Anna Kalisvaart

Axonal distribution of mitochondria maintains neuronal autophagy during aging via eIF2β Upregulation of the β subunit of translation initiation factor eIF2 underlies autophagy suppression and premature aging caused by disruption of axonal transport of mitochondria.

🧪Mitochondria control brain aging by ensuring proper protein degradation

Build up of excess proteins, such as amyloid and tau, can lead to Alzheimer's disease. This study shows that loss of mitochondria in axons causes build up of dysfunctional, damaging proteins.

doi.org/10.7554/eLif...

SCIENCE IRL: SciComm mini-grant 2026 Skype a Scientist is offering $300-$1,000 mini-grants to support boots-on-the-ground science communication. The Science IRL mini-grants will support projects that put either 1) important science mess...

Skype-a-scientist does small grants ($300-$1000) for creative #SciComm projects in your local community! You don't have to be a scientist to apply.

docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

🧪 #BlueSci

I bet! That’s a lot to carry at once for one person. But I hope you know how appreciated your lived experience is in our field!

I don’t currently, due to visa limitations, but if you DM me an address, I’d be happy to send a few your way free of charge!

Anything for a fellow stroke researcher 😁

Don’t deprioritize curiosity-driven research Around the world, governments are demanding that research funding follow broader political priorities. They should be careful what they wish for.

“they should be careful not to deprioritize the kind of curiosity-driven, investigator-led research that has a strong track record in advancing humanity’s knowledge, producing the types of innovation that prosperity and well-being depend on.”
🧪 #Research
www.nature.com/articles/d41...

A drawing of me in the hospital bed after my stroke, holding an hourglass with my left hand.

My @bmj.com article about my stroke recovery and the importance of communication by health care professionals, especially around time frames: www.bmj.com/content/391/...

Thank you for taking the time to read it, and for your advocacy as a stroke survivor!

Pleased to share this review by our talented trainee, Geena! Check it out for the latest on #ferroptosis as a treatment target following #stroke 🧠

Lab morale got you down? Try a handbook Documents that lay out a research group’s ethos and practical guidelines are becoming increasingly popular in the academic community.

Scientists across the career spectrum are burnt out, & people are leaving STEM in startling numbers, particularly those from under-represented groups. A lab handbook can foster a more positive research culture. By @scattercushion.bsky.social @nature.com 🧪 www.nature.com/articles/d41...

A comprehensive meta-analysis of exogenous estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone in animal models of ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke - Biology of Sex Differences Background Exogenous sex hormones have been extensively studied for their influence on stroke risk and outcome. This meta-analysis served to update the pre-clinical acute ischemic stroke (AIS) literat...

So excited to announce my most recent project is now in press!

Our meta-analysis looks at the effects of exogenous #estrogen, #progesterone, and #testosterone in pre-clinical models for 3 subtypes of #stroke: AIS, ICH, and SAH.

Catch it at Biology of Sex Differences here:

doi.org/10.1186/s132...

Editing DNA methylation in vivo - Nature Communications Precise editing of DNA methylation has emerged as a promising tool in disease biology but most applications are limited to in vitro systems. Here, we develop two transgenic mouse lines harboring an in...

Nice work from Shawn Liu's lab @columbiauniversity.bsky.social ! In vivo DNA methylation editing www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Our first Psych Seminar of Winter 2026 will take place 30th January 3-4pm MST BS P226.

Dr Fred Colbourne will present on 'Translational stroke research: Lessons for all of us.'

Good luck!! You’re going to do great things ☺️

Extremely excited & proud to share our new preprint - we provide for the first time a single cell map of the mouse brain across sex, the estrous cycle, and peripartum! Data are 🔥 👇

"Single-cell map of the female brain across reproductive transitions"

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

How basic neuroscience has paved the path to new drugs A growing list of medications—such as zuranolone for postpartum depression, suzetrigine for pain, and the gepants class of migraine medicines—exist because of insights from basic research.

These drugs were not stumbled upon or borrowed from traditional remedies. They were born out of a long arc of studies in the lab, writes @alexkwan.bsky.social.

#neuroskyence

www.thetransmitter.org/drug-develop...

A metabolic atlas of mouse aging Pilley et al. describe how metabolite levels change in 12 organs from male and female mice across five ages, spanning adolescence to old age. They reveal that organs show distinct age- and sex-specifi...

A metabolic atlas of mouse aging: Cell Metabolism www.cell.com/cell-metabol...

A cGAS-mediated mechanism in naked mole-rats potentiates DNA repair and delays aging Efficient DNA repair might make possible the longevity of naked mole-rats. However, whether they have distinctive mechanisms to optimize functions of DNA repair suppressors is unclear. We find that na...

A cGAS-mediated mechanism in naked mole-rats potentiates DNA repair and delays aging.
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

University of Calgary neurologist and researcher Dr. Bijoy Menon holds a sample of the drug Tenecteplase on Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2025. Dr. Menon was the principal investigator in a U of C study on the drug which helped change drug guidelines worldwide for treating acute ischemic stroke. Gavin Young/Postmedia

'Game-changer': University of Calgary study leads to new worldwide drug guidelines for treating strokes https://calgaryherald.com/news/local-news/university-calgary-study-new-worldwide-drug-guidelines-treating-strokes-tenecteplase

𝗚𝗲𝘁 𝘄𝗲𝗲𝗸𝗹𝘆 𝘂𝗽𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗲𝘀 ⇢ CanadaHealthwatch.ca/newsletter

Spinal motor neurons in dazzling detail. ✨

Each green dot is a spinal motor neuron - crucial but rare cells making up just 1% of neurons in the spinal cord. In diseases like ALS, they are selectively damaged, making them of special interest to neuroscientists.

#neuroskyence #FluorescenceFriday

SFN fomo is too real 🥲

The four-fold drain of scientific publishing: Money, Time, Trust, and Control.

Thank you for coming to my TED Talk 🎤

If you’ve read this far and still need convincing, please check out our preprint arxiv.org/abs/2511.04820 and this infographic: doi.org/10.5281/zeno...
10/10

Thank you for blessing me with this fact today 😂

I thought so too! Meant to do a quick google search and ended up reading about her for an hour 🤷‍♀️

Sources:
-https://communities.springernature.com/posts/the-women-in-the-mouse-business
-https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2966381/
-https://www.mayoclinicproceedings.org/article/S0025-6196(11)60108-0/fulltext

Lathrop’s scientific legacy is rarely acknowledged, but it should be. She was a scientist and #WomanInSTEM in her own right, and we have much to thank her for today!

Together, this work contributed to the discovery of estrogen receptors nearly 35 years later.

Lathrop went on to pass away of pernicious anemia at 50 years old- a condition that was rendered less fatal through discoveries made in animal models only a short time later.

Together, Lathrop and Loeb confirmed that these tumours were strain-specific, and that females with ovarectomies developed tumours at a lower rate than female mice who underwent pregnancy, linking them to sex hormones.

As Lathrop ramped up her breeding program in the early 1900s to support scientific research, she noticed that some of her in-bred strains developed cancerous lesions. She worked with pathologist Leo Loeb from @upenn.edu starting in 1910.

In fact, one of the most ubiquitous mouse strains used in modern research, the C57Bl/6J mouse, was derived from one of Lathrop’s original breeders (mouse #57).

In 1902, he ordered mice from Lathrop for use in his work, kickstarting her business as a major supplier to scientific laboratories. One of Castle’s mentees, Clarence Cook Little, would later go on to found Jackson Labs, a major scientific supplier of laboratory mice today.