April 2026

A warm welcome to Keira Bond, who is joining us from April–June as a part-time technical assistant.  Keira is currently a final year student on our Biochemistry and Genetics degree programme, and has completed a genomics placement at the Julia Garnham Centre. She holds an Elite Sports Performance Scholarship and has represented the USA in National and World Championship Cycling events. Keira is also the Co-President of the University of Sheffield Cycling club, and a Volunteer Coach for the Sheffield Youth Cycling Club.

https://thebritishcontinental.co.uk/2024/11/26/keira-bond-interview-from-boulder-to-cobbles/

Nahal, Sarah and Aaron busy at the microscopes, analysing gene expression staining patterns

Aaron presented a poster of his PhD work at the Faculty of Science Doctoral School Showcase 2026:

It was a lively event, with around 100 posters from PhD students across the Faculty of Science.

Tanya gave a talk "Pierced ears and ear rings: Epithelial fusion and fracture in the developing zebrafish inner ear" at the Warwick Medical School, University of Warwick, hosted by Professor Tim Saunders, with a full day of discussions with staff and students.

March 2026

Sarah and Tanya presented a poster of the lab's work at the BSDB Spring Meeting 'Molecules to Morphogenesis' at the University of Warwick.  

As part of a showcase of the Human Developmental Biology Resource (HDBR) Atlas, there was a beautiful 3D-printed human inner ear on display:

Model of an 8-week old human embryonic inner ear.  In the embryo, the organ is about 6 mm long at this stage.  Generated from data in the HDBR atlas

 

February 2026

Goodbye and good luck to Haseeb Qureshi, who has finished his postdoc in the lab and leaves us for new adventures.  Pints, pies and peas at Nottingham House for a good Sheffield send-off!

Emily Noël and Haseeb taking part in last year's Big Walk for neuroscience research 

- featured on the University's page for this year's walk!

The lab also enjoyed a delicious Iranian dinner at Qashqai Kitchen, Sheffield.  Thanks to Nahal for organising!

January 2026

 Happy New Year!

Congratulations to Anna Tythacott, who has graduated with an MSc in Biomedical Science!

Nahal hosted five Y12 students from High Storrs School, giving them a tour of the labs and facilities and an opportunity to observe zebrafish embryos.  They also explored the University of Sheffield campus and joined in a lab meeting.

November–December 2025

Getting ready for Xmas early with sparkly jumpers and paper hats.  
Thanks to Nahal for organising Xmas lunch for the C21 labs!

Spinning the disks! - Training session on the spinning disk confocal microscope

Tanya and Freek van Eeden ran another successful MSc practical class in Developmental Genetics, where students got to learn zebrafish CRISPR injection.

Lab outing for pizza!

October 2025

Nahal and Aaron spent a rewarding morning talking to students at High Storrs School at their Careers Day about further study and careers in the Biosciences.

September 2025

Ethan presented a poster, and Tanya gave a talk, at the 1st UK Zebrafish meeting, held at Exmouth and the Living Systems Institute, University of Exeter.  It was a lively meeting, full of excellent science and discussions, and we enjoyed meeting up with friends, colleagues and collaborators.  Many thanks to the local organisers Steffen, Soojin, Greg, Nik and Carol for such a great meeting!

Nahal returns to join the lab as a postdoc, continuing her work on disease modelling and characterising new CRISPR-generated mutants with interesting ear phenotypes!  

Nahal ran the Sheffield 10K in support of Crohn's and Colitis UK.

Our collaborative paper on zebrafish olfactory ionocytes is now out in Chemical Senses.  Former PhD student King Yee Cheung, jointly supervised by Suresh Jesuthasan, shares first authorship with Júlia Peloggia, a former PhD student in the Piotrowski lab.