Wendy Xin
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droligo.bsky.social
Wendy Xin
@droligo.bsky.social
🇨🇦 neuroscientist at UCSF · NINDS K99 fellow · oligodendrocytes & myelin | synapses & circuits · PhD Johns Hopkins/NIDA, BSc UofT · she/her

www.oligodendrocyte.org
Reposted by Wendy Xin
🚨 PI position in dept. of Neuroscience with lab located the @crchum.bsky.social

Hiring at assistant/associate prof level in the fields of neural regeneration, stem cells and spinal-associated pathologies

can-acn.org/professor-re...
Professor-researcher (assistant or associate) in Neuroscience related to neural regeneration, stem cells and spinal-associated pathologies – Université de Montréal – Canadian Association for Neuroscie...
can-acn.org
January 5, 2026 at 11:13 PM
Reposted by Wendy Xin
We identified how mechanical forces shape myelin development. The TMEM63A channel in oligodendrocytes converts physical cues into molecular signals that control myelin growth.

Oligodendrocyte mechanotransduction channel TMEM63A regulates myelin sheath geometry: Neuron www.cell.com/neuron/fullt...
Oligodendrocyte mechanotransduction channel TMEM63A regulates myelin sheath geometry
Dereddi, Djannatian, and colleagues show that oligodendrocytes use mechanical cues to measure axon size. The stretch-activated channel TMEM63A converts membrane tension into calcium signals, which cal...
www.cell.com
January 2, 2026 at 3:55 PM
Reposted by Wendy Xin
New Year, new paper from our lab. Emily Kramer used 3D light-sheet imaging and tissue clearing to examine the spatial architecture of mouse amygdala engram ensembles.

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
Examining the Three‐Dimensional Spatial Architecture of Mouse Amygdala Engram Ensembles
Memories are stored in a sparse population of neurons active at the time of an event, an engram ensemble, and reactivation of the engram ensemble drives memory recall. Although the amygdala is essent...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
January 1, 2026 at 2:43 PM
Reposted by Wendy Xin
“Basic neuroscience hasn’t produced new drugs.” 💊

Not true - zuranolone (PPD), suzetrigine (pain), gepants (migraine), and more... were born out of a long arc of studies in the lab.

I wrote a Perspective on why this matters. @thetransmitter.bsky.social

www.thetransmitter.org/drug-develop...
How basic neuroscience has paved the path to new drugs
A growing list of medications—such as zuranolone for postpartum depression, suzetrigine for pain, and the gepants class of migraine medicines—exist because of insights from basic research.
www.thetransmitter.org
December 15, 2025 at 3:15 PM
Reposted by Wendy Xin
Alicia Pietramale et al. discovered a disconnection between microglial processes that surveil or respond to acute damage and those that contain mitochondria. Cytoskeletal components and metabolic enzymes underlie these differences. Final version just published!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
December 15, 2025 at 2:18 PM
Reposted by Wendy Xin
Our new paper showcasing molecular connectomics with pan-expansion microscopy is out in @natbiotech.nature.com! www.nature.com/articles/s41...
This wonderful collaboration with @bewersdorflab.bsky.social was led by Ons M'Saad (now founder/CEO of Panluminate) and @allisonphysics.bsky.social. (1/5)
November 27, 2025 at 4:40 AM
Reposted by Wendy Xin
If you are attending #SfN25, please join @amygleichman.bsky.social and I on Monday at 9PM for a casual social gathering to discuss all things non-neuronal!

Date: Monday, Nov 17th
Time: 9PM till close
Location: The Smoking Gun SD, 555 Market St.

All welcome, please free to spread the word!
October 29, 2025 at 2:57 PM
Reposted by Wendy Xin
If you’re interested in the roles of glia in stroke and TBI, kick off #SfN2025 with a minisymposium on Saturday afternoon in room 6B!

@droligo.bsky.social and I are also hosting a glia get-together Monday night, sponsored by Avantor and @plasmidsaurus.bsky.social - all glia-inclined are welcome!
November 14, 2025 at 8:07 PM
Reposted by Wendy Xin
The Gowrishankar lab will be opening its doors @neuro_MUSC on Dec 1, 2025! We will be hiring at all levels. I will also be at @SfNtweets presenting my lab's vision on Wednesday, Nov 19, 8AM-12PM at poster board GG7. If you're interested, please reach out!

www.raajgowrishankarlab.org
Gowrishankar Lab
www.raajgowrishankarlab.org
November 12, 2025 at 10:23 PM
Reposted by Wendy Xin
Our latest collaboration with @rongfan8.bsky.social, spatial triomics to investigate myelin and cortical brain development, and demyelination, spearheaded by Leslie Kirby in our lab @ki.se and Di Zhang in Rong's lab! Check it out @nature.com

www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Spatial dynamics of brain development and neuroinflammation - Nature
A tri-omic atlas of the mouse brain from postnatal day 0 to P21 reveals that layer-specific projection neurons have a role in coordinating axonogenesis and myelination.
www.nature.com
November 5, 2025 at 4:03 PM
Reposted by Wendy Xin
In How to Change a Memory, neuroscientist @okaysteve.bsky.social shares his disarmingly personal account of the new science of memory manipulation.⁠

🎧️📔 The #audiobook, read by the author himself, is out now!

Add it to your #audio library: press.princeton.edu/books/audio/...
November 4, 2025 at 8:46 PM
Reposted by Wendy Xin
Meet our 2025 cohort of Next Generation Leaders! For the next 3 years, they will network with other rising stars, participate in professional development, and share their ideas for future research directions.
November 4, 2025 at 4:25 PM
Reposted by Wendy Xin
Our latest paper is out! While the circadian photoentrainment circuit has been extensively studied, the mechanisms regulating its development remain poorly understood. Here we show that retinal Müller glia play a key role in this process. Check it out! www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Retinal glia regulate development of the circadian photoentrainment circuit
Circadian photoentrainment depends on intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells (ipRGCs), which convey environmental light information to th…
www.sciencedirect.com
October 29, 2025 at 2:27 PM
Reposted by Wendy Xin
Excited to share the latest from the lab on the molecular mechanisms of silencing and un-silencing a hippocampal engram ensemble. Was fun using a variant of the EPSILON technique developed by Adam Cohen's lab.
(1/2)

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Molecular mechanisms mediating engram ensemble retrievability state in mice
Engrams, ensembles of neurons that store memories, exist along a continuum of retrievability. Normally, sensory cues can reactivate a latent engram to…
www.sciencedirect.com
October 30, 2025 at 3:32 PM
If you are attending #SfN25, please join @amygleichman.bsky.social and I on Monday at 9PM for a casual social gathering to discuss all things non-neuronal!

Date: Monday, Nov 17th
Time: 9PM till close
Location: The Smoking Gun SD, 555 Market St.

All welcome, please free to spread the word!
October 29, 2025 at 2:57 PM
Reposted by Wendy Xin
I am proud to share our work on X-linked Dystonia-Parkinsonism — a rare neurodegenerative movement disorder driven by a SINE-VNTR-Alu retrotransposon insertion in the TAF1 gene.

Read our two companion papers:
🔹 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
🔹 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

🧵 Highlights below!
October 24, 2025 at 4:32 PM
Reposted by Wendy Xin
New paper from the lab 🚨
Led by Ali Golbabaei, this study explores the how the composition of prefrontal cortical engrams changes with memory age:
authors.elsevier.com/a/1lzT-3BtfH...
authors.elsevier.com
October 22, 2025 at 6:50 PM
Reposted by Wendy Xin
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.
OASIS: in vivo AAV-mediated transduction and genome editing of adult oligodendrocytes https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.20.683551v1
October 21, 2025 at 11:58 PM
Reposted by Wendy Xin
Just out in Nature! “The astrocytic ensemble acts as a multiday trace to stabilize memory.” We identified astrocytic ensembles that link experiences across days to stabilize memory nature.com/articles/s41.... New astrocyte tools are openly available at Addgene: addgene.org/Jun_Nagai/. 1/8
October 15, 2025 at 4:11 PM
Reposted by Wendy Xin
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...
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…
www.sciencedirect.com
October 10, 2025 at 11:13 PM
Huge congrats @amygleichman.bsky.social on this phenomenal study, demonstrating regional differences in astrocyte responses to stroke and a key role for astrocytes in post-stroke angiogenesis and repair!

(see also - gorgeous astrocytes for fluorescence Friday)

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
October 10, 2025 at 5:42 PM
Reposted by Wendy Xin
Come join us at @westernu.ca: Chair, Department of Medical Biophysics: www.uwo.ca/facultyrelat...
www.uwo.ca
October 10, 2025 at 2:56 AM
Reposted by Wendy Xin
PhD / Postdoc in Neuroscience – University of Montreal - Seeking a highly motivated PhD student or Postdoctoral Fellow to join an exciting collaborative project between the laboratories of Dr. Antonio Nanci and Dr. Ravi Rungta at the Université de Montréal. can-acn.org/phd-postdoc-...
October 7, 2025 at 8:30 PM