miss-biophys

[miss-biophys]

Support and mentoring is my passion!

Right now flying to Prague to attend the PhD defense of my mentee. I decided to make the effort and support her personally on the spot.

Seeing that I help someone to overcome their struggles, achieve some of their dreams, and be more content with themselves is the most beautiful feeling.

#science #mentoring #mentee #women in science #support #mutual support #great feeling #teaching #girls supporting girls #original content

[miss-biophys]

I just had an amazing time during an interview about fight against harmful bacteria, use of antibiotics in cancer treatment, how physics helps in biomedical research, and more. I cannot wait to read the final article!

I felt seen, welcome, and appreciated.

#science #outreach #interview #magazine interview #talking science #antibiotics #physics #stem #feeling appreciated #feeling good #original content

[miss-biophys]

Van Leeuwenhoek Award for the best microbiology paper of 2023 from a postdoc in the Netherlands goes to... one proud lady, aka Miss Biophys.

The awarded paper here:

#women in science #postdoc #award #hard work #original content #microbiology

[miss-biophys]

Looking sexy in the cell culture lab

When I grow bacteria, I need to work extra clean not to infect myself. When I grow human cells (also cancer cells), I need to be even more careful not to infect the cultured cells with any bacteria from my clothes, skin, or hair. Otherwise they just die and we have no results of our experiments.

#science #women in science #research #postdoc #microbiology #microscope #cancer cells #cancer #cell culture #treatment #medical research #original content

[miss-biophys]

18 hours difference of bacteria growth

How much can Staphylococcus aureus bacteria grow in less than a day? I add a few drops of bacteria into a fresh medium (basically a meat bouillon soup) and after 18 hours I count tens of billions bacteria per milliliter. Literally, today I had 8x10^10 bacteria/ml. They grow like crazy when given the chance.

For the next 24 hours, I let them bath in antibiotics. Hehe!

#bacteria killing time #microbiology #bacteria #MRSA #staphylococcus #antibiotic #science #research #postdoc #crazy #stem #biophysics #academia #medical research #original content #killing time

[miss-biophys]

What would you do?

#what to do #women in science #collaboration #science #data

[miss-biophys]

Apparently sharing highlights about your new publication on social media does not increase the citations of that paper. But I'll still do it. It just feels GOOD!

#women in science #research #science #postdoc #stem #publishing #scientific publication #publish or perish #original content #good feeling

[miss-biophys]

What would you do?

#science #women in science #research #postdoc #stem #microbiology #medical research #academia #collaborations #working together #experiments #results #data sharing #original content

[miss-biophys]

5 years ago, I started blogging about my scientific struggles and joy, combining it with care for two children, move to another country, and learning the country's language.

5 years ago, just when I started, a few people reached out to me asking for advice and mentoring.

This week, I had one of these very first mentees visiting me in my home for 2 days. This girl made an amazing progress in her own journey through academia and life.

It was awesome experience and I am immensely proud of her.

#proud #academia #phd #postdoc #mentoring #mentorship #mentee #women in science #stem #encouragement #role model #physics #it's not easy #mental health #original content

[miss-biophys]

The person error is real, I agree. But to make 2 people repeat the same experiment 9 times as in the mentioned paper... it's an overkill and waste of time of these people.

"The assays were performed independently by two researchers on all four bacteria."

OR... when triplicate of experiments is not enough and you need to come up with a person-plicate.

Found in this paper: 10.3390/biom11121889

#science #research #phd #postdoc #stem #waste of time #lab

[miss-biophys]

"The assays were performed independently by two researchers on all four bacteria."

OR... when triplicate of experiments is not enough and you need to come up with a person-plicate.

Found in this paper: 10.3390/biom11121889

#science #research #postdoc #stem #literature review #it looks like the time of people has no value #original content

[miss-biophys]

Plasma cleaning of Petri dishes

We pump out the air from the chamber and let in only a low amount of highly ionized gas. The ionized gas has this beautiful color you see. The Petri dishes will be now sterile, perfectly clean, and adhesive for my samples for measurements.

#science #cool science #plasma #ionized #purple #no filter #research #postdoc #original content #cleaning

[miss-biophys]

When bacteria struggle with too much sntibiotics, but not so much that it kills them all, they grow into the shape of pretty flowers. (At least in round bottom wells.)

#science #women in science #postdoc #microbiology #art #scientific art #flowers #pretty #original content #bacteria

[miss-biophys]

New publication out!

We were curious what happens with the lipid membrane if proteins are inside. As a model of membrane proteins we use transmembrane peptides with neutral and positive charge. The charges turn out to be quite crucial in the peptides influence on the lipids.

publication link: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.colsurfb.2024.113765…

All transmembrane peptides hinder mobility of lipids around. The positive charges in the peptide make this hindering a long range influence.

The membrane with the positive peptides then has heterogeneities in the lipid mobility. This hampers free rearrangement of lipids and leads to lower ability to seal ruptures. You can see below how the membrane stays fragmented after indentations with AFM (atomic force microscope), which is basically a very tiny tip that scans the surface of the membrane for images and can also push through it to test mechanical stability.

For comparison this is how it looks like with a membrane without any peptides. The mebrane seals the ruptures induced by the AFM tip and recovers its round shape. The same happens if we have a neutral, non-charged, peptide.

With this work we highlight the importance of including charges of proteins and peptides in membrane model studies.

And last but not least...

This is the very first time I am the last corresponding author of a publication. I am immensely proud on myself!

#science #women in science #research #biophysics #afm #fluorescence #simulations #peptides #proteins #cell membranes #publication #collaboration #corresponding author #proud #original content

[miss-biophys]

My lab (im doing an undergrad thesis) is also researching synthetic peptide antibiotics! We're in a much earlier stage so we're focusing on emulating mode of action rn (which of course requires a whole host of smaller steps to check each part of its function before moving forward) and im presenting preliminary results in my first poster at the biophysical society meeting next week!!

(I have not finished said poster. I have not even gotten all the data to put on it. I have reached a point where I may or may not have used the wrong solution entirely which would require me to redo at least half of what I did. I am checking this today. Depending on whether its true I either have a couple more hours of data collection or like. Probably more than 12 :') im so tired.)

Hi! Good luck with your poster preparation. It often does not look like much work to prepare a poster but it could take a few days until you are satisfied with it. I always ask my students to show me their first draft at least a week before the printing so they have time to incorporate my feedback.

Don't worry about the results. You say it's preliminary, so just talk about the project, the question you aim to answer, the approach that you apply, and how far you got so far. This is completely fine and normal at conferences. I often discuss my ongoing projects at conferences and garther new ideas and tips on how to proceed and what I might have overlooked.

Good luck!

#science #research #prompt #poster #conference

[miss-biophys]

And it's out! Published. I am so happy for this! I will share more highlights from our story later.

But if you cannot wait, you can read the full paper here: doi.org/10.1016/j.colsurfb.2024.113765

Another milestone in my scientific journey

I submitted my very first article as the last corresponding author.

This means I take responsibility for every single word and all data and findings in the manuscript. It feels big.

Keep your fingers crossed!

#science #research #responsibility #corresponding author #journal publication #proteins #lipids #biophysics #women in science #original content

[miss-biophys]

Did we kill them?

Looking at what concentrations my antibiotics killed resistant Staphylococcus bacteria.

Higher antibiotic concentrations are on the right side, where there is clear liquid with no bacteria growth. It works!

#women in science #research #postdoc #microbiology #antibiotics #lab