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.
Drs. Brian Christie and Sandy Shultz have received a grant from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research to continue their pre-clinical research on brain injury specifically in the context of intimate partner violence (IPV), looking at how the common factors of concussion, non-fatal strangulation, and extreme stress can individually and in combination affect an IPV survivor’s brain biology, blood biomarkers, and functionality.
Read more: Concussion research focused on intimate partner violence
Postdoctoral fellow Dr. Ifeoluwa (Hiphy) Awogbindin (Tremblay Lab) has received a Michael Smith Health Research British Columbia Research Trainee Award. Jointly funded by the Parkinson’s Society British Columbia, the award will support Hiphy’s investigation of the relationship between SARS-CoV-2 infection / COVID-19, microglia, and Parkinson’s disease.
Dr. Leigh Anne Swayne received a Proof-of-Concept Grant co-funded by Alzheimer Society of Canada and Brain Canada. With this funding, Dr. Swayne and master’s student Adriana Casillas Martinez will study how nerve cell connections are formed and how they could be preserved in Alzheimer’s disease.
In a new preclinical study published in Brain Behavior and Immunity, PhD candidate Micaël Carrier (Tremblay Lab) and co-authors used models to look at how genetic and environmental factors affecting a pregnant person can impact the mental health of their male and female offspring.
Dr. Leigh Anne Swayne received a Project Grant from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research to study how nerve cell connections are stabilized. This important work will help us understand the molecular processes involved in wiring the brain. Since impaired nerve connection stability is common to several neurological conditions, ranging from chronic stress and depression to schizophrenia, the outcomes of this research could also shed light on how these conditions arise and how they might be treated.
Postdoctoral fellow Dr. Adriano Chaves (they/them; Tremblay Lab) received a 2023 Graduate and Fellowship Research Award in Women’s Health at the Postdoctoral Level from the Women’s Health Research Institute (WHRI). They will investigate the role of microglia in remodelling the extracellular matrix, with a specific focus on how this could affect synaptic plasticity and emotional and cognitive behaviour in female models.
In an invited article published in the Annual Review of Genetics, postdoctoral fellow Dr. Haley Vecchiarelli (Tremblay Lab) and Dr. Marie-Ève Tremblay highlight the current state of the field and describe advancements from recent studies. This is one of several review activities undertaken by the Tremblay Lab this year.
Read more: Knowledge synthesis on microglial transcriptional signatures
In her first-author paper published in the Journal of Neuroinflammation, Katie Neale (Christie Lab) and fellow lab members investigated the effects of repeated mild traumatic brain injuries on neurological function and cellular proliferation in male and female juvenile models.
The Neuroscience Graduate Student Association will use donated funds to provide invaluable learning and social opportunities for its members.
