Great turnout for the career networking session this afternoon at @canacn.bsky.social ! Huge thanks to all the participants for making it great!

1/ Excited & proud to share the results of an exceptional collaboration with @ejrideout.bsky.social led by R. Manceau & D. Majeur @crchum.bsky.social & @umontreal-en.bsky.social, demonstrating the conserved role of lipid droplet function in hunger-activated neurons. www.nature.com/articles/s42...

“Based on astrocytic activity alone, you can tell whether a mouse is in its comfort zone,” a new study suggests. By Holly Barker www.thetransmitter.org/spectrum/ast...

Astrocytes in mouse amygdala encode emotional state

The glial cells’ activity reliably tracks with freezing, hesitancy and other behaviors reminiscent of anxiety.

thetransmitter.org

The major finding of this work reveals that BLA astrocyte calcium activity reliably encodes and drives anxiety states. This entire project started when Ossama showed me this video -

Incredibly proud of this paper led by @ossamaghenissa.bsky.social and @mathiasgua.bsky.social titled Basolateral 'Amygdala Astrocytes Encode Anxiety States'. www.cell.com/neuron/fullt... 🧵 below

Basolateral amygdala astrocytes encode anxiety states

Ghenissa et al. provide evidence that basolateral amygdala astrocytes reliably encode anxiety states. Using simultaneous in vivo calcium recordings across an array of behavioral tasks, combined with g...

cell.com

Astrocytic opposition for this #FluorescenceFriday, Cytoskeleton vs. Cytoplasm. ⚪️GFAP 🟠eGFP 🔵DAPI Imaging credit: undergrad Camila Cabarcas

Couldn't wait for Friday to share this really incredible image from superstar undergraduate student Camila Cabarcas, iInvestigating astrocyte morphology Fingers crossed for Camila as she's at U Cincinnati this week to interview for grad school!

Delighted to share our first preprint of the year! A project that we're all really proud of in the lab led by @ossamaghenissa.bsky.social with @mathiasgua.bsky.social in which we set out to test the role of basolateral amygdala astrocytes in anxiety behaviour. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Astrocytic Encoding of Threat in the Basolateral Amygdala

The basolateral amygdala (BLA) has long been implicated in threat detection and the generation of anxiety states. While previous experiments have demonstrated the important role of BLA principal neuro...

biorxiv.org

Went fishing for this #FluorescenceFriday (GCaMP6s zebrafish larvae)

The views we are lucky to witness from the @crchum.bsky.social

Just out in Nature! “The astrocytic ensemble acts as a multiday trace to stabilize memory.” We identified astrocytic ensembles that link experiences across days to stabilize memory nature.com/articles/s41.... New astrocyte tools are openly available at Addgene: addgene.org/Jun_Nagai/. 1/8

L’impact du stress sur le cerveau dépendrait du sexe www.lapresse.ca/actualites/s...

Étude réalisée à Montréal | L’impact du stress sur le cerveau dépendrait du sexe

Le cerveau des mâles et des femelles ne réagit pas de la même manière au stress, démontrent pour la première fois des travaux réalisés à Montréal.

lapresse.ca

Thrilled to share our new study showing microglia prune astrocyte processes in adult brain, to regulate synaptic transmission, hypothalamic neuron activity, and salt-induced hypertension in🐀. Huge team effort - congratulations to all🥂🍾🎉

Neuron@cp-neuron.bsky.social · 12mo ago

Online now:

Go Lewis 👏👏👏

Lewis Holt@lewisholt.bsky.social · last yr.

Absolutely thrilled to share the first half of my PhD work! Super proud to see it finally out! www.nature.com/articles/s41... Thread below for a quick (10 point) recap of what we found! 🧵🧪🧠

Sleep loss is a metabolic disorder "This review describes how sleep deprivation increases resting energy expenditure, leading to the development of a negative energy balance in highly active cells like neurons." www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Sleep loss is a metabolic disorder

Sleep deprivation shifts metabolic resources and deprioritizes processes that support cognition.

science.org

@lewisholt.bsky.social sharing some cool data about astrocytes driving stress-induced behaviour! #astroglia

Very happy to share several common protocols used in our lab for the second edition of the book "Astrocytes: Methods and Protocols" @lewisholt.bsky.social @astroantho.bsky.social Thanks @dibenedetto-lab.bsky.social for being a very patient editor! link.springer.com/book/10.1007...

Astrocytes

This book gathers methods essential for investigating the multifaceted roles of astrocytes in both physiology and pathological conditions.

link.springer.com

Montréal glia people / neuroscience community - I'm hosting Jun Nagai (RIKEN) on April 2nd at the @crchum.bsky.social If you're interested see details below, or reach out to me! Open to all.

Not sure if our 'striking image' we submitted will get used but here it is. Super striking, if you ask me! Credit - @mathiasgua.bsky.social

Very honoured to be named the researcher of the month by SENSUM - the mental health and neuroscience strategy at @umontreal.ca www.sensum.umontreal.ca/en/2025/01/3...

Astrocyte physiologists and computationalists! Imaging astrocyte structure and function, we discovered and quantified a spatial threshold to astrocyte calcium surge ⭐ doi.org/10.7554/eLif...

A spatial threshold for astrocyte calcium surge

In astrocytes, there exists an intrinsic spatial threshold of subcellular calcium levels that triggers an astrocyte calcium surge throughout the cell, demonstrating cellular astrocyte calcium integrat...

doi.org

A touch of blue velvet LUT with this #FluorescenceFriday GCaMP8 astrocytic activities at the 2p

How convenient - this tree already comes with ornaments! 🎄🧪 Get into the holiday spirit with this beautiful cell tree by @oozguc.bsky.social from @ibecbarcelona.eu. This beautiful fusion of science and art was made using our Lamin B1 stem cell line! What would you want to see under your cell tree?

2 eGFP #astrocytes contacting a blood vessel with their arborization almost looking like a christmas tree for this #fluorescencefriday #astrocyte

Delighted to share an update to our preprint, reviewed at @elife.bsky.social, and now sent back for re-review. Colossal work by the team and driven home by @mathiasgua.bsky.social Quick 🧵 of what's new - www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Early-life stress induces persistent astrocyte dysfunction associated with fear generalisation

Early-life stress can have lifelong consequences, enhancing stress susceptibility and resulting in behavioural and cognitive deficits. While the effects of early-life stress on neuronal function have ...

biorxiv.org

we haven't talked about this in the SKY> exciting preprint from Kevin Guttenplan in Marc Freeman's lab at @volluminstitute.bsky.social Adrenergic signaling gates astrocyte responsiveness to neurotransmitters and control of neuronal activity www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

10/ Why should you bring #preprints into your journal club? Here’s what #ECRs stand to gain by looking beyond published papers. https://buff.ly/3VbvNjT

Point of View: Journal clubs in the time of preprints

Early-career researchers can learn about peer review by discussing preprints at journal clubs and sending feedback to the authors.

buff.ly

New paper from our neighbours Stephanie Fulton’s lab investigating microglia, inflammation and synaptic transmission in the NAc. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Microglial engulfing of glutamatergic inputs and diminished excitability of D1 medium spiny neurons of the nucleus accumbens by peripheral inflammatory insult

Neuroimmune responses to systemic inflammation can generate anxiodepressive behaviors and psychomotor slowing. The nucleus accumbens (NAc) is a neural hub encoding mood and motivation that contributes...

biorxiv.org

some great starter packs for the #glia, #astrocyte, #oligodendrocyte, #microglia, #neuro researcher: gliasky, astrocytesky, microglia But if you also like interactions between celltypes, please help this starter pack get started. Maybe someone can connect all of us in a feed? go.bsky.app/MHtJzeC

Not sure I have any good pictures in the back pocket to beat the calcium imaging from @mathiasgua.bsky.social Instead for my first post on Bluesky I want to share the CANglia webinar: trainee series!