iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Kirsty Wan @micromotility.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

And here Julien (who led all this work) is convinced that excavates are even trying to fight for the same feeding spot! (watch till the end) 😱

021

Kirsty Wan @micromotility.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

...others instead settle on surfaces, creating feeding currents (here are four scheming Reclinomonas cells engaged in a feeding frenzy)

110

Kirsty Wan @micromotility.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

...over successive days of typical culture cycles. The same basic morphology leads to surprisingly different adaptive behaviours! While some species dramatically increase proportion of swimmers and the effective diffusivity of foraging as food becomes increasingly scarce...

110

Kirsty Wan @micromotility.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Cells have a characteristic morphology: two flagella and a feeding groove, the posterior flagellum beats inside the groove to facilitate feeding. We performed expansion microscopy to compare their morphologies, and extensive live-imaging and tracking to compare their behaviours...

110

Kirsty Wan @micromotility.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Please enjoy this new offering from the lab: we discover that #excavates - ancient flagellate lineages with a voracious appetite for bacteria - change their behaviour depending on the availability of said prey! Preprint here: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... #protistsonsky

25625

Kirsty Wan @micromotility.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

you're right! I found some more info about this sample, it was more likely #Stylonychia mytilus, here's a picture of a whole cell, sadly being fed with chlamy (?) as food... (no scalebar sorry!) #ciliates #protistsonsky

130

Kirsty Wan @micromotility.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

The ciliary beat patterns obey a fascinating mathematical relationship known as a "dispersion relation" — which links how fast the cilia beat (temporal freq) to the shape of the waves (spatial freq) they produce. (such a relationship exists for any undulatory swimmer, from C. elegans to snakes!)

130

Kirsty Wan @micromotility.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

Pterosperma is a beautiful flagellate w/ 4 extremely long cilia. These cilia are so long that they can produce an entire spectrum of beating modes... To resolve the these beating patterns, we analysed >200,000 waveforms, and reconstructed the underlying manifold - strikingly low dimensional!

1143

Kirsty Wan @micromotility.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

What does a single-celled organism tell us about the origins of complex behaviour? Delighted to see the final version of our paper: Embodied behavioural complexity in a ciliated microorganism out in@natcomms.nature.com (Funded by @erc.europa.eu ERC) doi.org/10.1038/s414... #cilia #protistsonsky

110035

Kirsty Wan @micromotility.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

A primary cilium & all the centriolar satellites? 🤔 Had a great time at @faseborg.bsky.social #cilia meeting learning that as we have always suspected, cilia are always at the centre (and indeed at the periphery) of everything!

3201

Kirsty Wan @micromotility.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

We propose the following response hierarchy in tintinnid mechanosensitivity. Proving that once again, you don't need neurons to accomplish complex tasks like stimulus-dependent response selection...

172

Kirsty Wan @micromotility.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

In this ciliate, stronger vibrational cues cause whole-body contraction of the entire cell into its lorica! (which we associate with an energetically more costly defence response)

130

Kirsty Wan @micromotility.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

localised touch stimulation of the ciliary band trigger coordinated ciliary reversals and stereotyped transitions in waveform + frequency. Repeated simulation produces classical hallmarks of #habituation (a form of learning), incl. asymptotic response decline, recovery, and frequency dependence!

120

Kirsty Wan @micromotility.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

Do #tintinnids dream of electric sheep? 🤯 Here is a single cell capable of building a lorica and living inside it for protection... it also swims, feeds, hunts Can even detect and habituate to mechanical cues! #celllearning #protistsonsky #cilia Read more in our preprint doi.org/10.64898/202...

412738

Kirsty Wan @micromotility.bsky.social · 05/06/2026

Made it to Leeds for the annual @ukcilianetwork.bsky.social meeting! Great opening talk by @helenfoster.bsky.social on how ciliary axonemes are assembled!! #cilia

0111

Kirsty Wan @micromotility.bsky.social · 01/04/2026

A year ago I participated in a Strüngmann forum on Navigation Research, a truly fascinating meeting of minds from across #navigation research, from animal to human #behaviour to robotics and healthy aging. Our (heated) discussions resulted in this fun book chapter (free ⬇️) doi.org/10.1007/978-...

251

Kirsty Wan @micromotility.bsky.social · 25/03/2026

When conference participants take part in a human experiment... How to get a group of humans to spontaneously synchronize their walking behaviours in the absence of "leaders" (watch out for the one who was attempting to cheat the system!) What are the most important cues here? 😏 #EESBioOsc

0134

Kirsty Wan @micromotility.bsky.social · 20/02/2026

Great to see our paper on light-intensity dependent swimming patterns in #Chlamydomonas out now in Phys Rev Lett. as an Editors' suggestion! With a nice commentary by @philipcball.bsky.social. Chlamy actively modulate the beat planes of their #cilia! journals.aps.org/prl/abstract... #protistsonsky

17424

Kirsty Wan @micromotility.bsky.social · 06/12/2025

A rare opportunity to experience the grandeur of the Alte Aula of Universität Heidelberg, on the occasion of the award of the Lautenschläger prize to Jan Lohmann of @cosheidelberg.bsky.social Thanks @ulrichschwarz.bsky.social @jekely.biologists.social.ap.brid.gy for letting me tag along!

1173

Kirsty Wan @micromotility.bsky.social · 02/12/2025

wow... crawling motility in Asgard #archaea!! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... look at these crazy moves!! Let's face it, what these cells want for Christmas is #cilia... the best type of motility appendage...

3369

Kirsty Wan @micromotility.bsky.social · 25/11/2025

Congrats again Alexander! (Not on bluesky) You can read about some of his work here in our preprint doi.org/10.1101/2025... , with more to come! 🎉😏 #protistsonsky

1190

Kirsty Wan @micromotility.bsky.social · 18/10/2025

something strange about this list perhaps 🤨

280

Kirsty Wan @micromotility.bsky.social · 15/10/2025

Our findings highlight a remarkably modular and robust propulsion mechanism found in a marine larva, which relies on short-range physical interactions to achieve ciliary coordination. Thanks to Rebecca for all the hard work and @jekely.biologists.social.ap.brid.gy for the collaboration!

100

Kirsty Wan @micromotility.bsky.social · 15/10/2025

#platynereis is an excellent model for cilia dynamics and coordination, incl. how metachronal waves emerge - during a process known as ciliary closure. These events are neuronal controlled, allowing the larvae to finely control their position in the water column elifesciences.org/articles/26000

100

Kirsty Wan @micromotility.bsky.social · 15/10/2025

in fact, you can just keep removing cilia, until all but a single wavelength of the ciliary band remains. The tiny patch keeps propagating a metachronal wave! [watch video till the end] (see paper for other interesting details about these waves)

100

Kirsty Wan @micromotility.bsky.social · 15/10/2025

to test if spatial gaps could break wave transmission, we (Rebecca) started removing more and more cilia from this equatorial ring, finding that spatial continuity of the cilia within a single multiciliated cell is both necessary and sufficient for wave continuity

110

Kirsty Wan @micromotility.bsky.social · 15/10/2025

look at the discontinuities in the following kymograph (space-time plot of beat phase), turns out these come from the natural gaps between neighbouring multiciliated cells (each with several hundred cilia!).

100

Kirsty Wan @micromotility.bsky.social · 15/10/2025

with a single equatorial band made up of many many cilia. These propagate so-called 'metachronal waves', always in the same direction! The wave may look continuous, but in fact it's not!

110

Kirsty Wan @micromotility.bsky.social · 15/10/2025

What is a #Platynereis you might ask? I would never have encountered them were it not for @jekely.biologists.social.ap.brid.gy The adult worm is extremely ugly, in contrast, the larvae, is adorned with many cilia, which naturally makes them beautiful. The 2-day old larva is approximately spherical

220

Kirsty Wan @micromotility.bsky.social · 15/10/2025

Final version of our paper on ciliary metachronal waves out now in Science Advances! doi.org/10.1126/scia... This is the main thesis work of my PhD student Rebecca Poon, who caught many #platnereis larvae and tirelessly ablated them with a laser. THREAD

23910

Kirsty Wan @micromotility.bsky.social · 15/10/2025

Thank you @bastinlab.bsky.social and Sylvie Friant for organising this amazing #cilia meeting! 🙏 So many interesting discussions, and not enough time! Just look at this beautiful venue... 🤩

082

Kirsty Wan @micromotility.bsky.social · 07/10/2025

Very sad to hear that Sir John Gurdon, former Master of Magdalene College, has passed away at the age of 92. www.cam.ac.uk/research/new... Here is a powerful reminder that you should never give up on your dreams.

0116

Kirsty Wan @micromotility.bsky.social · 24/09/2025

Love #protists? Then you'd love this! Beautiful collection of hand-drawn critters represented here at the Oxford-Japan symposium on ethological dynamics in diorama environments sites.google.com/view/oxford-... #ciliates #testateamoeba #diatoms

04814

Kirsty Wan @micromotility.bsky.social · 11/09/2025

The final version of our review on biological filaments is out in Philtrans A (w/@jcammann.bsky.social Hannah Laeverenz-Schlogelhofer & Marco Mazza) - we have 417 references! Enjoy :) doi.org/10.1098/rsta... (see also other articles in this special issue on biological fluid dynamics) #biophysics

0186

Kirsty Wan @micromotility.bsky.social · 23/08/2025

Complex behaviour is not limited to animals! Here we map the entire spectrum of waveforms dynamics on a quadriflagellate single cell with 4x 70um (!) #cilia, to a low dimensional behavioural manifold with surprising structure! #protistsonsky All revealed in our new preprint doi.org/10.1101/2025...

38727

Kirsty Wan @micromotility.bsky.social · 18/08/2025

oh good, now we also need to know the unit of the measure, I just want to buy ONE objective pls, not a herd of cows or a barrel of beer

030

Kirsty Wan @micromotility.bsky.social · 12/08/2025

Turns out, Chlamy can manipulate biflagellar dominance not only through beat waveform, phase, but also beat plane (!), in response to light stimuli. This extra degree of freedom, not often appreciated, leads to a highly robust navigation strategy spanning several orders in effective diffusivity!

0100

Kirsty Wan @micromotility.bsky.social · 12/08/2025

So you think you understand everything about #Chlamydomonas photoresponses? think again! #protists #behaviour #cilia To explain how Chlamy switches handedness from swimming in CCW circles in low-light to CW in high-light... see our new preprint led by Alan Tsang (HKU) 👇 doi.org/10.1101/2025...

14113

Kirsty Wan @micromotility.bsky.social · 06/08/2025

We have a postdoc opening for a protistologist with biophysics inclinations to join our @hfspo.bsky.social project! (focus will be on characterising the morphology, ultrastructure and behaviour of excavates) #protistsonsky Apply by Sept 17th (RTs appreciated!) jobs.exeter.ac.uk/hrpr_webrecr...

14749

Kirsty Wan @micromotility.bsky.social · 14/07/2025

Together with fellow cilia enthusiasts @jekely.biologists.social.ap.brid.gy @cilialab.bsky.social @azimzadeh-lab.bsky.social Laurent Kodjabachian and Eric Keaveny, UNICIL will uncover core physical principles that underlie ciliary flows in whole organisms (protist, annelid, flatworm, frog & mouse)!

151

Kirsty Wan @micromotility.bsky.social · 10/07/2025

Thanks for having us!! Very thought-provoking discussions and a feeling that we are building a new community?? Most surprising slide? Gotta be these ectosymbiotic bacteria pretending to be a carpet of cilia @nikobiota.bsky.social 😱

1100

Kirsty Wan @micromotility.bsky.social · 28/06/2025

And here some synchronised flagella beating in action...

0171

Kirsty Wan @micromotility.bsky.social · 28/06/2025

First protistology meeting complete! Fantastic time discussing protist biophysics and behaviour - many thanks to @freejakoba.bsky.social and Núria Ros Rocher for convening this special ISOP symposium! #protistsonsky

1272

Kirsty Wan @micromotility.bsky.social · 13/06/2025

With some fabulous poster and talk prizes!

120

Kirsty Wan @micromotility.bsky.social · 27/05/2025

I was the second talk of the meeting and wasn't even the first to mention #cilia! 😬 Why are pigs and lizards so weird... Okay quail is a cool system too...

050

Kirsty Wan @micromotility.bsky.social · 23/05/2025

Wonderful time in Heidelberg w/ @jekely.biologists.social.ap.brid.gy + our HFSP team (Thomas Kiørboe & Alastair Simpson) discussing the origins of eukaryotes and their excitable behaviours! can you feel the ⚡⚡⚡in the room?? (funded by @uniheidelberg.bsky.social International Guest Professorship)

0295

Kirsty Wan @micromotility.bsky.social · 22/05/2025

Join us @ukcilianetwork.bsky.social annual meeting on Friday June 13th in London, featuring a special #cilia imaging/analysis session with Francesco Boselli (Durham), @bjwalker.bsky.social (UCL) and Beth Clarke (Imperial) Deadline for talk abstracts is tomorrow! www.ucl.ac.uk/child-health...

0110

Kirsty Wan @micromotility.bsky.social · 19/05/2025

Fantastic day of science discussing pond scum! (Just kidding) Bring on day 2! #protistsonsky

1182

Kirsty Wan @micromotility.bsky.social · 13/05/2025

Thought-provoking discussions last night and this morning on how to break down silos and the importance of taking on risk to drive impact and innovation. @aria-research.bsky.social #ariasummit

030