Kerry J. Laing, PhD
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kerryjl.bsky.social
Kerry J. Laing, PhD
@kerryjl.bsky.social
3.1K followers 6.3K following 100 posts
T cell immunologist, and erstwhile comparative immunologist, making the best of it. My NCBI: https://tinyurl.com/2uexwh74

#Scottish #FirstGen #WomanInSTEM

“Think of what is and don’t let what might have been distract you” — Robin Hobb
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kerryjl.bsky.social
Happy Halloween!! 👻 🧛 🎃🦇🧙‍♀️
Woman, making a scary jesture, standing in a large open coffin. The coffin is lined with what looks like red velvet. I shall neither confirm nor deny that this person is me!!
October 31, 2025 at 3:57 PM
kerryjl.bsky.social
Just a couple of rock heads hanging out at the beach #beachart
Beach rocks stacked to look like two cartoonish people; one big, one small. The rocks used as heads each has a pair of barnacles that make it look like the rocks have eyes. The rock people—not in an AC/DC way, by-the-way—are standing on a rocky beach with a wee bit of dried seaweed in the foreground. 🤘🏼🗿
May 27, 2025 at 12:02 AM
kerryjl.bsky.social
Seemed like a sketchy kind of day #hobbyart
Pencil sketch of a woman with a punk hairstyle.
February 16, 2025 at 2:02 AM
kerryjl.bsky.social
Kid snow art. #snowdays
A fish made out of snow sitting on top of a stair railing. It began as a happy chap with a great smile, but is melting into glumness.
February 6, 2025 at 7:02 PM
kerryjl.bsky.social
Finding notes like this in your bag from one of your kids make you feel like everything is going to be okay. 🐸💕
A small note including a pencil drawn frog sitting on a lily pad. The frog, wearing a crown, is catching flies with its enormous tongue. The note says “Have a hopping day”. There’s also a hand holding the note—my hand—that could do with a good manicure. But I am a scientist, not a hand model!!
February 4, 2025 at 4:53 PM
kerryjl.bsky.social
Rescued a wilted orchid today. Hopefully she will perk up with a bit of love. #plants
A poor neglected orchid, with long dark green leaves that are ridged at the base and multiple small mauve-ish flowers on a singular flower spike, that have dried out. Its pot is light gray and quite root bound. Google photo search suggests this wrinkled lovely is a dancing-lady orchid, but I am no expert. Hoping to nurse her back to health by sheer luck!
January 12, 2025 at 11:45 PM
kerryjl.bsky.social
A picture of fond times resurfaced on other social media. From about 2009. Such young and eager scientists we all were @pergamic.bsky.social
Seven young(ish) early career scientists standing near the door of their shared office at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center from approximately 2009. There is a celebratory wall of pinned manuscripts behind them. They are smiling, at the joy of each other’s company and the fun that working late (because we always worked late!) would bring. Some of us now have more wrinkles and white hair than a polar bear that stayed in the bath too long. 🤭
January 9, 2025 at 1:45 AM
kerryjl.bsky.social
My memory is not too bad either!
A mug with a flow cytometry gating tree to separate naive T cells from memory T cells. The mug is red on the inside, as though someone has been drinking blood. But we’re not vampires here….are we?? 🧛‍♀️
December 12, 2024 at 4:34 AM
kerryjl.bsky.social
Latest chapter in the “don’t buy, adopt” philosophy of making my surroundings greener. A couple of delightful spiderlings from a generous neighbor via the “Buy Nothing” program.
Two baby spider plants, one curly one straight leaved, in a clear plastic cup filled with water. They were acquired free from a generous neighbor through the “Buy Nothing” program. Does anyone read this? Oh, what silly names should I give them? The one on the left looks quite mischievous!😏
November 24, 2024 at 11:02 PM
kerryjl.bsky.social
How cool. Made mine :)
Wordcloud in the shape of a tear showing the most commonly used words in the titles of my publications. Dominant words include CD8, CD4, cells, herpes, zoster, vaccine, and virus, which match to my current area of research. However, some other words also so appear--like rainbow, trout, mykiss, and fish--that are nostalgic for lost opportunities and scientific "buddies". Each word is a drop in the ocean of thirty years of immunology research.
November 24, 2024 at 8:05 PM
kerryjl.bsky.social
Same Pumpkin. Same.
A carved pumpkin that once had a smiley face now looks like it has a grimace and tic similar to Chief Inspector Dreyfus, from those old ‘The Pink Panther’ movies like its mind is about to crack. Narrator: its face has indeed already started to crack as the rest of it rots into a festering stew, only appetizing to slugs, apparently .
November 23, 2024 at 7:22 PM
kerryjl.bsky.social
Apparently posting pictures of blue skies is a thing, so here is mine. Taken at Ballard Locks gardens last month. If any cloud experts can chime in on this cloud formation, please do. #blueskies
Tall asters with purple flowers with a backdrop of blue skies with cool dappled cloud formation.
November 15, 2024 at 11:45 PM
kerryjl.bsky.social
We had a pair of these grace our backyard this year.
November 11, 2024 at 11:31 PM
kerryjl.bsky.social
Doing the right thing. #democracy
I voted sticker
October 27, 2024 at 9:07 PM
kerryjl.bsky.social
Managed to sneak a view of the Tsuchinshan-ATLAS comet through a break in the clouds tonight. Was visible to the naked eye. Phone picks it up reasonably well! Viewed from Sunset Hill Park.
Tsuchinshan-ATLAS comet viewed from Sunset Hill park, Seattle. Pointing diagonally with comet lower right and end of tail upper left. Olympic mountain range in the background.
October 14, 2024 at 3:26 AM
kerryjl.bsky.social
More than 30 follows in 24h for this wallflower is kinda intimidating. What is with the sudden influx? Did a new door just open?
Door in a dark corridor with light leaking around the edges.
October 2, 2024 at 1:28 AM
kerryjl.bsky.social
Obligatory northern lights photos from the doorstep tonight.
Pink and green Aurora borealis lighting the sky over and behind a tree. Pink and green Aurora borealis above a house.
May 11, 2024 at 6:54 AM
kerryjl.bsky.social
Today is the 20th Anniversary of my move to the US.
I arrived in snowy Baltimore with only 2 bags and a laptop, ready to embark on a 2-year contract, transferring to Seattle 6 months later. And here I still am! What a scary & invigorating journey: To start again with nothing & build a better life.
January 4, 2024 at 4:33 PM
kerryjl.bsky.social
I found this when browsing some old photos. Here I am working in the LSRII in flow cytometry lab at Fred Hutch, 2008 or sooner. #bskyIntroduction #TcellImmunology
December 16, 2023 at 9:21 PM