iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Ciaran Murphy-Royal @murphyroyallab.org · 2h

Don’t usually share personal things here but very proud to become Canadian today! 🇨🇦

Ciaran Murphy-Royal @murphyroyallab.org · 31/07/2026

Super fun symposium at Neuro2026 Kobe discussing ‘Adaptive glia: from homeostasis to allostasis under stress’ with Micheal Wheeler, @cate-cholamine.bsky.social , Josselyn Soto, @junnagai.bsky.social and myself! Such a fascinating and innovative field!

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Ciaran Murphy-Royal @murphyroyallab.org · 31/07/2026

After a busy week in Nagoya at the Neuroendocrinology meeting, both @mathiasgua.bsky.social & @ossamaghenissa.bsky.social made the lab proud, presenting at the Japanese Neuroscience society meeting (Neuro2026) in Kobe

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Ciaran Murphy-Royal @murphyroyallab.org · 28/05/2026

Great initiative from Marie-Josette de Medeiros (PhD student) who invited a group of local high-school students to spend a day seeing what being a scientist is all about ! Most have never visited a lab, so it’ll be interesting to hear their opinions by the end of the day.

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Ciaran Murphy-Royal @murphyroyallab.org · 28/05/2026

Lab views on point this morning!

Picture from the 12th floor of the CRCHUM with views of Jacques Cartier bridge, Viger Square etc

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Ciaran Murphy-Royal @murphyroyallab.org · 21/05/2026

Great turnout for the career networking session this afternoon at @canacn.bsky.social ! Huge thanks to all the participants for making it great!

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Ciaran Murphy-Royal @murphyroyallab.org · 02/05/2026

Incredibly proud of both @mathiasgua.bsky.social and @ossamaghenissa.bsky.social who were both offered doctoral fellowships from @fondsrechercheqc.bsky.social !! 🥳🥳 It’s been a terrific year for the lads 💪(photo from past summer in France)

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Ciaran Murphy-Royal @murphyroyallab.org · 21/04/2026

Really fun session on astrocytes and behaviour organized by @papouinlab.bsky.social at the American Society of Neurochemistry meeting in St Charles With @olsenlab-vt.bsky.social , Grant Gordon, Xinzhu Yu, and myself

Xinzhu YU presenting her acknowledgments slide

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Ciaran Murphy-Royal @murphyroyallab.org · 14/04/2026

Great to discuss the importance of sustained funding for research including neuroscience with MP Shannon Miedema Part of @can-acn.bsky.social Hill day with @labfranklin.bsky.social, Derek Bowie & Jarrad Perron

Group photo left to right - Derek Bowie, Ciaran Murphy-Royal, Shannon Miedema, Jarrad Perron, Tamara Franklin

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Ciaran Murphy-Royal @murphyroyallab.org · 24/03/2026

Quick drink to celebrate with most of the lab !

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Ciaran Murphy-Royal @murphyroyallab.org · 24/03/2026

This was such an exciting collaborative project within our team and with colleague our Bénédicte Amilhon. And of course this would not have been possible without funding from @braincanada.bsky.social @fondsrechercheqc.bsky.social @ CIHR and NSERC @umontreal.ca @crchum.bsky.social

The lab! Including most of the authors involved.
Left to Right = Lewis Depaauw-Holt, Kathleen Ngo, Ciaran Murphy-Royal, Marie-Josette de Medeiros, Manon Duquenne, Anthony Bosson, Clara Ireland, Camila Cabarcas Arrieta, Ossama Ghenissa, Mathias Guayasamin

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Ciaran Murphy-Royal @murphyroyallab.org · 24/03/2026

In the last experiment we showed that reducing alpha-1 adrenoreceptor signaling in BLA astrocytes reduced anxiety states! (and made mice more brave)

two bar charts, one on the left showing reduced astrocyte calcium activity in different compartments of the EPM. On the right, behavioural change evidenced by less time spent in the closed arm, more time in the centre and open arms, indicative of reduced anxiety levels.

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Ciaran Murphy-Royal @murphyroyallab.org · 24/03/2026

Interestingly, glutamate elicited the most variable responses with many BLA astrocytes silenced by this neurotransmitter... We're still scratching our heads about this, but it makes sense with respect to our previous in vivo data (astrocyte activity does not echo nearby excitatory neurons)

Bar chart showing astrocytes that were activated, inhibited, or non-responders to each neurotransmitter

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Ciaran Murphy-Royal @murphyroyallab.org · 24/03/2026

Final Q - What is the endogenous signal driving astrocyte calcium activity? Using a high-throughput approach - brain slice calcium imaging - we found that astrocytes most reliably respond to noradrenaline (a.k.a. norepinephrine for the 🇺🇸's).

Kymographs of astrocyte calcium activity evoked by several neurotransmitters

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Ciaran Murphy-Royal @murphyroyallab.org · 24/03/2026

Cool. But... does astrocyte calcium even matter for behaviour!? To answer this we expressed Gq-DREADDs in BLA astrocytes and show that driving astrocyte activity increased anxiety !

two panels from the paper. Panel C shows that activation of Gq-DREADDs in astrocytes enhances calcium activity, and Panel D shows behavioural change with more time spent in closed arms and less in centre and open arms of the EPM

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Ciaran Murphy-Royal @murphyroyallab.org · 24/03/2026

A key experiment was showing that astrocyte activity was not simply an "echo" of neighbouring neurons... Imaging both astrocytes and excitatory neurons in the BLA we show that cell activity is very different across many behavioural tests. See the heat map of calcium activity in the EPM below.

Heat map of calcium activity in the EPM for neurons (top) and astrocytes (bottom) with astrocytes showing greater activity in open arms compared to closed arms.

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Ciaran Murphy-Royal @murphyroyallab.org · 24/03/2026

We could even use astrocyte calcium data from one behavioural task to reliably predict mouse behaviour on a distinct task!

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Ciaran Murphy-Royal @murphyroyallab.org · 24/03/2026

Ossama had just found evidence of a reliable 'anxiety' signal from astrocytes that very consistent across time and between behavioural tasks.

Left - heat map of BLA astrocyte calcium activity in the elevated plus maze. Right - representative trace of BLA astrocyte activity during exploration of the elevated plus maze

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Ciaran Murphy-Royal @murphyroyallab.org · 24/03/2026

The major finding of this work reveals that BLA astrocyte calcium activity reliably encodes and drives anxiety states. This entire project started when Ossama showed me this video -

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Ciaran Murphy-Royal @murphyroyallab.org · 20/02/2026

Our 3 minute project pitch for the MSc 'Scientific Communication' class is always my favourite of the year. So great to see all the projects presented in such creative ways! Class with co-organised @esamarut.bsky.social and hype-man @mathiasgua.bsky.social

Classroom with tables organized in a semi circle. Students preparing for their presentations.

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Ciaran Murphy-Royal @murphyroyallab.org · 17/02/2026

Really great to have Ken-Ichi Dewa from @junnagai.bsky.social ‘s lab present their recent Nature paper to our lab and a several others in the @crchum.bsky.social ! Such rich data on astrocyte-neuron interactions!

Ken on stage presenting astrocyte-synapse interactions.

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Ciaran Murphy-Royal @murphyroyallab.org · 04/02/2026

Couldn't wait for Friday to share this really incredible image from superstar undergraduate student Camila Cabarcas, iInvestigating astrocyte morphology Fingers crossed for Camila as she's at U Cincinnati this week to interview for grad school!

Fluorescence image showing astrocytes labelled with eGFP (green), what appears to be primary blood vessels with GFAP (magenta), and cell nuclei stained with DAPI (cyan)

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Ciaran Murphy-Royal @murphyroyallab.org · 22/01/2026

Nice surprise today in @thetransmitter.bsky.social daily email linking our preprint! Thank you! 😍 mailchi.mp/thetransmitt...

Screenshot of email that says “new preprint finds that in the basolateral amygdala, "astrocytic activity provides a stable and scalable representation of threat-induced anxiety across an array of behavioral tasks."

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Ciaran Murphy-Royal @murphyroyallab.org · 15/01/2026

🚨Registration for the N American stress meeting is now open!!🚨 Really excited to be part of it and host the event in the @crchum.bsky.social in Montréal this June! www.stress2026.com/registration

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Ciaran Murphy-Royal @murphyroyallab.org · 15/12/2025

Huge milestone for the lab last week with @lewisholt.bsky.social defending his PhD! He really got tested by the jury and put on a phenomenal performance fitting with all the exceptional work he did in the lab. Really sad to see Lewis go, but we managed to squeeze in one last lab party!

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Ciaran Murphy-Royal @murphyroyallab.org · 10/12/2025

Fantastic presentation from @mathiasgua.bsky.social at @umontreal.ca Neuro department research day. Showing all his cool new data!

Mathias giving his presentation in an amphitheatre

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Ciaran Murphy-Royal @murphyroyallab.org · 11/11/2025

Time to hibernate… or ski to work! 😅

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Ciaran Murphy-Royal @murphyroyallab.org · 03/11/2025

Fantastic weekend at the Hypothalamic Mechanisms Retreat organized by @katrinachoe.bsky.social & Mijail Rojas-Carvajal ! Unfortunately didnt take too many pictures apart from the 'family tree' but it was so nice to share lots of unpublished work and get some critical feedback!

Seminar room with Charles Bourque introducing keynote speaker Quentin Pittman

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Ciaran Murphy-Royal @murphyroyallab.org · 16/10/2025

Very excited to be part of the organizing committee for the upcoming Neurobiology of Stress Workshop, that will happen here in Montreal next June. All the details can be found on the website 👇 www.stress2026.com

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Ciaran Murphy-Royal @murphyroyallab.org · 02/10/2025

Office for the day or should I head into the lab… 🤔

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Ciaran Murphy-Royal @murphyroyallab.org · 02/09/2025

Kathleen set the bar far too high for snacks at today’s lab meeting! 🤩

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Ciaran Murphy-Royal @murphyroyallab.org · 19/08/2025

Not yet #fluorescencefriday but too excited to wait to share this gorgeous #astrocyte image by student in the lab Camila Cabarcas Arrieta Astrocyte expressing eGFP in green. GFAP staining in magenta (labelling blood vessel in this case)

Astrocyte expressing eGFP in green showing great morphology of an individual cell.
GFAP staining in magenta labelling a blood vessel beside the green astrocyte

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Ciaran Murphy-Royal @murphyroyallab.org · 11/07/2025

Final leg of the Tour de France done with an excellent @gliameeting.bsky.social ! Amazing science in a great city, (despite some smoke!) and a nice travel award for @lewisholt.bsky.social 🥳 Going to make sure we come back to this meeting again next time! #glia2025

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Ciaran Murphy-Royal @murphyroyallab.org · 01/07/2025

Part 2 of France trip done. Fantastic @ebbsociety.bsky.social meeting with PhD students from the lab! Topping it off with a presentation prize for @mathiasgua.bsky.social !! 🥳

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Ciaran Murphy-Royal @murphyroyallab.org · 27/06/2025

Part 1 of the French trip done! Lots of fun exploring Paris, hanging out with Jun Nagai, and having a mini astrocyte day at Serge Luquet’s lab in Université Paris Cité.

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Ciaran Murphy-Royal @murphyroyallab.org · 14/06/2025

Outdoor lounge shaping up nicely! 🍹

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Ciaran Murphy-Royal @murphyroyallab.org · 02/06/2025

This week marks the 5-year anniversary of the lab! Lots of great people have come and gone (some are still here) ! Looking forward to seeing what we do in the next 5 now that we have built up momentum! Here are some lab pics from over the years 👇

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Ciaran Murphy-Royal @murphyroyallab.org · 25/05/2025

Fantastic Career Networking Panel to finish off last day of @canacn.bsky.social !

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Ciaran Murphy-Royal @murphyroyallab.org · 29/04/2025

Great seminar from @lewisholt.bsky.social today at the @crchum.bsky.social ! Part of the ‘exit seminar’ as he closes in on the finish line of his PhD 🥲

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Ciaran Murphy-Royal @murphyroyallab.org · 23/04/2025

Super cool to get the hard copy of the Astrocyte Methods and Protocols today!

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Ciaran Murphy-Royal @murphyroyallab.org · 03/04/2025

So much fun to catch up with Jun Nagai at the @crchum.bsky.social ! Inspiring work with so many exciting things in the pipeline!

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Ciaran Murphy-Royal @murphyroyallab.org · 24/03/2025

C’mon Canada, that’s enough of winter now…

Snowy street scene in Montreal, at the end of March.

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Ciaran Murphy-Royal @murphyroyallab.org · 19/03/2025

Montréal glia people / neuroscience community - I'm hosting Jun Nagai (RIKEN) on April 2nd at the @crchum.bsky.social If you're interested see details below, or reach out to me! Open to all.

Poster showing details for seminar from Dr Jun Nagai.

Principal Investigator
Team Leader at RIKEN Centre for Brain Science
Tokyo, Japan

Title: Behaviorally relevant astrocyte ensembles for systems stabilization

Le conférence seront présentées en anglais

Le mercredi 2 Avril 2025 - Wednesday 2nd April 2025 at 12pm

Locale : R05.212B

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Ciaran Murphy-Royal @murphyroyallab.org · 12/03/2025

Would love to be there! Spending time here instead…

Picture of people enjoying themselves on a tropical beach

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