Fresh from the Castro Lab! We characterize how mu opioid receptors on pancreatic alpha cells regulate ingestive phenotypes. Surprise! Mu can act both inside and outside the brain😱 Congrats to our technician Diego De Gregorio! @ssibsociety.bsky.social www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Are ultrasonic vocalizations a window into the subjective effects of drugs of abuse, and VTA dopamine neuron manipulations, in rats? 🤔 New answers to these questions, & intriguing new questions raised! urldefense.com/v3/__https:/...

Our labs first paper! Some 😳 surprising effects. Turns out everything comes back to context 🤓

New preprint in which we developed a task to measure motivation to exercise in rats! This will hopefully open many doors. 🏃🐀 Big thanks to Prof. Desiree Seib, who led this effort, and @dr-stan.bsky.social !! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Check out our new paper, led brilliantly by Dr. Megan Brickner, in early view form at @natcomms.nature.com. We characterize BLA dopamine signaling in emotional learning - lots of insights into broad dopamine heterogeneity beyond classic value learning signals! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Congrats to @zachtpennington.bsky.social on receiving the 2026 William & Nona Heaslip–Banting Discovery Award for his work analyzing the brain’s emotion‑related circuits! This award will support his research in identifying novel treatment targets for anxiety disorders.

Woo!!!!!! PenningtonLab.com is live!

Proud to share an overview of the CAN Hill Day which took place last week - engaging with Parliamentarians and civil servants to highlight the important work neuroscientists do for Canada and the importance of government support for Canadian Research. can-acn.org/can-parliame...

🧠 Meet Dr. Milan Valyear (@milanium.bsky.social), the new Assistant Professor in @psych.ubc.ca and a researcher at the Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health! Learn more about his career journey and his research into brain circuitry: https://bit.ly/4szI4fT

What drives us to act and when do we stop? Dr. Milan Valyear (@milanium.bsky.social) is a new @psych.ubc.ca faculty member studying the brain circuits behind reinforcement and disengagement. From childhood tinkering to cutting-edge neuroscience, his work is all about curiosity and discovery.

Stoked to announce that I’m starting a lab as an Assistant Professor in the School of Biomedical Engineering and Centre for Brain Health at UBC! mcdiarmid-lab.sbme.ubc.ca Recruiting at all levels - please share the word! Cheers and happy long weekend all!

Meet @zachtpennington.bsky.social, a new researcher at the DMCBH and @psych.ubc.ca who is exploring how the brain regulates stress and emotion. He is also an advocate of building open-source tools to make science more accessible for all. Read more: www.centreforbrainhealth.ca/news/from-sk...

I defended my PhD 10 years ago today. That was the least remarkable thing that happened that day. Sharing something I wrote about it last year. Since then "the horrors persist but so do we." And with dignity.

Registration for the @canacn.bsky.social 2026 Neural Circuits and Behaviour satellite meeting is now live! Looking forward to hosting this event with @franklandlab.bsky.social again, and we're looking to have 4 trainee talks as part of the satellite. Register at www.eventbrite.com/e/1984146883...

Read CAN President Douglas Zochodne's letter to Prime Minister Mark Carney highlighting the importance of Neuroscience research and the CIHR Project Grant shortfalls. can-acn.org/read-our-let...

CIHR funding rate: 13.6%. Early 2000s: 30%+. Canada’s new $1.7B Impact+ program recruits talent — but without increased Tri-Council base funding, we risk further strain on an already stretched system. We’re calling for $1B over 5 years. Support here: tinyurl.com/33c5av46

Very excited to post our paper led by @daburke.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41... where we uncover a simple mathematical rule underlying how brains learn that a cue predicts a reward. 1/26

Since the Namboodiri lab isn’t on Bluesky (I think?), I’d like to amplify this cool paper which I and others in the Janak lab made a small contribution to.

Thank you - so happy to join such an exciting and supportive department!

en route to Vancouver. thrilled to start my lab @psych.ubc.ca @arts.ubc.ca and join the @dmcbrainhealth.bsky.social - doors open Jan 2026. it's great to be back, 🇨🇦.