Astrocytes connect specific brain regions through plastic networks - Nature Communication between distant brain regions is mediated by plastic networks of gap junction-coupled astrocytes.

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!

Flexible ensheathment of axons enables myelination of complex CNS networks - Nature The rate of axon ensheathment varies within individual myelinating processes, resulting in chains of myelin sheaths connected by bridges consisting of thin cytoplasmic processes that provide&nbsp...

Flexible ensheathment of axons enables myelination of complex CNS networks

What a tour de force in the field of myelin biology 😍

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

Congratulations!!! Very excited for the work that will come from your lab

Xin Lab Welcome! We study the cellular interactions between neurons and oligodendrocytes, which produce myelin in the central nervous system. Myelination - the process by which oligodendrocytes ensheath neuro...

Super stoked to share that I’m starting my lab at UHN @dkjei-uhn.bsky.social / @kbi-uhn.bsky.social and the University of Toronto!

If you’re interested in neuron-myelin interactions in circuit maturation and cognition, please reach out - we are hiring!

www.oligodendrocyte.org

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Megan Doty et al discovered that myelin remains for weeks after cortical axons degenerate. We call the sheaths without an axon de-axoned myelin. During the slow, asynchronous, degeneration, microglia don't play a major role in clearing the axon or de-axoned myelin. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Our new paper's out: FidlTrack—structure-aware single-particle tracking benchmarks/boost SPT fidelity

With it we resolve with sub-organelle res. e.g. BACE1 amyloidogenic APP cleavage #Alzheimers, ER exit events, map nanobody binding in realtime in ER/organelles 🔬🧠#SingleMolecule

rdcu.be/e3Ris

Myelin sheaths in the central nervous system can withstand damage and dynamically remodel Myelin damage is a hallmark of several neurological disorders, but how it occurs remains to be fully understood. In this study, we found that early damage in zebrafish and rodent demyelination models ...

Latest from the lab, led by @ara-donia.bsky.social and @juliavdkorput.bsky.social

Huge team effort, with immense contributions by friends from nearby and around the globe.

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

CDC42‐Effector Proteins Regulate Higher Order Structure of Septins Required for CNS Myelin Integrity CDC42-effector proteins 1/2 are present in CNS myelin. They facilitate the higher order structure of myelin septin filaments. Their loss impairs septin-dependent scaffolding of myelin. Myelin o...

If you're interested in the factors that enable the regular structure of CNS #myelin sheaths by #oligodendrocytes, check this out. Featuring a #CDC42 - effector proteins - #septin axis. Congrats to 1st author Sophie, and a big thank you to all who contributed

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Candid photo of Zara Weinberg. She has short red hair, bangs and glasses. She is laughing.

The Leading Edge Fellows gathered this week to celebrate Zara Weinberg, a beloved member of our community. Our 7th cohort of Leading Edge Fellows (2026) will be named in her honor.

The Zara Weinberg Leading Edge Cohort application is now open! Due Feb 2.

www.leadingedgesymposium.org/apply/

In the desert of tools to manipulate oligodendrocytes in the brain, we built an OASIS. 🌿 Pun intended. I’m still in awe every time I spot an amazing-looking cell. The beauty of OL and myelin never fails me!
Hope this tool helps more people see it too.

🧠 The Lipid #Brain Atlas is out now! If you think #lipids are boring and membranes are all the same, prepare to be surprised. Led by @lucafusarbassini.bsky.social with Giovanni D'Angelo's lab, we mapped membrane lipids in the mouse brain at high resolution.
www.biorxiv.org/cgi/content/...

Regionally mapped astrocytic responses to cortical and white matter stroke show differential roles in astrocyte-induced vascular remodeling Stroke is a major cause of disability. Astrocytes respond to stroke in a gradated manner, but details of that response and its consequences for tissue…

Thrilled to share this work from my postdoc with Tom Carmichael, available online @ Neuron! Long story short: we find even more evidence that all reactive astrocytes are not equal, and we can take advantage of those differences to improve repair after stroke.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Lab’s 1st preprint!

Menstruation is understudied due to societal taboos + a biological challenge: mice (a key system for research + drug discovery) don’t menstruate.

@cagricevrim.bsky.social made menstruating mice + used them to discover early events in menstruation.

He is on the job market!

Sosa Lab

The Sosa Lab website is now live!
www.sosaneurolab.com

We will be seeking a postdoctoral researcher to join the growing team! If you are a rodent neuroscientist and interested in doing systems neuro work in the mountains 🏔️, please check out the "Join" page.

Which track do I choose: On #FluorescenceFriday, a pair of newly formed oligodendrocytes encounter a field of neuronal axons. Later in development, they will wrap around and insulate subset of these axons

Our new preprint is up! This is the main postdoc work of @wiesner-t.bsky.social focusing on exocytosis along the axon shaft and its regulation by the sub membrane actin-spectrin scaffold: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Read the thread below for a summary of our findings 🧵1/11

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

Neurons sequester the cholesterol-inhibiting TFEB in oligodendrocyte cytoplasm to safeguard myelination and neural function Myelination is essential for normal brain function, yet the mechanisms governing neuron-oligodendrocyte interactions that ensure proper myelination le…

Neurons sequester the cholesterol-inhibiting TFEB in oligodendrocyte cytoplasm to safeguard myelination and neural function

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Adaptor protein complex 2 (AP2) participates in biogenesis and homeostasis of myelin sheaths in the central nervous system Myelination of CNS axons requires oligodendrocytes to undergo extensive morphological changes by producing large amounts of myelin membrane with defined protein composition and structure. The formatio...

If you're interested in trafficking of #myelin constituents in #oligodendrocytes, and of course you are, you may want to check out our new preprint. It's very nice PhD work by @sophiesiems.bsky.social, and we're grateful to all who contributed!

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Metformin alters mitochondria-related metabolism and enhances human oligodendrocyte function Nature Communications - Metformin is under clinical trial for brain neuroprotection but how it may work is poorly understood. Here, the authors show that metformin helps myelin formation by human...

Our new paper on metformin, myelin, mitochondria and metabolism is now out at rdcu.be/eDbFD
Thanks to Nina and all of the team!

Investigating morphogen and patterning dynamics with optogenetic control of morphogen production Morphogen gradients provide the patterning cues that instruct cell fate decisions during development. Here, we establish an optogenetic system for the…

Our latest: We developed a chemo-optogenetic system for precise spatiotemporal control of morphogen production. Using dual light + small molecule control of Sonic Hedgehog production, we recapitulated neural tube patterning in vitro & measured spread of Shh

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www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Transient gene melting governs the timing of oligodendrocyte maturation Oligodendrocyte maturation is governed by an SOX6-dependent gene-melted chromatin state at multiple immaturity loci. Reducing SOX6 accelerates maturation, offering a potential strategy to regenerate m...

www.cell.com/cell/abstrac...

Woohoo, congrats!! 🎉

Delighted to share this work on intracortical arbor development and selective synaptogenesis by corticothalamic neurons. This was a really fun collaboration with Alan and the Brown lab during my PhD.

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

The Thawani Lab at Columbia University The Thawani Lab at Columbia University describing their research on mobile genome, cryo-electron microscopy and genome engineering

Extremely excited to share that I’m joining Columbia University @columbiauniversity.bsky.social as an Assistant Professor!

We will explore how the mobile genome works—how transposons shape us, our DNA and how they can be harnessed to build useful technologies. #NewPI #RNAsky #TEsky

thawanilab.org

Congrats Eddy! 👏👏

Stanford researcher awarded McKnight grant to uncover myelin's connection to Alzheimer's disease Brad Zuchero, PhD, assistant professor of neurosurgery, is a recipient of the 2025 McKnight Neurobiology of Brain Disorders (NBD) Award for his research project “Does myelin dysfunction drive Alzheime...

🎉 Huge congrats to my advisor @bradzuchero.bsky.social and @ethanhugheslab.bsky.social for this McKnight award!

med.stanford.edu/neurosurgery...

We had fun assembling images and describing approaches for imaging oligodendrocytes and myelin in vivo, in organotypic slices, and in fixed tissues. This work started in the lab of @jgrutzendler.bsky.social over 10 years ago and continues to keep us busy.
www.nature.com/articles/s44...

Was a lot of fun working on this piece with Ben Clayton for @annualreviews.bsky.social
Reactive astrocyte heterogeneity is a thoroughly exciting and complicated problem... lots of exciting discoveries in recent years.

www.annualreviews.org/content/jour...