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Etch a Cell

@etchacell.bsky.social
539 followers 15 following 32 posts

Citizen science from the EM STP at the Francis Crick Institute, created with the Zooniverse and global collaborators

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Etch a Cell @etchacell.bsky.social · 24/06/2025
❓Our most important question, do you have a pet? 💬 My two beloved cockatiels, Stuart and Rosie, who have been filling my days with whistles and songs for the past 9 years.
A woman reading a book with two cockatiels perched on her right shoulder
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Etch a Cell @etchacell.bsky.social · 24/06/2025
❓Tell us more about you 💬 When I am not in front of my computer, I either spend time in the mountains or with my birds.
Alpine mountain scene with a cascade and people walking towards it
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Etch a Cell @etchacell.bsky.social · 24/06/2025
❓What excites you most about your research? 💬 Although it is effortless to make sense of an image that we see, it is usually ridiculously hard to write a computer program that would do the same...so working on image analysis makes me reflect everyday on how beautifully complex human vision is!
A 3D volumetric rendering of an immune cell segmented from an electron microscopy volume
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Etch a Cell @etchacell.bsky.social · 24/06/2025
❓How are you involved in Etch A Cell? 💬 I am leading the development of automated image analysis methods that use the annotations you all provide in the Etch A Cell - ImmunoExplorers project!
A screenshot of Python code
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Etch a Cell @etchacell.bsky.social · 24/06/2025
❓Who are you, where do you work and what do you do? 💬 Hello! I'm Dr Virginie Uhlmann. I am a Research Group Leader at EMBL-EBI and the Director of the BioVisionCenter at the University of Zurich. In my work, I develop methods to turn visual information present in microscopy images into numbers
A selfie of a woman with glasses at a desk in front of a computer
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Etch a Cell @etchacell.bsky.social · 15/05/2025
❓Our most important question, do you have a pet? 💬 I have a rescue dog. Her name is Deja and she is 3 years old. She is very social and would do anything for a piece of cheese
Deja enjoying the sun
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Etch a Cell @etchacell.bsky.social · 15/05/2025
❓Tell us more about you 💬 When I am not in the lab, I like cycling in the hills around Heidelberg
A selfie of Paolo in cycling gears
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Etch a Cell @etchacell.bsky.social · 15/05/2025
❓How are you involved in Etch A Cell? 💬 I have helped with electron microscopy imaging of the samples.
This is the serial block face scanning electron microscope (SBF-SEM) which is producing the volume EM images for the project
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Etch a Cell @etchacell.bsky.social · 15/05/2025
❓Who are you, where do you work and what do you do? 💬 I am Paolo Ronchi. I work as a staff scientist in the Electron Microscopy Core Facility of the EMBL in Heidelberg, Germany. My main expertise is volume electron microscopy and correlative imaging.
This image shows Paolo Ronchi
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Etch a Cell @etchacell.bsky.social · 06/05/2025
❓We love pets! Tell us more about Panda 💬This is Panda, she was terrified of life when we first adopted her from a shelter but has blossomed into a very loving, cuddly, cat who believes that she should be treated like a queen.
Panda enjoying a well-earned break on a warm lap
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Etch a Cell @etchacell.bsky.social · 06/05/2025
❓Tell us more about you 💬 I love animals and nature. One of my favourite pastimes is growing plants in my garden accompanied by my rescue cat named Panda
A photo of seedlings in my cold frame and young plants in the process of being potted
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Etch a Cell @etchacell.bsky.social · 06/05/2025
❓What excites you most about your research? 💬 I love being part of such an enthusiastic team, from multiple countries, all working together to develop new workflows for multimodal imaging and to increase understanding of cellular interactions which contribute to diseases of transplanted kidneys
Panda (my cat) helping to select areas of kidney tissue to image by electron microscopy
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Etch a Cell @etchacell.bsky.social · 06/05/2025
❓How are you involved in Etch A Cell? 💬 I work on a few areas of this project: providing chemicals to fix the biopsies, cataloging and slicing the biopsies, performing light microscopy imaging and analysis, preparing samples for electron microscopy, and aligning the electron microscopy data
A biopsy being photographed using a dissection microscope which helps allows me to cut it into smaller pieces and catalogue the appearance of each piece.
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Etch a Cell @etchacell.bsky.social · 06/05/2025
❓Who are you, where do you work and what do you do? 💬 My name is Alana Burrell. I work in the Electron Microscopy Platform at the Francis Crick Institute. I image cells and tissues using light and electron microscopes
A black and white photo of Alana
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Etch a Cell @etchacell.bsky.social · 16/04/2025
Project Update: More than 1,000 volunteers have made 40,000+ classifications—an incredible milestone! 🙌 Thank you to everyone contributing to #EtchACell. Every click helps advance research. Join us: www.zooniverse.org/projects/h-s... #CitizenScience
This image shows a screen grab of the Etch A Cell - ImmunoExplorers project page. You can see images of cells and the statistics mentioned in the post.
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Etch a Cell @etchacell.bsky.social · 27/03/2025
What an incredible first week for Etch A Cell - ImmunoExplorers! 🚀 ✨ 688 volunteers have together contributed 23,474 classifications (and counting!), helping us reach 72% completion of our first dataset. Join the effort here: 🔗 www.zooniverse.org/projects/h-s... Thank you 🙌 #CitizenScience
This is a screenshot of the project's landing page, showing the statistics quoted in the tweet - 688 volunteers have made 23,474 classifications
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Etch a Cell @etchacell.bsky.social · 19/03/2025
Be a part of groundbreaking research! 🔬 Help us study immune cells & fight transplant rejection: www.zooniverse.org/projects/h-s... Together, we can make a difference! 💪 #CitizenScience #KidneyHealth #Zooniverse (6/6) ✅
This image shows most of the Etch A Cell - ImmunoExplorers project team at a Christmas Market
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Etch a Cell @etchacell.bsky.social · 19/03/2025
This project is part of Zooniverse, a platform for citizen science. By taking part, you’ll help advance analysis of immune cell behaviour—work that could one day help improve kidney transplant success rates. ❤️ Join in the discovery! 🧵 (5/6)
This image is an illustration showing multiple people contributing to the Zooniverse platform projects. 'Zooniverse' is written in the middle of the image
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Etch a Cell @etchacell.bsky.social · 19/03/2025
That’s where you come in! We need volunteers to spot immune cells in microscope images. No experience needed—just curiosity! Your efforts will help advance research 🔬 🧵 (4/6)
This image shows the classification interface for Etch A Cell - ImmunoExplorers. There is an image of kidney tissue on the left hand side and an interface on the right where you can select a box tool to mark up any immune cells in the image
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Etch a Cell @etchacell.bsky.social · 19/03/2025
There's a lot we still don’t know about immune cells in rejection: ❓ Which immune cells are there? ❓ Are they activated? ❓ What are they doing? 🧵 (3/6)
This image shows two immune cells in a kidney capillary. The immune cells each have a green box around them
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Etch a Cell @etchacell.bsky.social · 19/03/2025
Join Etch A Cell – ImmunoExplorers, a citizen science project studying immune cells in kidneys. Your help can speed up research 🔬 Get involved: www.zooniverse.org/projects/h-s... 🧵 (1/6)
This shows the project landing page for Etch A Cell - ImmunoExplorers. It is an image of a cell and over the top is written 'We need your help to study immune cells in kidney tissue!'
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Etch a Cell @etchacell.bsky.social · 18/03/2025
🚨 Exciting news! 🚨 We've launched Etch A Cell – ImmunoExplorers, a citizen science project studying immune cells. Help speed up research & improve treatments! 🔬 Join us 👉 www.zooniverse.org/projects/h-s... #CitizenScience #Zooniverse
This image shows the Etch A Cell ImmunoExplorers logo. In the centre there is a grey immune cell.
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