Writing a paper represents the ultimate step of our work, the jewel on top of our scientific crown. We condense years of experiments, failures, hypothesis and models in a few-page-long manuscript and the impact of our research depends on how good we write it. Unfortunately, I will admit I’ve always been intimidated by writing. Whether …
News: Hugo wins best poster!
Congrats to Hugo Åkerstrand for winning the price for best poster at the EMBO B cell development and leukemia meeting in Salamanca, Spain! Well done Hugo!!!
Editing a manuscript
Stijn and I are in the process of editing a manuscript that has been a looong time in the making. We had submitted it for the first time last summer to a prestigious journal and, after extensive review, it was ultimately rejected. The four reviewers' comments were fair and, after briefly licking our wounds, we …
A PCR is like an apple pie
In our lab we always say: If you can bake a cake, you can do PCR😊. Just follow the instructions for the desired chemical reaction. Mix all the ingredients and put it into the oven/PCR machine. But don´t forget to add Taq polymerase/baking powder. Karin's latest PCR gel Back in the late eighties, or maybe …
How I start writing
When I entered biomedical research as a PhD student, I had no idea that writing would play such an instrumental part in my career. Luckily, my PhD advisor drilled into me the importance of writing from day one (Thanks Tim!). Now that I am a PI, writing is practically all I do. In the creative …
The case for starting a blog
During our last annual Yuan lab retreat (November 2018) we discussed the good the bad and the ugly of social media and how we, as a research team as well as individual scientists, should engage this immense digital space. The conclusion was both unanimous and somewhat unexpected. I had thought, despite my reluctance to enter …
