Melissa Perreault, PhD
@mlperreault.bsky.social
Professor and neuroscientist. Cellular mechanisms of neuropsychiatric disorders. Indigenous Neuroethics. #Indigenous. #Métis. #Firstgen.
Happy to be included as a 2026 Hot Topic! And to work with @tryangregory.bsky.social again. Cultural humility in the teaching and practice of clinical care.
Neuropsychopharmacology@npp-journal.bsky.social · 3w agoWe're back with another installment of #ThisWeekInNPP to keep you up to date on the latest NPP papers 👇 #TWiNPP
I hate that there is never any shortage of material for the grad course on health (in)equity that I co-teach with @mlperreault.bsky.social
Canada Healthwatch 🍁@canadahealthwatch.ca · last mo.This is how seriously a patient’s skin colour can affect the quality of medical care they receive, Devi Sridhar writes. This article and more at canadahealthwatch.ca #CdnHealth #EthnicityPainGap #HealthEquity
Canada continuing genocide against Indigenous people, international tribunal finds. www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
Canada continuing genocide against Indigenous Peoples, international tribunal finds | CBC News
An international tribunal has ruled that the Government of Canada’s current policies constitute an ongoing genocide against Indigenous Peoples, following a grueling week of hearings on intergeneration...
cbc.ca
And again 👇👇👇👇
T. Ryan Gregory 🇨🇦@tryangregory.bsky.social · 2mo agoOutstanding opportunity for @avilewis.ca to push for a better system of science funding in Canada that would massively increase productivity. Give every qualified researcher a baseline operating grant. More as reward for productivity or through competition. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
This is absolutely Harper stuff. Fund the researchers who are already here. nserc-crsng.canada.ca/en/news/mini...
Minister Joly announces major milestone with Phase 1 results of Canada’s Talent Attraction Strategy
Impact+ Research Training Awards attract more than 650 candidates from around the world to Canada
nserc-crsng.canada.ca
Haven't been to a conference with my lab since who knows when. Will be fun! See you at CAN in Montreal soon.
New pub alert from my colleagues here at @uofg @UofGCBS!! "Cell-Free Synthesis of Cannabistilbene I: A Dual Acting Anti-Inflammatory from Cannabis sativa" pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...
Cell-Free Synthesis of Cannabistilbene I: A Dual Acting Anti-Inflammatory from Cannabis sativa
Despite the potential of Cannabis bibenzyls to remedy acute and chronic inflammation, their relative scarcity, in planta, has hindered applications for them in mainstream therapeutic efforts. Here, we...
pubs.acs.org
Research on plants and mushrooms focuses on isolated compounds. @tryangregory.bksy.social, Max Jones, and I discuss why the neurobiological impacts of the whole organism needs more attention. After all, the majority of individuals who partake, use the entire thing link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Back to our roots: Integrating wholistic research approaches in the study of medicinal plants and mushrooms - Psychopharmacology
Psychopharmacology -
link.springer.com
Really disappointed in my institution right now for not highlighting my address at the UN on gaps in Indigenous governance in AI and neurotech. They did the same last year with my Nature paper on Two Eyed Seeing in neuro. Starting to think they're not interested in certain topics....
There are two types of people in academic leadership roles: Those who will say yes to good ideas unless they absolutely can't, and those who say no unless they run out of objections. I guarantee that anything innovative at your institution happened because of the former and in spite of the latter.
I wish I could tell all the young eager people who write to me about wanting to do research, or the new novel exciting theory they have developed, that if your email (or worse, theory) was very obviously generated by chatGPT it will be very hard for anybody to take you seriously.
Patiently (or rather impatiently) waiting for NSERC Discovery results.
If you're interested in a different perspective from the one you've probably been taught about "the" Scientific Method™, here's an open-access book chapter I wrote recently. www.sciencedirect.com/science/chap...
Knowing our ways of knowing: A reflection on Western science in relation to Indigenous epistemologies
Writing from the standpoint of a Western researcher with a strong interest in the philosophy of science and Indigenous ways of knowing, I argue that t…
sciencedirect.com
Here's another "Indigenous people already knew this, but *now* it's real because Western scientists studied it."
Science Magazine@science.org · 5mo agoSome scientists had argued that the “forest gardens” of the Pacific Northwest were accidental byproducts of fire, flood, or land clearing. But a 2021 study showed the contrary: Indigenous peoples deliberately cultivated them. Learn more on #InternationalDayOfForests: https://scim.ag/3N8Th8M
Professors are, by and large, utterly complacent if not outright compliant and complicit. Despite enormous privilege, they are disproportionately silent -- until their grant funding is at risk, anyway. I have been embarrassed by my profession on issue after issue. www.nytimes.com/2026/03/16/u...
Professors Are Changing What They Teach, Even Far from Trump’s Gaze
nytimes.com
I think my transdisciplinary projects are my fave. New Review promoting a new path in NDD research. Bacterial immunomodulatory structures as determinants of the maternal immune response and autism risk. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Bacterial immunomodulatory structures as determinants of the maternal immune response and autism risk
Autism is a group of neurodevelopmental conditions that have shown increasing prevalence over the last several decades. Despite being largely idiopath…
sciencedirect.com
I'm lucky, no one has done this directly to my face. Or should I say, they're lucky.
T. Ryan Gregory 🇨🇦@tryangregory.bsky.social · 6mo agoThe depth of misogyny, racism, eugenics, transphobia, and epistemic arrogance that has permeated certain intellectual circles is something to behold. "Anti-woke" is so often just a defence of those people and their bigotry. Remember that if any of these assholes criticize your efforts toward equity.
Yikes! My @CIHR_IRSC panel funded 6 out of 49 applications. The panel normally funds that many. We also normally have 30 applications. Brutal.
CIHR scores landed exactly where I expected for a first round submission, very decent (as a past member, my panel almost never scored above 4.6). Comments reasonable and doable.
Off to the beautiful Bahamas for #ACNP2026! See everyone there!
Often dream about retiring early. Leaving Canada and living my best life on a beach somewhere in the islands. Blank slate, start over somewhere else. And I really don't need to see snow again.
Governments can't keep getting credit for promises alone. What matters is co-creation (not "consultation") with Indigenous communities and real action. www.cbc.ca/news/politic...
Carney government pitches over $35.5B for First Nations child welfare reform | CBC News
Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government is presenting a new plan worth more than $35.5 billion to keep First Nations children connected to their communities, culture and families.
cbc.ca
He's absolutely right. And it alienates me to no end. And the money they get for their lab and equipment far exceeds anything we get. I know because the call has went out and we are about to try and recruit.
T. Ryan Gregory 🇨🇦@tryangregory.bsky.social · 8mo agoScientists at Canadian institutions have long punched well above our weight despite low and stagnant funding. Spending a billion dollars on external recruitment while science here is starving is exactly what Harper got wrong about supporting research excellence in Canada.
Am I the only one seeing more ECRs/mid career researchers applying for awards, honours, memberships with an exorbitant amount of papers in the past 2-3 years? Like 40-50 pubs/year? CV padded with reviews, systematic reviews, low N clinical papers, or "hypothesis generating" papers.
Here's the only thing I see about Tri-Agency funding.
My X feed. "Autism is genetic" says the human geneticist. "Depression is an energetic state" says the mitochondrial physiologist. Can we please stop with this simplification of complex disorders? It's epistemic arrogance, and simply advocating for one's own field of work. And language matters.