October 2023

Many congratulations to King Yee Cheung, who gave an excellent pre-viva talk on her PhD project on olfactory rod cells, and successfully passed her viva.  King has recently completed two busy and productive years of her A*STAR-funded project at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, supervised by Suresh Jesuthasan.  Many thanks to Freek van Eeden and Nathalie Jurisch-Yaksi for examining!

A warm welcome to Ethan Giles, who starts his PhD with us, jointly supervised by Ashley Cadby in the Department of Physics and Astronomy.  Ethan comes to us with a BSc (Hons) in Biochemistry from Sheffield Hallam University, including an Erasmus year abroad in the lab of Juan Bolaños at the University of Salamanca, Spain.  Ethan's project is funded by an EPSRC Neuroscience Institute Studentship.

A renewed welcome to Aaron Bailiff, who is now starting a PhD with us as a staff candidate, funded by the Wellcome Trust.  Aaron also graduated from Sheffield Hallam University with a BSc (Hons) in Biology, including a year's experience working as a Research Assistant at the University of Sheffield in the group of Heba Ismail.

We enjoyed an excellent series of talks at the Autumn Bateson Centre Symposium, and Tanya also attended the 3rd iGPCRNet meeting (online).

September 2023

Members of the lab attended a 'Watch Party' for virtual attendance of the European Developmental Biology Congress 2023, and enjoyed some excellent talks.

Tanya also helped to organise a virtual art exhibition to accompany the conference, run by the BSDB and The Node.  This included curating a collection of beautiful historical prints of embryos dating between 1752 and 1933.  The exhibition remains open until 25th October 2023 and is accessible here.

Earlier in the month:

 Enjoying the last warm days of summer with an ice cream in Weston Park

We wish Nahal well as she returns to Sosei Heptares, Granta Park, Cambridge, for a 3-month placement.

Issi attended a Genetics Society workshop at the University of Bath and gave a presentation of her summer project:

Tanya gave a talk at the 58th Inner Ear Biology Workshop in London:

August 2023

Goodbye and good luck to Issi Russell-Smith and Marvin Mesbah, who have now completed their summer research projects with us.

July 2023

Images from the lab went on display at the NHS 75: Shaping the Future exhibit at the Sheffield Winter Gardens.  Thanks to Lynette Hodges for organising production of the posters, and to members of the public for their interest and insightful questions!

Nahal gave a series of talks on her undergraduate and PhD work to Year 10 students as part of a Careers Day at High Storrs School, Sheffield.

It was lovely to hear from former Research Technician Mar Marzo, now working as a Research Assistant in the lab of Saskia Hogenhout at the John Innes Centre, Norwich.

Tanya attended the 12th European Zebrafish Meeting, held in Kraków, Poland.  Tanya chaired a session and presented work on cell shape changes in the developing ear from Ana's PhD project, while King's PhD project work on olfactory rod cells was presented by her co-supervisor Suresh Jesuthasan (Nanyang Technological University, Singapore).  

Ahead of the meeting in Poland, Suresh visited Sheffield to give a seminar and to run some pilot experiments imaging ciliary motility and fluid flow in the zebrafish olfactory pit.

Congratulations to Anzar, Sarah and Nahal, and our collaborators Antonio de la Vega de León and Giselle Wiggin, on the publication of a screen for modulators of Adgrg6 signalling in Basic and Clinical Pharmacology and Toxicology:

June 2023

Everyone admiring the beautiful imaging generated by Marvin and Isabella, with help from Nick van Hateren.  An anti-acetylated tubulin antibody stain (magenta) was used to highlight peripheral nerves in the head.

The C21 labs took advantage of the gorgeous weather and went for a woodland walk on the Chatsworth estate.

A warm welcome to Isabella Russell-Smith, who joins us for a 7-week undergraduate summer research project, funded by the Genetics Society.

Nahal gave an excellent talk on her project in the 3rd year PhD symposium for the School of Biosciences.

May 2023

A warm welcome to Marvin Mesbah, MSc student at the Sorbonne University, Paris, France, who joins us to do a summer internship in the lab.

Many thanks to Nahal for organising an evening meal at Jimmy's Kitchen for everyone in C21.

April 2023

Congratulations to Ana on passing her PhD viva! - and many thanks to Kyra Campbell (DRN, School of Biosciences, University of Sheffield) and Paul Martin (University of Bristol) for examining. Nahal baked the delicious cake!

Haseeb and Tanya attended the very successful BSDB Spring focus meeting 'Cellular Plasticity in Morphogenesis' at The Edge, University of Sheffield, organised by DRN members Kyra Campbell and Anestis Tsakiridis, together with Ben Steventon (University of Cambridge). Tanya was busy as a session chair and poster judge, the final and very enjoyable tasks at the end of her 5-year term as an ordinary member of the BSDB Committee.

March 2023

Tanya enjoyed a visit to Steffen Scholpp's lab at the Living Systems Institute, University of Exeter.  

Tanya also gave a talk (Epithelial morphogenesis in the developing zebrafish inner ear), and King Yee gave a recorded flash talk (Olfactory rod cells: a putative mechanosensor in the zebrafish olfactory epithelium), at the Bateson Centre half-day Symposium.

 PhD project available!

Design, build and use of a light-sheet microscope for automated imaging of a zebrafish neurological disease model

For more information, click here:

https://www.findaphd.com/phds/project/design-build-and-use-of-a-light-sheet-microscope-for-automated-imaging-of-a-zebrafish-neurological-disease-model/?p156377

Closing date for applications: 5th April 2023

February 2023

Tanya gave a talk on the lab's work on the Adgrg6 signalling pathway at the Gordon Research Conference on Neural Crest and Cranial Placodes, Barga, Italy.

Nahal gave an excellent talk on her PhD project at the Neuroscience Institute one-day symposium:

Our paper describing identification of the insertion sites for two enhancer trap lines is now published in the Journal of Anatomy.  Congratulations to Davide, Sarah and Nick for the molecular detective work and beautiful imaging in this paper!

We enjoyed a pizza night out to welcome new lab members Haseeb Qureshi (Whitfield lab) and Corinna Snashall (Emily Noël's lab):

Below: Checking a sample on the Transmission Electron Microscope.  We are using this technique to examine the ultrastructure of cells in the developing ear, as part of Ana's PhD project on otic epithelial morphogenesis.

 

January 2023

Happy New Year!

A warm welcome to Dr Haseeb Qureshi, who joins us as a postdoc, after completing his PhD with Ferenc Müller (University of Birmingham) and Attila Sík (University of Pécs, Hungary).

December 2022

We enjoyed a wide range of talks on the theme of 'Omics technologies at an excellent one-day School-wide symposium, co-organised by Kyra Campbell and Stuart Campbell.

To end the year, Nahal organised a great meal out and Secret Santa for the C21 labs.  Choosing a present was a difficult task!

Nahal also captured this lovely picture of Firth Court in the snow:

Happy Holidays!