Harnessing our lived experience for science communication

Thanks to Nature Reviews Immunology for the chance to write about incorporating our lived experiences into effective science communication! A few tips on making your science communication effective and accessible to everyone:

First, find your passion! Reach out to the communities that you have connections to, and use a medium that you enjoy. You don't need to be an extravert to do public engagement! If you prefer to interact online, do so - there are audiences that want it. Content creation without any face-to-face interaction such as VirusFighter sci-comms too!

Second, harness your lived experience! Being slotted into a generic event that doesn't resonate with your life is a major turn-off. Using your identity in your comms builds the authenticity that audiences respond to, e.g. my efforts writing kids books, like Maya's Marvellous Medicine, are rooted in my life experience as a daddy.

Third, find collaborators with complementary skills. If you have a vision for an innovative outreach project, the talent is around you to make it happen! Those kids books needed artistic talent, via Sonia Agüera Gonzalez, our computer game needed coding expertise, via Simon Andrews, and our next project started after a chat in the pub revealed the talents of Yulia Lapko!

Finally, look to extend your reach! Taking a pro-active approach to inclusivity dramatically extends your impact. Look to reach the communities that are usually overlooked, such as Erica Tandori and her drive to make sciart accessible to the blind and low vision community through Sensory Science!

That's TV Cambridge interview

My interview on Sensory Science for That's TV Cambridge.

Key point: Science is for everyone, the benefits of science are for everyone, so science communication needs to be for everyone.

VirusFighter

VirusFighter at the Cambridge Festival! The kids had a blast, maybe try it yourself? Want to be in the driving seat as UK Prime Minister during the COVID pandemic? Make real-time decisions based on the information available and watch the pandemic play out. Or maybe you are keen to genetically-engineer a virus to prevent the UK being overrun by invasive wombats? Give it a shot!

Sensory Science on the BBC

Cambridge University sensory-science art for people with sight loss

By Kate Bradbrook and Helen Burchell

BBC News, Cambridgeshire

Art exploring science and created for people with sight loss is on show as part of a festival organised by Cambridge University.

Sensory Science, at St Catharine's College, is part of the Cambridge Festival, which explores aspects of research carried out at the university and is open to the public.

Scientists at the Department of Pathology worked with local artists to create pieces to communicate science.

The festival runs until 28 March.

Sensory Science is the brainchild of Dr Erica Tandori, a low-vision artist based in Melbourne, Australia.

She was diagnosed with Stargardt disease - a form of macular dystrophy - when she was 23, and trained in creative arts and scientific communication.

"I'm an artist that's absolutely in love with science," she said.

"The whole idea of making things multi-sensory brings knowledge to life and makes it more accessible to everyone."

The pieces on show include lights and music and "is about all of us - cells and the immune system - and it should be available to all of us".

Together with Prof Jamie Rossjohn from Monash University in Australia, Dr Tandori saw the need for science communication to reach the blind and low-vision community.

She also worked with Prof Adrian Liston, professor of pathology at Cambridge University, who said: "The really unique aspect about this particular event is that we're really going for a multi-sensory approach.

"This involves not just the visual but auditory soundscapes, tactile maps, smell - other ways of communicating concepts.

"The aim is to make this as inclusive as possible.

"Using multiple senses is obviously a huge advantage if you want to include the blind and low-vision community."

Dr Julia Johnson, from Anglia Ruskin University, worked on the project with art and pathology students.

"We're looking at art's value in addressing some of the topics here," she said.

"We're thinking about how art can act as a communication tool for engaging audiences.

"Through a very sensory and tactile approach, young people and low-vision audiences can understand more about scientific models."

Read the article online here

Sensory Science

Liston-Dooley lab at the Cambridge Festival!

Our lab is gearing up for the Cambridge Festival! A lot of amazing activities, with something for everyone, so hopefully everyone in Cambridge can come and join at least one of these.

First of all, for our youngest visitors come along to a book reading of our kids books "Maya's Marvellous Medicine" and "Battle Robots of the Blood". We'll have some colouring in too, to keep them busy.

For kids a little older, Family Day at Pathology has a ton of activities! Our lab is hosting a display of "VirusFighter". See how your kids would have done as PM during the pandemic, or test whether they can successfully engineer a bioweapon to stop an invasion of wombats! (They can also play online now!)

 For all ages, we have a real treat, Sensory Science. This is a fantastic program that uses multi-sensory art to communicate the science of pathology. Honestly, everyone should come and experience this exhibit at St Catharine's College, the teams have put in so much work into their art piece. Our lab has coordinate the program and is exhibiting new art on neuroinflammation and cancer formation. We are also hosting the amazing Dr Erica Tandori, who started the Sensory Science movement back in Australia, and specialises in making science communication accessible to the blind and low vision community.

Finally, adults interested in the immune system are welcome to join my public seminar on how diversity shapes our immune responses!

Congratulations to Jasmine Hughes!

Congratulations to Jasmine Hughes for her Cook Society Award for dedicating herself to social justice, equality and strengthening the campus community, during her time at Duke University! I'm glad to say she is keeping up the focus during her PhD here at the University of Cambridge!

New positions in the lab!

We are recruiting two new positions, a Postdoctoral Research Scientist and a Research Laboratory Technician, to join our lab! 

This translational research project aims to develop novel technologies for treating neuroimmunology into clinic-ready molecules. You will contribute to the optimisation of therapeutics for brain delivery to patients, as part of the commercialisation pathway for a recently developed neuroinflammation treatment (Yshii et al, Nature Immunology 2022). The laboratory is an inclusive, international and diverse team, supportive of your personal and career development. A positive approach to kind and collaborative interactions with the team is essential! You will benefit from the collaborative and collegial environment of the laboratory, and potential career growth opportunities within the laboratory and within the developing spin-off company Aila Biotech are possible for a successful post-holders. 

The Post-doctoral Scientist post would be suitable for a new PhD graduate who is motivated to develop new skills in both neuroimmunology and in commercialisation. The post is designed to result in scientific publications and patent applications. Post-doctoral Scientist's apply here.

The Research Laboratory Technician post would be suitable for a candidates from a range of backgrounds, such as experience in animal handling, or a basic laboratory experience, or a Masters-level degree in immunology, neuroscience, or a related field. Applicants are not expected to enter with the full range of these skills or experiences. Research Laboratory Technician's apply here.

Congratulations Dr Julika Neumann!

Congratulations to the amazing Dr Julika Neumann, who just graduated from the lab, as our final Belgian PhD!

Julika secretly did two PhDs rather than one, with an outstanding clinical immunology PhD where she discovered a new immunodeficiency (and won the Golden Pipette!) and another systems immunology project on SARS-CoV2, with the first paper published and several systems vaccinology papers coming out soon!

Julika was a talented immunologist and bioinformatician, but above all an exceptional team-player and detail-orientated fixer. We all congratulate Julika on an exceptional PhD and her positive impact on all of those around her over the past four years. All the best Julika!

2023 lab retreat re-cap

We just completed a very successful lab retreat, this year held at St Catharine's College, Cambridge. It was perfect timing, with our new students starting and getting to meet the entire team, not to mention getting incredible feedback from everyone on their new projects. I'm so proud to be a part of such an amazing team of scientists!

I started by recapping the successes of the lab in 2023 - and there have been plenty! 16 papers published so far this year (and another 12 submitted!), ~£1.5m brought into the department in grants and fellowships, our spin-off company Aila Biotech getting into an accelerator program, and successful alumni moving on to great things! But we run the lab retreat for the future, not the past. Two full days of exciting science, from projects right at the conceptual phase through to projects that have matured and need the finishing touches. Of course it wouldn't be a lab retreat with the presentation of the Golden Pipette! This year's went to Amy Dashwood, a talented scientist and a positive influence on team culture. 

We had great team building exercises too! We had to guess each person's pathway to becoming a scientist, picking out baby photos and origin story, matching up role-models to teenage pictures, and picking out the motivation for each lab member to be in science today. Plus a set of AI-generated limericks for each person, and social activities from a pub lunch to walks through the Cambridge botanic gardens and museums. 

I also really appreciated having our external guests come in to give their wisdom to the team, and it was especially nice that many of our external experts are lab alumni!