Ali Gouch
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ubalubi.bsky.social
Ali Gouch
@ubalubi.bsky.social
200 followers 350 following 110 posts
A happy immunoparasitologist in training - Ph.D. candidate and artist studying host responses to Plasmodium infection. views are my own :)

I bring a sort of Flow Cytometry vibe to the Western Blot function.
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ubalubi.bsky.social
i have a little orange powder 'pod army in my leopard gecko's habitat ☺️ any tips on keeping them as happy as yours?
one orange Porcellionides pruinosus isopod on some rocks and dirt
October 8, 2025 at 5:14 PM
ubalubi.bsky.social
maybe you've seen the anime "Cells at Work!"... i love the idea of humanizing the body's immune cells as a storytelling mechanism, so have my drawing of me as a Commander Helper T cell with a latte and morning CH&M article 📝☕️
a self-portrait of me dressed as Commander Helper T cell from the anime series "Cells at Work!". Sitting in a chair with a latte in a green mug and wearing purple CD4 Hoka shoes. Top right: "Helper T Cell: Top left: "Pumpkin Chai Latte, Tea for a T cell" Bottom left: "Business as Usual (no TCR stim yet). Bottom Middle: "CD4+, What are those..."
October 8, 2025 at 1:53 PM
ubalubi.bsky.social
coffee + reading a paper before work = +1 mental health?
latte in a black mug, ipad with a Cell Host & Microbe article downloaded, flowers in a vase, windows in the background looking upon downtown city streets = immaculate vibes
October 8, 2025 at 1:44 PM
ubalubi.bsky.social
first time making bagels worked out, I think

should I finish my Ph.D. or open a bakery café?
A strawberry rosemary bagel I made this morning, made from strawberries from a local farm in Arkansas. Also made strawberry cream cheese from those strawberries. Background features some plants and a sunny morning window. Foreground text reads: "🍓 from The Cabot Patch." Fresh-out-tha-oven bagels this morning. From a 48-hour dough. All are strawberry bagels, but some have rosemary and salt, some are poppy, and some are plain.
May 13, 2025 at 1:30 PM
ubalubi.bsky.social
Therapist: 10 flow cytometry panels can't hurt you

Me: u right

10 flow cytometry panels: 🤕
A selfie of me with 5 U-bottom 96-well plates across my arm like one of those money flex pics The carnage of 28 hours of flow cytometry - many used pipette tips in a waste bag, pipette tip boxes, used gloves, several many flow antibodies, 5 96-well plates, and lab notes on a lab bench.
May 5, 2025 at 9:09 PM
ubalubi.bsky.social
how lucky am I to live somewhere green
I am always thrilled to look at this little bit of water in the foreground, with a tiny bit of dirt and rocks large enough to support the growth of a bush of some kind. Trees and long grasses behind it. I like rocks and water together. It's a good combo. Natural grass and trees and about-to-set sunlight.
May 4, 2025 at 1:28 AM
ubalubi.bsky.social
indie bookstore for the win
I'm holding up two books in front of a cute brick shop called Paper Hearts bookstore. The books are "Braiding Sweetgrass" and "The Serviceberry," both authored by Robin Wall Kimmerer.
April 27, 2025 at 2:29 PM
ubalubi.bsky.social
farm fresh, thanks arkansas
A friggin' lot of strawberries. I bit into a fresh strawberry, and there was a prize inside. Extra protein!
April 22, 2025 at 11:01 PM
ubalubi.bsky.social
First morning pre-conference accomplishments:

✔️ support local coffee shop

✔️ talk with some locals and learn a lot

✔️ freeze balls off in beautiful rainy windy weather
A wanted poster for seaturtle sightings on a wooden post. I'm on a dock acting a fool. Railroad Ave. street sign, and the back of a road sign with a lot of street art stickers on it! Pie in the Sky Bakery ambiance.
April 13, 2025 at 3:36 PM
ubalubi.bsky.social
Apparently, it's good for your mental health to look at plants. At this rate, I'll carry a plant around with me everywhere.

+ a cute little jumping spider joined me during lunch :)
A small jumping spider on my arm. I put them on a nearby bush. Some purple and white tulips at a garden on campus. Overcast outside right now.
March 28, 2025 at 6:23 PM
ubalubi.bsky.social
Spring Break = reading a paper in the hallway instead of at my lab desk :D
An article about generating bine marrow chimaëric mice on a sunlit table + my green peach tea in a white mug with a lighthouse on it + a sedum plant in a mason jar.
March 24, 2025 at 3:05 PM
ubalubi.bsky.social
Until a candle exists that smells exactly like falling rain, I will continue to jog during drizzles. Plus, the view is great 🌧
A wet asphalt-paved path leading off into the distance alongside a road. Green grass and leafless trees border both sides. The sun is low in the sky, slightly covered by rainclouds. It reflects off the wet pavement.
March 23, 2025 at 11:37 PM
ubalubi.bsky.social
Love a 5pm latte

+ a drawing of shoes that 5pm me didn't realize would take 2 hours to draw... poorly.

time to set up a camera and be my own shoe model 🙄
A hot latte with foam art in the shape of many hearts. + a drawing on my iPad of a person's legs without the shoes drawn in yet. Ugh.
March 23, 2025 at 1:46 AM
ubalubi.bsky.social
Stand up for Science. Today's talks in Arkansas were uplifting and beautiful. @standupforscience.bsky.social
selfie + several other nerds. Our views do not represent the views of our workplaces. The front of my sign: "I'm a scientist, ask me about my research." My hair is disheveled. The back of my sign: "Malaria. 263 million infections/year, 597,000 deaths/year, 76% of deaths are children. The world needs USAID." My views are my own and in no way whatsoever associated with my workplace. My mom asked for a selfie.
March 7, 2025 at 9:15 PM
ubalubi.bsky.social
Eulalie:
Rat Clenches Fist of Rage
February 28, 2025 at 4:08 PM
ubalubi.bsky.social
drawin' some weiner dogs
my drawing, 4 dachshunds wandering about on a cobblestone road
February 27, 2025 at 2:36 PM
ubalubi.bsky.social
a rose syrup latte to celebrate a day of love 🌹
A rose syrup latte with steamed milk art in a black mug on a wooden table. Two clay pots behind it.
February 14, 2025 at 3:51 PM
ubalubi.bsky.social
A flying swan latte art to celebrate the International Day of Woman and Girls in Science 🧪

+ the most basic components of drawing an icosahedron for my next big project
A regular latte with steamed milk art in a black mug. The milk was poured in the shape of a flying swan. Behind it is my iPad, I'm starting to draw an icosahedron (just a circle, some triangles, and some trapezoids.
February 11, 2025 at 3:42 PM
ubalubi.bsky.social
Time for a reset and a good morning. Enjoy this macrophage full of Coxiella burnetii + a lovely reg'lar latte
A latte with steamed milk art in a black mug on a white marbled table. Behind it is my iPad and a drawing of my interpretation of a macrophage (immune cell type, colored blue) with a vesicle full of Coxiella burnetii bacteria (colored red). The café is lit with an overcast morning glow.
February 10, 2025 at 1:42 PM
ubalubi.bsky.social
final seminar prep going well ✨️ + another beautiful lavender #latte
In a café. A latte with steamed milk art in a black mug. Behind it on a wood table is my iPad open to a seminar presentation I'll give later. And a desk plant named Millie. The title of the presentation reads: "Malaria is the deadliest parasitic diseases in the world." The text reads (in bullet points): -caused by Plasmodium parasites. Spread by Anopheles mosquito vectors. -5 species infect humans (P. falciparum, P. vivax, P. ovale, P. malariae, P. knowlesi). -2023: threatens nearly half the global population. 263 million infections. 597,000 deaths. 76% of deaths are children under the age of 5. There is an image from the CDC - DPDx website of Plasmodium trophozoite-infected red blood cells in a thin blood smear on the slide.
February 6, 2025 at 5:34 PM
ubalubi.bsky.social
what does a little drawing of a mouse even think about
An iPad Pro drawing on Procreate. It's a sketch of a black mouse with pink feet, ears, nose, and tail. There's a thought bubble with a question mark above its head. What is it thinking about?
February 5, 2025 at 4:22 AM
ubalubi.bsky.social
I need to figure out how to download high-res pics to social media. I thought 350 dpi would be enough...

here are my favorite details, the #merozoites and the Plasmodium blood stage #lifecycle above the Xenomorph's head
A close-up of the drawing in the above post, featuring merozoites coming out of the RBC, as well as some trophozoites within RBCs in the background. A close-up of the drawingninnthe above post, highlighting the Plasmodium blood stage life cycle in lineart. And a better look at the juvenile Xenomorph.
February 4, 2025 at 1:57 PM
ubalubi.bsky.social
I've resolved to make more #art of my favorite organisms: eukaryotic #parasites.

#Plasmodium is the causative agent of #malaria. Its complex life cycle requires replication in blood, which can cause anemia and deadly disease.

As such, I liken Plasmodium to the #Xenomorph. Here's Plasm-ALIEN 🧪
A drawing I made on my iPad Pro. It depicts a Xenomorph juvenile "chest-bursting" from a human red blood cell (RBC). Also emerging from the broken RBC are purple teardrop-shaped Plasmodium parasites. This stage of the parasite is called a "merozoite", which enters the circulation and quickly finds, attaches to, and enters a new red blood cell. One inside, the parasite will become a "ring-stage trophozoite," growing into a mature trophozoite after feeding on RBC globin. The trophozoite will become a "schizont," which undergoes a process of asexual reproduction called "schizogony" to produce more merozoites. The merozoites burst from the RBC, enter the circulation, and thus perpetuate the blood stage life cycle. I depicted this process with lineart in the red cloud above the Xenomorph's head. Behind the scene is a background of a Giemsa-stained thin blood smear slide under a light microscope. I frequently read slides like this in the laboratory. There are red blood cells infected with blood stage Plasmodium parasites. Above the Xenomorph is a title which reads "Plasm-ALIEN" in roughly the same font as the movies.
February 4, 2025 at 12:52 PM
ubalubi.bsky.social
just broke off an arm of my sedum succulent.

close enough, welcome back Hallucigenia
A long branch of a sedum succulent broke off of the main parent plant, lying sideways. Also on the table is a Pink Slush Alani Nu energy drink, and a mason jar containing the parent plant. The plant has many spiky leaves. A doodle of a Cambrian-era animal called a Hallucigenia. It has many legs and many spikes, and to me, resembles the broken branch of the sedum plant.
January 28, 2025 at 7:04 PM
ubalubi.bsky.social
lattes are a favorite luxury
A handmade latte with steamed milk poured in the classic latte art shape of a swan.
January 25, 2025 at 3:39 PM