Kristin Connor
🤰🏽My lab conducts research on developmental origins of health & disease
👶🏻Believe a healthy start to life is a right we all share
👩🏼🔬Value fundamental science!
📍Toronto & Ottawa
connorlab.ca
- Reposted by Kristin ConnorThere is no amount of screaming that will express how angry I am for the women of America right now, and no amount of caution I can issue fellow Canadians to never, EVER, take our abortion rights for granted. Eyes WIDE open. Never believe them when they say they won't do it. They will.
- It was a fab annual meeting 4 all who research & are interested in Developmental Origins of Health and Disease! Thx to all who made it possible — including the trainees 4 sharing your research & mentors 4 supporting the next generation & making 🇨🇦 a major health research ecosystem! See u in 🇦🇷
- 👏🏻Great presentation from Melissa @ Canadian National Perinatal Research Meeting on her undergrad thesis work investigating the placenta-fetal brain axis & how maternal HF diet-induced obesity programmes the placenta & brain metabolomes in tissue- and sex-specific manners! @dohadcanada.bsky.social
- Glad to see some heavy-hitters in cabinet Glad to see a Minister for Women & Gender Not glad there is no Ministry for Science… (and don’t @ me that science /research will be ok in ISED or Solomon is fit to lead anything AI/innovation related ) www.pm.gc.ca/en/news/news...
- Fantastic exhibition where art meets science — and incubation of creativity and life occurs! Congrats to the Art of Creation team! @slobodalab.bsky.social @dohadcanada.bsky.social
- Congrats to my student Miguel on his successful poster at @dohadcanada.bsky.social #DOHaD2025 on Knowledge graphs and natural language processing to improve prediction and prevention of child overweight and obesity. A big collaboration with our ~8 year old THRIVE Change Lab www.thrivechangelab.ca
- Official kickoff of the joint Canadian Perinatal Health meetings: CNPRM, DOHaD Canada & perinatal cohorts CAMCCO & ENRICH! Congrats organisers on the comprehensive clinical and fundamental science programme!
- 📣 Your next scientific adventure awaits! Early 🐥 registration for the World Congress on Developmental Origins of Health and Disease #DOHaD2025 closes June 9 Join us in Argentina for the best translational research meeting on lifecycle health across social, biomed & environmental determinants
- Next talk from @kozetamiliku.bsky.social at @dohadcanada.bsky.social #DOHaD2025 on ultra processed food consumption in 🇨🇦 children 👀DYK children & adolescents consume more UPF than adults? 🚨This has huge implications for longterm health and NCD risk in kids! #CHILDStudy
- 👨🏽👶🏽 Next up @dohadcanada.bsky.social #DOHaD2025 Dr Jaquetta Trasler on the importance of FATHERS in shaping offspring neurodevelopment outcomes 🧬 & the role of the placenta & epigenetics as underlying mechanisms
- 🍁 @dohadcanada.bsky.social Annual Meeting has started! 👋🏻Welcome address from organisers Drs. Tina Montreuil & Sarah Lippé 🤯Fantastic programme from Dr. Gerry Giesbrecht 🗣️ Plenary talk from Dr. Catherine Monk, Columbia U on intergenerational impacts of maternal mental health on future development
- Reposted by Kristin Connor‼️ABSTRACT DEADLINE‼️ for oral consideration is the end of this week - Friday, May 16, 2025. Register and submit your abstract here: www.usdohad.org/annual-meeti...
- Reposted by Kristin ConnorAnother story you can find in my book, Uncredited: Women’s Overlooked, Misattributed, and Stolen Work, is that of Mary Papanicolaou: www.abc.net.au/news/health/...
- Women can use a wand to collect a vaginal sample, then mail it to a lab that will screen for cervical cancer. The device will be available by prescription through a telehealth service. By @jenniferludden.bsky.social
- Reposted by Kristin ConnorScience communication helps bridge the gap between scientists and the general public. The SRI infographic contest was launched to help our members build their sci-comm skills. Tina Yi-Jin Hsieh was one of this year's winners for her submission, "Vaccine Research in Pregnancy Matters."
- I met Don Davies with a small group of scientist & clinician leaders during H10 on the Hill a years ago He took some time to listen to the concerns of health researchers, was sincerely committed to improving health research, care & policy in 🇨🇦, & gave tips on how to get gov’t to buy in. 👍🏻 choice
- Reposted by Kristin ConnorJUST IN: ProPublica’s “Life of the Mother” series, which exposes the fatal consequences of abortion bans, has won the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service. This is the second consecutive year we’ve been awarded this distinction and our eighth Pulitzer: www.propublica.org/series/life-...
- Reposted by Kristin ConnorNew Canadian study from the @healthtechsoclab.bsky.social I expect will make news this week. Headline: For-profit primary care clinics are selling & using patient data w/o knowledge or permission in ways you may not expect. Brief thread below... jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...
- Reposted by Kristin ConnorIf you're a grad student or an undergrad interested in research I need to you listen to me very carefully. You cannot learn to write good research papers if you do not read good research papers. Stop asking LLMs to summarize papers for you.
- Mood from Mallorca Break before summer of grantwriting
- “You reminded us that democracy is about people who still believe that decency is worth defending… that calmness isn’t cowardice. It’s discipline. And it’s a strength that doesn’t ask to win, but only asks to last” 🤝A must read: On 🇨🇦 election - from 🇺🇦 viktorkravchuk.substack.com/p/the-nation...
- Reposted by Kristin ConnorControversial opinion: the proliferation of AI will lead to a workforce stacked with cheaters who are not actually competent to do their jobs, and that will be bad.
- 🎉Congrats to @brucefanjoy.bsky.social for defeating one of the most toxic politicians in 🇨🇦 (& Con party leader no less)! Liberals have much to learn from his grassroots strategy & years of authentic work in his riding —and in support of a better 🇨🇦— if they want to hold maple maga at bay.
- In Spain where country’s power was out for the day (in 🇪🇸 🇵🇹 & part of 🇫🇷!) Made 4 a interesting time 👀exploring Barcelona by foot 🔦purchasing wine & snacks in darkness 🛜 & rare reprieve from the internet & stress of the 🇨🇦exln Power now back🔋 Biting my nails but looks like #CanadaStrong (mostly) 😅
- Reposted by Kristin Connor📢Out now! Weihua Li, @jenniebrand.bsky.social, @aaronclauset.bsky.social, and colleagues show that researchers’ early training in diverse environments is strongly correlated with nurturing diverse groups in the established period. www.nature.com/articles/s43... #cssky #NetSci
- Reposted by Kristin Connor🪢 “The complexity of unanswered questions in biology demands more elaborated systems, particularly to study plant and animal biodiversity, microbial ecosystems and their interactions... More integrated systems, known as #holobionts, are emerging”. Accurate. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
- Science is for everyone! To safeguard science, innovation, & health & grow human & economic capital, we must vote in this election Our future depends on it #CanadaStrong @liberalca.bsky.social @juliedabrusin.bsky.social @yasirnaqvicdn.bsky.social @brucefanjoy.bsky.social #NeverVoteConservative
- Y'a pas de débat...la #recherche est au 💖de l' #innovation et du bien-être au Canada. There is no debate: #research is at the core of innovation and wellbeing in 🇨🇦. #DébatDesChefs #LeadersDebate #ResearchersVote #VotonsRecherche #VoteScience #Elxn45 #Elxn2025 #CdnPoli #PolCan #GoHabsGo
- Reposted by Kristin ConnorYou should care who Canada’s next cpho is. New with Lyne Filiatrault and Arjit Chakravarty healthydebate.ca/2025/04/topi...
- Reposted by Kristin ConnorCanadians might be starting to feel complacent that Pierre, the little Trumpist polyp, is not going to be PM, but it's more important than ever to vote and send a message that this shit won't fly. Make this entire brand of politics electorally radioactive.
- Time magazine to Trump: Maybe you’re trolling a bit on expanding the U.S. empire to Canada, Panama, Greenland. Trump: No I’m not. time.com/7280114/dona...
- Reposted by Kristin Connorthe “female coalition hypothesis,” which suggests that females work together to overpower males during conflicts, resulting in higher social ranks for the winning females. The average female bonobo, the researchers found, outranks approximately 70 percent of the males in her community.
- *takes notes* "Scientists have long wondered how female bonobos maintain their matriarchies...Females, they found, form coalitions against males to tip the balance of power in their favor." www.nytimes.com/2025/04/24/s...
- Reposted by Kristin ConnorAt the 2025 Annual Meeting, SRI launched its first infographic contest. Savana Biondić was one of our inaugural winners of the SRI infographic contest for her submission "Prenatal BPA Exposure Can Affect the Postnatal Brain." Congradulations Savana! #SRI2025 #SRI #ScienceCommunications #SciComm
- This is devastating for women’s health research globally, given the influential work by WHI 🔪 Another attack on women 🚫 Fewer discoveries to understand female biology, health & disease 🚫 Fewer diagnostics, therapeutics, preventions 💀More disease, suffering, death www.science.org/content/arti...
- Reposted by Kristin ConnorNo matter what polls say, this Canadian election could be VERY close. Don’t be overconfident, apathetic, or unstrategic, like too many were in the United States. Look how that turned out for them. And for the world. TURNOUT WINS ELECTIONS. 2 more advance voting days. Make Mark Carney our PM.
- 💯
- Reposted by Kristin ConnorAn important point. I’m sure there are a lot of ways scientists and science communicators can do better, but as long as organized and funded political disinformation campaigns are rampant and unconstrained, we’re fighting a real uphill battle.
- One of the great nutritional scientists hanging up his hat (for now?) as a result of the chaos & cuts at NIH. This is a huge loss & will stall major progress on the links between our modern food environments with health & disease risk. Bon courage from 🇨🇦, Kevin & thanks for your rigorous science
- Reposted by Kristin ConnorThe Lim Lab at the @crchum.bsky.social is recruiting PhD students or Postdoctoral Fellows to study the roles of 14-3-3zeta in #adipocytes or pancreatic #betacells. Projects are supported by CIHR, NSERC, or Diabetes Canada. Please share with people who might be interested! Thanks!
- Reposted by Kristin ConnorHey, just a quiet reminder: it’s not true that people get more conservative as they age. *Populations* get more conservative as they age because poor and marginalized people die sooner. nymag.com/intelligence...
- 💪🏼Women have the power 2 change the outcome of this election We don’t want (or like) PP Men who support him don’t respect women or equity-deserving groups ALL Conservative MPs are antichoice (abortion) Don’t believe the polls—every vote matters 🛑Maple MAGA & wealthy men from making decisions 4 all
- Reposted by Kristin ConnorDid you know that #April is #Irritable Bowel Syndrome (#IBS) Awareness Month? #AEProbio offers educational resources on a range of #GutHealth topics, including how to responsibly integrate #Probiotics into clinical care. Learn more about IBS & IBS management: AEProbio.com
- Reposted by Kristin ConnorWe asked whether we could quantify shape changes in placental cytotrophoblasts that are preparing to fuse and discovered they require microvilli to fuse. Cytotrophoblasts develop cute little Bart Simpson heads along the way to fusion
- 🔥Incredible to see a number of recognitions for essential discoveries & interventions related to 🧬 development 🥣 malnutrition & 👶🏽 child health!! 👏🏻 Congrats! www.gairdner.org/resource-hub...
- Reposted by Kristin ConnorA woman is 2X more likely to die from a heart attack than a man. On April 12 I'll be raising funds for the Heart & Stroke Foundation's efforts to increase women's cardiovascular disease research. Please consider donating 👇🏻 heartandstroke.crowdchange.ca/112067
- Reposted by Kristin ConnorWhy is #Science not in the ballot in Canada? After what we have seen in 🇺🇸 this should frighten us all.
- Poilievre pledged to “end the imposition of woke ideology in the allocation of federal funds for university research” This echoes Trump’s justification to cancel research grants and shut down government programs. It has alarmed many researchers. #NeverPolievre www.science.org/content/arti...
- Reposted by Kristin ConnorJust like south of the border, conservatives in Canada have become a radical anti-science, anti-women, anti-humanity group with ambitions of absolute power… we can see it at smaller scale in some provinces and now they want to bring their destructive, regressive agenda nationally…
- 🔊Share widely! Were looking for a Tier 2 CRC in Human Metabolic Disease! Just posted but hurry as app deadline is May 15! Got expertise in #obesity or #diabetes and are an emerging expert in your field? Apply now!!!! carleton.ca/deputyprovos...
- Reposted by Kristin ConnorIt's #WorldHealthDay Since 2000, maternal deaths globally declined by 40%! 💙 BUT—progress is slowing, and aid funding cuts mean major threats to lifesaving maternity services in many parts of the world. ❌
- Reposted by Kristin ConnorDelighted our study (7+ years in the making) is out today in Nature. In a nutshell, 48 hours of antibiotics in week 1 led to impaired vaccine responses up to 15 months later in infants. We show (in-vivo) a probiotic can fix it #microbiome #science #immunology www.nature.com/articles/s41...
- Proud to work with SRI council and have a clear, unified voice in support of colleagues at NIH & CDC. #solidarity
- Reposted by Kristin ConnorJoin us for a Multidisciplinary Look at Menopause! 🗓️ April 28 – 1:00 PM EST Hear insights from the next generation of menopause researchers! 🔗 Reserve your spot today for this hybrid event: ow.ly/T8g350VpOap #MenopauseResearch
- Reposted by Kristin ConnorWhich brings me to one of the worst flaws of #HigherEd leadership: an obsession with reducing expenditure with no regard for costs, including the cost of losing good will. Removing small perks may reduce outgoings slightly, but may end up costing FAR more if you reduce motivation and good will.
- This is horrible. And if true that Dr. Diana Bianchi is no longer in this role, a huge loss to the development, pregnancy and child health research community in the US. 💔 Solidarity from our community in 🇨🇦
- 💯this Many of the arguments to scoop up new PIs are positioned like Canada has little talent or amazing science and the (only) way to fill gaps is by bringing in others. It’s just not true.
- Reposted by Kristin ConnorCLEAN THE AIR! Hear often it’s ‘hard’ and ‘expensive’ to improve indoor air quality. After attending a workshop at a big US university with my Aranet, got news for you. It’s only a question of will.
- Reposted by Kristin ConnorIf you're watching what's happening at US universities, it's on our doorstep here. Pollievre is promising to end federal funding for research deemed to be "woke" www.montrealgazette.com/news/canada/...
- 🤰🏻Fascinating work! 🔥
- Biologists have built one of the most detailed pictures of pregnancy's true toll on the body. Read the full story: go.nature.com/4iKaWxZ
- Reposted by Kristin ConnorI reposted this raw, but the interesting thing here is the subtext that living in America now makes you suspect to anyone outside America. In two months this has become a global fact that maybe a lot of Americans aren’t yet aware of. Or don’t care probs. But they should.
- Reposted by Kristin ConnorElbows up, Canada.
- DREAM is a world-leading diabetes research collaborative here in 🇨🇦 They know the health and well-being of future generations depends on understanding early life determinants of diabetes. #FutureGenerationsDay www.dreamdiabetesresearch.com
- 🌎 Today, March 21, 2025, @dohadcanada.bsky.social launches International #FutureGenerationsDay! This day highlights our collective responsibility to promote health from early life, shaping a healthier future for all 🔗 Learn more: dohad.utoronto.ca #HealthForAll 1/2
- Today is the launch of ✨International #FutureGenerationsDay ✨ 🤰🏽👶🏻🧒🏼👧🏿 Learn more about this global initiative to create healthier, more sustainable futures for all people worldwide, by fostering well-being starting in early life 👇🏻👇🏻 dohad.utoronto.ca/announcements/ #DOHaD matters!
- Reposted by Kristin ConnorThe final report on the refresh for Canada’s Strategy for Patient-Oriented Research (SPOR) is now available. Lots of recommended actions, including changing the name to "Strategy for People-Centred and Partnership Oriented Research". #PatientEngagement #PatientPartnership #PPI
- Reposted by Kristin Connor
- Reposted by Kristin ConnorOnly 6.6% of countries are full democracies. Canada is one of them. That's something to be proud of. Something worth fighting for. *Data comes from a division of The Economist. The report is interesting reading if you're worried about the state of modern politics.
- Reposted by Kristin ConnorShameless self promotion of an excellent article on #EvMed #PetosParadox by @vcallier.bsky.social heads up @ubuffalo.bsky.social 🧪 🐘 🦇🐋🧫🧬
- Reposted by Kristin ConnorHi, we are an alternative to Amazon-owned Audible 👋🏻 With us, you select the independent bookshop you want to support (we have 3,000+ partners across the globe), and we share profits from your purchase with them. We're also employee-owned and a registered Social Purpose Corporation.
- Great thoughts on the state of higher ed and how it got to where it is today — many points same/relevant to 🇨🇦 even as aspects of our uni system (and its funding) are a bit different to 🇺🇸
- Reposted by Kristin ConnorIt is increasingly getting difficult for the average person to discern good information from bad. When we focus more on Dr Henry’s tone vs accuracy, we are doing public health a disservice. The sheer volume of bad information coming from Dr Henry, a senior public health leader, is unacceptable.
- We’re in desperate need of calm, decisive leadership. Let’s follow the lead of this COVID-era icon Bonnie Henry, by @femwriter.bsky.social www.thestar.com/opinion/cont... via @thestar.com
- Reposted by Kristin Connor“Across cultures and religions, people overwhelmingly seek to control their fertility when given the choice. Research also shows that when women have access to education and contraception, they tend to choose smaller families.” #ReproSky theconversation.com/why-we-shoul...
- Reposted by Kristin ConnorThe SRI INSPIRES program is a day-long event for high school and undergraduate students filled with inspiring stories, career discussions, networking, and hands-on scientific activities. SRI aims to build a diverse workforce in reproductive sciences by supporting the next generation of scientists.
- Reposted by Kristin ConnorIf anyone reading this is wondering why so many people on the pro-science end of the spectrum are so viscerally opposed to letting Dr Henry anywhere near the CMOH job, here's a thread for you. Due to her legacy of failure there are a lot of reasons, so it's fairly long: bsky.app/profile/mark...
- Reposted by Kristin Connor🩺🔬Research on Black women's health in Canada must not be neglected. Professor Josephine Etowa has launched the first pan-Canadian initiative aimed at reducing health disparities affecting Black communities and influencing public health policy. @uottawafhs.bsky.social
- Reposted by Kristin ConnorNothing will kill more children than the ongoing decimation of CDC, NIH, and USAID work to lift vaccine uptake in the US and world. Child survival rose 75% in the last 50 years. Vaccines account for 40% of that. Measles vax alone was 60% of the benefit. www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
- Reposted by Kristin ConnorHappy b’day to R.E.M’s classic LP “Out of Time”, released 34 years ago today. “The guys would give me pieces of music that were so ebullient and bubblegum,” Michael Stipe said, “that I’d be like, ‘OK, I accept your challenge and I raise you — we’re going to call THIS one ‘Shiny Happy People.’” 🙏🏼
- Reposted by Kristin ConnorWho funds biomedical research? @nature.com www.nature.com/articles/d41...
- Carney: The value of a strong economy starts with the workers…and their future Me: I wish my University thought this 🫤 #collectiveagreementnegotiations
- Carney rightly calling out that America / Trump wants our land, our water, our minerals… …and wants to profit off us re: healthcare—a big business in the US and a RIGHT in Canada We must place people above money “Canadians are always ready when someone else drops the gloves” #ElbowsUp
