Kara McKinley
Asst Prof | Harvard
Freeman Hrabowski Scholar | HHMI
Founder | Leading Edge @leadingedgeprogram.bsky.social
My lab studies menstruation and menstrual disorders.
www.mckinleylab.org
Opinions are my own and do not reflect those of my employer.
- Reposted by Kara McKinleyAnd the amazing resource that is the Atlas of Inspiring LatinX/Hispanic Scientists, which you can learn more about and access here: www.fredhutch.org/en/about/abo...
- Reposted by Kara McKinleyI am SO incredibly excited to announce the launch of a global list of Inspiring Black Scientists. You can use this list to nominate and connect with researchers. Please share and join us in highlighting these outstanding scientists for #BlackHistoryMonth and beyond! www.wiley.com/en-us/resear...
- Reposted by Kara McKinleyScience update from my postdoc Peiyuan Chai - his work “glycoRNA complexed with heparan sulfate regulates VEGF-A signaling” is now published @nature.com uncovering a new layer or glycoRNA-regulation of growth factor mediated control physiological processes rdcu.be/e1bBX
- Reposted by Kara McKinleyIn preprints: shedding light – chemogenetic induction of menstruation in mice Aishwarya V. Bhurke and Ripla Arora from @aroralab.bsky.social discuss the recent preprint by @cagricevrim.bsky.social, @karalmckinley.bsky.social and colleagues on the X-mens menstruation model. doi.org/10.1242/dev....
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- Reposted by Kara McKinleyIt’s that time of year for me to dust this thing off and encourage you to apply to be a Leading Edge fellow, this year named in honor of Zara Weinberg
- The Leading Edge Fellows gathered this week to celebrate Zara Weinberg, a beloved member of our community. Our 7th cohort of Leading Edge Fellows (2026) will be named in her honor. The Zara Weinberg Leading Edge Cohort application is now open! Due Feb 2. www.leadingedgesymposium.org/apply/
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- Reposted by Kara McKinleyThe Sosa Lab is going to #SfN25 and actively recruiting ✨postdocs✨ with systems neuroscience experience! We study both fundamental memory processes and how memory changes during pregnancy and postpartum. If you are interested in meeting at SfN, please email me! www.sosaneurolab.com/join/postdoc...
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- Reposted by Kara McKinleyThrilled to start my Group Leader adventure with these and other great scientists!
- We are excited to welcome @fueyoraquel.bsky.social, @sedonamurphy.bsky.social, and @jmstein.bsky.social as new group leaders at our institute! Read more about their work: --> www.molgen.mpg.de/2025-10-31-n... All three are recruiting in the IMPRS PhD Call! --> www.molgen.mpg.de/IMPRSPhDproj...
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- Reposted by Kara McKinleyThe Leading Edge Fellows gathered this week to celebrate Zara Weinberg, a beloved member of our community. Our 7th cohort of Leading Edge Fellows (2026) will be named in her honor. The Zara Weinberg Leading Edge Cohort application is now open! Due Feb 2. www.leadingedgesymposium.org/apply/
- Reposted by Kara McKinleyZara was an incredibly inspiring scientist, activist, and leader within our community of Leading Edge Fellows. She will be deeply missed by all those who had the pleasure of interacting with her.
- Reposted by Kara McKinleyWe are all better because of the energy, inspiration, brilliance, and tenacity that Zara was. A bright light, role model, advocate & snarky tweeter... everything I needed in a person when I was navigating dark times when we met in 2021. You will be missed deeply, Zara, but never forgotten ❤️
- Reposted by Kara McKinleyZara was an inspiration. We never met in person but became friends through Leading Edge. She zealously advocated for her ideals, but was also passionate about helping others realize why they should too. Her loss is gutting & the world is the worse for it. RIP, I'll do my best to continue the fight.
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- Reposted by Kara McKinleyZara Weinberg passed away earlier this week. She joined my lab earlier this year when her postdoc lab formally closed. She was a brilliant scientist, supportive mentor, dear friend, avid music fan, rabid believer in public transit, open science champion, and above all just an amazing human.
- Reposted by Kara McKinleyZara Weinberg was a brilliant, loving, and beautiful woman. She inspired everyone who she interacted with, and always strived to make the world a better place for everyone. Tho the world is a little less bright today without her, her memory will always be a blessing. She was truly one of the best.
- Reposted by Kara McKinleyZara Weinberg was a brilliant light both in and out of science. She changed the lives of everyone she interacted and loved for the better. Her legacy will live on through all of us and we will fight for a better world on behalf of her memory.
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- Reposted by Kara McKinleyCongratulations @karalmckinley.bsky.social & lab on their groundbreaking recent preprint establishing + characterizing a chemically inducible model of menstruation in mouse: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... My jaw dropped when I heard this presented earlier this year. Incredible.
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- Lab’s 1st preprint! Menstruation is understudied due to societal taboos + a biological challenge: mice (a key system for research + drug discovery) don’t menstruate. @cagricevrim.bsky.social made menstruating mice + used them to discover early events in menstruation. He is on the job market!
- I’m thrilled to share my postdoc work and the first paper from the McKinley Lab! 🎉 @karalmckinley.bsky.social We built the first transgenic model of menstruation in mice. We used it to uncover how the endometrium organizes and sheds during menstruation. 🧪 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... 🧵
- Reposted by Kara McKinleyI’m extremely honored to be a recipient of the NIH Director’s Pioneer Award!
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- Reposted by Kara McKinleyFor every Nobel that goes to a criminally under-recognized woman scientist (Brunkow, Karikó), or fails to go (Candy Lee), a week of mourning and reform for an academic system wherein you can do Nobel-prize-worthy-work and still end up without a conceivable path to being a professor.
- BREAKING: The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded jointly to Mary E. Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell, and Shimon Sakaguchi "for their discoveries concerning peripheral immune tolerance" Stay tuned for more. #NobelPrize
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- "In 2020, the median life expectancy for UK patients with [cystic fibrosis] was 36 but with novel three drug combinations, life expectancy is now predicted to be 82 y for patients who begin treatment by age 17"
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- Reposted by Kara McKinleyMy quote of the day Nobody ever thanks you for saving them from the disease they didn't know they were going to get. William Foege
- Reposted by Kara McKinleyI miss the old brand #CDC
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