Neurobiologist // Mother // Waterwoman. Director of the MINDS Lab at
@Sydney_Uni
. Unravelling the human brain in health, disease & stress with
@mindbehindMINDS
.
🚨 new preprint alert!
Our latest work by
@domkaul
profiles the diversity of human cortical astrocytes with spatial and single cell transcriptomics, and shows that astrocytes are persistently changed physically/molecularly in humans with psychiatric disorders exposed to stress ✨
The lady who just dropped off our woolies order had a huge fish fall out of the sky and almost land on her head. A pelican was flying over and dropped it 😂😂😂
💣 PLOT TWIST 💥
Excited to announce is moving to
@Sydney_Uni
Jan 2024 where I’ve caught a unicorn 🦄 + accepted a Sydney Horizon Fellowship. Those keen on neuro 🧠 stress⚡️mental health ☁️ reach out and let’s get this research party started 🥳
Four years ago on this day I submitted my PhD thesis. Since then I have
🌻 done 2 post docs
🌻 at 3 different institutes
🌻 moved across the 🌍 2x
🌻 published over 20 papers
🌻 received > 15 awards
🌻 made a mark outside of science
🌻 developed my own research niche
🌻 had FUN
Don’t ya love it when you are in a place with sketchy internet and the congratulations messages start rolling in, but you’re not quite sure what you’re getting congratulated for 😂
My dream project, adult hippocampal neurogenesis, was funded today with a
#DP23
🥂🍾
💫💫💫MORE GOOD NEWS! 🥳🥳🥳
The embargo has lifted and I can finally share that we have been awarded $2.2M (AUD) from
@EraNeuron
($1.1M to us via the
@NHMRC
-NEURON scheme) to study the impact of early life stress on the insular cortex in major depression and PTSD.
After a long embargo, and many many happy tears, I am beyond thrilled to shout from the rooftops that I've been awarded a 2021 Al and Val Rosenstrauss Fellowship from the Rebecca L Cooper Medical Research Foundation 🥳
I went out on a limb and posted some vax facts and debunked some myths to my family and friends. I explained it was uncomfortable to address but being silent could be deadly. I got this today: 11 people over the booking line 💪🏽😭🤍 sometimes it pays to be brave.
Feeling 💔 for way too many unequivocal research superstars who are top ranked internationally, and still weren’t funded by
#nhmrc
yesterday. It is *crucial* we ASAP:
1) Double the Aussie medical research budget
2) Close the gender gap
3) Bring back panels
4) Assess L1-3 seperate
I often debate about tweeting private thoughts on a “professional” account. The logic that wins is that I’m not a robot but a complex human being who is worth knowing. I believe in authenticity and honesty always. What are your thoughts about it? Are you ever afraid to open up?
After my PhD I was offered a post doc doing exactly what I was trained in. I turned it down and pursued positions where I’d grow. Ive questioned those choices a lot because its been *HARD* but i know it’s made me better. 👇🏽
2017
🌍 Forbes under 30
🌲 Visited over 10 countries
✨ Did a TEDx talk
🧠 My first major project grant
💼 2 Awards important to me
🏖 Bought a cottage by the beach
🎒 Didn’t go home for > a year
🦁 I stood up for what I believe
Thank you for everything. Forever grateful.
@almostbrenda
@AcademicChatter
Because I was first in my family to go to university, it was hard enough to make it into *any* university. Once there I didn’t know moving was an option, or that it was sought after, nor *how* to move. This intrinsic knowledge is a huge privilege. I had to figure it all out alone
I rarely post photos of my family. But to all the researchers who have young kids… I see you hustling and I know you’re exhausted and sometimes feeling unsupported and crippled by guilt. They tell me one day it will end. 🤞🏽
💣 PLOT TWIST 💥
Excited to announce is moving to
@Sydney_Uni
Jan 2024 where I’ve caught a unicorn 🦄 + accepted a Sydney Horizon Fellowship. Those keen on neuro 🧠 stress⚡️mental health ☁️ reach out and let’s get this research party started 🥳
"I really rebel against this idea that politics has to be a place full of ego and where you're constantly focused on scoring hits against each one another. Yes, we need a robust democracy, but you can be strong, and you can be kind." Jacinda Ardern
Astrocytes outnumber neurons by five-fold, yet we know relatively little of these beautifully shaped cells. In our article in
@SfNJournals
we look at how astrocytes regulate the balance of excitation and inhibition in the brain
@domkaul
@NeuralOoi
Hello new followers 👋🏼 I’m Nat and I’m a neuroscientist. I run a biomedical lab
@uow
🇦🇺 + we study how
#stress
causes
#mentalillness
by studying postmortem
#brains
🧠 Outside of the lab I have 1 and 4 year old kids (the cutest) and love 🧘🏻♀️🏃🏻♀️🏋🏼♀️🏄🏻♀️🛼🛹🥊✍️🪴
#thisisUOW
I write and delete many tweets to censor negativity and put my best foot forward.
But today I feel tired, burnt out and demoralised. And maybe someone else out there is feeling that too.
So if you are, give me a holla so we know we are not alone. 🌿
Today marks 5 years since I graduated with my PhD. Taking stock
✨2 postdocs in leading institutes
✨Moved to Germany
✨21 awards
✨30 pubs
✨$1M+ funding
✨Lifelong collabs & friends
✨Mentored 14 peeps
✨Grew a human, bought a house
✨Now at my 1st choice home institute
Shoutout to
@McLNeuro
for shouting on behalf of us, so that one day, 100 years from now, another sister won't have to dry her tears wondering where in history she lost her voice.
Want to come and work on understanding how
#earlylife
#stress
re-wires our
#brain
? In state-of-the-art institutes that happen to be in paradise so you can go beach on your lunch break?
Come do your PhD with us
#neuroscience
#PhDposition
starting in 2023
Thank you
@ihmri
for the scholarship that will allow our little family (and therefore me) to go to
#acnp2019
in Florida in December. It was a great privilege to receive this from Dame Bridget herself
I might fall through the cracks of academia like many women before me. But I’ll be proud of what I’ve been able to accomplish, both on paper and off. 👇🏽
Also for all you ppl wondering, my son Master Matosin made a graceful entrance into the world 2.5 weeks ago. We are doing great and enjoying being in our love bubble.
The coolest part about this career so far, is that now all my postdoc friends are PIs at world-leading institutes and we get to work together across oceans and timezones, on our own, awesome projects *chefs kiss*
Wow… talk about catching a unicorn. I lead the
#DP23
that received the most $
@UOW
as an ECR (level B), a woman, and having had a lot of career disruption since 2018 (0.5FTE).
I owe the assessors a huge
#thankyou
🙏🏽 hope you see this.
The
#ARC
#DP23
came out 2 days ago. congrats to all successful applicants and commiseration to the unsuccessful ones. Overall trend is unchanged for the last ~ 8 years. Success rate 18.5% Level E men share > 44% of funded DP. Women are under-represented ~ 29%.
Wow that was an intense ten minutes! Got a grant rejection, then the decision was retracted (it was an error) and then i made it through to the next stage.🎈🤣
🚨📢 JOIN US! We're
#hiring
2x
#postdoc
researchers to join us
@Sydney_Uni
Fully-funded (ARC/NHMRC), 3 year positions in molecular
#neuroscience
examining postmortem human brain with cutting edge technologies
We are GREAT people to work with + there'll be opportunities galore👇
8 years ago today I graduated with my PhD. What I remember is the surprise minion scientist cake, I had more ppl at my house than my best friend had at her wedding, and my parents ran out of paella and more absolutely mortified. It couldn’t have been better.
I woke up to exciting news this morning (i have to check if its embargoed) that I’m being given an opportunity that is career changing and I have been crying happy tears all morning 😭🥰 utterly vague but deserves a celebration tweet regardless
Excited to wake up to the news that
@DrCriCru
and I have been awarded an
@IBROorg
Collaborative Research Grant to facilitate a trainee exchange between
@MolHorizons
and
@karolinskainst
🥳 Great opportunities for our trainees + pushing ahead our joint projects 🧠 Thanks IBRO!
Thrilled to see our article in
@SfNJournals
#JNeurosci
about how astrocytes, which are heavily impacted by stress, play a role in excitatory/inhibitory balance in psychiatric disorders. Stellar (see what i did there) work by
@domkaul
@NMechawar
@NeuralOoi
6 years, a move across the globe, starting my lab, short term contacts, two kids, a pandemic, + a house rebuild later: indescribable elation that my postdoc work is accepted @ Acta Neuropathologica. Thanks to all the co-authors across 6 countries and especially
@Binder_Lab
🍾🥂
It’s tiring seeing content about “getting women into stem”. If we look at the stats, there’s already plenty of women in stem. The issue is KEEPING them.
Hey
@leslie_bern
I couldn’t tag you in the original post (the x search function now sucks), but many thanks for the massive laugh you’ve given everyone
My new goal is to speak about my research the way Nigella Lawson talks about food. “The beautiful glossy neuron was gently excited by the MOST glorRRRR-iously sweet action potential”
Hello Twitterverse. I have a PhD position available to use some cool biological techniques in post-mortem human brain tissues to look at how stress shapes our brains. Please share with your networks 🧠🔬
@uowresearch
@syd_health
@UNSWMedicine
I love when this photo is used - I was 6 months pregnant with my son and channeling the inner mama warrior 🏹💪🏽 congrats to all my
@uow
colleagues on the high
@arc_gov_au
success
@UOW_VC
Fourteen
#UOWResearch
projects have been awarded more than $6mil by
@arc_gov_au
as part of the Discovery Projects scheme. Find out which projects received funding. 🎉 👉
I made a conscious decision to rest, focus on family and regain fitness during mat leave. I struggle every time a relevant opportunity appears. We are SO conditioned to go for everything; successes are so rare, volume is needed hit the jackpot, sometimes. 🧵
The thing is, if you’re unkind or a general douchebag, it will catch up with you. People talk, reputations become known. Push others up, don’t pull them down.
Really proud to be awarded the Rebecca L Cooper Memorial Award this year for having the most interesting and innovative Project Grant overall 🥰 I'm eager to dive into learning how early life stress rewires the human brain
@MolHorizons
@IHMRI
@uowresearch
When I received the news, I called my husband who didn’t answer the phone. So I called my mother. But I was crying so much she couldn’t understand me and thought something had happened to my son, and was about half way to my house before she understood “I got funded” 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
After a long embargo, and many many happy tears, I am beyond thrilled to shout from the rooftops that I've been awarded a 2021 Al and Val Rosenstrauss Fellowship from the Rebecca L Cooper Medical Research Foundation 🥳
How cool is this?
@FranklinWomen
have repurposed their carers scholarship for these covid times, offering either a $400 voucher to reduce the burden of meal prep (my personal favourite 🤣) or virtual coaching sessions 👌Legends 👸🏻👸🏼👸🏾👸🏽👸🏿
Whoever the early career researcher is - that takes significant bravery, I wouldn’t have had the guts. Sadly, I hope this doesn’t affect her career. She should be celebrated, not punished. Policies are made for a reason, I hope to see it enforced.
My mum listened the
#presser
today and texted me “A lung specialist from concord hospital is very clearly explaining the [covid] symptoms. Finally something we understand.” So much of the
#covidnsw
debacle has been poor science communication, inaccessible language.
Thanks to
@nhmrc
funding we've discovered how the brain is rewired after stress - during one of the most stressful chapters in our history. With further funding, we could understand how to stop mental illness developing after stress.
#AdvanceAustraliaCare
#auspol
@ScottMorrisonMP
A simple thing we can all practice as men this week including me:
Don’t interrupt women when they are speaking at meetings/public spaces.
It may seem small but it’s significant when many women have a lifetime of being talked over by men to belittle, dismiss or silence them.