About me
Some Blonde Scientist I Dr Georgia Atkin-Smith
After growing up in rural Victoria, moving to Melbourne in 2011 marked the beginning of my scientific career. I completed my Bachelor of Biotechnology and Cell Biology with first class Honours (score of 90) in 2014 at La Trobe University. Shortly after, I began my PhD in Biochemistry and Immunology under the supervision of Dr Ivan Poon and Dr 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. At 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 disassembly process.
I have now begun my next scientific chapter as a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute for Medical Research and La Trobe Institute for Molecular Science with A/Prof Edwin Hawkins and Dr Ivan Poon. By using the latest and greatest technologies, I aim to further dissect our understanding of cell death during the progression and treatments of blood cancers.
In addition to research, I am a passionate science communicator and advocate of women in STEM. I believe all scientists have a responsibility to communicate what we do, and communicate it honestly. 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.