Elisa Galliano
@elisagalliano
Neurobiologist, serial immigrant, scientist, teacher, espresso addict, bookworm, glomeruli enthusiast. She/Her/Dr. Portrait by a former student. Cambridge, UK
Rich pickings today on the department free stuff table. Almost archeological, I would say. Cambridge people, be quick and snap it up before it's gone!
After almost 5 yrs, @ailiemcwhinnie.bsky.social hang up up her patch pipettes. Devastated to see her fly the nest but bursting with pride as she takes up a Maria Leptin @embo.org Science journalism Fellowship hosted by @science.org 🤯 World, get ready for the unleashing of her insane comms talent 🚀
Experimental conditions today: heatwave + electricity blackout across half the city ⚫🥵 Panel A lab: dark, silent, slowly turning into a sensory deprivation chamber besides for heath sensing Panel B nearby pub: own generator, AC, WiFi, cold beers. Choosing was really not that hard 🍻
Huge congratulations to Dr Gadiwalla @neurosana.bsky.social for "defending" her thesis in Iceland on Monday. I was hoping for Viking swords & saga-level battle, but alas only intellectual sparring ⚔️🇮🇸 Thanks to superb "opponents" @neurovenki.bsky.social @inchinn.bsky.social & main supervisor Petur🥂
In the middle of the hottest may ever, this also happened last week 🥵🤩 Congratulations Dr McWhinnie, you made it out of PhD jail *and* you survived 30°C in synthetic gown and hood full regalia 💯💪 @ailiemcwhinnie.bsky.social
Berlin is always a treat, but this time even more so thanks to the top-notch hosting from @liviadehoz.bsky.social and her lab 💯 So much incredible neuroscience, art, food… but the coolest thing had to be hearing Danionella vocalisations, courtesy of @benjulab.bsky.social 🐟🎙️
Yesterday was @camneuro.bsky.social annual meeting and after a day full of science this is how they fed us. An no, not an April Fools joke or AI generated, just your "standard conference dinner" at Queens’ College because… Cambridge 😳 Back to tea room lunches now, dreaming of our Cinderella night 🏰
Pablo's @neuropablo.bsky.social data blitz talk was worth delaying lunch for at the Cambridge Neuroscience Annual Meeting! Chapeau to him and his lab supervisor Chloe 🎩🔥 @camneuro.bsky.social @chloeg-neuro.bsky.social
Southbank with @fim.bsky.social, feeling daft because we sort of got lost in our old stomping ground, but also like the last 10+years did not happen... Bit of art, bit of coffee at Monmouth, and a proper chin wag: living life like it's 2014!
Finally got around to updating the website with some rather important news: @ailiemcwhinnie.bsky.social passed her PhD viva with flying colours, and @annelisepaupiah.bsky.social has joined as a postdoc ✨ Not used to such speedy changes, things in Cambridge normally require a few centuries to move 😁
Spent the last couple of days in Rotterdam 🇳🇱 revisiting my villain origin story 😈🧠 Funny how the big things have changed over the last decade, the small ones in the lab absolutely haven’t, en de mensen zijn nog steeds mijn andere familie
Brief respite from Cambridge’s aggressively pretty medieval stones
From our lab to yours, happy holidays and best wishes for a great start of 2026 🎄🎆✨ @chloeg-neuro.bsky.social @connordoyle.bsky.social @harinw.bsky.social @edinagulacsi.bsky.social @neurosana.bsky.social @ailiemcwhinnie.bsky.social @neuropablo.bsky.social @tess-stanley.bsky.social
Cambridge folks, last 2025 NeuroTalk 🧠🍻 Shameless lab nepotism, with @ailiemcwhinnie.bsky.social inviting @harinw.bsky.social to give a xmas-themed talk🎄 He’s already showing a shocking lack of talent with this boring, poorly written abstract, clearly only invited because he knows the right people 😉
Turns out that when you have great students, the biggest obstacle to giving PhD theses feedback isn't the content, or the synchronized deadlines. It's the feline co-supervisor who insists in contributing right to the bitter end 📖🐈⬛😬 @neurosana.bsky.social @ailiemcwhinnie.bsky.social
New @pnas.org paper led by my brilliant colleague & mentor Sue Jones 🎉 Estrogen drives plasticity in kisspeptin neurons during a developmental critical window, shaping how the female brain regulates fertility. Congrats to Yuanxin + Leonie & Lauren, happy to have played a tiny part shorturl.at/bItti
Posters printed (5x), talks made (2x), symposia chairing ironed out (2x), preprint posted (1x), whole lab on board (7x): 𝐁𝐢𝐥𝐛𝐚𝐨, 𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐰𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞! #ECRO2025 🇪🇸🧠👃 ecro2025.com @chloeg-neuro.bsky.social @harinw.bsky.social @connordoyle.bsky.social @ailiemcwhinnie.bsky.social @neurosana.bsky.social
Straight out of a black-and-white Hollywood classic 🖤🤍🐾 #caturday
I mean, what better way to cherish your friend than dragging them to Cambridge to gift them a printed copy of your PhD thesis?! Slightly megalomaniac, but also kinda cute 🫠 @lihuang.bsky.social @adorrego.bsky.social
The Latin has been spoken, hands held, gown hooded with new colours 🔴 Congratulations to 𝗗𝗿 𝗛𝘂𝗮𝗻𝗴 @lihuang.bsky.social on finally escaping postgraduate prison 🎓🎉
Me (July 2024): yay, one year of sabbatical leave!! I will emerge rested, renewed, caught up with the literature, 3 papers deep ✨💪📚 Me (July 2025):
In this lab, we dress like our slides: bright, sharp, slightly animated, and with a dash of surrealism 🟡🎨 Well done to @harinw.bsky.social for smashing his talk at the 30th UK Semiochemistry Workshop, and to all the PhD speakers in his session for a stellar set of presentations 👏
6/ PS Aaron Seitz’s piece from the same special issue is also already online, read the two short articles together to get a better feel of what was obsessively discussed for six weeks www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...