Astrocytes, Synapses, Behaviour
Neuroscience lab at the University of Montreal Hospital Research Centre (CRCHUM)
Université de Montréal, Canada
Astrocytes integrate stress, metabolism, and circuit activity to shape brain states and behaviour.
What We Do
Astrocytes do more than support neurons. We study how they integrate physiological and environmental context—including stress hormones, metabolic state, and local circuit activity—to regulate synapses, neural circuits, and brain states.
By combining behaviour, electrophysiology, molecular and genetic tools, and cellular and in vivo imaging, we test how astrocyte adaptations shape anxiety, memory, stress resilience, and behavioural adaptation.
Lab News
July 2026
Preview of our work, written by Xinzhu Yu & Baljit Khakh published in Neuron
Niharika was awarded a postdoctoral fellowship from the CHUM Foundation
June 2026
Marie-Jo wins a poster presentation prize at the Neurobiology of Stress meeting
May 2026
Kathleen, Marie-Jo, & Ossama received graduate research awards from the CHUM Foundation
Kathleen Ngo wins a poster presentation prize at CANGlia
Alice Servat joins the lab from Sorbonne Université Paris for her Master’s internship, funded by Mitacs Globalink.
April 2026
Mathias Guayasamin and Ossama Ghenissa were awarded doctoral fellowships from the Fonds de Recherche du Québec
March 2026
Niharika Loomba joins the lab for her postdoc!
Report on our publication in theTransmitter - Astrocytes in mouse amygdala encode emotional state
New publication from our lab in Neuron about Astrocytes! Titled “Basolateral amygdala astrocytes encode anxiety states” by co-first authors Ossama and Mathias - see publications page
Ossama and Camila win best oral and best poster prizes at the U Montreal Neuroscience Student Association (ADENUM) annual meeting
February 2026
Paper accepted ! More to come…
January 2026
Our lab was awarded a CIHR project grant to study PVN astrocytes and stress adaptationin collaboration with Dr Thierry Alquier at the CRCHUM.
First manuscript of the year posted on bioRxiv - Astrocytic Encoding of Threat in the Basolateral Amygdala see publications
December 2025
Lewis defends his PhD to be come Dr. Depaauw-Holt!!
Mathias wins best oral presentation prize at the Department of Neuroscience annual research day.
Marie-Jo and Clara both win poster prizes at the Department of Neuroscience annual research day.
October 2025
Kathleen and Camila win presentation awards at the CRCHUM student research day. Kathleen won best oral presentation, and Camila won best undergraduate poster prize. More info here
September 2025
Ciaran was awarded the Brain Canada Future Leaders award to study the role of astrocytes in anxiety behaviours
Our recent publication featured in several news articles see here
July 2025
Mathias wins poster prize at the European Brain and Behaviour Society meeting in Bordeaux