Caroline Menard

Just 2 more days to submit an abstract for #CANGlia2026! Don’t miss this opportunity to share your exciting glial research!!

Submission link in bio!

graphical schematic of the meninges on top depicting the three layers [dura, arachnoid and pia] and other immune and vascular cell types. Inset shows Claudin-11 junction proteins connecting two sides of arachnoid barrier cells bottom schematic is the same but in inflammation with bacteria, junctions breakdown, depiction of cytokine release by vascular, meningeal and immune cells - at side of graphic is summary of defects we observe in infection: 'increased barrier permeability' 'mislocalization of Cldn11+ tight junction' 'BAM activation' and "increased inflammatory response'

🚨 New preprint from our lab led by Sophia Kim w/ @kellydoran.bsky.social group @cuanschutz.bsky.social -- using neonatal 🐭 model of bacterial meningitis ➡️ arachnoid barrier is leaky, Cldn11 junctions are disrupted & cytokines are part of the problem. Lots of 🤩🧠🦠🔬 & compelling data, check it out! 1/5

In imaging-based spatial transcriptomics (Xenium CosMx), 40% RNAs are Not assigned to segmented cells

This amazing preprint @fabiantheis.bsky.social studies the origin, heterogeneity & biological inference (Modeling cell protrusion/contacts😎) of unassigned RNAs

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Let’s teach neuroscientists how to be thoughtful and fair reviewers Blanco-Suárez revamped the traditional journal club by developing a course in which students peer review preprints alongside the published papers that evolved from them.

It was great to share this experience with @thetransmitter.bsky.social Can't wait to begin this course again in Fall. If you're interested in something like this for your own class, I'm happy to discuss.
www.thetransmitter.org/neuro-educat...

I had the opportunity to write a research briefing for Nature, in which I summarized our recent work in African Striped Mice. It’s a short read for anyone who wants a quick overview! www.nature.com/articles/d41...

🚨New paper alert🚨
We built a fully standardized, integrated hardware and software solution for real-time welfare monitoring in mice. We used it to look at pain management after brain surgery.
Not much has changed from the preprint (see below).
Brief: hold back on opioids!
doi.org/10.1038/s416...

Read our letter to Prime Minister Mark Carney – Canadian Association for Neuroscience Canadian Association for Neuroscience

Read CAN President Douglas Zochodne's letter to Prime Minister Mark Carney highlighting the importance of Neuroscience research and the CIHR Project Grant shortfalls.
can-acn.org/read-our-let...

Early bird registration deadline for the CAN 2026 meeting is today! Don't miss this chance to register at the best rates!
Date limite d'inscription aux tarifs lève-tôt aujourd'hui! Ne manquez pas cette chance de vous inscrire au meilleur prix!
can-acn.org/meeting-2026/

Assistant Professor - Psychology (Behavioural Neuroscience) Assistant Professor - Psychology (Behavioural Neuroscience)

New neuroscience job at Wilfrid Laurier University. You may not know the name, but science has been growing fast. It is also down the street from Canada's top tech university (Waterloo) and a world class physics institute (Perimeter). I feel happy and lucky to be here careers.wlu.ca/job/Waterloo...

Biological Laboratory | LEGO® Ideas This is a two-floor realistic Biological Laboratory building. In this design, I try to tell stories about biologists, introduce biology concepts to general publ…

I just made an account and voted for this biology laboratory made of LEGO to "promote biological research and inspire more people into the world of biology". They need 10K votes. Reposting and/or voting below would be helpful. 🤗
beta.ideas.lego.com/product-idea...

An Open-Source Restraint System for Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Awake Rats Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a critical tool for translational neuroscience, but preclinical studies frequently rely on anesthesia, which alters neural activity and limits comparison with human...

Excited to share this in final form @sfnjournals.bsky.social: An Open-Source Restraint System for Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Awake Rats www.eneuro.org/content/13/2... if anyone wants to try doing it, give us a call! Happy to help you get going!

Astrocyte Cafe - Seminars & 2026 Conference Join the international astrocyte research community. Monthly seminars and the 2026 Pamplona Conference.

Registrations and abstract submissions for #AstrocyteCafe2026 are now OPEN!!!

Spread the word 🤩
We hope to see many of you on June 3-5 in Pamplona!!!

Thanks Kernel Science, for our brand new website and for helping organize this conference!
👇👇👇👇

astrocytecafe.com#/conference-...

Single-cell and isoform-specific translational profiling of the mouse brain - Nature Post-transcriptional regulation of mRNA translation was explored using Ribo-STAMP and single-cell RNA sequencing to reveal cell-type-specific and isoform-specific translation patterns across hipp...

Chuffed to see our paper with @geneyeo.bsky.social finally published in @nature.com.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Very grateful to Fede, Susie, and Dave from my lab, and Sammi, Eric, and Pratibha from Gene's lab. What did we find? ⬇️ ⬇️ ⬇️

Kids born the same year that the term “RNA-seq” was coined are heading to college this fall. We are all unspeakably ancient.

Join us Sep 5-12, 2026 in Venice at the Neuroscience School of Advanced Studies for a course on Integrated Brain-Body Neuroscience featuring world-class speakers @mcalpinelab.bsky.social @jonykipnis.bsky.social @scottrussophd.bsky.social Jessica Able, Jens Brüning, Ivan de Araujo & Kara Marshall.

Congrats to @pact-lab.bsky.social postdoc @ryanntansey.bsky.social on her recent paper looking at the impact of elevated anandamide via FAAH inhibition on brain function in patients with PTSD

What does it do?

Well....not much 😬

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Agouti integrates environmental cues to regulate paternal behaviour - Nature Expression of agouti signalling protein in neurons in the medial preoptic area is increased by group housing and negatively associated with care, and overexpression of Agouti reduces care and enhances...

Why are some males caring toward infants while others are neglectful or abusive? I'm so pleased to share work that my colleagues and I @princeton.edu have just published @nature.com (an explanatory thread to follow!) (1/8)

Very excited to get to share culmination of this large-scale project to understand spatial gene expression in schizophrenia. Really proud of the amazing team work here working out lots of roadblocks to deploy these spatial strategies and analysis methods at scale!

Very important work congratulations Argel to you and your team! 🤓🥂

Sex differences in placebo and antidepressant response to intranasal esketamine for treatment-resistant depression - Molecular Psychiatry Molecular Psychiatry - Sex differences in placebo and antidepressant response to intranasal esketamine for treatment-resistant depression

We've been quiet for a while, but the lab has been quite productive, publishing several articles. Today, in Molecular Psychiatry, we published a study on sex differences in placebo and antidepressant response to intranasal esketamine for treatment-resistant depression! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

FIRST post here on Bluesky - we’re excited to share that our large spatial transcriptomics study of the human dlPFC in schizophrenia is now available on bioRxiv📄: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... (1/9)

Congratulations to you and your team, such cool work! 🤓🥂

I am so proud to share @forrestdrogers.bsky.social’s postdoctoral magnum opus, now out in @nature.com! Forrest discovered a novel role for Agouti in the MPOA of the hypothalamus to integrate socio-environmental information to flexibly tune paternal behavior
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Thread! 👇🏻

@manonlebel5.bsky.social 🤘

AI is not a peer, so it can’t do peer review If we still believe that science is a vocation grounded in argument, curiosity and care, we can’t delegate judgement to machines, says Akhil Bhardwaj

'to treat peer review as a throughput problem is to misunderstand what is at stake. Review is not simply a production stage in the research pipeline; it is one of the few remaining spaces where the scientific community talks to itself.' 1/3

Thanks Lewis!

Thank you Lucas! 😁

Thank you Meghan! Was awesome to hangout at #ACNP2026 🍻

A Common Iba1 Antibody Labels Vasopressin Neurons in Mice There are a wide variety of commercially available antibodies for labeling microglial cells based on different protein targets, as well as antibodies for the same protein target made in different spec...

PSA for all #microglia lovers: certain Iba1 antibodies (see our new paper below for details) label not only microglia, but also vasopressin neurons, at least in mice. Brain region and species matter. A friendly reminder to always validate your antibodies! 🔬

www.eneuro.org/content/13/2...