Motor control neuroscience researcher @University of St Andrews
Also illustrating for science! Get in touch if you'd like some art to accompany your research

Beck Xu Ying received a first class BSc in Neuroscience from the University of St Andrews in 2025. They are currently a Masters (by research) student in Neuroscience at the same universityThey have always enjoyed art and figure-making for effective visual communication. Feeling disgruntled about the uptick in AI art in academia, they have recently started using their experience in freelance illustration for scientific communication. If you are interested in a commission, get in touchCheck out their work below ⤵

Animals in Neuroscience

Cartoons / Diagrams / Schematics

Art made for the Zebrafish Disease Models Society SciArt Competition 2026 - won Honorable Mention

Art made to illustrate different spinal neurons active during slow vs dynamic movements in larval zebrafish

Art made for Xu-Ying et al (2026) J Exp Biol. Illustrates Tribolium life cycle, surgical dissections and graphical abstract

Editorial

Editorial art made for The Saint, the St Andrews student newspaper

Other Illustrations

Contact

Interested in working with me? Get in touch:
[email protected]

Terms of service + pricing

Beck Xu Ying received a first class BSc in Neuroscience from the University of St Andrews in 2025. They are currently a Masters (by research) student in Neuroscience at the same universityThey are interested in motor control neuroscience, specifically how brainstem and spinal cord circuits generate locomotion, and how this is shaped by context such as environment, internal states, and neuromodulationThey use electrophysiology, imaging, staining and behaviour to study cells, circuits and systems across species e.g. Xenopus, Drosophila, Tribolium

Things they're up to ⤵

Projects

Current

Neurons exhibiting anti-motor activity in a vertebrate brainstem

During my MSc, I am looking at brainstem control of locomotion in Xenopus tadpoles. In the rostral hindbrain, there is a nuclei of neurons whose activity correlates negatively with locomotion, which we have termed "antimotor". I am using calcium imaging, whole-cell patch-clamp electrophysiology, anatomical staining and functional experiments to characterise cell activity, firing properties, synaptic currents, morphology and function

A connectome of the Tribolium larval brain and nerve cord

I am involved in a project in collaboration with Prof Albert Cardona at the MRC LMB in Cambridge to create an EM connectome of the larval Tribolium brain. I develop and perform microdissections of first instar larvae (800um) to be sent for FIB-SEM

Previous

Simultaneous whole-cell recording and calcium imaging to reveal electrically coupled neurons in Xenopus tadpoles

During my BSc thesis project, I combined whole-cell electrophysiology and calcium imaging to develop a novel method for revealing neuronal populations coupled by gap junctions in Xenopus. This project is now published as a first-author paper in eNeuro

Dopamine promotes motor programs underlying substrate tunnelling in larval Drosophila

I helped investigate context-dependent dopaminergic modulation of locomotion in larval Drosophila. I used behavioural optogenetics to show that activating/inhibiting a group of dopamine neurons (TH neurons) alters ongoing behaviour depending on the animal's current actions. This project is now published as a co-first author paper in Journal of Neurophysiology

Context-dependent coordination of movement in Tribolium castaneum larvae

For my IBANS funded project, I characterised the gait and adaptive behaviours of the limbed larval form of the pest beetle Tribolium castaneum. Using novel behavioural assays, kinematic analysis and surgical manipulations, I found that descending input and effective thoracic-abdominal coordination are essential for neuroethological behaviours like tunnelling. This project is now published as a first-author paper in Journal of Experimental Biology, along with an ECR Spotlight and That's TV interview

Briefly

The role of pentylenetetrazol on a Xenopus seizure modelI performed whole-brain calcium imaging on Xenopus tadpoles to assess activity changes under the seizure-inducing drug PTZ

Locomotor dysfunction in a larval Drosophila model of ALSI looked at ontogenetic temperature effects on locomotion by analysing behaviour in a Drosophila larval model of ALS with muscle overexpression of TBPH (TDP-43 orthologue)

Publications

Dopamine promotes motor programmes underlying substrate tunnelling in larval Drosophila
*MacLeod, J., *Xu-Ying, B., Zwart, M. F. and Pulver, S. R.
Journal of Neurophysiology, 2026    Link

Simultaneous whole-cell recording and calcium imaging does not reveal electrically coupled neurons in Xenopus tadpoles
Xu-Ying, B., Zwart, M. F. and Li, W.-C.
eNeuro, 2026    Link

Context-dependent coordination of movement in Tribolium castaneum larvae
Xu-Ying, B., Zwart, M. F. and Pulver, S. R.
Journal of Experimental Biology, 2025    Link

Presentations

Neurons exhibiting "anti-motor" activity in a vertebrate brainstem
Poster - FENS
Barcelona, Spain; July 2026Neurons exhibiting "anti-motor" activity in a vertebrate brainstem
Poster - The Dynamics of Motor Control Symposium
Barcelona, Spain; July 2026Neurons exhibiting “anti-motor” activity in a vertebrate brainstem
Talk - Neural Circuits of Behaviour Seminar
St Andrews, UK; June 2026Simultaneous whole-cell recording and calcium imaging for revealing electrically coupled neurons in Xenopus tadpoles
Poster - Scottish Neuroscience Postgraduate Conference
St Andrews, UK; April 2026Developing a new approach for revealing electrical synapses in Xenopus tadpoles
Talk - Invited Seminar
Edinburgh, UK; November 2025Context-specific coordination of movement in Tribolium castaneum larvae
Talk - Motor Control: Spinal Circuits & Beyond Conference
St Andrews, UK; June 2025   LinkDopamine promotes motor programmes underlying substrate tunnelling in larval Drosophila
Poster - Motor Control: Spinal Circuits & Beyond
St Andrews, UK; June 2025Context-specific coordination of movement in Tribolium castaneum larvae
Poster - SfN
Chicago, USA; October 2024Neural control of movement in Tribolium castaneum larvae
Poster - FENS
Vienna, Austria; June 2024Neural control of movement in Tribolium castaneum larvae
Poster - Motor Control Across Scales Symposium
Vienna, Austria; June 2024

With generous support from

Example pricing

StylePrice
Illustrations / diagrams from reference£10+ (single) £30+ (multiple)
Graphical abstracts£100+
Journal covers£200+

Terms of service

  • All of my illustrations are for personal use only - you can use them in your figures, thesis, paper, talks, etc but never sell them for profit or use them to train AI

  • If you use my illustrations, you must credit me in your thesis/paper (eg acknowledgements, figure legend) and talks (citation under figure eg "Image credit: Bella Xu Ying")

  • Payments are discussed upon contact; if you are in the UK, I will provide bank details

  • Please plan ahead! Illustrations take time, if you need some by a certain deadline, please contact at least a few weeks in advance! Additional fees may be applied for earlier deadlines

Usual timeline

  1. Client contacts me via email / phone / social media. In their initial correspondence, they should include details regarding: type of commission, species, purpose, deadlines etc

  2. I reply to the client to discuss the commission and payment. If I don't respond within 24h, please message me again

  3. Once the commission is agreed upon, client pays in full (can be partial if it is a bigger project)

  4. After receiving payment, I will have a sketch done within 1-2 weeks and send it for review

  5. After review and potential changes, commissions will be completed within another 1-2 weeks depending on commission type and other time commitments (GAs and covers will take longer)

  6. The completed commission will be emailed as high quality (300dpi) .pngs (including transparent versions if asked for)

  7. The client is then free to use the art in their work, but they must credit me as stated above in Point 2 of TOS