Where would a lab be without postdocs? Bringing new ideas to the bench & training up undergrads & postgrads 😃
Our lab
@UnivCamPharm
wouldn't be where we are now without the amazing efforts of many over the years.
For this year's
#NPAW2024
, here's a chronological run through.
I’ve been promoted to a Full Professorship 🥳 😃🍾
Only possible through great work of all in the lab since 2013, wonderful collaborators & super colleagues
@UnivCamPharm
,
@CorpusCambridge
,
@CamNeuro
&
@Cambridge_SBS
, & an ever-understanding & massively supportive husband!🍾🎉
Tomorrow is a rather special day in the annual rhythm of the
@CorpusCambridge
Chronophage Clock...just in case you are passing by, here is some info that might encourage you to linger...
Here's a little something about the best beast in the world, put together with
@JordanChadRaine
Meet the naked mole-rat: impervious to pain and cancer, and lives ten times longer than it should via
@ConversationUK
As Custodian of the
@CorpusCambridge
Chronophage Clock, it gives me great pleasure to say that it’s back!
Come by and take a look, & for more information 👇
@andpru
This is just an image of something already known to exist, i.e. study shows lack of originality and novelty. Moreover, seems risky to assume too much of a conclusion on n = 1.
Cool paper out from
@Eijkelkamp_N
's group, continuing their work on the role that mitochondria play in
#pain
.
They show that inflammation disturbs sensory neuron mitochondrial/metabolic function, which predisposes to persistent pain following subsequent inflammation.
I am a gay (he/him) PI neuroscientist
@Cambridge_Uni
/
@CorpusCambridge
. We work on understanding pain mechanisms & the weird biology of the naked mole-rat.
None science time = galleries with my husband, running & cats!
Great to see the representation & visibility
#LGBTQScience
!
📢 We are delighted to welcome Professor Ewan St John Smith
@psalmotoxin
as the new Co-Director of
@CamNeuro
.
Ewan is Professor of Nociception & Deputy HOD
@UnivCamPharm
where research focuses
on nociception & everything unusual about the naked mole-rat!
🧵⬇️
As we settle into the main exam season
@Cambridge_Uni
, it’s a stressful time, & so one plea to all those taking exams: if you’re struggling, panicking, or generally going “arghhhhh”, please reach out to someone, friends, DoS, Tutor, you’re not alone!
#MentalHealthAwarenessMonth
Today is the Feast of Corpus Christi, which is the Name Day of
@CorpusCambridge
where I am a Fellow in Pharmacology, largely involved with teaching medicine & biology students, but I'm also the Custodian of the Corpus Chronophage Clock
25-years ago this week, I interviewed
@JesusCollegeCam
for Natural Sciences
@Cambridge_Uni
, got pooled, wasn’t fished out & was incredibly frustrated.
However, I went & had 4-great years at
@PharmUnivBath
, including a year in 🇨🇭 working for Novartis 1/2
As Custodian of the
@CorpusCambridge
Chronophage, it brings me great pleasure to say that it will be gracing us with its presence again soon.
New glass has been installed overnight & the Chronophage will be back in it’s rightful place in the coming days 😃
BREAKING NEWS:
The 2021
#NobelPrize
in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded jointly to David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian “for their discoveries of receptors for temperature and touch.”
So, that's a little overview of what is truly an incredible thing, slap bang in the middle of Cambridge for everyone to see with plenty more secrets to share, all of which are courtesy of the man whose birthday it is today Dr John C Taylor OBE
@DrJCTOBE
– happy birthday John!
Finally a new lab photo….been a loooong time since the last one - great to work with such a friendly, supportive & imaginative bunch 😬 Here’s to a great academic year ahead!
Today is a special day for the
@CorpusCambridge
Chronophage Clock! The Clock has 4 days/year when it plays a special set of ‘tricks’ and one of those is March 24th. Why, you might ask? Well, it’s all to do with John Harrison, he of marine chronometer fame
Just recorded first lecture for next year. I am not a fan. Maintaining focus/enthusiasm is tough when stuck talking to oneself, give me a live audience & interaction any day! Understand necessity & great to have recording online for access, but not fun.
#AcademicChatter
Today
@CorpusCambridge
’s flag flies at half-mast to mark the passing of Prof. Sir Colin Blakemore, Honorary Fellow, a visionary scientist & communicator
8 years ago today the lab started...we've had 4 homes in the same building, worked on ion channels, pain, cancer, naked mole-rats & more. It's been a lot of fun, most importantly because of the people in the lab - thanks a million & here's to whatever the future brings!
"minimum salary for a skilled worker arriving in the UK from £26,000 to £40,000".
Regardless of the impact on healthcare, hospitality etc. sectors, this would basically rule out any entry level postdoctoral scientists 🤦
I lecture final year undergrads on the cellular & molecular basis of pain.
The tale surrounding the role of the voltage-gated sodium channel NaV1.7 in pain never fails to produce some confusion, but a new paper, in my opinion, brings clarity.
Dead chuffed to be a runner up - been a lot of fun doing public engagement activities over the years, lots of great partners, and here's to doing more!
Good luck to all those with an interview
@Cambridge_Uni
over the next few weeks: try to relax, give it your best shot & don’t panic...I applied when I was 17, got rejected, was obviously disappointed, but things worked out fine...life has many paths!
Big shout out on
#InternationalWomensDay
to Dervila Glynn without whom
@CamNeuro
wouldn’t function! (Our smiles hide how incredibly tired we both were!)
Whiteboard out, pens ready, it’s supervision (small group teaching) season again!
Today, we’ll be kicking off Natural Sciences Pharmacology, keywords being 💊 affinity & efficacy (there might be a few dose-response/binding curves at play…)
Looking for a postdoc in ageing/neurodegeneration? Think that naked mole-rats = best model organism to ever strut their stuff? Then there here's the job for you: in my lab, funded by
@DunhillMedical
collaboration with
@GabrielBalmus
&
@Cyberplasm
@CamNeuro
"Dear Dr. Ewan St. John Smith,
I ask you to review a manuscript entitled "Lipid membranes from naked mole-rat brain lipids..."
I mean, I'd love to, but I'm one of the corresponding authors and so probably shouldn't...
#ScienceTwitter
#AcademicChatter
I am a Fellow in Pharmacology
@CorpusCambridge
, teaching medicine & biology, but am also the Custodian of the Corpus Chronophage Clock. One of my jobs is to give tours of the Clock on College feast days…but, today there is a need for a virtual tour…
Led by Terry Walters, our review: Persistent nociceptor hyperactivity as a painful evolutionary adaptation with Robyn Crook,
@Neely_Lab
&
@UTDPainLab
is out in
@TrendsNeuro
!
🚨 JOB ALERT 🚨
Interested in osteoarthritis pain mechanisms?
In a
@wellcometrust
collaboration with
@DaveHughes_Gla
, there are 2 openings to join us
@UnivCamPharm
:
1) Full-time postdoc
2) 0.6 FTE research assistant / lab manager
Naked mole-rats are interesting for lots of reasons, eusocial, cold-blooded, living for 35+ years, exceptional cancer resistance etc.
In work led by
@Javimmunopain
, we investigated gastrointestinal barrier function in the naked mole-rat
Not the post-conference collaboration I was after…I made it to June 2022, but alas no longer 🤦♂️
Just a little achy so far, but no runs this week, first ones missed since the first lockdown. Here’s to a speedy recovery 🤞
Science can be tough. In the lab, experiments don't always work, equipment can fail, we all make silly mistakes, there's that side project that you never quite get to spend the time on that you want, weird working hours & then there's the fear of being scooped!
#AcademicChatter
If you’re a PhD student who’s struggling, please reach out to your supervisor and/or other mentor - no work is so important that it’s conducted at a cost to your well-being.
#phdlife
#phdchat
Really excited that our ADVANTAGE consortium led by Geoff Woods with
@PainRambles
,
@denk_lab
,
@horne_research
,
@GeorgeMalliaras
, Amanda Williams, David Andersson, Philippa Saunders & Thanasis Tsanas was funded! Exciting times ahead in visceral
#pain
research 😬 More news soon.
We’re pleased to announce that – alongside
@BBSRC
and
@ESRC
, and in partnership with
@VersusArthritis
&
@HDR_UK
– we’re funding four new consortia and a data hub to advance research into chronic pain, a major unmet public health challenge.
Read more:
March 5th will see loads of people in the Bulmer/Smith labs running
@CambridgeHalfUK
!
We're raising 💷💶💴 to support
@BowelResearch
&
@MSF_uk
.
We would love your support, check out our fundraising page to read more 😀
Pleased to finally see this review out on naked mole-rat biology, led by
@ShelleyBuffens1
, where we deal with some 'myths' in the field. Hopefully, this article provides a good starting point for anyone setting out into the world of naked mole-rats!
Last night
@CorpusCambridge
held its Commemoration of Benefactors dinner, honouring our greatest living benefactor
@DrJCTOBE
’s 85th birthday - what a dessert! (More about the Chronophage in the thread below)
Action shot of first in person lecture in ages, all about acetylcholine, noradrenaline is up next! Definitely more fun looking at people than looking at once reflection in Zoom 🤣
Cambridge researchers at
@UnivCamPharm
and
@GeneticsCam
are on the cusp of finding ways to actually reverse our biological age – so we can live healthier for longer.
We're recruiting! Exciting PhD opportunity in the lab, co-supervised by
@NeuroJim
at GSK, focused on neuroimmune interactions & the role of non-neuronal cells & cytokines in pain Pls RT!
Currently 15 minutes into a Zoom Q&A on some of my teaching. Out of ~350 students who could attend none have arrived yet...was everything crystal clear in the online material? More importantly, I see a raised hand, should I respond and ask myself a question on the material?
Henry’s ‘human’ age is a little younger than me ~36 vs. 39, think the grey hair gives my age away a little more though! Purring makes for a rather loud pillow though.
#Caturday
So happy to see this out....big thanks to
@DunhillMedical
for funding this & our research, & to
@sciencesplained
for his creativity! Have a watch & find out about some of the magic of naked mole-rats 😀
New academic year is rattling along already.
We’ve welcomed new post docs & PhD students in recent months so it’s time for a new lab photo!
Great to have such a wonderful group of people to work with 😬
Great to see
@CorpusCambridge
flying 🏳️🌈 for Pride this morning. Exciting month ahead with Corpus’ Pride Event (lectures/Formal Hall) on Sunday, & then off to give a talk about LGBTQ+ in STEM
@BabrahamInst
next week!
Just a thought on something I find brilliant about science - the travel & meeting people from all over the place: I’m 🇬🇧, have lived/worked in 🇨🇭, 🇩🇪, 🇺🇸 & 🇬🇧; so far people in my lab have come from: 🇬🇧, 🇩🇪, 🇺🇸, 🇲🇾, 🇫🇷, 🇪🇸, 🇮🇳, 🇹🇷, 🇧🇷, 🇬🇷 - how cool is that?!
#AcademicChatter
7-years to the day that I started working
@Cambridge_Uni
. We've been in 4 different labs, people have come & gone, papers published and classes taught...It's been a lot of fun - will be interesting to see how the next 7-years go!
Today the
@CorpusCambridge
flag flies at half-mast in memorial of Aaron Rapport & Joyce Heckman. Aaron joined Corpus a year after I did so we were newbies together. Greatly missed by all. Lovely speeches this morning at the dedication of a tree in their memory.
I've been been husbandless for a month as Aaron has been in Japan on an art residency!
This week sees him exhibiting what he has created during the residency - very proud 😃
More work on his (new) Instagram 👉
Amazing the number of coming outs one has to have to get through life, but I’ve found it gets easier w time & also, at least where I’ve lived/worked, has become less of a thing over time. Wishing all those on their coming out journeys all the v best, I know how tough it can be!
Happy
#NationalComingOutDay
Whether your circumstances allow you to be out or not, no matter where you are on your journey, you are one of us.
Our community is vibrant, global, and lucky to have you!
🖤🤎❤️🧡💛💚💙💜
🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️
7-years to the day that I started working
@Cambridge_Uni
. We've been in 4 different labs, people have come & gone, papers published and classes taught...It's been a lot of fun - will be interesting to see how the next 7-years go!
New pre-print: chemogenetic control of joint neurones alleviates joint pain - lead by
@fluorescence_SC
with great support from
@interlukein
,
@__GRAR__
& others, including key collaborator Paul Heppenstall