Edan Foley
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edanfoley.bsky.social
Edan Foley
@edanfoley.bsky.social
200 followers 270 following 80 posts
Studying zebrafish intestinal biology at the University of Bath with an interest in sex and mucosal immunity. Trying to import the oxford comma to Britain. she/her 🐠 🏳️‍🌈 🏳️‍⚧️ 🎶
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edanfoley.bsky.social
Working my way through paper revisions and I neeeeeed to share this #FluorescenceFriday banger from Mckenna Eklund. EdU (red) labelling of S phase cells in a larval zebrafish gut. Simple but striking. No notes.
Image of a larval zebrafish gut. the gut runs as a simple tube from top left to bottom right in the screen. In this image the nucleus of each cell is visible as a simple blue dot. All cells in the synthesis (S) phase of the cell cycle are visible in red. Proliferating cells decorate the entire surface of the gut with no discernible patterns.
February 13, 2026 at 6:45 PM
edanfoley.bsky.social
Britain's got kittens!!!
Selfie of me smiling holding a cat celebrating the safe arrival of my pets in their new home!!!
February 10, 2026 at 5:59 PM
edanfoley.bsky.social
Getting started is such work that you celebrate your first fish tanks!! If you know a new PI just setting out on this great adventure, please be kind and supportive - I can't imagine how challenging it must be in the middle of the shitstorm we're experiencing at present.
Four small tanks with a small volume of water. Each tank contains freshly hatched larval zebrafish that are too small to see at present. With time, these fish will form the basis of experiments from our group.
February 10, 2026 at 1:16 PM
edanfoley.bsky.social
Critical piece of office setup!
Photograph of a 10 gallon fish tank with brightly coloured gravel, and decorative green and pink plastic foliage housing five new fish!
February 9, 2026 at 2:38 PM
edanfoley.bsky.social
I noticed we're celebrating #SuberbOwl, so here's my offering - a cute little one (sorry I have no idea what kind) I met at the Stratchona Farmer's Market in Edmonton a few years ago.
Close up photo of a small owl. the owl has a white face surrounded by rich, brown feathers, and a short body composed of dappled brown and white feathering. Two tan-coloured feel with sharp, black talons grip a white stand that the owl is perched on. The owl has massive black pupils with a soft amber iris, and is staring intently at an object out of the frame.
February 8, 2026 at 3:31 PM
edanfoley.bsky.social
Trying to get up to speed with British politics means reading weird sentences like things, and thinking "wait is this a metaphor?"
Screenshot of a news article saying "His main problem is awkward pictures of him eating a bacon sandwich still haunt him".
February 7, 2026 at 8:53 PM
edanfoley.bsky.social
I thought I had already fallen in love with this city, and then I found an art exhibition dedicated exclusively to insects on Queen Square 😍 (I'm so proud of myself for not having bought the necklace!)
Sculpture showing two human sized wasps in battle. Both wasps are painted in realistic shades of black and yellow with large black shining eyes. In this piece, one wasp, suspended from the ceiling by wires hangs menacingly above its' oppenent. The opponent lies prone on the ground in a self-protecting ball. The entire piece has a menacing sense of pending attack. A silver chain necklace holding a large realistic rendition of a damselfly. The damselfly wings are spread wide and the chain is attached to the tips of the forewings, emphasising the elegant spread of the insect. A wooden box with a timepiece-like construction. The left half of the surface of the disk is covered with metallic bees that are rendered in a way to convey a sense of urgency and movement.
February 7, 2026 at 6:17 PM
edanfoley.bsky.social
You know you've moved to the UK when your rental comes equipped with 1040 bags of Yorkshire tea 😲
A photograph of a 3.25kg bag of 1040 Yorkshire tea bags.
February 7, 2026 at 10:36 AM
edanfoley.bsky.social
Here's a cute #FlourescenceFriday offering. One of the last images from Canada: A larval gut stained by Alisha Duggal with phalloidin to visualise F-actin. I love how effectively this captures the architecture of a developing gut.
Image of a larval zebrafish gut. In this image filamentous branches of actin are visible as simple cyan lines. The overall effect reveals the structure of the gut as a relatively simple tube that runs from front to back. However, close examination also shows that the tube contains multiple folds that greatly expand the surface area of the gut, increasing the absorptive capacity.
February 6, 2026 at 12:09 PM
edanfoley.bsky.social
It's beginning to get very real. Hopefully this website goes live soon. Feel free to reach out if you're interested.
Screenshot of a section from the "Computational and experimental macrobiomics" EMBO Practical Course happening this summer in Bath.
February 5, 2026 at 12:17 PM
edanfoley.bsky.social
(To the sounds of "Also sprach Zarathustra") Our first ever piece of lab equipment is in place!
Photograph of a white styrofoam box on a clean lab bench. The word "Foley" is written in black ink in the top left corner of the box.
February 2, 2026 at 11:48 AM
edanfoley.bsky.social
The amount of mental and emotional bandwidth that gets freed up by starting all over as your true self
A full-length selfie standing in the mirror wearing a white top, green shirt, and black boots. This was taken to mark how far I've come in my own transition, but also to celebrate the joy a fresh beginning (and yes, I see that my new house is still a bit of a mess)
February 1, 2026 at 11:49 AM
edanfoley.bsky.social
Me after reading the news.
A white long-haired jack Russell with a black spot on his tail buries his head in a hole in the ground as if hiding from the world
January 31, 2026 at 4:35 PM
edanfoley.bsky.social
A little #FlourescenceFriday Fish Fun from the vault: Reegan capture this image of 5dpf larvae that express GFP under control of the NF-kB promoter. It's always fun to see how NF-kB is firing away doing it's thing in the gut, even in the absence of any kind of stress or infection.
Images by Reegan Willms. The upper panel shows a larval zebrafish with bright white cells reporting active immune signalling throughout the animal. In the lower panel, the image zooms in on the gut demonstrating a strong host response, much of which is to the microbial flora that typically establishes residence in the gut at this stage.
January 30, 2026 at 3:06 PM
edanfoley.bsky.social
I miss this mischief basket!
An all grey cat with yellow eyes and a pink collar stares stoically into the middle distance against an all black background
January 24, 2026 at 9:12 PM
edanfoley.bsky.social
I love a good #FluorscenceFriday, so here's a little offering from Tori McCabe showing 2F11+ secretory cells in the intestines of adult fish 🤩
Sagittal section of an adult zebrafish gut. The gut extends a long protrusion into the lumen where individual cells interact with resident microbes and ingested material. In this image, cell nuclei are labeled in white, and secretory cells are labeled in cyan. The secretory cells are visible through the intestinal epithelium and appear regularly spaced from each other.
January 23, 2026 at 11:08 AM