Lorna Milne

I just really miss messina

Flyer of the Matrix Biology Europe conference listing invited speakers

Registration for #MBE2026 is now open!
Join us in Oulu 🇫🇮 for the flagship European meeting dedicated to fundamental #ECM research.
ECRs and trainees, this is a unique chance to connect with leaders in the field, present your work, gain visibility, and build your network!
More at www.mbe2026.org

Registration for this years @bmvbs.bsky.social meeting is now open! We're running an ECR development day featuring talks from funders (including BBSRC, @kidneyresearchuk.org & BHF) & a careers panel with speakers from a range of backgrounds!! ➡️ new.microcirculation.org.uk/events

95th Harden Conference: Linking Golgi trafficking and glycan function in Blackburn, UK, 23-26 June 2026. Super earlybird deadline 23 March 2026

The 95th Harden Conference: Linking Golgi trafficking and glycan function taking place 23-26 June 2026 will bring together glycobiologists with the membrane trafficking community to kickstart new collaborations. Learn more here: https://ow.ly/9Eex50YguUY

Join us for another exciting seminar on February 26th! 🔬
This month's speakers Dr. Matt Jones and his PhD student Nikita Mildren will cover ECM adhesion across the cell cycle!
Register by scanning the QR code or via the link: forms.gle/bkwmfwSsuKrt...

A win for NURTuRE and the team! 🎉

We’re incredibly proud to share that NURTuRE has won Best Research Partnership and Multisector Partnership of the Year at the Excellence in Healthcare Partnership Awards.

#EHPAwards

This article published on International Day of Women and Girls in Science highlights that papers authored by women spend longer under peer review.

Being aware of this means we can begin to fix it and create an equal system for all 🌟

www.the-scientist.com/women-s-rese...
doi.org/10.1371/jour...

Have a look at our preliminary program, which is now available via the meeting website! 👇 In addition to our fantastic invited speakers, there are lots of slots for presentations selected from abstracts! We‘re looking forward to seeing the matrix community in Heidelberg!

Registration for this years @bmvbs.bsky.social meeting is now open! We're running an ECR development day featuring talks from funders (including BBSRC, @kidneyresearchuk.org & BHF) & a careers panel with speakers from a range of backgrounds!! ➡️ new.microcirculation.org.uk/events

A run of grant rejections = phenomenal iron man training fuel

Dear Sir Paul, Re: Royal Society Code of Conduct I am sure that many scientists have written to you about the specific question of Elon Musk’s Fellowship and whether, under the Royal Society’s Code of Conduct, his retaining that Fellowship is appropriate. I will not rehash these issues. Instead, as a female scientist with extensive experience of activities aiming to increase equality, diversity and inclusion in the engineering and physical sciences sector, I am writing to you (in a personal capacity) to ask you to reconsider the statements you have recently made in this context to the UK press about the Royal Society’s Code of Conduct and how it is applied. A 2018 report from the joint National Academies of the United States of America, concluded that “sexual harassment is common in academic science, engineering, and medicine” and that “greater than 50 percent of women faculty and staff and 20–50 percent of women students encounter or experience sexually harassing conduct in academia”. This report described codes of conduct that make clear that sexual harassment is unethical and will not be tolerated as a “powerful incentive for change”. The authors also noted that sexual harassment can have significant and damaging effects on the integrity of research. In my own praxis, I have found that clear and consistently-implemented codes of conduct that address these issues make female scientists and engineers safer, and allow them to focus more effectively on their research. For codes of conduct to have such a positive effect, it is vital that sanctions for actions which transgress the code are meaningful and substantial.

I was hence aghast to realise that in an interview with the Financial Times published on 9/1/26, you appear to have suggested that the Royal Society “should only expel fellows if their science proved “faulty or fraudulent or highly defective””. Moreover, in a further interview with the Guardian on 11/1/26 you suggested that the code “may need to be looked at again”, with the implication that your aim would be to remove the option of sanctions on Fellows for reasons not strictly related to faults or defects in their research. I suggest that changing the Royal Society’s code of conduct so that the likelihood of serious sanctions for sexual harassment is reduced, would directly endanger women who interact with the Royal Society at events or otherwise, and would provide a licence to harass to the already powerful people on whom the Society bestows fellowship. The implications of your words - that under your leadership the only infringements of the code which are likely to receive the sanction of the Fellowship being removed are those related to research misconduct - already risk empowering harassers. You stated, in the Financial Times interview, that “there’s many bad people around, but they have made scientific advances”. Given this awareness of the possibility of bad actors in our scientific community, it is wholly irresponsible to suggest that the Royal Society would not act to sanction these people if they harass more vulnerable scientists. I am hence writing to request that you retract any suggestion that the Society’s Code of Conduct should be changed so that the only reason a Fellow might be sanctioned by the removal of their Fellowship is “faulty or fraudulent or highly defective” research. This action is necessary to safeguard female scientists, a requirement placed on the Society by safeguarding legislation and UK statutory guidance. Yours sincerely, Professor Rachel A. Oliver.

Following coverage over the weekend of Sir Paul Nurse's comments that suggested that the only reason that a Fellow should be expelled from @royalsociety.org is scientific misconduct, I have written to him to explain the risks such an attitude poses of increasing sexual harassment in STEM.

Huge thanks to @kidneyresearchuk.org huk.org for inviting me to speak at their Christmas meeting about my journey into research (aka spotlight my auntie and mum), my work, and what their funding has made possible this past year. Couldn't be more grateful to the charity and its supporters 💜

🌟 Meet Dr Emma Coyne – Consultant Clinical Psychologist in Nottingham's renal transplant unit – as she shows how psychosocial care is embedded across clinics, dialysis units, staff training & service development for people living with kidney disease.

🎥 Watch now: https://youtu.be/XA7WRX7vd8M

Vote today and share with friends and family: Nominate Alport UK for a £1,000 Christmas draw. In the 12 days leading up to Christmas, 120 charities will be awarded £1,000 each. It takes 1 minute to complete tinyurl.com/alportuk

What a way to close the year!!! An amazing webinar dedicated on Glycobiology full of research highlights, advancements, new tools and inspiration!!!! Such a great group of people. Go follow them ⚡@megtriesscience.bsky.social @merrylabnotts.bsky.social @lornamilne.bsky.social @glycoluke.bsky.social

Last chance to register to this webinar and hear from some incredible glycobiologists!!! What are you waiting for? Follow the link: forms.gle/d81MxfYPRbqS...

2 for 2 on grant rejections this week..ouch 🥲

Excited to be invited to share the work of @nottsglycohub.bsky.social with @glycoluke.bsky.social next week! 🤩

Grateful as always for a chance to share my @kidneyresearchuk.org work on multi-omics, SIMS & Alport syndrome at the Matrix Biology Society of Australia and New Zealand (MBSANZ) meeting! Huge appreciation to the tiny town of people that contribute to this work 💜

Beautiful picture looking out of the chemistry building at the University of Freiburg in Freiburg Germany. The old cathedral can be seen in the distance with a backdrop of a blue sky with clouds and distant foothills of the black forrest with fall colors showing through in the trees

picture of the Münster at dawn in the Altstadt of Freiburg, Germany, with a still dark sky in the background and moon over the Münster, in the foreground a well-lit flowers stand can be seen preparing for the daily morning market

I have a PhD position available in my lab at the University of Freiburg!! If you, or someone you know, might be looking for a position using modeling and simulations to uncover secrets in (glyco-)protein structure/function relationships please take a look at our website!
www.kearnslab.org

work life balance, productivity & gelato intake have all severely benefited from this trip

Just under 4 weeks left in Aus and I am DISTRAUGHT at the thought of leaving 🥲

Postdoc at the Copenhagen Center for Glycocalyx Research at the Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine

employment.ku.dk/faculty/?sho...

Hi all! We’re hiring at our brand new Center for Glycocalyx Research, across all areas - but I am also looking for postdocs to join my group specifically!

part 3728293 of how is this my life

Learnt to run a mass spec and now somehow it takes me around the world 🥲

Jane Goodall with monarch butterfly scarf

“It actually doesn’t take much to be considered a difficult woman. That’s why there are so many of us.”
― Jane Goodall

💙 RIP to a real one. My childhood hero

Turns out nobody is exaggerating when they say how brutal the UK > Aus flight is 🥲

This paper was a huge team effort and I could not be more grateful to have worked on such a supportive team for this work. Hopefully this paper serves as an exciting primer for ones that cover the main outcomes of my PhD! (in-situ coming soon!) 4/🧵

Importantly, we assess specificity, precision, robustness and quantification limits to really highlight the power of SIMS as a tool for heparin screening in comparison to existing methods 3/🧵

High sensitivity analysis of nanogram quantities of glycosaminoglycans using ToF-SIMS - Communications Chemistry Glycosaminoglycans are an important class of carbohydrates, but pose substantial analytical challenges. Here ToF-SIMS combined with multivariate analysis distinguishes six classes of glycosaminoglycans, including distinguishing heparin samples from different animal sources at a sensitivity as low as 0.001 wt%

Building on previous work from the lab (tinyurl.com/mr2u695k), we've expanded the number of GAGs that SIMS can discriminate, including heparin contamination up to a sensitivity of 0.001% weight in picograms of material, in spectra acquired in as little as 60 seconds 2/🧵