Some Blonde Scientist

Dr Georgia Atkin-Smith

Australian scientist and

passionate science advocate

About me

Some Blonde Scientist I Dr Georgia Atkin-Smith

I am a Cell Biologist at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research and La Trobe Institute for Molecular Science working with A/Prof Edwin Hawkins and A/Prof Ivan Poon. By using the latest and greatest scientific technologies, imaging approaches and pre-clinical models, my research aims to to further dissect our understanding of cell death during the progression and treatment of cancer.

I completed my Bachelor of Biotechnology and Cell Biology with first class Honours in 2014 at La Trobe University and followed by a PhD in Biochemistry and Immunology under the supervision of A/Prof Ivan Poon and Prof Mark Hulett at the La Trobe Institute for Molecular Science. My PhD project investigated how dying monocytes (key white blood cells of the immune system) undergo a dramatic dance of death to generate small fragments, a process called apoptotic cell disassembly. With the conclusion of my PhD in 2019, my research uncovered key regulators of this process, its role in homeostasis and infectious disease, and developed novel methods we can now use to study the cell death process.

In addition to working at the lab bench, I am a passionate science advocate and public speaker. I believe all scientists have a responsibility to communicate what we do, and communicate it honestly. To aid the transparency of science and make it more accessible, I frequently partake in outreach opportunities and document my life as a scientist as Some Blonde Scientist on Instagram. The world is what it is today because of science and we need the next generation to know just how life-changing being a scientist can be.

News!

Launch of the Australasian Cell Death Society and more!

January - the ACDS is here!

I am beyond excited to see the official launch of the Australasian Cell Death Society (ACDS), an international society I founded. The ACDS aims to bring together Aussie and NZ cell death researchers working locally and those now abroad and create a supportive and collaborative cell death community. Thank you to our sole sponsor, the WEHI, and our board of 8 Pioneers of cell death research who have been indispensable in bringing this vision to life. Sign up and find out more information here!

April - paper published!

Just like the garbage trucks that remove our rubbish each week, the human body has many cellular garbage trucks known as phagocytes. Phagocytes are present throughout the entire body and have key roles in disposing the body's cellular waste. I recently wrote a sole-author review on this topic, summarizing our current understanding of dying cell clearance, published here in Biochemical Transactions Biology.

Stay tuned for more news and thank you for your support,