iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Katja Rust @rustflylab.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

Our contribution to #MicroscopyMonday: While studying #Drosophila tissues, Hannah found a cricket! Isn't is cute???

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Katja Rust @rustflylab.bsky.social · 02/06/2026

I loved the group discussion after my talk at the JEDI meeting! Thanks to everyone!

Presenting at this year's #Drosophila JEDI meeting

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Katja Rust @rustflylab.bsky.social · 27/03/2026

Now see what happens if we overactivate Hedgehog signaling! The cells keep crossing over the midline and are unable to escape this #cellmigration.

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Katja Rust @rustflylab.bsky.social · 27/03/2026

Time to share some data that might get buried in the supplement of our recent paper here rdcu.be/e91Kj Here you can see how cells intercalate in a coordinated fashion. They move from a double rowed organisation to a single row stalk. 🧵

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Katja Rust @rustflylab.bsky.social · 06/02/2026

Came to give a talk in beautiful #Kassel at the lab of Arno Müller and leaving with lots of amazing ideas and gifts! These #Drosophila were just what we needed for our current revision. Thank you, Arno!

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Katja Rust @rustflylab.bsky.social · 26/01/2026

Our two #Drosophila fly rooms have an ongoing debate which one has the better crew. This battle is currently reaching the next dimension. Judge for yourself!

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Katja Rust @rustflylab.bsky.social · 09/01/2026

Here is a tiny glimpse into our recent work: a #pseudotime analysis of wildtype and tumorigenic #Drosophila follicle epithelial cells using #Monocle3. Seeing a bioinformatic prediction that supports our in vivo findings is always my favorite part of the day!

Pseudotime trajectory created with Monocle3 of WT and tumor follicle cells labeled by pseudotime.

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Katja Rust @rustflylab.bsky.social · 12/12/2025

The lab is growing! We welcomed Hannah as a new PhD student and Anna and Lina as Master's students in the lab. I am more than thankful to be working with such a motivated, fun group of researchers!

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Katja Rust @rustflylab.bsky.social · 01/12/2025

I give you "Woman dancing with a bird"! This is a monocle analysis of our tumor model which we are currently revising. #SingleCell #Drosophila

UMAP plot from a Monocle3 analysis resembling a dancing woman and a bird.

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Katja Rust @rustflylab.bsky.social · 27/10/2025

We and @bogdanlab.bsky.social are visiting Heidelberg for the 50th anniversary #DGZ meeting! Any @fly-jedi.bsky.social here wanting to connect?

Katja Rust and Mila Höhne (Bogdan Lab) in Heidelberg

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Katja Rust @rustflylab.bsky.social · 25/09/2025

Met a new friend at the #EDRC meeting today who is also a @fly-jedi.bsky.social!

Katrin Domsch and Katja Rust at the EDRC meeting at Alicante.

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Katja Rust @rustflylab.bsky.social · 21/08/2025

Revision work of our latest #singlecell analysis generates the most peculiar pictures. Well, hello there, little seahorse!

UMAP plot in the peculiar shape of a seahorse

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Katja Rust @rustflylab.bsky.social · 04/06/2025

Greetings from the @fly-jedi.bsky.social conference in France at beautiful Chateau du Fey! Lots of amazing #Drosophila folks here!

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Katja Rust @rustflylab.bsky.social · 21/05/2025

I wanted to share this beautiful picture of an anaphase cell. I just love #microscopy! Hats off to Sari for taking such a beautiful image in her second week here.

A microscopy picture of a #Drosophila follicle cell in anaphase.

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Katja Rust @rustflylab.bsky.social · 13/05/2025

Any first or second semester students from @unimarburg.bsky.social? Then this survey is for you! Per participant the local pet shelter receives a 1€ donation. www.soscisurvey.de/wegeinsstudi...

Questionnaire for students in first or second semester.

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Katja Rust @rustflylab.bsky.social · 09/05/2025

I am not using #AI to generate my figures but if I ever do you will know... This is Canva trying to draw a #Drosophila ovary.

AI generated image of a Drosophila ovary that looks like a fly with completely wrong legend.

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Katja Rust @rustflylab.bsky.social · 09/05/2025

The last round of #lab ducks was fluorescent!!!

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Katja Rust @rustflylab.bsky.social · 26/04/2025

Congrats, Dr Vanessa to an amazing defense! Finally finished the #PhD and we’re so proud of you!

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Katja Rust @rustflylab.bsky.social · 16/04/2025

Player two had entered the game and the duck I found has a little hat! Everyone is still duck hunting. If you want to add some fun to your #lab day, I highly recommend this!

Picture of a green duck figure with a little hat.

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Katja Rust @rustflylab.bsky.social · 03/04/2025

Someone has been hiding these mini rubber ducks all over the #lab in the last few days. The entire group is on duck hunt!

Picture of a rotator with two mini rubber ducks.

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Katja Rust @rustflylab.bsky.social · 27/03/2025

For my German speaking crowd: I needed more virgins and that’s what the student interpreted. For English speakers: more virgins sounds like mermaid in German (:

Drawing of a #Drosophila dressed as a mermaid

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Katja Rust @rustflylab.bsky.social · 26/03/2025

Did you know you can study #cachexie in #Drosophila? This is how a fruit fly with #cancer cachexia looks like in comparison to its healthy mate. They degrade fat and muscle tissue and retain liquid resulting in a bloated abdomen - similar to human patients.

Adult female Drosophila. Left: healthy fly, right: fly with cancer cachexia.

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Katja Rust @rustflylab.bsky.social · 11/03/2025

When you accidentally hit the wrong button in #Imaris...

Imaris spot analysis of a #Drosophila ovariole gone wrong - random pattern.

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Katja Rust @rustflylab.bsky.social · 06/03/2025

The definition of joy (for #Drosophila researchers): a clean CO2 pad!

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Katja Rust @rustflylab.bsky.social · 04/03/2025

Today's #microscopy session inspired me to do some art. These ovarioles look like trees, don't you think? If you want to learn what made them this way, stay tuned for our #SingleCell analysis of these - preprint coming soon!

Collage of immunostaining microscopy pictures of #Drosophila ovarioles.

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Katja Rust @rustflylab.bsky.social · 26/02/2025

On of our students just casually drew this #Drosophila!

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Katja Rust @rustflylab.bsky.social · 14/02/2025

Is it Christmas yet? Lana found a Christmas tree! #FluorescenceFriday

A tumorigenic Drosophila ovariole stained for tubulin and pH3 in the shape of a Christmas tree.

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Katja Rust @rustflylab.bsky.social · 10/02/2025

Our student Lana found a smile in her sample! Can you see it too? #MicroscopyMonday

Adult Drosophila ovations stained for DAPI.

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Katja Rust @rustflylab.bsky.social · 06/01/2025

Writing the next grant is so much easier when you have a nice view! This is a picture of the Elisabeth church in #Marburg taken from my office window.

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Katja Rust @rustflylab.bsky.social · 03/01/2025

Happy new year fellow scientists and people interested in #science at Bluesky! Here‘s a random colorful #Drosophila ovariole for #FluorescenceFriday I found on my phone!

Fluorescence microscopy image of an adult Drosophila ovariole. This ovariole shows strong morphological defects.

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Katja Rust @rustflylab.bsky.social · 17/12/2024

How to know you have been working with an #inkscape file for a while... Figure making in progress! What software do you use to make your figures? I have been very happy with inkscape - and it's free. Anyone with better suggestions...? #Science

Screenshot of an inkscape file with a Figure for a publication and with many pages.

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Katja Rust @rustflylab.bsky.social · 11/12/2024

I missed #MicroscopyMonday and #FluorescenceFriday because of a nasty bug (viral, not #Drosophila) so I'll leave a nice egg chamber showing apically enriched upd in polar cells from our latest preprint: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... So cool that #cell #polarity directly influences #signaling!

Egg chamber expressing upd::HA stained for Fas3 to mark polar cells and HA. upd is apically enriched in polar cells.

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Katja Rust @rustflylab.bsky.social · 03/12/2024

Nurse cells in a Stage 10b #Drosophila cyst for #MicroscopyMonday! These polyploid germline cells nurse the oocyte during egg development and undergo a process called "dumping" where they empty their entire contents into the oocyte before entering apoptosis.

Confocal microscopy picture of the anterior portion of a Stage 10b Drosophila egg chamber. Nuclei are stained in blue and cell surroundings are marked in green.

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Katja Rust @rustflylab.bsky.social · 01/12/2024

When you have great technical assistants…!

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Katja Rust @rustflylab.bsky.social · 27/11/2024

The good, the bad and the ugly, #Drosophila #ovary edition. Or in the words of a researcher: 1) Ugh, it looks like wildtype, 2) I might be onto something... and 3) I have a project!

Confocal microscopy pictures of Drosophila ovaries. Top: wildtype phenotype, mid: ovary with mild morphological phenotype, bottom: ovary with a strong morphological phenotype.

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Katja Rust @rustflylab.bsky.social · 24/11/2024

Here's my early contribution to #MicroscopyMonday, or, alternatively, a super late contribution to #FluorescenceFriday... A wildtype #Drosophila ovary (top) and an ovary with overactivation of Hh #signaling in follicle cells. Can you spot the difference?

Top: Wildtype Drosophila adult ovariole
Bottom: Adult Drosophila ovariole with overactivation of Hh signaling in follicle cells

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Katja Rust @rustflylab.bsky.social · 21/11/2024

Throwing old #microscopy slides of 3 years to make space for a new #PhD student. Follow us for the soon-to-be posted job ad if you’re interested in #SingleCell analysis and #Cancer research and want to become a #Drosophila scientist!

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Katja Rust @rustflylab.bsky.social · 18/11/2024

It's not #FluorescenceFriday, but I'm a rebel and will use that tag anyway! Here's gorgeous video of early stages of stalk cell intercalation from our PhD student Vanessa. She showed that E-Cad first accumulates between the stalk cells and then fragments to spots as cells intercalate.

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Katja Rust @rustflylab.bsky.social · 14/11/2024

Could this be a Rorschach test or is this possibly a sneak preview to our next preprint…? As a #biologist I love these although in the #scRNA field #UMAP plots are controversial. Any opinions?

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