Specifically, McLaughlin focused on understanding cell loss post hypoxic and ischemic insults (often in cardiac arrest and stroke).

[12] McLaughlin has collaborated with researchers in physics and chemistry to study organoids for drug screening, cholesterol in the brain, and sensitive sensors for metabolic signalling.

[citation needed] McLaughlin applied for tenure in 2015, but Vanderbilt delayed a decision on her application for two years while a disciplinary investigation was conducted.

[1] The disciplinary investigation was based on accusations that McLaughlin was sending derogatory tweets to colleagues, from anonymous, multiuser Twitter accounts.

[2] In June 2018, McLaughlin and Julie Libarkin[6] created the website MeTooSTEM.com to share stories about discrimination and sexual misconduct in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

This included her own experience as a witness for a Title IX case which she described as "arcane, unfair...vicious..and there is zero justice at the end and zero transparency.

[14] In June 2018, McLaughlin launched a campaign on social media to stop the red chili pepper "hotness" rating for professors at RateMyProfessors.com.

[16][17][18] In November 2018 McLaughlin used social media to highlight efforts from university professors to bar a computer scientist from speaking at a conference because of known sexual harassment allegations.

[3] In an interview with the Journal of Cell Biology, McLaughlin asserted her belief that her involvement in advocacy has had negative impacts on her research, citing time spent away from the lab due to the long process that harassment cases undergo where safety is also of concern.

[3] On August 4, 2020, following a scandal on Twitter, McLaughlin wrote that she is "stepping away from all activities with MeTooSTEM to ensure that it isn't unfairly criticized for my actions.

[22] On July 31, 2020, McLaughlin posted on Twitter that her colleague, "@Sciencing_bi", supposedly a female Indigenous anthropology professor at Arizona State University (ASU), had died of COVID-19.

She claimed the woman contracted COVID-19 after "[s]he was forced by her university to continue teaching in person until April",[23] though ASU had suspended classes in March 2020.

[28] On August 4, 2020, the New York Times published a statement from McLaughlin provided by her lawyer in which she admitted responsibility for the hoax, and would be "stepping away" from MeTooSTEM.