Wendy Xin's Avatar

Wendy Xin

@droligo.bsky.social

🇨🇦 neuroscientist at UCSF · NINDS K99 fellow · oligodendrocytes & myelin | synapses & circuits | neurodevelopment · PhD Johns Hopkins, BSc UofT · she/her www.oligodendrocyte.org

791 Followers  |  301 Following  |  49 Posts  |  Joined: 29.07.2023
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Posts by Wendy Xin (@droligo.bsky.social)

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Oriented cell divisions induce basal progenitors and regulate neural expansion across tissues and species A fundamental role for division orientation in progenitor output driving cortical and retinal growth is revealed.

Happy to announce that our latest paper is now out! Have you ever wondered how neural tissues control their size? In this paper, we show that cell division orientation is critical in both the cortex and retina. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

04.02.2026 19:16 — 👍 92    🔁 31    💬 5    📌 2

Congrats Yunlu!! 🥳🥳🎉🎉

03.02.2026 17:10 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0
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New preprint from Xhoela Bame et al shows that dying oligodendrocytes stick around for weeks to months without mitochondria! This happens after single cell DNA damage or when mitochondrial Fis1 is deleted in oligodendrocytes.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

23.01.2026 15:24 — 👍 8    🔁 2    💬 0    📌 0
Environmental enrichment and physical exercise prevent stress-induced social avoidance and blood-brain barrier alterations via Fgf2 - Nature Communications Chronic stress disrupts the brain vasculature and contributes to mood disorders, but mechanisms of resilience remain unclear. Here, the authors show that enriched environments increase astrocytic Fgf2...

Super excited to share this new paper led by @sejpaton.bsky.social that I briefly mentioned at #ACNP2026 yesterday! 🧪🧠🤓

We tested preventive strategies to protect the brain vasculature #BBB during stress exposure, mix of mouse 🐭 and human data

So proud of my team 🤘

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

16.01.2026 15:24 — 👍 34    🔁 9    💬 2    📌 2
Professor-researcher (assistant or associate) in Neuroscience related to neural regeneration, stem cells and spinal-associated pathologies – Université de Montréal – Canadian Association for Neuroscie...

🚨 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...

05.01.2026 23:13 — 👍 10    🔁 13    💬 1    📌 0
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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...

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...

02.01.2026 15:55 — 👍 27    🔁 13    💬 0    📌 0
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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...

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/...

01.01.2026 14:43 — 👍 55    🔁 16    💬 1    📌 1
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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.

“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...

15.12.2025 15:15 — 👍 109    🔁 44    💬 5    📌 4
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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...

15.12.2025 14:18 — 👍 17    🔁 3    💬 1    📌 0
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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)

27.11.2025 04:39 — 👍 61    🔁 24    💬 1    📌 0

Yay!!!! Huge congrats Rafa!!! 🎉🎉🎉🎉

21.11.2025 16:06 — 👍 3    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
A flyer displaying the same information as written in the post, with two images of two astrocytes around a blood vessel and one newly formed oligodendrocyte, along with logs our sponsors Avantor and Plasmidsaurus.

A flyer displaying the same information as written in the post, with two images of two astrocytes around a blood vessel and one newly formed oligodendrocyte, along with logs our sponsors Avantor and Plasmidsaurus.

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!

29.10.2025 14:57 — 👍 40    🔁 12    💬 1    📌 2
Flyer for a social for Glial Interactions at SfN. Monday Nov 17, 9PM-close, The Smoking Gun, 555 Market St. Microscopy images of two astrocytes (top, red/blue) and an oligodendrocyte and myelin sheaths (bottom, white/red).

Flyer for a social for Glial Interactions at SfN. Monday Nov 17, 9PM-close, The Smoking Gun, 555 Market St. Microscopy images of two astrocytes (top, red/blue) and an oligodendrocyte and myelin sheaths (bottom, white/red).

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!

14.11.2025 20:03 — 👍 10    🔁 2    💬 0    📌 0

Party tiiiiime 🍺🍻🍾🥂🕺💃🪩

12.11.2025 22:29 — 👍 3    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0
Gowrishankar Lab

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

12.11.2025 22:23 — 👍 65    🔁 19    💬 18    📌 0
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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.

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...

05.11.2025 16:03 — 👍 78    🔁 26    💬 5    📌 2
Audiobook cover of How to Change a Memory: One Neuroscientist’s Quest to Alter the Past by Steve Ramirez, read by the author

Audiobook cover of How to Change a Memory: One Neuroscientist’s Quest to Alter the Past by Steve Ramirez, read by the author

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/...

04.11.2025 20:46 — 👍 14    🔁 3    💬 0    📌 0
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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.

04.11.2025 16:25 — 👍 79    🔁 9    💬 3    📌 3
Scaling back DEI programmes and the loss of scientific talent - Nature Cell Biology Programmes that support diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in science are under attack in the USA. Data indicate that diversity in the scientific workforce increases creativity and success in tackl...

Important article from @marymunson4.bsky.social @joann-trejo.bsky.social @needhibhalla.bsky.social

29.10.2025 23:26 — 👍 9    🔁 9    💬 0    📌 0
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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…

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...

29.10.2025 14:27 — 👍 42    🔁 14    💬 4    📌 2
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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…

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...

30.10.2025 15:32 — 👍 61    🔁 25    💬 4    📌 0
A flyer displaying the same information as written in the post, with two images of two astrocytes around a blood vessel and one newly formed oligodendrocyte, along with logs our sponsors Avantor and Plasmidsaurus.

A flyer displaying the same information as written in the post, with two images of two astrocytes around a blood vessel and one newly formed oligodendrocyte, along with logs our sponsors Avantor and Plasmidsaurus.

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!

29.10.2025 14:57 — 👍 40    🔁 12    💬 1    📌 2
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SCIENTIST – Developmental, Stem Cell & Cancer Biology Program - Toronto (City), Ontario (CA) job with The Hospital for Sick Children - Developmental & Stem Cell Biology Program | 12848200 Discovery-based and/or translational research using model organism genetics and/or stem cell and organoid platforms to study paediatric cancer.

Fantastic opportunity at The Hospital for Sick Children. Please repost. www.nature.com/naturecareer...

28.10.2025 22:05 — 👍 35    🔁 40    💬 0    📌 1
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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!

24.10.2025 16:32 — 👍 23    🔁 8    💬 1    📌 1

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...

22.10.2025 18:50 — 👍 43    🔁 21    💬 4    📌 0

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.

21.10.2025 23:58 — 👍 10    🔁 6    💬 0    📌 1
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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

15.10.2025 16:11 — 👍 82    🔁 27    💬 4    📌 3
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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...

10.10.2025 23:13 — 👍 65    🔁 22    💬 4    📌 0
Fluorescently labeled astrocytes at varying distances from cortical or white matter stroke infarct border

Fluorescently labeled astrocytes at varying distances from cortical or white matter stroke infarct border

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...

10.10.2025 17:42 — 👍 31    🔁 8    💬 1    📌 0

Come join us at @westernu.ca: Chair, Department of Medical Biophysics: www.uwo.ca/facultyrelat...

10.10.2025 02:56 — 👍 10    🔁 11    💬 0    📌 2