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Brandon Walters

@brandon.theepilab.ca
56 followers 45 following 16 posts

Professor of Biology at University of Toronto Mississauga. Specializing in Molecular Neuroscience, RNA modifications, and being grumpy! All views expressed are my own.

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Brandon Walters @brandon.theepilab.ca · 23/09/2026
Congratulations to Jasnoor (IG: @jazzhandz11), who recently defended her MSc in the Walters Lab! 🎉 From maternal separation in mice to a brand-new FTO construct, she built a framework for asking how early-life stress leaves a lasting mark. We will miss you, Jasnoor!
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Brandon Walters @brandon.theepilab.ca · 22/07/2026
Catching up on a recently published paper from the lab: adolescent social stress leaves a lasting, sex-specific mark on the brain's extracellular matrix. In males it ramps up matrix and perineuronal-net genes in the hippocampus; in females it suppresses them in the amygdala. Led by Ming Yin Chu.
doi.org
Transcriptomic analysis of chronic social instability stress during adolescence reveals major shifts in the extracellular matrix
Neurobiology of Stress (2026)
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Brandon Walters @brandon.theepilab.ca · 16/07/2026
First I talk to my friends about Lindsey Graham, dead the next day. Then I talk about Tonegawa. Do I have special powers that Im not aware of? Great work, and lived a long life. Nothing to be sad for here, but celebrate what he accomplished.
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Brandon Walters @brandon.theepilab.ca · 02/07/2026
Gasp! Who would have guessed. :-P
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Brandon Walters @brandon.theepilab.ca · 02/07/2026
Amazing work as always!
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Brandon Walters @brandon.theepilab.ca · 11/06/2026
Ridiculous. At this point I have to only call it marketing. Do better @anthropic.com
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Reposted by Brandon Walters
Michael Okun @michael-okun.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
I’ve officially resigned as Associate Editor for Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience. It used to be a reputable journal, but became a case study in how forced automation destroys academic integrity. 👇
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Brandon Walters @brandon.theepilab.ca · 10/06/2026
My first tests through it.
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Brandon Walters @brandon.theepilab.ca · 10/06/2026
Well, hope you were not planning on testing the new Fable model over at claude. Even running normal bio/chem questions through it gets it auto-routed to opus. Im not sure if Anthropic has biologists on staff, but their fear about this is over the top. Marketing at its best.
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Brandon Walters @brandon.theepilab.ca · 03/06/2025
Always such great work from a great lab. Looking forward to the waves it makes!
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Reposted by Brandon Walters
Iva Zovkic @ivazovkic.bsky.social · 02/06/2025
New preprint! In 2014, we showed that histone variants are new regulators of memory and ever since, we wondered if histone H2A.Z contributes to Alzheimer's. Using human brains and 5xFAD mice, we found that it depends on if you're male or female. Summary below. www.biorxiv.org/cgi/content/...
biorxiv.org
Opposing effects of H2A.Z on memory, transcription and pathology in male and female Alzheimer's disease mice and patients
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a devastating neurodegenerative disease that disproportionately impacts women, but underlying mechanisms for sex-divergent outcomes are unknown. Here, we show that the hist...
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Brandon Walters @brandon.theepilab.ca · 05/03/2025
To my American scientists. I don't know how you are gonna do this. I have a student applying for grad school in the US. 2 of the 4 programs she applied to have since cancelled their entire 1st year class. This feels very much like Nero watching Rome burn...
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Brandon Walters @brandon.theepilab.ca · 15/11/2024
Was fun making a unique construct for this project! Congratz @sjo09 (on twitter), Sylvie and all involved! www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
sciencedirect.com
Stress disrupts engram ensembles in lateral amygdala to generalize threat memory in mice
Stress induces aversive memory overgeneralization, a hallmark of many psychiatric disorders. Memories are encoded by a sparse ensemble of neurons acti…
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Brandon Walters @brandon.theepilab.ca · 08/10/2024
Come see @Bowtie_IRL (on twitter) present his MS work. "Charcterizing the role of m6A and Fto in the amygdala using a model of social instability stress in adolescence using a novel Fto fused Abobec1" Y24 this afternoon! #SFN2024. Thanks @CherylMMcC for this great colab!!
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Brandon Walters @brandon.theepilab.ca · 06/10/2024
SFN 2024. Chicago really stepping up this year!
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Brandon Walters @brandon.theepilab.ca · 13/09/2024
2 in 1 year! How will my lab ever recover! I want to take this opportunity to congratulate Isabella (@bellagalluzzo3 on twitter) for successfully defending her M.S degree! Wonderful thesis and defence!
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Brandon Walters @brandon.theepilab.ca · 26/08/2024
I have the honor of congratulating Luca (@Bowtie_IRL on twitter) for successfully defending his M.S. thesis! Well deserved and well defended! Now get started on that Ph.D.!
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Brandon Walters @brandon.theepilab.ca · 10/10/2023
My dissecting scope may look silly now, but give me a 3D printer and I can attach anything to anything.
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