Comics
One Ome To Rule Them All
ARTIST
VALÉRIE MINELLI
Valérie Minelli is a comics creator from Luxembourg, living in Germany. She writes and draws the international web comic Mrs.Frollein to induce love and happiness. She studied art and communication design in Saarbrücken, focusing on comics. Since 2021, she has been teaching “Comics and Graphic Novels” at the evening school of the University of Fine Arts Saar, in hope to get people of all ages to draw comics. Whenever she isn’t producing comics, Minelli likes to draw illustrations for children’s books or fangirls her current favorite band.
Location
Saarbrücken, Germany
Artistic Focus
Slice of life webcomics
Contributions to LUX:plorations:
One Ome To Rule Them All
Modern Talking
Zamara & Yso Comics
Design Zamara & Yso
Portraits for LUX:plorations Vol. 1
Cover Illustrations of LUX:plorations Vol. 1
Why did you participate in LUX:plorations?
“I sometimes feel that Luxembourg isn’t using its full comic potential. So whenever I hear about a comic project, I gladly join in!”
What did you like most about LUX:plorations?
“The best thing was working together with so many interesting and nice people, that were always tolerant whenever I didn’t understand something.”
What was the biggest challenge for you?
“The biggest challenge was probably to get everything done in time. Everyone had a full schedule but still fully committed to the project. So sometimes we wrote mails and drew comics way after midnight in order to produce the result everyone aspired for.”
SCIENTISTS/AUTHORS
MICHELA BERNINI
Michela is doing her PhD at Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine in the Integrative Cell Signalling group. Her field of study is Parkinson’s disease and she is focused on the multi-scale characterization of the development of iPSCs, which carry specific mutations related to this pathology.
Research Focus
Parkinson’s disease
Affiliation
Integrative Cell Signaling Group,
Luxmebourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine (LCSB),
University of Luxembourg
Contributions to LUX:plorations:
One Ome To Rule Them All
Why did you participate in LUX:plorations?
“I have always been passionate about drawings, visual communication and storytelling, especially if related to science. Moreover, I would love to work in the scientific divulgation in my future career. Therefore, I thought this would be the perfect chance to learn how to merge my passions and learn something I’ve always been fascinated and curious about.”
What did you like most about LUX:plorations?
“I truly enjoyed the structure and organization of the assignments, it helped a lot to proceed with the comic production step by step and I enjoyed focusing and going into deep details on the different aspects.”
What was the biggest challenge for you?
“Everything was really enjoyable and pleasant for me, maybe the start was the most challenging part as it might be difficult to come up with an idea for a divulgative comic together with someone who has a different background. But I think this was also one of the motivating aspects of our comic!”
ALI KISHK
Ali is working on the metabolism of some diseases using computer simulations. He tries to predict how to re-use approved drugs for other diseases such as COVID-19 and glioma.
Research Focus
Metabolic Modeling
Affiliation
Systems Biology Group, Department of Life Sciences and Medicine (DLSM)
University of Luxembourg
Contributions to LUX:plorations:
One Ome To Rule Them All
Why did you participate in LUX:plorations?
“As a kid, science shows built a motivation for me to get into research. I hope learning science communication through comics, would allow me to simplify my work to kids and teenagers. “
What did you like most about LUX:plorations?
“Group creativity in developing the comic from a basic idea to a colorful comic with living characters.”
What was the biggest challenge for you?
“Choosing the most scientifically accurate analogy for the comic characters and theme.”
MENTOR
JESSICA BURTON
Jessica Burton is a researcher at the Luxembourg Centre for Contemporary and Digital History (C2DH), working on the relationship between European comic transfers in the 1960s within the Popkult60 project. She previously worked as a comic editor for Titan Comics, on titles such as Doctor Who, before embarking on her PhD. She is a mentor for LUX:plorations, wrote the comics “What is a Phd?” as well as “Zamara & Yso’s Space Odyssey” and teaches classes on comics history at the University.
Research Focus
Comics, History, Cross-cultural Transfers, Popular Culture
Contributions to LUX:plorations:
What Is a PhD?
Zamara & Yso’s Space Odissey
It’s About Time!
One Ome To Rule Them All
The Future Is Now
Beware the Eye in the Sky
Becoming an Agent of Change
Chronicles from Platform 6
Inside the Solar Cell
Microglia: Guardians of the Brain?
Why did you participate in LUX:plorations?
“I truly believe in the power of comics to inform and educate, so jumped at the chance to help fellow doctoral candidates learn how to tell their research through comics form.”
What did you like most about LUX:plorations?
“Watching the doctoral candidates work on their ideas and seeing them engage with the artists for an amazing end product.”
What was the biggest challenge for you?
“Finding the balance between suggesting ideas and allowing participants maximum creativity.”
SUPERVISOR
SERGE HAAN
Serge Haan is a professor of biological chemistry in the Department of Life Sciences and Medicine (DLSM) at the University of Luxembourg. His research in the Molecular Disease Mechanisms Group focusses on molecular disease mechanisms associated with the development and metastasis of colon cancer: how do cancer cells develop resistance to treatment and how do they interact with their microenvironment? His strong interest in communicating science to the public led to his founding the DESCOM project.
Research Focus
Molecular Disease Mechanisms, Cellular Signaling
Contributions to LUX:plorations:
One Ome To Rule Them All
Was it Really About Nature?
Inside the Solar Cell
A Gut Feeling
Why did you participate in LUX:plorations?
“I like thinking about how to break down difficult scientific content into understandable communications. It is actually a fun challenge and I consider it a duty of a University to reach out to the public.”
What did you like most about LUX:plorations?
“The dynamic of the entire team is excellent. Everybody is extremely motivated and we are all working towards the same goal.”
What was the biggest challenge for you?
“The remote work on such an interactive process with many discussions around the details in the graphics was a challenge. However, it turned out to work quite well in the end.”