News and events

Dr. Marie-Ève Tremblay has co-edited a new book covering all aspects of the brain’s resident immune cells. She and her lab also helped to author several chapters in the book.

K’sana Wood Lynes-Ford, who is from the Gitxsan, Tsimshian and 'Na̱mg̱is Nations, is working as a co-op student in the labs of Dr. Laura Arbour and Dr. Leigh Anne Swayne. Her experience and research was recently featured by UVic News.

Dr. Brian Christie (Division of Medical Sciences; Institute on Aging & Lifelong Health (IALH)) and Dr. Jodie Gawryluk (Psychology, cross-appointed Division of Medical Sciences; IALH acting director) will collaborate with researchers at Université de Montréal and NeuroTracker on an innovative concussion research project that aims to better understand the long-term consequences of, and potential treatments for, mild traumatic brain injuries in older adults.

Microglia, the brain’s resident immune cells, play a key role in remodelling the brain, which helps regulate synaptic plasticity – the ability for brain connections to change, which is fundamental to learning and memory – and behaviour throughout a person’s lifetime. Now, Dr. Marie-Ève Tremblay and her students are trying to figure out if dark microglia, a stressed form of the cells, perform this remodelling process and lead to changes in behaviour and synaptic plasticity in the context of chronic stress.

Dr. Haley Vecchiarelli (Tremblay Lab) recently received a 2024 Graduate and Fellowship Research Award in Women’s Health from the Women’s Health Research Institute for her research on long COVID. She is investigating how microglia could potentially contribute to the female bias in long COVID neurological symptoms.

In a new preclinical study published in iScience, PhD candidate Micaël Carrier (Tremblay Lab) and his co-authors found white blood cells can enter the brain at birth and contribute to the development of brain circuitry.

Brain injury survivors show cognitive improvement after using NeuroTracker, but we don’t really understand why. Master’s student Jamie Morrison (Christie lab) is using her recent Canada Graduate Scholarship – Master’s from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research to study what could be underlying this success. This research could lead to more recovery options, especially for those navigating the complexities of moderate to severe traumatic brain injuries.

Dr. Jenessa Johnston (Caruncho / Kalynchuk lab) received one of the two Governor General’s Gold Medals awarded at UVic in 2024 for her outstanding dissertation. Her work, which combined patient-oriented and basic science research, focused on the role of reelin in depression.

Stress-related disorders like depression are increasingly being linked to gut disfunction, but the mechanisms underlying this relationship are not well understood. Ciara Halvorson (Caruncho Lab) is using her new Canada Graduate Scholarship – Master’s from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada to see if a protein called reelin plays a part.

Post-doctoral fellow Eric Eyolfson (Christie Lab) is teaching the undergraduate course MEDS 410 this semester thanks to the 2023 President’s Fellowship in Research-Enriched Teaching from the University of Victoria. We sat down with Eric to learn more about his course and his passion for teaching.