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Anna Kalisvaart

@akalisva.bsky.social
772 followers 819 following 114 posts

Instructor in Neuroscience @BurkeNeuroSci & @WeillCornell Translational stroke researcher (Intracerebral Hemorrhage) | PhD @UAlberta 🇨🇦 | Microscopy, cycling, & linocut geek. Views are my own.

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Reposted by Anna Kalisvaart
Monica H Green @monicamedhist.bsky.social · 16/03/2026
Absolutely essential reading for anyone considering those "unicorn" hiring positions in Canada. Observations from researchers who are already there: www.nature.com/articles/d41... 🧪
nature.com
The problem with Canada’s plan to buy scientific prestige
The government’s plans to poach 100 US researchers might make good economic sense. But what about the existing community?
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Ele Willoughby @minouette.bsky.social · 08/03/2026
For #InternationalWomensDay I’m sharing my ongoing series of women in science through history. I’m now at 79. Here’s to the day a scientist’s sex is no longer remarkable in any field. Since last year I have added these 12 #linocut prints. 🧪🐡👩‍🔬🧮🔭🎢🔬
My collection of my women in STEM linocut portrait showing:
Elisabeth Koopmann-Hevelius
Alicia Boole-Stott
Esther Lederberg 
Olga Ladyzhenskaya
Agnes Pockels My collection of my women in STEM linocut portrait showing:
Rachel Carson
Laura Bassi
Bibha Chowdhuri
Elsie MacGill
Rita Levi-Montalcini
Eunice Newton-Foote
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Siobhan Mitchell, PhD @esiobhanmitchell.bsky.social · 02/03/2026
🧪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...
doi.org
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.
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Bríd Nic Annaidh ☘️ @bridgetmcgann.medsky.social · 19/02/2026
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
docs.google.com
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...
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Anna Kalisvaart @akalisva.bsky.social · 19/02/2026
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!
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Anna Kalisvaart @akalisva.bsky.social · 19/02/2026
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 😁
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Daniel MacPhee 🇨🇦 @d-macphee.bsky.social · 18/02/2026
“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...
nature.com
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.
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Dr Matthew Berryman @mjberryman.bsky.social · 08/12/2025
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/...
A drawing of me in the hospital bed after my stroke, holding an hourglass with my left hand.
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Anna Kalisvaart @akalisva.bsky.social · 18/02/2026
Thank you for taking the time to read it, and for your advocacy as a stroke survivor!
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Anna Kalisvaart @akalisva.bsky.social · 17/02/2026
Pleased to share this review by our talented trainee, Geena! Check it out for the latest on #ferroptosis as a treatment target following #stroke 🧠
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Jeffrey Perkel (he/him) @jperkel.bsky.social · 11/02/2026
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...
nature.com
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.
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Tiffany Kung @tiffkung.bsky.social · 06/02/2026
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...
doi.org
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...
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Maxim Greenberg @maxvcg.bsky.social · 16/01/2026
Nice work from Shawn Liu's lab @columbiauniversity.bsky.social ! In vivo DNA methylation editing www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
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...
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PsychUAlberta @psychualberta.bsky.social · 05/01/2026
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.'
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Anna Kalisvaart @akalisva.bsky.social · 06/01/2026
Good luck!! You’re going to do great things ☺️
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Marija Kundakovic @kundakoviclab.bsky.social · 04/01/2026
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...
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The Transmitter @thetransmitter.bsky.social · 19/12/2025
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...
thetransmitter.org
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.
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Geming Lu @brian98er.bsky.social · 27/11/2025
A metabolic atlas of mouse aging: Cell Metabolism www.cell.com/cell-metabol...
cell.com
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...
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Reposted by Anna Kalisvaart
Geming Lu @brian98er.bsky.social · 13/10/2025
A cGAS-mediated mechanism in naked mole-rats potentiates DNA repair and delays aging. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
science.org
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...
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Canada Healthwatch 🍁 @canadahealthwatch.ca · 18/12/2025
'Game-changer': University of Calgary study leads to new worldwide drug guidelines for treating strokes calgaryherald.com/news/local-news/u… 𝗚𝗲𝘁 𝘄𝗲𝗲𝗸𝗹𝘆 𝘂𝗽𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗲𝘀 ⇢ CanadaHealthwatch.ca/newsletter
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
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allen institute @alleninstitute.org · 12/12/2025
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
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Anna Kalisvaart @akalisva.bsky.social · 21/11/2025
SFN fomo is too real 🥲
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Stefanie Haustein @stefhaustein.scholcommlab.ca · 13/11/2025
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
The four-fold drain of scientific publishing: Money, Time, Trust, and Control.
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Anna Kalisvaart @akalisva.bsky.social · 13/11/2025
Thank you for blessing me with this fact today 😂
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Anna Kalisvaart @akalisva.bsky.social · 11/11/2025
I thought so too! Meant to do a quick google search and ended up reading about her for an hour 🤷‍♀️
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Anna Kalisvaart @akalisva.bsky.social · 09/11/2025
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
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Anna Kalisvaart @akalisva.bsky.social · 09/11/2025
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!
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Anna Kalisvaart @akalisva.bsky.social · 09/11/2025
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.
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Anna Kalisvaart @akalisva.bsky.social · 09/11/2025
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.
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Anna Kalisvaart @akalisva.bsky.social · 09/11/2025
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.
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Anna Kalisvaart @akalisva.bsky.social · 09/11/2025
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).
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Anna Kalisvaart @akalisva.bsky.social · 09/11/2025
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.
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Anna Kalisvaart @akalisva.bsky.social · 09/11/2025
As her business grew, she employed numerous other neighbourhood women. Lathrop’s detailed record keeping and diligent work caught the notice of a new client: William E. Castle, a @harvard.edu geneticist who was exploring Mendel’s ideas in mammalian models.
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Anna Kalisvaart @akalisva.bsky.social · 09/11/2025
She began breeding mice and other rodents for fanciers, collectors who prized unique coat colours and characteristics across different strains. Lathrop kept meticulous records in order to selectively breed for certain traits, eventually housing over 11,000 mice on her farm.
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Anna Kalisvaart @akalisva.bsky.social · 09/11/2025
We often talk about the impact of Gregor Mendel’s work on modern genetics, yet the impact of Abbie Lathrop’s work rarely comes up in this conversation. Born in 1868, Abbie Lathrop retired from school teaching at 32 due to chronic illness.
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Anna Kalisvaart @akalisva.bsky.social · 09/11/2025
As I worked on this #sciart piece this weekend, it got me curious about the origin of the mouse strains we use in biomedical research today: so welcome to my rabbit hole! A 🧵
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Irina Bezsonova @irinabezsonova.bsky.social · 21/10/2025
This October I’m drawing 1 molecule a day inspired by proteins in pdb @rcsbpdb.bsky.social Day 19/31 Prompt ARCTIC Pdb: 3UYU Meet ice-binding protein (LeIBP) from Arctic yeast that acts like antifreeze! Next: RIVALS Suggestions?
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Artologica aka Michele Banks @artologica.net · 12/10/2025
Painted some xylem for a thing. Pretty pleased. #sciart
Watercolor painting with blue and red blobby shapes
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Amy Gleichman @amygleichman.bsky.social · 11/10/2025
Thrilled to share this work from my postdoc with Tom Carmichael, available online @ Neuron! Long story short: we find even more evidence that all reactive astrocytes are not equal, and we can take advantage of those differences to improve repair after stroke. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
sciencedirect.com
Regionally mapped astrocytic responses to cortical and white matter stroke show differential roles in astrocyte-induced vascular remodeling
Stroke is a major cause of disability. Astrocytes respond to stroke in a gradated manner, but details of that response and its consequences for tissue…
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Alejandro Montenegro @aemonten.bsky.social · 10/10/2025
PREACH! www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Reaffirming the value of model organisms in training scientific minds - Nature Cell Biology
As biomedical research prioritizes human models and translational promise, classic model organisms are increasingly dismissed. Here we argue that they have a lasting value, both in enabling discovery and in cultivating scientific thinking, by training researchers in systems reasoning, integrative thinking and independent inquiry.
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Ashley Kalinski @kalinskilab.bsky.social · 08/10/2025
Paper Alert!! Our collaborative work with Giger Lab at UMich is out now in #ScienceTranslationMedicine Deletion of murine Sarm1 results in a microenvironment that delays peripheral nerve regeneration after injury | Science Translational Medicine @science.org www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
science.org
Deletion of murine Sarm1 results in a microenvironment that delays peripheral nerve regeneration after injury
In Sarm1-deficient mice, peripheral nervous system regeneration is delayed after injury.
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Anna Kalisvaart @akalisva.bsky.social · 02/10/2025
I really really enjoyed this episode. Keep up the amazing work, Science Vs! A highlight of my week is listening to Wendy and the team.
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Dr. Keith R. Brunt @profbrunt.bsky.social · 01/10/2025
🧪🥤Researchers find Canada’s first sugary drink tax lowered odds of consumption nearly 25% New report highlights the potential of the tax to improve public health @avisfavaro.bsky.social www.heartandstroke.ca/what-we-do/m...
heartandstroke.ca
Pouring over the data: researchers find Canada’s first sugary drink tax lowered odds of consumption nearly 25%
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David Lane @dml125.bsky.social · 01/10/2025
Very sorry to hear of Jane Goodall’s passing. Her scientific contributions and her work as a conservationist are extraordinary. #goodall #chimpanzee #conservation #primatology 🧪 Gift article
nytimes.com
Jane Goodall, Eminent Primatologist Who Chronicled the Lives of Chimps, Dies at 91
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Timothy Bredy @twbredy.bsky.social · 30/09/2025
Occasional PSA: Intracellular molecular processing, especially in neurons, is not about differential RNA expression or even protein abundance for that matter. Not about quantity. It’s about qualitative, functional states. The sooner we get there as a community the faster the science advances
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Anna Kalisvaart @akalisva.bsky.social · 17/09/2025
10/10 use of Lego bricks!
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Barbara Marte @barbmarte.bsky.social · 06/09/2025
new out in Nature www.nature.com/articles/d41...
nature.com
Compression causes cancer cells to start spreading
The switch between proliferation and invasion is triggered by mechanical force.
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ASNR @asnrehab.bsky.social · 05/09/2025
After a #stroke, patients typically undergo extensive #rehabilitation and a slow journey to recover the ability to do everyday tasks. However, ASNR Past President Dr. Tom Carmichael is developing a drug to produce the same effects as rehabilitation and could augment or replace rehab after a stroke.
nytimes.com
A Pill to Heal the Brain Could Revolutionize Neuroscience
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Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior @mpi-animalbehav.bsky.social · 01/09/2025
Scientists discover the secret behind the shrew’s amazing ability to shrink their brains 🧠 The clever trick sheds unwanted weight without compromising too much on cognition. Find the 5-letter word 👇 Study by @cecibaldoni.bsky.social Dechmann Lab #shrewcrew et al www.ab.mpg.de/743885/news_...
ab.mpg.de
Rare seasonal brain shrinkage in shrews is driven by water loss, not cell death
Common shrews are one of only a handful of mammals known to flexibly shrink and regrow their brains. This rare seasonal cycle, known as Dehnel’s phenomenon, has puzzled scientists for decades. A study...
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