*This is a guest post by Elita Baldridge.** This is the third in a series of posts about my experiences completing a PhD with a chronic illness (Part 1, Part 2, and background information). Not only is this about the tools that I used to complete my PhD, but I am optimistic that these tools/coping mechanisms will allow me to be a scientist that gets paid for doing science. The tips &

In the lab we have been doing quite a bit of analysis of cell migration in 2D. Typically RPE1 cells migrating on fibronectin-coated glass. There are quite a few tools out there to track cell movements and to analyse their migration. Naturally, none of these did quite what we wanted and none fitted nicely into our analysis workflow. This meant writing something from scratch in IgorPro. You can access the code from my GitHub pages.

For the last 5 years I’ve been actively involved in training efforts through Software Carpentry and Data Carpentry to train researchers in best practices for software development and data analysis. These are concepts that are fundamental to the research we do in my gropu and my commitment to open and reproducible research.

I’m putting this up here in case it is useful for somebody. We capture Z-stacks on a Perkin Elmer Spinning Disk microscope system. I wanted to turn each stack into a single image so that we could quickly compare them. This simple macro does the job. We import the images straight from the *.mvd2 library using the wonderful BioFormats import tool. We open all files as composite hyperstacks.

We have a new paper out! You can access it here. Title of the paper: The mesh is a network of microtubule connectors that stabilizes individual kinetochore fibers of the mitotic spindle What’s it about? When a cell divides, the two new cells need to get the right number of chromosomes. If this process goes wrong, it is a disaster which may lead to disease e.g. cancer.

This is a guest post by Elita Baldridge (@elitabaldridge). She is a recently finished PhD in our group who has been navigating the development of a chronic illness during graduate school and beyond. This is the second in a series of posts about my experiences completing a PhD with a chronic illness (Part 1, see also these two earlier, posts). As I mentioned in the first post, having a chronic illness means that there can a lot of

I was searching for the excitation and emission spectra for mNeonGreen. I was able to find an image, but no values for the spectra.

This is a guest post by Elita Baldridge. I am working on organizing an Inclusive Ecology Section within the Ecological Society of America. This section will provide resources and support for all ecologists, regardless of race, sex, physical or mental ability or difference, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, ethnicity, socio-economic status, culture or subculture, national origin,  parental status, politics,

I recently gave a talk at a retreat for new PIs working at QMUL. My talk was focussed on tips for getting started, i.e. the nitty gritty of running an efficient lab. It was a mix of things I’ve been told, worked out for myself or that I’d learned the hard way. PIs are expected to be able to do lots of things that can be full-time jobs in themselves.

This is a guest post by Elita Baldridge Most people aren’t familiar with the challenges of working on a PhD with a disability or chronic illness, and yet there’s a good chance that someone you know is in this situation and isn’t talking about it. This is the first in a series of posts about my experiences completing a PhD with a chronic illness, and about the things that we can do to support our colleagues and students so that they can