Images and pictures I have taken over the course of my experiences as a student, a teacher, and a researcher.
Many individuals have shaped me on a personal and professional level. I am thankful to everyone who has contributed to my career. I keep this archive to honor my past and guide me in my future.
As they say on my side of the world, baobab trees need sturdy roots to withstand storms.
“No matter what you do, your work is a reflection of who you are. You may not get the appreciation you believe you deserve in our realm, but know that the heavens and earth will bear witness. ”
whats this ? hint it has to do with my research interest 👀😉
Eden park !
Throwback to my thesis circa 2019. Multiplex Image of the brain. Can you name the different cell type of the brain ? How many cell type do you see in this image ?
Counting nuclei, the good old fashion way Circa 2021 Counting cells for single cell RNA sequencing is a critical step in the workflow, trust me I learned the hard way. We usually use automated cell counter, but. they are not always super accurate, specially with nuclei. We used good old fashion manual hemocytometer (this one was probably older than me ), next we sit on a microscope and manually count every eligible cell (nuclei in this case) and then after a little bit of math we get a fairly accurate count. Much more precise than the automated counter but significantly more time consuming . In this age of high throughput Omics, we must strike a balance between precision and speed.
Amazing view from Fort Tryon, in the upper west side NYC, overlooking the undercliff (New Jersey). I loved running during fall there. What is your favorite place to run ?
Tempus rerum edax. My first time using a DSLR. A airway surgery at Cincinnati University Hospital. circa 2023
a Mass Spectrometry preparation ready to be fed into the our LC MSMS orbitrap for my thesis work. A late week end night circa 2020
Experiment (circa 2020) aiming to optimize the extraction and isolation of nuclei from brains. In this image, each blue dot is a cell nuclei.The nuclei appear blue because we stain them with 4′,6-diamidino-2-phenylindole (aka DAPI). DAPI is known to bind to dsDNA and fluo·resce when exposed to UV light (approx. 400 nm wavelength)
Teaching myself bioinformatics circa 2022! In this picture, I was running Velocyto (LaManno 2018), a pipeline that analyze single cell RNA sequencing data to quantify RNA transcript maturity. Determining the splice/unspliced properties of transcripts can then be used to generate gene expression derivative or "velocity" and model individual cell fate metrics. A good scientist must learn to keep up with new technologies. we living thru an exciting era, the debut of Omics.
Throw back to my time at ImagingDMD. Picture taken at UF Mcknight Brain Institute MRI suite with Naphlim, a fellow researcher. circa 2017
A Micro CT scan !
View from my desk, when I was a grad student. circa 2018 In this image I am looking north from the 9th floor of the Icahn Medical building around 96th and Madison in spanish Harlem in NYC
NYC by night ! Not the greatest picture but one I like none the less. Taken on the observatory floor of one of those fancy skyscrapers.
What is this ? Leave your guesses. Sorry i have not been posting much due to a hyper-busy schedule. i am very excited to some of the future work i ll will hopefully be a part of.
A short higlighting the cellular and molecular complexity of the brain tissue.
My first brain organoid experiment ! Circa end of 2023. My experiment failed because of contamination. 🥲 It was heart wrenching having to discard these beautiful Dorsal Forebrain organoid derived from Embryonic Stem Cells. Failure is part of the process.
having heart ! circa 2018 Experimental images acquired at the Mcknight brain institute at UF. you can see my heart beat using magnetic resonance imaging. Credit: iDMD
Bruker DMX 500 at the University of Cincinnati Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) Facility. This 11T NMR reminds of my time with the amazing researchers and staff at the UF's imagingDMD. Lots of credit card demagnetised.
a Night in a life NYC circa 2022
Gorgeous view of Downtown LA
COVID19 reporting
Electrospinning ! circa 2023 Funny enough my Master thesis heavily used this method, albeit in another analytic framework. More on this later
van gogh immersive experience circa 2022 I thought I saw a couple of nuclei
A pretty clean sample ! circa NYC 2022 Brain cell Nuclei isolated, purified and stained using DAPI. When exited using a UV laser (typically <405 nm), DAPI fluoresce and emits back a approx. 465nm blue light. DAPI is known for its ability to strongly bind to DNA becoming fluorescent, thanks to its small size, it can cross biological membrane and thus is very useful for visualizing the nuclei of cells. In this image we quantified using an automated hemocytometer (cell counter). imagine having to count all this manually.
Post-Cure of a stereolithography (SLA) 3D printed part using UV curing station (around 405nm light). the curing station heats and expose the 3D printed part to UV light , this step is important for reaching the full mechanical properties of the material.
a Scanning Electron Microscope (FEI Aprio LV-SEM) courtesy of UC Advanced Materials Characterization Center (AMCC). This special type of microscope is unique because instead of using light, it relies on focused beams of electrons to produce a very high resolution images.
pyramidal neuron via tau IHC circa 2019 Crary lab
Single cell capture ! a single cell capture experiment circa 2022 NYC Boldrini lab
A Micrograph of a CTE (Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy) brain section (I believe cortical region) stained with IBA1 (gene AIF) Immunohistochemistry. Circa 2019 Grad school NYC Crary lab. Quoting from my Msc. thesis "CTE, also known as dementia pugilistica, was first described as the neurological condition “Punch drunk” affecting boxers (Martland HS 1928). It is suspected heavy and or chronic neurotrauma plays a role in injuring the brain and inducing neurofibrillary degeneration. The neuropathological aspect of CTE is characterized by the presence of pathognomonic perivascular/depth of sulcus focal NFT and a characteristic staging (Mckee et al. 2013, Mckee et al. 2015).". IBA1 is a protein marker (the gene product of AIF) commonly used in neuropathology to label Microglia (the resident immune cells currently crawling around😳 and patrolling your brain). I always wondered how robust of a marker IBA1 truly is. I am aware of some group findings depicting IBA1 positive neurons and its not always the best marker in single cell transcriptomics perhaps due to low transcriptional activity. read more about microglias: -Dermitzakis I, Manthou ME, Meditskou S, Tremblay MÈ, Petratos S, Zoupi L, Boziki M, Kesidou E, Simeonidou C, Theotokis P. Origin and Emergence of Microglia in the CNS-An Interesting (Hi)story of an Eccentric Cell. Curr Issues Mol Biol. 2023 Mar 22;45(3):2609-2628. doi: 10.3390/cimb45030171. PMID: 36975541; PMCID: PMC10047736. -Shichita, T., Ooboshi, H. & Yoshimura, A. Neuroimmune mechanisms and therapies mediating post-ischaemic brain injury and repair. Nat Rev Neurosci (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41583-023-00690-0
Throwback Thursday : A glimpse of neurodegeneration circa 2019. A micrograph of a phosphotau IHC. We can clearly see the outline of a few pyramidal neuron undergoing neurofibrillary degeneration. this image was taken in the Crary lab during my graduate work in NYC.