Ash

“I think that the key is to never lose sight of the need for a continuum from very basic, pure sort of curiosity driven research, all the way to translational...You absolutely have to have the full spectrum…the basic science is the roots, the energy, the nutrients that come up” 👏

Thesis bootcamp day 2. Several hours of going in circles with data analysis until the last minute when I found something interesting. Tomorrow - day 3 - more analysis and maybe preparing the next paper.

Techniques I used to explain my methods and results from single cell RNA seq:
- using analogies (my soup analogy was well received!)
- any essential jargon (less than 5 words throughout) was clearly defined
- pictures rather than text
- palm cards so I didn’t slip out of lay language
#scicomm 🗣️

And pleased to report I was the winner of the general public scientific communication session at our centre conference last week 😊 I’ve spent much time developing my skills for communicating to lay audiences and gathering all sorts of resources as it’s so, so important - especially in basic science

Day 1 of November thesis bootcamp done ✅ finished rewriting my review and putting all the references back in. Analysis day tomorrow! #thesis

Even if you say "I'm not an artist," it's worth a little effort to create compelling, accessible science visuals Resources to help you do so

Over the years, I've collected a fair pile of sources for high-quality images to share with students & colleagues, esp. those who ask me about where to find accurate, science-focused clip art. (Don't knock it--clip art is useful for a lot of reasons!) So, here's my current list: buff.ly/c6LHmGG /end

The motto of the past ~4 weeks of my PhD analysis has been ‘why can’t it just WORK’. I’ve been really held back by every step and every workaround not working. Imagine my skepticism when, on a Friday afternoon, I try something new and uncommon and it just..worked? 🤯

Photograph of a black and tan dachshund amongst a lemon bush with a warm, dark and moody filter.

Photograph of flowers on a lemon bush with a warm, dark and moody filter.

Photograph of flowers / fruit buds on a blueberry bush with a warm, dark and moody filter.

Skulked around my own backyard with my camera last week, and created this moody preset that I’m enjoying. Hope to see more than 2 lemons on the bush next year and to get to the blueberries before the dogs do..

Image shows a digital collage of six photos with the title ‘Thesis Fest 2025’. Photos were taken throughout each session and are primarily focused on the projected screen and guest speakers. The final photo on the collage is of the Q&A whiteboard in the breakout area with a short back-and-forth from three people about if their project is more interesting than others or not.

And that’s a wrap on our #ThesisFest2025 event 🫡 ~
I met a bunch of students that I hadn’t before, took down notes and resources from all the speakers, and (most excitedly) came home with some PhD-themed stickers! #PhDLife

“…we don’t know whether the processing leads to poor health or if eating UPFs is simply an indicator of poor diet quality.” 👈 🙌

I wrote a short perspective for Frontiers detailing the process behind my artwork "Musings of the Protein Alphabet," and the VIZBI 2025 Annual Conference logo.
Please check it out; it's open access!
www.frontiersin.org/journals/bio...

#dataviz #sciart #VIZBI

A comprehensive analysis framework for evaluating commercial single-cell RNA sequencing technologies Abstract. This study examined nine prominent commercially available single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) kits across four technology groups. Each kit was

A comprehensive analysis framework for evaluating commercial single-cell RNA sequencing technologies. #SingleCell #scRNAseq #Genomics #Bioinformatics #NAR
academic.oup.com/nar/advance-...

A cartoon-style drawing of a generic ‘lncRNA’

Considered ‘sketching my thesis’ as a way of becoming more visual, helping me conceptualise, etc. Starting by creating a visual vocabulary. I was quite happy with this accidental octopus #lncRNA
#phd

Exactly how many protein-coding genes are there in the human genome? The truth is no one knows. The numbers change based on what database you use as reference.

Wait, tell me more 🤔

90% of my issues with R are simply trying to install packages.

The accompanying editorial on this landmark trial
www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
"A new era in the treatment if acute exacerbations of asthma and COPD"

Cells are crowded spaces packed with colliding and interacting biomolecules. Despite this, intracellular functions are often described using the clean language of networks. In this post I attempt to reconcile these seemingly contradictory perspectives. mbernste.github.io/posts/intuit...

I dig it

Resonating a little too well with Heraclitus.

❓ For my #singlecell peeps - when looking at #splitseq specifically, where the cell is the rxn compartment (i.e. not drop-seq), what are the downsides of excess cell aggregation/clumping during cell fixation (immune cells, pre-library prep)? #scrnaseq #bioscience

Histogram peaked at 3 minutes and 2 weeks since sent

When I will respond to your email

My project has changed substantially since my proposal 😅 the biggest change was the timeline (which I expected)

So my life and interests in tags:
#science #sciart #maths #bioscience #phdstudent #blender3D #molbio #bioinformatics #miniatures #etsyseller #artjournaling #skeptic #academia #RNA #epigenetics #transcriptomics #singlecell #omics …

Post 3 of 3??

Other:
1️⃣ I do Blender and side hustle selling 3D models for dollhouse miniatures/dioramas. I also do miniatures, junk journaling, art journaling, etc as a hobby.
2️⃣ Toastmaster.
3️⃣ Two dogs.
4️⃣ Qualified nail tech.
5️⃣ I have a thing for learning - currently learning AWS.

Post 2 of ???

Profesh: Previously looked at DNAme, vitamin D and food allergies in kids. I have a couple of publications related to this 📝 but that was many moons ago.

Profresh Adjacent: I aspire to be a sciartist but I don’t actually try?? Also aspire to ✅ scicomms (visually). Working on it.

Intro post ⭐️ 1 of ???

Profesh: I’m 2nd yr PhD candidate officially School of Public Health but my project focuses on mol biol. I’m looking at long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) and single-cell transcriptomics in asthmatic kids. I’m also a nutritionist and food scientist with QA experience.

Adelaide PhD Melinda representing Aus in one of my favourite scicomm comps - Visualise Your Thesis - with an entry on generating plastics from food waste ⭐️ “From Your Kitchen Food Scraps to Your Kitchen Food Wrap” doi.org/10.6084/m9.f...