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Lisa Girard

@lrgirard

Whitehead Institute comms director, posts are my own. Passionate about science, scientific literacy, open publishing.....and running and dogs.

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17.09.2023
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Latest posts by Lisa Girard @lrgirard

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Friends! I am so happy to share our new preprint!

Hydrogen peroxide has been the most common reactive chemical threat to life forms since the Great Oxygenation Event 2.5 billion years ago.

How do animals like C. elegans sense it fast and escape?

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

Thread 1/

28.01.2026 15:13 πŸ‘ 81 πŸ” 31 πŸ’¬ 7 πŸ“Œ 3
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Size of Life From an amoeba to a blue whale

and the winner of the "2025 best thing on Internet" has just arrived
neal.fun/size-of-life/

@carlbergstrom.com

23.12.2025 16:07 πŸ‘ 138 πŸ” 56 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 6
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a man in a suit has a name tag on his jacket that says dennis Alt: a man in a suit has a name tag on his jacket that says dennis

The funds are approved! We're hiring a postdoc to build a CRISPRa toolkit to identify new aging mechanisms in C. elegans.

Email or DM me to find out more. Please share & repost!

13.08.2025 18:36 πŸ‘ 40 πŸ” 20 πŸ’¬ 4 πŸ“Œ 0
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Looking for new, local science podcasts to keep you up to date on research that matters?

Check out the two podcasts from the @whiteheadinstitute.bsky.social: AudioHelicase and BioGenesis!

🎧 bit.ly/3J9Yw5p

29.07.2025 23:42 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 2 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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From our latest episode of #AudioHelicase: four Whitehead Institute researchers gain unique insights into biological processesβ€”from regeneration to organ functionβ€”by studying them within the rich context of their natural environment. Listen here: wi.mit.edu/multimedia/a...

31.07.2025 17:55 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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β€œDeveloping this tool required combining diverse skillsets through the sort of ambitious interdisciplinary collaboration that’s only possible at a place like Whitehead Institute,” @weissmanlab.bsky.social says.

New tool reveals a detailed history of tumor growth: wi.mit.edu/news/mapping...

29.07.2025 17:43 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 3 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 1
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How do proteins know where to go inside of a cell? Postdoc Henry Kilgore answers our latest #AskaScientist question. Learn how students can submit their own questions: wi.mit.edu/bionook/ask-...

25.07.2025 18:43 πŸ‘ 3 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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Global inhibition of deadenylation stabilizes the transcriptome in mitotic cells In the presence of cell division errors, mammalian cells can pause in mitosis for tens of hours with little to no transcription, while still requiring continued translation for viability. These unique...

New preprint! We solve a mystery you didn't know existed. Mitotic cells lack new transcription but require ongoing translation. Interphase mRNA half life is only 2-4 hrs. So how do cells arrest in mitosis for hours without depleting their transcriptomes?

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

23.07.2025 10:57 πŸ‘ 144 πŸ” 43 πŸ’¬ 6 πŸ“Œ 3
Two PhD students carrying an image of a drosophila testis down the sidewalk

Two PhD students carrying an image of a drosophila testis down the sidewalk

Two PhD students carrying an image of a drosophila testis across the street

Two PhD students carrying an image of a drosophila testis across the street

Two PhD students carrying an image of a drosophila testis down the sidewalk

Two PhD students carrying an image of a drosophila testis down the sidewalk

Image of a drosophila testis in a freight elevator

Image of a drosophila testis in a freight elevator

Things you might see in Kendall Square: a giant image of a drosophila testis traveling a mile down the street

22.07.2025 20:39 πŸ‘ 8 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 1
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We had so much fun at Expedition: Bio, Whitehead Institute's summer science program for middle school students! Here's everyone showing off what they learned at Friday's poster session. 🧬🌱🧫

22.07.2025 15:03 πŸ‘ 3 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

So nice to see another group of middle school students getting into the lab and out into the field as part of the Expedition:Bio summer program.

18.07.2025 00:39 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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Just as cancer cells can co-opt other cell types to protect themselves, so can therapies co-opt various cell types to destroy the cancer. Read "The company we keep: Revealing cancer’s accomplices": wi.mit.edu/news/company...

14.07.2025 21:02 πŸ‘ 3 πŸ” 2 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 1

Sometimes it’s great to pause and appreciate the incredible work at #WhiteheadInstitute. It’s not every day you get to work alongside people pushing the boundaries of #CancerResearch and making real strides in understanding and treating cancer.
#MIT #BiomedicalResearch #Immunology #ResearchSky

15.07.2025 01:50 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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Toxoplasma gondii divides by endodyogeny β€” a process in which two daughters form inside a mother cell, eventually consuming the mother cell. In special cases, as captured in this image, a single cell spawns a multitude of daughters. Credit: Dominic Schwarz. #WhiteheadWonders

11.07.2025 21:03 πŸ‘ 3 πŸ” 2 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

60 seconds of mitochondrial biology for lunchtime viewing!

07.07.2025 15:56 πŸ‘ 4 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
Logo for "Kohn's Zone" podcast

Logo for "Kohn's Zone" podcast

Someone told me what the world needs most is another podcast, & by the time I figured out that person was being facetious, it was too late.
Announcing the launch of "KOHN'S ZONE: Challenging the Conventional Wisdom About Education & Kids" (2 episodes posted; new ones due every 2 weeks): is.gd/JiaK2w

02.07.2025 12:31 πŸ‘ 50 πŸ” 6 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 0
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Animals that enter states of dormancy, such as daily torpor or hibernation, live much longer compared to closely related species. But why is that so? And what does it reveal about aging? Whitehead Institute Member SiniΕ‘a Hrvatin shares how his research probes these questions.

26.06.2025 18:42 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 1

Interesting glimpse into Sinisa Hrvatin's work studying hibernation and torpor and how their discoveries can inform our understanding of aging and disease progression.

26.06.2025 19:25 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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. @whiteheadinstitute.bsky.social researchers developed Perturb-Multimodal, a powerful new approach that simultaneously measures how genetic changes affect both #GeneExpression and cell structure in intact liver tissue.

πŸ“°: bit.ly/440TrVi
πŸ“ @cellpress.bsky.social: bit.ly/3TEs2ST

25.06.2025 20:07 πŸ‘ 4 πŸ” 3 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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Researchers in the Oni lab study how pancreatic cancer cells manipulate their microenvironment to escape immune attack. Read how the Oni lab and others at Whitehead are studying cancer in context: wi.mit.edu/news/company...

25.06.2025 21:37 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
Whitehead Institute of MIT Much of biology becomes more clear when looking at biological components within the context of their typical surroundings and interactions. This is why Whitehead Institute researchers often tackle the...

This article is part of our series, β€œBiology in its natural habitat: studying cellular processes in context”. View the entire collection here: wi.mit.edu/series/biolo... #WhiteheadStoryArc

24.06.2025 20:21 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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Humans don't regrow body parts after an injury, but certain animals can and do. The planarian, a tiny, water-dwelling flatworm, is one such organism. This multipart video explainer explores what we know about planarian regeneration, and what it could mean for human health: wi.mit.edu/news/how-neo...

24.06.2025 20:21 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
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A researcher can learn a lot from studying a single gene or cell type in isolation. But study a component within the context of its environment, and the picture becomes even more clear. Read our latest #WhiteheadStoryArc: wi.mit.edu/series/biolo...

17.06.2025 14:20 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 1

Interesting new collection of stories highlighting the importance of studying biology "in its natural habitat."

17.06.2025 16:23 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

New pre-print! Ryan Kim et al distinguish the roles of the Spindle Assembly Checkpoint as a surveillance pathway only triggered by mitotic errors vs a mitotic timer that is required in every cell division.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

16.06.2025 10:54 πŸ‘ 17 πŸ” 4 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 1
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Whitehead Institute and Harvard researchers have developed Perturb-Multi, a powerful new approach that simultaneously measures how genetic changes, such as turning off individual genes, affect both gene expression and cell structure in intact tissue.

12.06.2025 18:30 πŸ‘ 6 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
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Alisa White, a postdoc in the Page lab studying sex differences in the brain, recalls the moment she became interested in foundational research. wi.mit.edu/news/meet-wh... #WhiteheadPostdocProfiles

11.06.2025 15:19 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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We've been asking Whitehead Institute scientists to give us their elevator pitch!

In the first installment of #Sciencein60, grad student Xochitl Luna describes her research on microglia, the brain's resident immune cells that play a role in multiple sclerosis (MS). @xochitl-luna.bsky.social

05.06.2025 20:01 πŸ‘ 5 πŸ” 2 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 1
Whitehead Institute of MIT This monthly program provides educators an opportunity to explore topics at the forefront of biomedical research. The series begins in October and lectures are held the first Monday of every month thr...

Learn more about the Seminar Series for High School Teachers: wi.mit.edu/program/semi...

04.06.2025 22:06 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Thanks to all of the high school teachers that come to Whitehead Institute each month for this program so they can take the excitement of biomedical research back to their students.

04.06.2025 23:18 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0