Oui Buenafe
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obuenafe.bsky.social
Oui Buenafe
@obuenafe.bsky.social
🇵🇭 STEM academic/zebrafish person w/ a perennial facepalm. Currently in Manila, Philippines. Head of the Ateneo Zebrafish Group. Chair of the Chemistry Department, Ateneo de Manila University
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Finally, a photo of our small fry, big dreams research group.
And, in case y'all are wondering, we're all chemists here, but we believe in the tiny-but-mighty zebrafish!
What's the real feeling of power?

Being able to eat seafood without sneezing and wheezing.
July 4, 2025 at 1:40 AM
2 weeks before we fly MNL-ORD to attend the 19th IZFS Conference!
June 28, 2025 at 4:09 PM
This summer term, our group's sole undergrad thesis student is our intern. One of my grad students coined the term "fintern" for them.
June 17, 2025 at 3:42 PM
Almost a decade ago, setback after setback, I was prepared to just quietly molder away as a small fish. Water's too rough, too crowded, & the pandemic hit.
And now: water's still too rough & crowded, I'm still a small fish, but I have to swim the rapids, so my small fry will have a place to grow.
May 29, 2025 at 4:52 AM
(Puts on chem dept chair hat)
Wonderful news for the department at the end of the academic year: we have 3 MS Chem graduates marching & receiving their degrees this June!
May 25, 2025 at 2:14 PM
July 2025 is shaping up as a month of conferences and workshops for our small fry:
- July 2nd-4th: 39th PH Chemistry Congress
- July 9th-13th: 19th International Zebrafish Conference
- July 25th: 2nd Annual Meeting for the PH Metabolomics Network

Trying to swim and make friends in the shoal!
May 18, 2025 at 1:03 PM
Did my civic duty today. I pray that things don't go fully sideways. #PHElections2025
May 12, 2025 at 2:32 AM
My second grad student Camille getting a special citation award from the SOSE OSRA 2025, more than a week after successfully defending her MSc thesis on zebrafish nanotox. Such an honor to see a student grow from the undergrad days to now! Congrats!
May 9, 2025 at 3:38 PM
Finally, a photo of our small fry, big dreams research group.
And, in case y'all are wondering, we're all chemists here, but we believe in the tiny-but-mighty zebrafish!
May 6, 2025 at 3:33 PM
It's definitely 🇵🇭 summer season here...without AC running, the water temps in the zebrafish tanks run above 30°C. And we're raising baby fish rn.
April 7, 2025 at 1:06 PM
Reposted by Oui Buenafe
Published 25 years ago, “Effective targeted gene ‘knockdown’ in zebrafish” by Nasevicius & Ekker is the 2nd most-cited #zebrafish paper (www.nature.com/articles/ng1...). They describe use of antisense morpholino-modified oligonucelotides or #morpholinos that inhibit translation. #ZebrafishFunFacts 🧪
April 4, 2025 at 4:06 PM
Reposted by Oui Buenafe
ICYMI…

New features from @zfinmod.bsky.social 🐟

🔗 academic.oup.com/genetics/art...
March 26, 2025 at 1:34 PM
Seeing the news re: stuff going on in the US related to detaining/deporting non-US nationals with *valid* visas...makes me wonder if my grad student & I will get to the IZFS conference unscathed.
March 19, 2025 at 8:51 AM
Overworked this 2nd semester (that's Spring semester for y'all). I derive no joy nor pride in my admin work atm.

But somehow I was able to manage to cobble together an abstract submission for the 19th IZFS conference & submit it with my registration.
March 10, 2025 at 12:19 PM
Reposted by Oui Buenafe
February 6, 2025 at 7:54 PM
Some humor during these uncertain times...
Yesterday, we went out on a short road trip to the city of Pasay (sp. to Cartimar) not for fish supplies but for taho (silken tofu dessert).
One of my grad students quipped:

"Why call it an oncogene and not a...carcino-gene?"
January 30, 2025 at 5:57 AM
So there's a live-action movie version of the manga "Cells At Work", which has helped many a pre-med (and med school) student in their biochem/cell-molbio. And it's going to be shown here in 🇵🇭 next Wed.
...I want to watch it.
January 25, 2025 at 2:01 PM
Re-reads the university's conference presentation grants policies & guidelines for faculty and grad students. Sees this:

"Making a poster presentation at a conference does not make one eligible for the grant."

Opens mouth. Shuts mouth. Hmmm.
January 24, 2025 at 3:13 AM
Checks registration details for the 19th IZFS Conference.

Winces at registration fee.

Groans at the odd requirement by our university in order to get a conference subsidy for self and for the graduate students in my research group.

Is there a way for defraying the costs?
January 22, 2025 at 8:23 AM
Because everyone in the department was frazzled, I just realized that we haven't set up the holiday fishcare schedule. Hnnngh. We live nearby anyway.
December 13, 2024 at 7:46 AM
Lesson in Filipino--
False: "Tinatapos ko ang sem na ito."
True: "Tinatapos ako ng sem na ito."

Barely managing my first semester as department chair. But I'll just trust my own tenacity and stubbornness to learn.
December 9, 2024 at 5:30 AM
Reposted by Oui Buenafe
Let your timeline shine with these outstanding #WomenInScience! 🧪 #zebrafish go.bsky.app/4BegEjv
December 7, 2024 at 3:29 PM
Without meaning to, the weekend zebrafish care protocol now includes checking/feeding our largest striped one in the main building (our fish lab is in a different building). The direction of the stripes (and color) seems odd.
December 7, 2024 at 4:13 PM
In lieu of a dept Christmas party, I set up a dept checking party because we need to get the grades in next week by the semester's end.
December 6, 2024 at 4:52 AM