Thrilled to share: we show that neuronal hyperactivity drives C1q-mediated synapse loss via brain-recruited B cell/IgM, revealing unexpected neuroimmune crosstalk in the adult brain. Congrats to Gerard Crowley who led this w/ resilience & creativity & our whole team! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

C1q and immunoglobulins mediate activity-dependent synapse loss in the adult brain

Complement component 1q (C1q), the initiator of the classical complement cascade, mediates synaptic elimination in development and disease, yet the triggers for its deposition on synapses remain uncle...

science.org

Final meeting of the organising committee! We are so excited to see you all 😆 @drmyelin.bsky.social @philiphasel.bsky.social @izzynchristie.bsky.social @dr-vmosienko.bsky.social @lucywheatley.bsky.social Safe travels - see you in Bristol

Wills Memorial Building is the tall grand building at the top of Park Street. See you there Monday morning 😆 #excited #can'twait #7moresleeps #sciencefriends #sciencefun

Astrocytes transform the transcriptomic and epigenetic landscape of developing cortical neurons to promote activity via intrinsic excitability control https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.05.17.725732v1

LAST DAY TO REGISTER www.physoc.org/events/uk-gl... please repost

UK Glia 2026

UK Glia 2026 meeting will highlight the pivotal role of glia in brain physiology, offering invaluable insights for those investigating glia function in both health and disease. Find out more about the...

physoc.org

🚨 New preprint on bioRxiv! Pericyte loss triggers hypoperfusion, BBB dysfunction, endothelial VCAM-1/type I IFN activation, venular-like transitions & delayed white matter injury linked to human SVD signatures. Congrats Dr. Dorota Stefancova & team! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

UK Glia 2026 in Bristol unites researchers across career stages to explore glial biology, brain physiology, neurodegeneration and neuropsychiatric disorders. Date - Mon 08 - Tue 09 Jun 2026 Location - University of Bristol, UK www.dementiaresearcher.nihr.ac.uk/event/uk-gli...

UK Glia Network 2nd meeting - DEMENTIA RESEARCHER

UK Glia 2026, Bristol. Unites researchers across career stages to explore glial biology, brain physiology, neurodegeneration and neuropsychiatric disorders.

dementiaresearcher.nihr.ac.uk

📢 The final programme is live! 📢 Check it out 👀 www.physoc.org/events/uk-gl...

UK Glia 2026

UK Glia 2026 meeting will highlight the pivotal role of glia in brain physiology, offering invaluable insights for those investigating glia function in both health and disease. Find out more about the...

physoc.org

Astrocytes do so much more than any of us thought - they even communicate among specific brain regions across hemispheres! The journey to this paper spanned nearly a decade, but I'm most excited to see what everyone else does with the tools we've built. There's so much for all of us to explore!

Astrocytes connect specific brain regions through plastic networks - Nature

Communication between distant brain regions is mediated by plastic networks of gap junction-coupled astrocytes.

nature.com

New work from our team, led by the incredible @emily-hill.bsky.social out today @cp-neuron.bsky.social. Including some exciting additions from our prepint. Thread below! authors.elsevier.com/a/1ms0u3BtfH...

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

🚨 PhD Programme – Vascular Dementia Research New 4-year PhD funded by BHF & UK DRI on vascular mechanisms in dementia. Training across UCL, Oxford, Leicester & Edinburgh with lab rotations. 📅 Deadline: 14 April 🎓 Start: Sept 2026 Apply: CV + statement + 2 refs → neurophd@ucl.ac.uk Please share!

The first event of 2026 in our seminar series is on Weds 21st January at 2pm. Presented by @philiphasel.bsky.social of @edinburgh-uni.bsky.social, hosted by Dr Ingo Schiessl. Details on poster - all welcome! 🧠 #neuroscienceseminar #neuroscience #manchesterneuroscience

Thrilled to wrap up the year and my postdoc work in the Nester lab with this publication 🥳! We show that astrocytic CREB regulates astrocyte calcium and D1-MSN activity to drive behavioral response to cocaine. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41406210/

"Defining the molecular identity and morphology of glia limitans superficialis astrocytes in vertebrates" http://dlvr.it/TPKJSH @liddelowsa.bsky.social @philiphasel.bsky.social & colleagues @cp-cellreports.bsky.social #SfN2025

Check out our new review article from my lab: doi.org/10.1111/jnc....

Crosstalk Between Astrocytes and Inhibitory Neurons During Maturation: Emerging Mechanisms and Functional Implications

In this review, we discuss the development and maturation of inhibitory neurons and astrocytes and how early developmental activity in the brain might promote the interactions between these cell type...

doi.org

Finally it’s here! 🌟⬇️ www.nature.com/articles/s41... I’m sooo excited to share our latest article led by Steve Hill and Isabel Bravo-Ferrer 1- How does the vasculature communicate with astrocytes? 2- Is this communication dependent to what happens in the body. 3- Is it relevant to human diseases?

Really excited to announce that the Holt lab will be starting in January 2026 in the Center for Substance Use Research at Temple University Lewis Katz School of Medicine. Interested in the role of gene regulation, astrocytes, and addiction? I'm hiring at all positions-DM or email me! l-holt-lab.com

📢 June 8th-9th 2026 Bristol University 📢 We have partnered with @physoc.bsky.social to organise the 2nd meeting Bristol. It is a privilege to announce Professor Baljit Khakh, FRS will join us in the UK. Check out the exciting programme here: www.physoc.org/events/uk-gl... #neuroskyence #glia

UK Glia 2026

UK Glia 2026 meeting will highlight the pivotal role of glia in brain physiology, offering invaluable insights for those investigating glia function in both health and disease. Find out more about the...

physoc.org

Thrilled to share our new paper @cp-cell.bsky.social: “Microglia–astrocyte crosstalk regulates synapse remodeling via Wnt signaling.” This work demonstrates the necessity of glia–glia communication and coordination during synapse remodeling. 🔗 www.cell.com/cell/fulltex... Faust et al., Cell 2025

Hello world! We just released a thing! In this preprint we provide evidence questioning the ability of the axon initial segment to undergo rapid structural plasticity in intact neurons from mouse, rat, and human cortex.

bioRxiv Neuroscience@biorxiv-neursci.bsky.social · 11mo ago

Absence of short-term axon initial segment plasticity in human, mouse, and rat cortical circuits https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.01.672986v1

www.thetransmitter.org/astrocytes/a...

Astrocyte networks span large swaths of brain

The networks are plastic, connect brain regions that aren’t connected by neurons and may enable long-distance communication between astrocytes, a new preprint shows.

thetransmitter.org

Astrocytes connect specific brain regions through plastic gap junctional networks https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.07.18.665573v1

Excited to share the preprint for one of my postdoctoral projects in the Nestler lab 🥳

bioRxiv Neuroscience@biorxiv-neursci.bsky.social · last yr.

Astrocytic CREB regulates transcriptional, neuronal, and behavioral responses to cocaine https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.06.04.657899v1

So grateful to the @wellcometrust.bsky.social for investing in me... believing in me. It's hard to believe in yourself sometimes. Science is going really well and I am thrilled to be back in the lab wellcome.org/research-fun...

Amyloid-β induces lipid droplet-mediated microglial dysfunction via the enzyme DGAT2 in Alzheimer’s disease: @cp-immunity.bsky.social www.cell.com/immunity/ful...

For those who want a distraction and/ or are interested, here's the latest from the group, led by Phil Braaker www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Activity-driven myelin sheath growth is mediated by mGluR5 - Nature Neuroscience

Employing pharmacology, genetics and all-optical approaches in zebrafish, Braaker et al. find that neuronal activity influences the growth of myelin sheaths along axons by signaling through metabotrop...

nature.com

Dear immune/glia lovers of brain, gut and beyond… We’re looking for a lab tech/manager to join our team! Pls see details for application here ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/se… @ukdri.ac.uk @uclqsion.bsky.social - pls help circulate among networks who’d be of interest, thank you!

Our perspective in @natrevimmunol.nature.com on new concepts in neuroimmune interactions that have challenged the old dogma that immune privilege is a result of the isolation of the nervous and immune systems. @jonykipnis.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Redefining CNS immune privilege - Nature Reviews Immunology

In this Perspective, Smyth and Kipnis reappraise the concept of immune privilege in the central nervous system. Although immune privilege was originally thought to involve isolation of the central ner...

nature.com

Thrilled to announce that my lab is now open at Ohio State! We study astrocytes as gene therapy targets for brain repair after ischemic stroke and in vascular dementia, developing new viral tools along the way. If you're interesting in joining or collaborating, please reach out! gleichmanlab.com