Manu Prakash @prakashlab.bsky.social inventor of the amazing Foldscope @teamfoldscope.bsky.social He is full of inspiring ideas on how to share the wonder of the natural world with EVERYONE. So important. Maybe there are things we can all do to help #biologists100

0557

Sally Lowell @cellysally.bsky.social · 25/03/2025

So proud of my dear friend Pleasantine Mill @cilialab.bsky.social, winner of the 2025 @bsdb.bsky.social Wolpert medal She gives an impassioned speech on the importance of community & connection, particularly during these precarious times If you can't read her slide, do see alt text #biologists100

Pleasie Mill showing a quote from Wolpert: "I regard it as ethically unacceptable and impractical to censor any aspect of trying to understand the nature of our world"

35612

Sally Lowell @cellysally.bsky.social · 25/03/2025

What can biologists do today to mitigate climate change and have a positive impact tomorrow? Excellent & inspiring discussion led by @biologists.bsky.social Sustainability Officer Teodora Rincing, with @profkatestorey.bsky.social, @sarojsaurya.bsky.social & Jeroen Dobbleaere. #Biologists100

Four people on a stage discussing sustainability in science.

0141

Sally Lowell @cellysally.bsky.social · 25/03/2025

The Future.. has begun... It was an honour to chair the session on Climate Change & Biodiversity today, featuring talks from former IPCC co-chair Hans Otto Pörtner, & Director of the British Antartic Survey, Jane Frances. Two beautiful, terrifying talks. #Biologists100

1112

Sally Lowell @cellysally.bsky.social · 24/03/2025

We are ready for much science! The amazing Dr Jen Annoh @jens-cells.bsky.social will be the roving reporter for @the-node.bsky.social during #Biologists100. Watch out for her posts 🕵️‍♀️🧪🔬😀

Jen Annoh and me in front of a sign welcoming us to Biologists@100

0425

Sally Lowell @cellysally.bsky.social · 29/12/2024

Yes!.. but we don't know what this hungry leggy creature is, nor the tiny transparent leech-like creatures blebbing around in the background. Anyone got any ideas? #Foldscope #PondLife

341

Sally Lowell @cellysally.bsky.social · 29/12/2024

This is the sound of a 15yo being amazed. It is not easy to amaze a 15yo. Her first attempt at using her foldscope.com, a small flat cardboard microscope that fits in her back pocket. I'm amazed too. Big thanks to @prakashlab.bsky.social for inventing this wonderful thing 😍 #ThriftyScience

25012

Sally Lowell @cellysally.bsky.social · 14/12/2024

I made a teabag advent calender, which is a big hit with 75% of our household. 75% would get me an A in an exam so I'm taking it as a win 😊🍵🎄

Yellow wall festooned with different individually wrapped teabags.

Close up of yellow wall festooned with different individually wrapped teabags

110

Sally Lowell @cellysally.bsky.social · 10/12/2024

They were so so so so great. I should have turned round and taken a photo of the audience: everyone had massive enormous grins on their faces (incuding you 😀)

Intergalactic rock stars playing a storming set. Sweet Baboo is just out of shot. It looks as if I'm standing on the stage with them, but that is becuase there was no stage.

010

Sally Lowell @cellysally.bsky.social · 20/11/2024

I'm so incredibly proud of our PhD student @lebektamina.bsky.social for delivering an excellent DevPres seminar this afternoon in close collaboration with her young baby 😍👶🧪 Read Tamina's work on illuminating cell neighbourhoods and locally-synchronising differentiation:PMID: 38997504 #DevBio

3313

Sally Lowell @cellysally.bsky.social · 09/11/2024

A Very Good Read: "Breaking Through" by Katalin Karikó 😍 We all know Karikó's story: how she was belittled, demoted, ignored. And we all know the eventual impact of her work. Yet, while reading her book, despite already knowing these things, my jaw dropped so many times it is now in Australia.

The cover of the book "Breaking Through, my life in science" by Katalin Karikó, winner of the Nobel Prize for Medicine 2023.

The cover shows two pictures: one of the author as a young girl, and one of the author as a young woman at her lab bench.

There are two quotes on the cover:
"Riveting. A true story of a brilliant biochemist who never gave up or gave in" - Bonnie Garmus
"Anyone who has ever doubted that science, innovation and persistence can change the world should read this book"- Bill Gates

040

Sally Lowell @cellysally.bsky.social · 07/11/2024

Next Wednesday! Four delicious helpings of #DevBio us02web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

Development presents... webinar on Wednesday 20 November 15:00GMT. Featuring BSDB prize winners. Chaired by Marysia Placzek.

Talk 1: Tamina Lebek (The University of Edinburgh) ‘PUFFFIN – Illuminating cellular neighbourhoods in model systems of development’

Talk 2: Callum Bucklow (University of Oxford) ‘Developmental mechanisms of macroevolutionary change in the African Cichlid vertebral column’

Talk 3: Hannah Bruce (University of Liege)
‘A cleaved cytosolic FOXG1 promotes excitatory neurogenesis by modulation of mitochondrial translation – a new therapeutic target for brain disorders’

Talk 4: Stanley Strawbridge (University of Cambridge) ‘Spatiotemporal chromatin binding strategies for transcription factors in pluripotent cells’

0127

Sally Lowell @cellysally.bsky.social · 16/09/2024

As summer ends, puffins leave Scotland and migrate long distances, heading west across the Atlantic, or south to Africa, and with some individuals venturing into the Mediterranean Sea This one ended up on the cover of today's EMBO Journal 😃 #GotTheCover www.embopress.org/toc/14602075...

The cover of the 16 Sept edition of EMBO journal featuring fluorescent cells organised into the shape of a puffin. The strapline reads "Illuminating cellular neighbourhoods with PUFFFIN"

0212

Sally Lowell @cellysally.bsky.social · 05/02/2024

We are delighted to announce that the 2024 European Summer School on Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine #SCSS2024 (formally known as Hydra Summer School) will once again take place on the beautiful island of Spetses. Dates: 13-20 Sept 2024 Watch this space for more info coming soon-ish!

The delegates and faculty from the 2023 Summer School standing at the meeting location beside the beautiful Aegean sea, looking very happy.

057