Have you heard our latest Session ? Dr Ben Krishna and the team at Cambridge University have identified a protein, elevated in the blood of #LongCovid patients. Available on all platforms, here is a link to one. Ben Krishna Cambridge University available on all platforms.

Fun game idea for summer students: what did Ben find at the back of the fridge? Bonus points, why did we have it?

I needed a sample of cells which are dead, but killed gently so I can run them through a flow cytometer. I was in the lab past midnight gently heating cells over and over until they die. They're surprisingly robust!

This year Medicine at Cambridge hosted 4 EPLS students in our labs. It was a really fun and valuable experience for everyone involved. Looking forward to doing it again next year!

"Please use mm3 for cubic millimetres and not CUMM" I'm just going to leave it at that and hope the authors figure out why.

Been asked to review a paper on the protein BAK, which I’ve never worked on. I genuinely think I’ve been selected as BAK is my initials

Teaching the students about Florida 2000 today because it happened BEFORE MOST OF THEM WERE BORN

Research Culture committee for the win!

There's a concept called the "Gentlemen's Third" where you get the lowest pass mark possible and spend your time making friends and having fun (essentially networking) which was much more useful in the long term

I hadn’t even realised the paper was out yet, thank you!

Our next KIER (Knowledge, Inclusion and Equity in Research) book club will be on the 28th February, where we'll be discussing Medical Apartheid, a book about the non-consensual use of African American people in medical research You only get cake if you attend!

At some point in the last ten years (it’s hard to tease out exactly when) we crossed a boundary that no one celebrated: Most people diagnosed with cancer in the United States of America this year will not be killed by that cancer. Yes, outcomes have improved.

I tried putting my biochemistry mock exam questions into ChatGPT. It does surprisingly well, but not brilliantly (high 2:2). Right now the smoking gun is eloquent writing, vast information but poor knowledge synthesis. I’m sure it will cover that gap though

Can't find any evidence here that this is actually happening though? Biochemistry has gone back to closed book exams now that COVID restrictions are over (ie for the last two years).

The journal were generous with revision extensions while I was on maternity leave, and Ben Krishna did heroic extra experiments to get us over the line.

I think I should retire now while I'm ahead