Robert Insall
robinsall.bsky.social
Robert Insall
@robinsall.bsky.social
Chemotaxis. Math. Computers. Cells. Machine learning.
Dylan Burnette lab excelling themselves with lovely microscopy, even more than ususal.
Beating iPSC-derived heart muscle cells videoed through a microscope. Alpha-actinin-2 is shown. #CellBiology
November 9, 2025 at 10:31 AM
The science literature used to be more fun
November 8, 2025 at 3:06 PM
fine-looking meeting
interested in mechanobiology and physics of living systems? this is the conference for you! Join us 9-12 June in Heidelberg! with @nicolettapetridou.bsky.social @xaviertrepat.bsky.social Enrique Rojas & Alba Diz-Munoz

Registration OPEN
www.embl.org/about/info/c...
November 6, 2025 at 12:50 PM
Reposted by Robert Insall
Very excited to share an advert for a new lecturer position in Computational Cancer at UCL! Permanent position at assistant professor level- join a growing community at UCL in a cutting edge discipline.

Please share widely!

www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/...
UCL – University College London
UCL is consistently ranked as one of the top ten universities in the world (QS World University Rankings 2010-2022) and is No.2 in the UK for research power (Research Excellence Framework 2021).
www.ucl.ac.uk
November 3, 2025 at 3:49 PM
Ahhh, the glory of UK research electronic forms.
October 30, 2025 at 7:37 PM
Reposted by Robert Insall
In May 2024 we had a great workshop on chemotaxis in the MPI PKS in Dresden! The social impressions are in the picture below, and the scientific discussions are summarised in Angewandte Chemie lnkd.in/d6ymRhGK
What a nice way to remember!
October 29, 2025 at 11:24 AM
Will shouting "STOP CHANGING MY TEXT INTO THINGS I DIDN'T MEAN" at my phone help?

Asking for a friend.
October 23, 2025 at 11:55 AM
Reposted by Robert Insall
We hiring! Please share this post with your talented ECRs

We're looking for a postdoc interested in the formation and function of tertiary lymphoid structures - project funded by Wellcome

Based at @lmcb-ucl.bsky.social at University College London

Apply here:
www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DPD418/r...
October 21, 2025 at 3:57 PM
Reposted by Robert Insall
This morning my ChatGPT quota was inexplicably exhausted.

It took a while but I pieced it together. Voice mode somehow got activated when I went to bed.

The bot then engaged in a 10 hour conversation with my snoring dog, answering questions the pup wasn’t asking and praising him for his insight.
October 18, 2025 at 9:04 AM
Thanks for any data. i want Scar/WAVE complex scroll waves you see...
October 12, 2025 at 8:58 PM
testing the exact 3D printer settings to retain a #makerbeam
October 8, 2025 at 10:24 PM
Read this today. All of it. It will make you happy.
Six weeks ago, I picked up a year-old tawny owl with a broken leg off the main road near our home and dropped him off at our nearest vet.

After a few days, I received one of the most bizarre phone calls I’ve ever had, asking “So when are you coming to pick up your owl?” 🧵
October 5, 2025 at 11:52 AM
Ooooh coool
📌 Join us for the next klogW seminar on October 21st at 12PM EST (register below) by Erwin Frey @physicsoflifelmu.bsky.social on "Emergence and Self-organization in Biological Systems".
Registration link:
apsphysics.zoom.us/meeting/regi...
September 30, 2025 at 9:40 PM
Yikes.
Interesting paper but a terrible news report.
Skin cells are chock full of mutations. It's brilliant to show that you can use skin cell nuclei to make an embryo, but you'd have to be insane to make a human out of one.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Human skin DNA fertilised to make embryo for first time
US scientists testing the technique say it could help people overcome infertility and potentially allow same-sex couples to have a genetically related child.
www.bbc.co.uk
September 30, 2025 at 6:35 PM
The excellent Lucija Mijanovic & I write a piece musing on electrotaxis, collective migration, and @calinacopos.bsky.social & the Mogilner lab's nice PNAS paper.

Have a look!
authors.elsevier.com/a/1lpaB3QW8S...
September 22, 2025 at 3:56 PM
University manager confuses "quality" and "being funded". Shock horror.
www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-u...
Ministers ‘want to shift funds away from low-quality research’ - Research Professional News
Universities UK president says institutions cannot afford “unfunded hobbyist research”
www.researchprofessionalnews.com
September 12, 2025 at 11:32 AM
Reposted by Robert Insall
Cnidarian-Microbe Interactions
Fully-funded postdoctoral position is available in the Gibson Lab at the Stowers Institute to investigate any aspect of cnidarian-microbe interactions. Strong background in coral symbiosis or eukaryotic microbiology preferred.
Contact Matt Gibson: mg2@stowers.org
August 14, 2025 at 4:50 PM
Reposted by Robert Insall
Perceptions have real effects

www.kcl.ac.uk/policy-insti...
August 27, 2025 at 10:17 AM
Reposted by Robert Insall
SCOTUS decision "in a scientific sense...a total loss"

"Years long studies will lose validity...Lifesaving medication trials will be abandoned. Countless researchers will lose their jobs.”https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-02721-5
August 23, 2025 at 1:46 PM
Marvellous thread
Collective cell motion has many forms, but rotation is the coolest of them all.

I'm @onenimesa.bsky.social , and in this short🧵, I'll highlight some instances of global tissue rotation like this one from @BauschLab
August 23, 2025 at 11:36 AM
Reposted by Robert Insall
Very excited to be co-organizing this meeting next February. Fellow collective behavior enthusiasts, this one is for you!
✨ How do bird flocks form or diseases emerge?

Join the brand-new EMBO | EMBL Symposium #EESCollectivity and explore how collective behaviours arise from fundamental principles across biological systems 🧬🦠🐒

💻 s.embl.org/ees26-01-bl
✒️ Submit your abstract by 18 Nov
August 21, 2025 at 12:04 PM
Reposted by Robert Insall
My wife shared this with me and I’m tellin you… it’s worth the read.
August 13, 2025 at 2:55 PM
Reposted by Robert Insall
one small consolation of being a 60+ year old investigator is the ability to submit to 𝘔𝘈𝘛𝘜𝘙𝘌 family journals — sure they’re low impact (for our knees) but they have an early bird special if you submit between 4:00 and 5:30 on weekdays
August 14, 2025 at 12:32 AM