Jibran Khokhar
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drjkhokhar.bsky.social
Jibran Khokhar
@drjkhokhar.bsky.social
Associate Professor, CRC in Translational Neuropsychopharmacology Western University Open-Source Behavioural Tools
Committed to knowing better and doing better!
Pinned
Happy to share my talk for the @hbhlmcgill.bsky.social Brain Canada The Amazing Brain 2024 event titled: Cannabis and the Developing Brain: Vaping, Edibles and Genetics www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bgxb...
Cannabis and the Developing Brain: Vaping, Edibles and Genetics | Jibran Khokhar
YouTube video by Healthy Brains, Healthy Lives
www.youtube.com
Reposted by Jibran Khokhar
Nice article on how alcohol impacts your body. I spoke to author about alcohol and brain.

www.nytimes.com/2026/02/12/w...
What Alcohol Does to the Body
www.nytimes.com
February 13, 2026 at 3:52 PM
CIHR should do this too!
Many journals are now either asking reviewers to tick this box or are explicitly outlining this in their reviewer guidelines.
February 13, 2026 at 12:55 PM
Reposted by Jibran Khokhar
Many journals are now either asking reviewers to tick this box or are explicitly outlining this in their reviewer guidelines.
February 13, 2026 at 12:42 PM
Reposted by Jibran Khokhar
"Racist people are firing and laying off Black women at three times the rate of other women."

😬Yikes! It sounds bad when you say it like that!

"Black women are losing jobs at 3 times the rate."

Much better! Makes it sound like the Black women just need to be more careful or better at their jobs!
Black Women Are Losing Jobs At Three Times The Rate Of Other Women | Essence
New labor data shows Black women accounted for a disproportionate share of job losses across 2025, especially in federal, education, and care-sector roles.
www.essence.com
February 13, 2026 at 12:01 PM
Reposted by Jibran Khokhar
Sigh … Science win; scicomm fail. (To start, prefrontal cortex is in the front not back of the brain ….). Unis *must* lead truth telling - great that NYU has trainees like @andrewbahle.bsky.social to help with that (follow Andrew!)
Wow AI is so amazing we should use it for all our scientific diagrams
February 13, 2026 at 1:26 AM
Reposted by Jibran Khokhar
I'm particularly impressed that when Ford reduced/froze tuition fees, he decided that the policy corollary was "let's cut student aid"

Now that tuition fees are going up again, the policy corollary is "let's cut student aid!"

Nothing if not consistent.
Everyone needs to calm down on the ON annoucnement. There are some devils in the details that need to be taken into account.

Like, by my very back of the envelope count, at least a quarter of this is being paid for by cuts to student aid.
February 12, 2026 at 4:42 PM
Reposted by Jibran Khokhar
Everyone needs to calm down on the ON annoucnement. There are some devils in the details that need to be taken into account.

Like, by my very back of the envelope count, at least a quarter of this is being paid for by cuts to student aid.
February 12, 2026 at 4:40 PM
Reposted by Jibran Khokhar
Ok, below is data for 2023-24 (the last year for which I have data). ON handed out $1.3B in grants, $239M in loans. But the cost of a loan is about 25 cents on dollar. So actual cost to government of student loan is $1.3B = ($239M * 0.25) or $1.36B in total.
February 12, 2026 at 6:06 PM
Reposted by Jibran Khokhar
Did you know girls are twice as likely to develop certain mental illnesses as of puberty? This drives the research of Nafissa Ismail, a professor at @uottawa.ca and advocate for women's health, who studies how stress during adolescence may increase vulnerability. Learn more: bit.ly/3OtmcEs#IDWGS
February 12, 2026 at 8:00 PM
Reposted by Jibran Khokhar
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...
Functional neuroimaging of fatty acid amide hydrolase inhibition in posttraumatic stress disorder: a randomized clinical trial - Translational Psychiatry
Translational Psychiatry - Functional neuroimaging of fatty acid amide hydrolase inhibition in posttraumatic stress disorder: a randomized clinical trial
www.nature.com
February 12, 2026 at 7:24 PM
Reposted by Jibran Khokhar
Brainhack Western is coming! This fun event March 27-29 includes talks, collaboration, workshops and more. For more details or to register visit: brainhackwestern.github.io
February 12, 2026 at 3:10 PM
Reposted by Jibran Khokhar
Code. Create. Collaborate. 🧠💡 #TRIDENT is proud to support Brainhack Western 2026, an incredible open science, community-driven neuroscience event! Registration link below🔗👇. #Brainhack #OpenScience #Neuroscience #NFRF brainhackwestern.github.io @westernu.ca @schulichmeddent.bsky.social
Brainhack Western is coming! This fun event March 27-29 includes talks, collaboration, workshops and more. For more details or to register visit: brainhackwestern.github.io
February 12, 2026 at 5:53 PM
Reposted by Jibran Khokhar
Really nice work from the Holmes lab looking at amygdala astrocytes in fear memory and extinction!

www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Astrocytes enable amygdala neural representations supporting memory - Nature
Astrocytes in the basolateral amygdala dynamically track fear state and support fear memory retrieval and extinction.
www.nature.com
February 11, 2026 at 10:18 PM
Reposted by Jibran Khokhar
Excited to share our study in Neuron led by
@travisgoode.bsky.social, a K99 PDF (interviewing for Faculty) and Sahay lab team with collaborators at BROAD, Hopkins, and UW Seattle, defining a neural circuit that links prior experience with feeding behavior. Open Access: sahaylab.com/publications
February 12, 2026 at 5:03 PM
Reposted by Jibran Khokhar
Every time I upload a paper to #bioRxiv, I wonder why it can't be this easy at every journal 🧪
February 11, 2026 at 6:18 PM
Reposted by Jibran Khokhar
China’s science ministry will crack down on universities that fail to investigate or sanction researchers who are involved in serious research misconduct

go.nature.com/4cpW5ID
China to punish universities that fail to sanction research misconduct
Policy follows establishment of a national database of papers retracted for serious misconduct.
go.nature.com
February 12, 2026 at 10:20 AM
Reposted by Jibran Khokhar
When AI was added to a tool for sinus surgery: “Cerebrospinal fluid leaked from one patient’s nose. In another… a surgeon mistakenly punctured the base of a patient’s skull. In two other cases, patients suffered strokes after a major artery was accidentally injured”

www.reuters.com/investigatio...
As AI enters the operating room, reports arise of botched surgeries and misidentified body parts
Medical device makers have been rushing to add AI to their products. While proponents say the new technology will revolutionize medicine, regulators are receiving a rising number of claims of patient ...
www.reuters.com
February 9, 2026 at 11:42 PM
Reposted by Jibran Khokhar
Gotta love Nature's opinion pieces

"Science funding needs fixing - but not like that"

"Academic publishing is broken - but publishing less is not the solution"

"AI will kill science - how can researchers use it to be more efficient?"
February 12, 2026 at 10:58 AM
Reposted by Jibran Khokhar
Our super exciting group of PI speakers features Tuan Trang as our keynote, along with Bénédicte Amilhon @arrudacarvalho.bsky.social @caromenard666.bsky.social @zachtpennington.bsky.social Anna Phan @rrrozeske.bsky.social and Stuart Trenholm. Registration details to follow in the coming weeks!
January 26, 2026 at 6:15 PM
Reposted by Jibran Khokhar
And more reporting on a historic program that is increasingly unsettled, with late-breaking changes to criteria, fewer awards, applications returned without review, and more:

via @jonathanwosen.bsky.social for @statnews.com

www.statnews.com/2026/02/11/n...
February 11, 2026 at 7:00 PM
Reposted by Jibran Khokhar
Students applying for NSF funding are having their applications “returned without review” for being “ineligible,” despite their proposed research falling squarely within the application guidelines. eos.org/research-and...
Graduate Students’ NSF Fellowship Applications Are Being “Returned Without Review” - Eos
Graduate students applying for NSF funding have had their applications returned without review—even though their proposed research appears to fall squarely within the fields of study outlined in the p...
eos.org
February 6, 2026 at 8:58 PM
Reposted by Jibran Khokhar
"The academic structure … makes planning for a family feel like an impossible luxury."

In this #ScienceWorkingLife, two postdocs share how, as women in academia, having children can feel impossible—and how talking about it makes them feel less alone. https://scim.ag/46uBWgD #WomenInScienceDay
February 11, 2026 at 8:06 PM
Reposted by Jibran Khokhar
You just described every government program in history here. Especially when it comes to economic development.
February 11, 2026 at 7:47 PM
Reposted by Jibran Khokhar
They could not care less what happens after that. If there is ever any attempt to assess the success of a program, it's buried in an expert panel's report they will dutifully ignore while announcing the next meaningless ribbon cutting. Total disconnect between goals, allocation, and outcome.
February 11, 2026 at 7:18 PM