Diana Voss

The more I’ve thought, the less angry I am with *most* of the parents anyway. Generally they just want to protect their kids. They’ve been lied to & we scientists have done a poor job of communicating compassionately/played into culture wars. In a way, we all share some blame for these kids. 😔

Finished sketch of woman with a flower in her hair. Graphite drawing.

Intermediate sketch of woman.

Face of sketch blocked in with some shading

Face of sketch blocked out. Only eyes have any detail.

Took a break from painting to test out the new graphite pencils that @michaelbyrum.bsky.social 🎁 to me for ❤️-day. Haven’t sketched a face in a while so 🤷🏻‍♀️

#art #sketch #portraits #drawing

'Smiling' fossil discovered in Northumberland The unusual looking fossil is estimated to be a few hundred million years old dating to the Carboniferous period.

Put!

It!

Back!

Love the colors! 🤩

Painting of a large round purple nucleus surrounded by ER in green. The nuclear membrane has ruptured, revealing a tangle of broken chromatin strands. A bright orange light shines out of the rupture. Pink cytoplasm is stretched behind the nucleus.

WIP of the painting described previously. Nucleus, ER & light blocked in.

First draft of painting described previously. Sketch of ER visible with nucleus & chromatin blocked in.

Latest painting… think I’ll call it “Pop goes the nucleus” 🧪

Still feel the need to add details but ready to share where it stands for now 🥲🎨

acrylic on canvas board

#sciart #painting #art #postdoc #cellbio

I just threw up reading that headline 🤢

I’m less 🙄 & more 🤔 so these feels are normal & also never go away 🤪🫠

Please say this is a deep fake 🤢😵

Purchased! 🤩

Also, have you ever considered making enamel pins? I would buy everyone you make & this would be a banger of a first design! 🫶

End of an era 😢

Thanks! ☺️

Photo of blue & gray knit hat.

Me wearing my new two color knit hat.

My first attempt at a two color hat #knitsky. Brioche knitting project. 🧶

We truly live in the dumbest of timelines. To turn one’s back on potential cures for political clout is just unfathomable. 😢😩

Of so many things to be infuriated about, this is perhaps my biggest gripe. Pancreatic cancer patients, who face a future without hope, are being denied a potential game-changing therapy
www.mskcc.org/news/can-mrn...

Thank you for sharing as well & so happy to hear your daughter is at the Fontan stage! 🤩💪🫀

If you are interested in connecting with more research info or are looking for resources, please check out Additional Ventures. They help fund my research & are an amazing single ventricle non-profit.

Cartoon by Nate Pyle. Library launches seeds that turn into little Free Libraries..

#booksky

Infographic with pink and red circles containing CHD facts, arranged in the shape of a heart from Children's Healthcare of Atlanta. Facts include: 1% of newborns are born with a chd every year. A baby's risk of having a chd is at least 3x more likely if their parent has a chd. 15-20% of chds are related to genetic conditions. CHD treatment helps kids live into adulthood. About 1 in 4 babies with a CHD have a critical chd. Infants with critical chds generally need surgery or other procedures in their first year of life. Visit choa.org/chd to learn more about congenital heart defects. Source American Academy of Pediatrics.

Atticus started my research journey & countless other stories like his have helped to sustain it. Thank you to the incredible #chd community for sharing your stories & pushing us all to continue to fight for answers! You remind us why we do what we do. 🫶

Photo collage of my nephew with hlhs from a baby to his early teenage years.

Thanks to countless teams of medical professionals at the Medical University of South Carolina, my nephew Atticus, survived 4 open heart surgeries and is alive today at 18.

Witnessing his struggles when he was just a few days old inspired me to pursue a #CHD research career.

Vivien Thomas: The Black man who saved ‘blue babies’ Dr. Vivien Thomas is known today for developing surgical techniques for infants that were used to treat so-called Blue Baby Syndrome -- he has a college named after him at Johns Hopkins -- and his acc...

One of the unsung heroes to #hlhs survival is Dr. Vivien Thomas. He was a talented researcher & surgical pioneer but paid as a janitor because, well…racism. Please read more about him! He was an amazing man, and though he was focused on #TOF, his shunt is a critical component of hlhs surgeries.

Illustrations of HLHS surgeries. On the left is the hlhs heart anatomy. Next is the Norwood surgery, which connects the right ventricle to the pulmonary arteries, increases the aorta size & connects it to the right ventricle. Next is the Glenn, which connects the superior vena cava to the pulmonary arteries & removes the shunt from the right ventricle. Finally is the Fontan, which connects the inferior vena cava to the pulmonary arteries as well, allowing deoxygenated blood to flow passively into the lungs, and the right ventricle serves for systemic circulation.

Without a series of 3 surgeries (or ❤️ transplant) #hlhs is 100% fatal. Surgeries didn't exist until the 1980s so the oldest patients are just now in their 40s.

Illustration of two hearts. On the left is a normal heart with a 4 chamber view showing normal sized outflow tract and ventricles. On the right is a hlhs heart showing a very small left ventricle, mitral valve atresia, and a small aorta.

In honor of world #CHD awareness day, I want to share my family story about a CHD called #hlhs. Hypoplastic left heart syndrome is a rare (1 in 3800) condition where a baby has a small left ventricle.

Nobody knows what causes hlhs but it accounts for 23% of cardiac deaths in the 1st wk of life. 🧪🫀

World #CHDAwareness Day 🫀

Illustration showing hearts for a) mammals and birds (fully septated and no blood mixing) b) turtles snakes and lizards (3 chambered heart with blood mixing) c) crocodiles fully septated heart, but blood mixing.

Close! Crocodilians are some of the only reptiles with 4 chambered hearts, which makes them particularly cool. They have fully septated hearts, but still have "optional" blood mixing through a shunt. This feature actually helps them conserve oxygen for long periods underwater.

This also applies to mentoring people in Academia. The trees and the woods 🧪

Screenshot reading, "The surname Voss is primarily of North German and Dutch origin, translating to "fox" (from Middle Low German vos or Dutch vos). It originated as a nickname for a cunning, sly, or clever person, or perhaps someone with red hair.

Today was a big day for me personally. 🤩

I sent my 3rd & final #postdoc first author paper to my co-authors for approval before submission (most of which have already said 👍) AND...

I legally changed my name. Won't go into all the reasons, but this is meaningful & a bit aspirational.

xo,
Dr. Voss

I’m not sure if I should laugh or cry that this is the humble brag of our HHS secretary 🙃

MAHA logic: If toilet coke can’t kill ya, nothing can!

This is why kids don’t need vaccines?! 🤦🏻‍♀️🤬🫠

Can confirm. I did this with lemonade & it didn’t taste bad at all.

My quote of the day

Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge: it is those who know little, and not those who know much, who so positively assert that this or that problem will never be solved by science.

Charles Darwin