Brianne Barker
@bioprofbarker
Immunologist/Virologist teaching and doing research with undergrads at Drew University. 1x Jeopardy Champ. Science communicator podcasting on TWiV and Immune. Duke sports fan and cat mom.
Home from a long and scary day at the vet, where my sweet kitty was diagnosed with a heart disease. A friend works on the same disease in people. The new drug just approved for this disease in cats is a molecule I know of for other research. Life as a scientist is weird sometimes.
When your favorite color is purple, you have been thinking about bat immunology, and you learn to crochet
Someone sent me this…don’t think the poster has an account here or else I would share the post here… Ahhh March Madness
My phone tells me that 9 years ago today, I went to visit the wall of polio, meet Vincent and Dickson, and was a guest on TWiV! Who knew it would become a start to such a fun @microbetv.bsky.social podcast journey!
Lucky that I have Athena (the goddess of wisdom) around to help out
Completed my term as Dept Chair and am now excited to spend more time thinking about science! At conferences for the next week and a half getting my science brain back. :)
Went to @amnh.org for Member Hours last night with a data visualization talk about the new planetarium show and tonight to see a talk/show about the making of the planetarium show. I thought the show was amazing before, but now I am truly in awe. You HAVE to go see it.
My poor cat has learned so many new and exotic swear words in 2025 as she watches me watch/read the news.
It seems as though the most recent episode of “Beyond the Noise” from MicrobeTV was taken down by YouTube for medical misinformation. I haven’t been able to watch the episode but I am pretty upset about this…I had been feeling like podcasting was one thing I was able to do to help but maybe not.
Now interrupting your science content to update on snow in my hometown in upstate NY…(in the middle of a massive snow storm). First pic is a day or so before Christmas…notice the porch on the left side, which has a door to the house. Second pic is the most recent they’ve sent out that door…
Was just looking at the Cell Table of Contents in my email and was baffled when I read the title of this paper. Then I realized that the second word was not “poutine”
Also, as I get ready for being all Ms. Frizzle while delivering this lecture (How can you teach “Cells and Organs of the Immune System” without props?), I seem to be short a basophil. Perhaps this will help my allergies
Grades for the semester are in. Current feelings remind me of this molting penguin from South Africa last year. Now to start attacking all of the other things on my plate.
Travel day…sad to leave my spring break vacation and head back to finish the semester
One of many great parts of the Jeopardy experience is getting to meet the other contestants! When I got home this time, I realized I had been hanging out with the author of a book I find really useful! Check out Laura’s book!
In Spring 2022, I got the call to be on Jeopardy to air in July 2022. And I won! It truly was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Except...I was invited back to be a part of the Champions Wildcard Tournament in the Hearts Bracket earlier this month!! ♥️ I will be on Jeopardy again on this coming Friday!