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Gail McConnell

@gailmcconnell.bsky.social
2.5K followers 2.4K following 37 posts

Professor of Biophotonics at the University of Strathclyde. Develops new optical microscope & Mesolens instrumentation & methods for biomedical imaging 🔬

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Reposted by Gail McConnell
Liz Hinde @lizhinde.bsky.social · 02/04/2026
Focus on Microscopy #FOM2026 @gailmcconnell.bsky.social @labpresse.bsky.social @retof.bsky.social
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Suzie Humphrey @suzieh.bsky.social · 19/03/2026
🚨PhD studentship alert! Join @gailmcconnell.bsky.social, @liam-rooney.bsky.social and I for an exciting imaging project characterising inter-species interactions in the oral microbiome. Details here: www.centreforbiophotonics.com/oralmicrobio... Application deadline 10th April 2026!
centreforbiophotonics.com
Oral microbiome | Centre For Biophoton
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Gail McConnell @gailmcconnell.bsky.social · 16/01/2026
🚨🚨🚨 Deadline for applications to the Strathclyde Optical Microscopy Course @unistrathclyde.bsky.social extended to 30 January 2026! Details on how to apply are below 🔬 #microscope #ECRchat #Glasgow
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Hannah Heil @hannah-superres.bsky.social · 10/12/2025
🛑 ⚠️ Registration Deadline: December 12th! ⚠️ Don’t miss your chance to join! 🔬👷‍♀️🛠️ You'll need a Motivation Letter, CV, and a Reference Letter 📝 👉 Course details & registration: meetings.embo.org/event/26-mic... #Microscopy #OpenScience #Bioimaging #EMBOmicroscope
meetings.embo.org
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Julia Sero @cellmorphosero.bsky.social · 04/12/2025
I can highly recommend! Excellent value. :)
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Nektarios (Nek) Valous @nekvalous.bsky.social · 05/11/2025
@mirandalynchphd.bsky.social, Dirk Jäger, and I are organizing the @amermathsoc.bsky.social special session on Computational Biomedicine: New Frontiers in Methods and Applications at the @jointmath.bsky.social with exceptional speakers from mathematics, biology, and medicine.
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Gail McConnell @gailmcconnell.bsky.social · 05/11/2025
We are delighted to announce the Strathclyde Optical Microscopy Course 2026 (SOMC26), taking place in Glasgow from 21st July – 30th July 2026! Please find more details at shorturl.at/xmUiZ and apply at shorturl.at/MxTlI. Deadline 16 January 2026.
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Physghoul 👻 🎃 @physgal.bsky.social · 03/11/2025
Dear Physicists and Physics fans, I would like to encourage you to celebrate #WomenInPhysics Day this Friday, November 7th. Why November 7th? Because it is the birthday of two of the most impactful women physicists of the 1900's: Marie Curie and Lise Meitner. 🎢 ⚛️ 🧪 👩‍🔬
WOMEN IN PHYSICS DAY! 

In honor of the pioneering women in physics who broke down barriers to do what they love, we celebrate Women in Physics Day on November 7th, the birthdate of both Marie Curie and Lise Meitner.

Marie Skrodowska-Curie (1867-1934)

Radioactivity pioneer, two-time Nobel laureate 

A giant of science, Marie Sktodowska-Curie conducted pioneering research on radioactivity, a term she coined. She discovered two elements, founded two medical research centres, won two Nobels, and invented mobile X-ray units (dubbed petites Curies), saving countless lives in World War 

Lise Meitner (1878-1968) Nuclear physicist

When Lise Meitner was a teen, Austria restricted female higher education. She pursued physics anyway, and 25 years later became the first woman in Germany to hold a professorship in physics. She helped discover nuclear fission, but was contentiously not awarded the 1944 Nobel alongside collaborator Otto Hahn.

NOVEMBER 7TH
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bioRxiv Biophysics @biorxiv-biophys.bsky.social · 10/10/2025
Low-Cost 3D Printed Optics for Super-Resolution Multifocal Structured Illumination Microscopy www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/202…
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Susan Cox @micoxscopy.bsky.social · 12/08/2025
How do you quantify cell structures which are deformed between different observations? Our preprint shows how to perform Simultaneous QUAntification of Structure and Structural Heterogeneity (SQUASSH) on 3D fluorescence microscopy data. (1/5) www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
biorxiv.org
Extracting biological structure and heterogeneity from the nano to the macro scale
Fluorescence microscopy is an essential tool in biology. It has revealed great variability at multiple scales, in macromolecular complexes, cells, and organisms. Understanding this variability will re...
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Sarah Lecinski @sarahlecinski.bsky.social · 02/08/2025
A huge thank you to the #SOMC25 organisers! I have enjoyed the lectures, the discussions, and seeing so many systems in action. It has pushed my knowledge of optical microscopy beyond expectations. (Plus the image prize!) I had a fantastic time!💫
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Liam Rooney @liam-rooney.bsky.social · 02/08/2025
After 10 packed days of optical microscopy theory & practicals, #SOMC25 is over! 🌍 24 students from around the world 🧑‍🏫 19 internationally renowned lecturers 🧑‍🔧 16 supportive sponsors 🔬 14 hands-on advanced practical sessions 🏆 4 poster & image prizes 🪼 1 field trip to collect marine specimens
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Gail McConnell @gailmcconnell.bsky.social · 28/07/2025
A coffee and a lecture from @superresolusian.bsky.social at the Strathclyde Optical Microscopy Course is one of my happy places #SOMC25
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Liam Rooney @liam-rooney.bsky.social · 23/07/2025
TY! @albascientific.bsky.social @the.3i.social @zeiss-microscopy.bsky.social @hamamatsucorp.bsky.social @instituteofphysics.bsky.social @picoquant.bsky.social @royalmicrosoc.bsky.social @tomocube.bsky.social @biologists.bsky.social Nikon Evident NorthernLightMicroscopy PhotonLines PhotonicSolutions
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Liam Rooney @liam-rooney.bsky.social · 26/07/2025
Our final activity of #SOMC25 Day 4 is an image analysis lecture and workshop led by @beatricebo.bsky.social from the Cancer Research Scotland Institute.
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Katherine Paine @katherinepaine.bsky.social · 27/07/2025
Great first week at #SOMC25, learning microscopy basics through lectures and practicals. We spent today collecting samples on the Isle of Cumbrae ready for week 2!
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Liam Rooney @liam-rooney.bsky.social · 27/07/2025
Field trip day at #SOMC25 - we took a trip to the Isle of Cumbrae to collect specimens to image for the rest of the course. Tide pooling, beach combing, diatom netting, copepod fishing, crustacean hunting, and jelly junking. 🌊🪼🦀
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Liam Rooney @liam-rooney.bsky.social · 24/07/2025
Day 2 of #SOMC25 kicks off with Lecture 1 from Brad Amos with an Overview of Optical Microscopy. Starting with the question: does the microscopist need to understand physics?
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Liam Rooney @liam-rooney.bsky.social · 24/07/2025
Day 2 Lecture 2 of #SOMC25 delivered by David McKee (@physicsstrath.bsky.social) on Ray and Wave Optics. 🌈🔬
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Liam Rooney @liam-rooney.bsky.social · 24/07/2025
Rounding off the day with Lecture 3 of #SOMC25 with Polarisation, Interference and Diffraction delivered by @muellenbroich.bsky.social, featuring sunglasses-adorned Brewster and a young(er) @ralfmbauer.bsky.social.
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Liam Rooney @liam-rooney.bsky.social · 23/07/2025
The Strathclyde Optical Micoscopy Course #SOMC25 kicked off today - 10 days of practical light microscopy training with 24 students from around the world! From fundamental & advanced lectures, to hands-on workshops with high end systems, & a field trip to the Isle of Cumbrae, it will be great! 🔬
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Trish Greenhalgh @trishgreenhalgh.bsky.social · 19/06/2025
Thanks for the reminder @janemunday.bsky.social. Every summer, I repost this article DROWNING DOES NOT LOOK LIKE DROWNING. To date, I know of FOUR kids who were saved after someone who'd clicked on the link learnt how to spot actual drowning. Take time to read and pass on. slate.com/technology/2...
slate.com
Drowning Doesn’t Look Like Drowning
Drowning is not the violent, splashing call for help that most people expect.
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Séamus Holden 🔬🦠🧫 @seamusholden.bsky.social · 29/05/2025
Update: David Roberts, postdoc in my lab, tested the GraceBio GeneFrame substitute. A few quirks but extremely promising. Good: B. subtilis cells grew quite happily in overnight time lapse. Growth rate comparison to GeneFrames not done yet but in the works.
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Gail McConnell @gailmcconnell.bsky.social · 22/05/2025
Improved contrast transmission stereomicroscopy using a low-cost 3D printed optical element! 🔬🧫🐟🧅 More details in our preprint: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
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Liam Rooney @liam-rooney.bsky.social · 22/05/2025
🚨New pre-print out now!🚨 We 3D printed a large optical element that enhanced the illumination, contrast & image quality in transmission stereomicroscopy. This simple addition to the illumination path lets us detect refractive structures & dynamics unobserved by conventional stereomicroscopy. (1/5)
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Gail McConnell @gailmcconnell.bsky.social · 02/05/2025
This session has been one of the best attended and most scientifically diverse at previous mmc events - promote your most exciting, hot-out-of-the-lab results by submitting an abstract today! @royalmicrosoc.bsky.social @rmsearlycareer.bsky.social
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Professor Andrew J Roe @drandyjroe.bsky.social · 01/04/2025
New paper from the group - here we show that aurodox prevents shiga toxin mediated damage in a murine model. Interesting changes to the microbiota too. Amazing work by @rebeccamchugh.bsky.social and the group. Paper here- rdcu.be/efW0K
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Séamus Holden 🔬🦠🧫 @seamusholden.bsky.social · 08/04/2025
Fellow bacterial cell biologists, message me if you use @thermofishersci.bsky.social Gene Frames for microscopy! Thermo are planning to discontinue these in September but have indicated they will look into this further. If I make list of labs using them Thermo might not kill the product Please RT🔬🦠
jove.com
Live Cell Imaging of Bacillus subtilis and Streptococcus pneumoniae using Automated Time-lapse Microscopy
42.1K Views. University of Groningen. This protocol provides a step-by-step procedure to monitor single cell behavior of different bacteria in time using automated fluorescence time-lapse microscopy....
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Gail McConnell @gailmcconnell.bsky.social · 02/04/2025
Missed the mmc conference abstract deadline but eager to present your latest work? Fear not! Late and Breaking abstracts open until Friday 2 May. More information here: www.mmc-series.org.uk/conference/a... @royalmicrosoc.bsky.social
mmc-series.org.uk
Abstract Submission
Abstract submission has now closed. You can now submit a late breaking abstract through Oxford Abstracts.
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Gail McConnell @gailmcconnell.bsky.social · 20/03/2025
Are you fed up wasting time and photons in laser scanning microscopy? Our latest work, PerfectlyAverage, can help to determine optimal parameters for line and frame averaging while considering photobleaching. More information in our preprint! 🔬 bit.ly/PerfectlyAve...
Image of 3T3-L1 cells stained with ActinGreen, imaged with a laser scanning fluorescence microscope
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Liam Rooney @liam-rooney.bsky.social · 21/02/2025
1 week left to submit for the Imaging Host-Pathogen Interactions session @ mmc'25! @rebeccamchugh.bsky.social & I are organising a @microbiologysociety.org sponsored session w/ invited speakers, Jessica Mark Welch @adaforsyth.bsky.social & Lara Hundsdorfer @unituebingen.bsky.social 🧪🔬 #MicroSky
An AI-generated fluorescence micrograph of red-coloured invading blobs attacking a blue branching network of filamentous cells on a dark background.
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Alfred Millett-Sikking @amsikking.bsky.social · 21/02/2025
Just a start! Who's missing? go.bsky.app/LAA7Sdx
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Laure Plantard @laureplantard.bsky.social · 12/02/2025
An image analyst position is available in our microscope facility. Please share!
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Royal Microscopical Society Early Career Researchers @rmsearlycareer.bsky.social · 31/01/2025
🔊Some great opportunities from the Journal of Microscopy for Early Career Researchers (£200 prize for best paper!!)🔬 #earlycareer #microscopy #science
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Gail McConnell @gailmcconnell.bsky.social · 31/01/2025
Applications close today for the Strathclyde Optical Microscopy Course 2025! Apply at www.centreforbiophotonics.com/somc25 #Microscopy #ECRChat #MicroSky
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Jon Foster @jonfoster.bsky.social · 30/01/2025
Rhiannon Harrison (friend of a friend) is working on a dissertation on female football fandom of both men's and women's football. She's looking for female football fans to complete the attached survey. Please consider taking 10 mins to help Rhiannon out. forms.office.com/pages/respon...
forms.office.com
Microsoft Forms
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Gail McConnell @gailmcconnell.bsky.social · 27/01/2025
After the excitement of #BIOS at #PhotonicsWest, a change of venue to visit Professor Jen Dionne at Stanford and present our latest work on mesoscale imaging of host-pathogen interactions 🦠🧫🔬
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Gail McConnell @gailmcconnell.bsky.social · 25/01/2025
Showcasing the latest applications of the Mesolens and demonstrating our $0.08 3D printed optical-quality lenses manufactured using low-cost consumer grade printers! #PhotonicsWest @spie.org
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Gail McConnell @gailmcconnell.bsky.social · 16/01/2025
Deadline for applications to the Strathclyde Optical Microscopy Course 2025 has been extended to 31 January 2025. It's shaping up to be an exciting event! Details below and at www.centreforbiophotonics.com/somc25 🔬 #Microscopy #ECRChat #MicroSky
centreforbiophotonics.com
SOMC24 | Centre For Biophotonics
Home
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Gail McConnell @gailmcconnell.bsky.social · 10/01/2025
Our fully 3D-printed microscope is featured in @newscientist.bsky.social www.newscientist.com/article/2462...
newscientist.com
World’s first fully 3D-printed microscope made in under 3 hours
The microscope cost less than £50 to build using an open-source design and a common 3D printer
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Liam Rooney @liam-rooney.bsky.social · 07/01/2025
10 days left to apply for the Strathclyde Optical Microscopy Course 2025! 🧪🔬 #MicroSky #Microscopy @rmsearlycareer.bsky.social @royalmicrosoc.bsky.social @microscopyirl.bsky.social @bioimaginguk.bsky.social @bioimagingna.bsky.social @globalbioimaging.bsky.social @eurobioimaging.bsky.social
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Liam Rooney @liam-rooney.bsky.social · 05/01/2025
Mollie Brown (not on Bsky, Cc’ @gailmcconnell.bsky.social) got the cover of JBO for her first first-author paper! 👏🏻 Super-resolution cross-scale imaging with the #Mesolens and SRRF! ✨🔬🧪
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Liam Rooney @liam-rooney.bsky.social · 21/12/2024
🚨 New pre-print out! 🚨 The world’s first fully 3D printed microscope! Is Santa bringing you a 3D printer for Christmas, or maybe you need a gift for your favourite microscopist - print the lenses, print the frame, and start imaging! ✨🔬 Check it out below and please repost!👇🏻🙏🏻 (1/N)
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Gautam Dey @gautamdey.bsky.social · 06/12/2024
From the other place - I don’t think ISOP is on Bsky yet protistologists.org/upcoming-pro... #ProtistsOnSky in 2025
protistologists.org
Upcoming Protistology Meetings - International Society of Protistologists
The International Society of Protistologists is an association of scientists devoted to research on single-celled eukaryotes, or protists. The ISOP promotes the presentation and discussion of new or i...
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Gail McConnell @gailmcconnell.bsky.social · 26/11/2024
🚨 Pre-print alert! 🚨 We have developed a robust protocol to reveal the ultrastructure of live Candida albicans using stimulated emission depletion microscopy, tracking organelles with high spatial precision for more than 12 hours. Read more (and movies!) at www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
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Gail McConnell @gailmcconnell.bsky.social · 26/11/2024
At the home of Scottish football for the 50th annual Scottish Microscopy Symposium! Highlight so far is exceptional work by K Bondarenko from the Young lab in Edinburgh on ExM of Toxoplasma gondii cysts, more details at pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39189782/
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Gail McConnell @gailmcconnell.bsky.social · 26/11/2024
We are delighted to announce the Strathclyde Optical Microscopy Course 2025 (SOMC25), taking place in Glasgow from 23rd July – 1st August 2025. No previous experience in microscopy necessary! Please find more details at shorturl.at/98lXJ, deadline 17 January 2025.
Poster for the Strathclyde Optical Microscopy Course 2025 (SOMC25), which will take place at the University of Strathclyde from 23 July until 1 August 2025. Deadline to apply is 17 January 2025.
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Dan Jagger @auditorynerves.bsky.social · 21/11/2024
What plasma is and how it helps. Who plasma helps. Why we are collecting plasma. 🧪🩸 #GivePlasma #GiveBlood www.blood.co.uk/plasma/what-...
blood.co.uk
What is plasma
Plasma is part of your blood and can be made into medicines. These medicines save and transform the lives of around 17,000 people each year.
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Andrea @valkyrie.hacker.gf · 14/11/2024
Remember when it was plausible it might be false?
SMBC comic from 2014 showing a blue wedge on the right-hand side labeled "your field of view", cut out of a square of densely-packed Hitlers, with the caption "All I'm saying is, technically you don't know this is false:"

Source: https://www.smbc-comics.com/?id=3307
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