Lab News

Recent Lab News

April 2025 - The lab welcomes new PhD rotation student, Liam Clancy. Looking forward to working with you Liam!

The Bowie lab is making waves with our latest publication in Nature! Don't miss our interview with La Presse, where we dive into the impact of our research and its potential to transform the study of neurodevelopmental disorders.

March 2025 - Congratulations to Dr. Fede, Dr. Xin-Tong, and all the Bowie Lab alumni, on their recent publication in Nature! This groundbreaking research challenges the long-held assumption that GluA2-containing AMPAR complexes are calcium impermeable, offering compelling evidence that AMPARs actually form a continuum of calcium permeability. Check out the research briefings here. Incredible work, everyone!

January 2025 - The Bowie lab welcomes two new undergraduate students, Madeline Ward and Nicholas Mitrovich, for the 2025 Winter term. We're looking forward to some new faces in the lab!

December 2024 - Congratulations to Dr. Xin-tong Wang for succesfully defending her PhD! In addition to her thesis committee, her audience was filled with lab members and friends there to support her. The lab hosted a banquet lunch following the defence to celebrate this huge milestone. We are so proud of you Xin-tong, and can't wait to see what the future holds for you!

The Bowie lab also had the privilege of hosting Dr. Lonnie Wollmuth of Stony Brook University. In addition to sharing a lunch at Thomson House together, the lab had the opportunity to hear about cutting-edge research coming from his lab at his MNG talk. Thanks for the visit Dr. Wollmuth, looking forward to working with you in the future!

What better way to ring in the holiday season than with friends? The Bowie lab helped to host (and attend) the CIS Christmas Party, and had a blast taking part in the festivities.

September 2024 - The lab welcomes Nilesh Shah, a PhD student shared with the Roche lab at the NIH. Looking forward to working with you!

The Bowie lab attended the annual IPN Retreat. Kudos to Zhe, Xin-tong, Fede, and Chloe for presenting posters!

PhD student Zhe and MSc student Chloe each presented their recent work to open the Molecular Neuroscience Group (MNG) seminar series for the 2024 - 2025 academic year. Great job guys!

August 2024 - Dr. Bowie, Fede, Xin-tong, Zhe, Chloe, and Signe attended the iGluRetreat in Toronto, hosted at SickKids. There were many great presentations this year, including Derek’s invigorating talk on Fede and Xin-tong’s most recent work on calcium permeability in AMPA receptors (right). Pictured below is the lab exploring the University of Toronto campus (left)

Pictured below are members of our lab presenting their posters (from left to right: Xin-tong and Fede, Chloe, and Zhe). Already looking forward to next years retreat!

The lab is proud to announce that Chloe and Zhe have each received the Integrated Program in Neuroscience Internal Award for the 2024-2025 year. Hard work pays off!

The lab warmly welcomes new PhD students Cecilia Chen, Mei Gege, and Siqi Wang. We look forward to working together!

The lab is pleased to also bring on 5 undergraduate students to work on research projects this academic year. We welcome Abby McIntosh, Anabelle Bickerstaff, Omar Salam, Signe Anderson, and Enkin Celtikcioglu! Check out their bios.

July 2024 - Many congratulations to Fede and Chloe for their recent publication in JSB! Collaborating with Dr. Jette Sandholm Kastrup from the University of Copenhagen, they characterized a novel positive allosteric modulator for kainate receptors. Check it out here!

May 2024 - Congrats to Zhe for winning Best Poster Presentation at Pharmacology Research Day- we are so proud!

The Bowie Lab welcomes undergraduate summer students Omar, Roberto, and Signe. Looking forward to a summer of science and iGluRs!

Derek pays a visit to the National Institude of Neurological Disease and Stroke (NINDS) at the NIH to present our labs' latest research with some of the global leaders of the ion receptor field. Special thanks to NIH senior investigator, Dr. Katherine Roche, and her energetic team for hosting and sharing their research projects!

The lab had the pleasure of hosting the Sophion team to demonstrate their new automated Q-patch compact system. Kudos Kyle (pictured below), Susie, and Pietro for their informative demo and good humour throughout the day!

April 2024 The Bowie lab takes a break from lab work to catch the solar eclipse with friends.

March 2024 - Undergradute students Jieyu, Roberto, and Omar presenting their posters for the lab, giving insight into the evolutionary origins of iGluRs and their protein counterparts. Great work everyone!

February 2024 - Congratulations to Bowie lab members Fede and Xin-tong for their paper recently published in Nature Structural and Molecular Biology! Titled "The open gate of the AMPA receptor forms a Ca2+ binding site critical in regulating ion transport", the publication is a testament to their hard work and succesful collaboration with Dr. Terunaga Nakagawa.

Many congratulations to former lab trainee Dr. Amanda Perozzo for her recent publication in The Journal of Biological Chemistry! Entitled "Recovery from desensitization in GluA2 AMPA receptors is affected by a single mutation in the N-terminal domain interface", Amanda collaborated with researchers from Oxford and the University of Copenhagen. Team work makes the dream work!

December 2023 - "A PhD is a marathon, not a sprint" says Dr. Amanda Perozzo from the Bowie lab. Read more about Amanda's scientific journey in this month's IPN Neuroblog.

November 2023 - The lab celebrates Amanda succesfully finishing her PhD! Congradulations Amanda, we can't wait to see what you accomplish next!

October 2023 - The Bowie lab publishes in Nature Communications! Kudos to the first author and PhD candidate, Amanda, as well as co-authors, Drs. Jochen Schwenk and Aichu Kamalova. This study is a testament to the power of collaboration, with exciting contributions from the Nakagawa group at Vanderbilt University (histology) and the Fakler group at the University of Freiburg (proteomics). Read the full study here.

Derek and Fede attended the 5th European GRIN Conference in Barcelona, Spain. Learn more about GRIN Europe here.

September 2023 - The Molecular Neuroscience Group (MNG) seminar series has kicked off with presentations from the Bowie lab: Fede (left) and Xin-tong (right). Check out the schedule for upcoming talks.

Amanda, Xin-tong, and Zhe presented posters at the IPN Retreat, pictured below:

This Fall, the lab welcomes two new graduate students: Parsa Afrooz (IPN PhD Rotation student) and Daniel Yonathan (IPN MSc student).

August 2023 - Welcome Amélie, a visiting graduate student from Switzerland!

June 2023 - Derek attended and chaired a session at the Ion Channel Modulation Symposium hosted by Sophion Bioscience in Cambridge, UK.

Zhe successfully completed his candidacy exam and is now officially a PhDc - we are proud!

May 2023 - The lab attended the 16th Canadian Neuroscience Meeting here in Montreal. Zhe and Derek presented at a satellite symposium on the cerebellum, while others presented posters at the main conference, pictured below:

The lab welcomes new MSc student, Chloe Koens. Check out her bio!

Zhe attended the Healthy Brains Healthy Lives (HBHL) Symposium and was awarded a prize for the best poster presentation for Theme 3: Applied Cognitive Neuroscience of Brain Plasticity (see certificate below). We are proud of you, Zhe!

The lab welcomes IPN Rotation student, Sapphire Hou, for the next 3 months. Check out her bio here.

April 2023 - Nils was awarded a 3-year NSERC PGSD fellowship. Well done, Nils!

The lab said goodbye to Arjun who is off to UBC to pursue a post-doc. Best of luck on the West Coast, Arjun! We enjoyed some Indian treats and a sushi lunch to say farewell.

March 2023 - Congrats to Amanda on her first, first author publication which was accepted this month in the Journal of Neuroscience. Former graduate student, Dr. Patricia Brown, is also an author. Read the full article here.

Kudos to senior PhD Candidate Amanda who successfully completed her Thesis Seminar. Another milestone closer to the finish line!

January 2023 - Happy New Year! The Molecular Neuroscience Group (MNG) continues to meet. The schedule is updated here.

December 2022 - The lab attended the CIS Winter Networking Event to celebrate the achievements of our research group over the past year and get into the holiday spirit.

Dr. Bowie, Arjun, Nils, and Zhe travelled to Toronto for as part of a collaborative project with researchers Dr. Julie Lefebvre (SickKids) and Dr. James Fawcett (Dalhousie).

Arjun became a Co-Founder and Committee member of the Canadian Neuroscience-Postdoctoral Seminar Series (CNS-PDS). Congrats on this new leadership role! Details can be found on Twitter.

November 2022 - Dr. Bowie attended the Society for Neuroscience (SfN) Meeting in San Diego where he gave a talk on AMPAR signaling complexes.

October 2022 - Bowie lab trainees participated in (and won!) a Halloween pumpkin decorating contest hosted by CIS.

Dr. Daniel Choquet gave a fascinating presentation on synaptic protein organization and dynamics as part of The Cell Information Systems (CIS) Seminar Series. Past and future seminars are listed here.

The Bowie lab kicked off the MNG season with presentations from Nils, Arjun and Zhe.

September 2022 - The lab welcomes Annabelle Bickerstaff and Elisabeth Lawton. Annabelle is a CEGEP student who received a Mitacs-FRQNT bursary to gain research experience. Elisabeth is a U1 student in Bioengineering at McGill.

Kudos to graduate students Xin-tong and Zhe who were awarded internal fellowships from the IPN and Faculty of Medicine, respectively.

August 2022 - After two cancellations due to COVID, the Bowie lab - represented by Derek, Amanda, Fede, and Zhe - attended the 8th Annual iGluRetreat in Stony Brook, NY hosted by Lonnie Wollmuth. Dr. Bowie presented a talk, while Amanda, Fede and Zhe presented posters. Pictured below: Top row, Lonnie's welcome (left), Derek's talk (middle), Stony Brook University campus (right). Bottom row, Bowie lab trainee posters (Amanda, Fede, and Zhe).

July 2022 - Overcome SYNGAP1, Wandoan Campdraft for a Cure & SynGAP Research Fund have just announced a CAD $150,000 grant for small molecule translational research to Dr. Derek Bowie! Check out the press release. We look forward to embarking on this research project over the next year!

June 2022 - Dr. Bowie travelled to Clare College in Cambridge, UK to attend the Ion Channel Modulation Symposium hosted by Sophion Bioscience. This meeting "gathers a broad range of people, from academia, CROs and pharmaceutical companies, to discuss the science of ion channel modulation".

May 2022 - Dr. Bowie co-organized the International Union of Pure and Applied Biophysics (IUPAB) Focused Meeting titled: “The biophysics of ligand-gated ion channels: from structures to drug discovery" with Drs. John Baenziger and Corrie daCosta. The meeting was held at the University of Ottawa and featured many international speakers. Bowie Lab members Amanda, Federico and Xin-tong all presented posters, while Dr. Bowie spoke about the labs' work on AMPARs. Check out the program here.

Dr. Bowie, Arjun, Amanda, Nils, Zhe, and Sonja attended the Canadian Association for Neuroscience (CAN) Meeting in Toronto, ON. Derek presented some of the labs' work on GABARs at a satellite pre-meeting on inhibitory transmission. He also organized a parallel symposium at the main meeting on alternative splicing, where both he and Amanda gave talks. Pictured below is Dr. Bowie (left), Amanda (middle), and the symposium speakers (right): Dr. Bowie, Dr. Ameet Sengar, Amanda Perozzo, Dr. Benjamin Blencowe.

Congrats to PhD student Niklas and former MSc students Adamo and Edward for their publication in JGP on the biophysical properties of sodium channels! The paper is entitled, "Closed-state inactivation of cardiac, skeletal, and neuronal sodium channels is isoform specific" and more details can be found on the JGP website. 

April 2022 - Congrats to Nils who was awarded an NSERC-CREATE Graduate student fellowship! Learn more about the award here.

March 2022 - Check out our most recent publication in the Journal of General Physiology co-authored by former MSc student Adamo Mancino. This work on Nav1.5 alternative splicing represents a collaborative effort with the Biggin Lab at the University of Oxford.

The lab welcomes PhD exchange student Sonja Stiebahl from the University of Cambridge. Sonja will spend 3 months with us as a Mitacs funded researcher focusing on synaptic plasticity and GABAergic signaling.

February 2022 - The Fragile X Foundation of Canada recognized women in science across Canada who make an impact on individuals living with Fragile X. Can you spot our very own Megan below? For more information, follow @FragileXCanada on their Twitter/Instagram/Facebook platforms or visit their website.

January 2022 - Dr. Bowie acted as guest editor for a special issue in Neuropharmacology on AMPA receptors, for which he also wrote an editorial. The articles in the issue as well as his editorial can be found here.

Dr. Bowie co-authored an Editorial in the Journal of Physiology with Dr. David Wyllie. The article is titled, "Ionotropic glutamate receptors: structure, function and dysfunction" and describes five review articles that were published in relation to a virtual symposium hosted by the Physiological Society in October (see October news below for details). The Editorial can be read here and the review articles can be found in this issue of the journal.

We welcome two new lab personnel, Anmol and Lies. Anmol joins as a research assistant and Lies is a visiting student from Belgium - both will team up with Megan to study cellular and molecular deficits in FXS.

December 2021 - The lab said goodbye to Heika and went out for a holiday dinner at La Prunelle pictured below. Both the group photo (left) and drawing gifted to Heika (right) are artworks by Arjun!

October 2021 - Every 10 years or so, Pharmacological Reviews publishes a comprehensive review on the Structure, Function, and Pharmacology of Glutamate Receptor Ion Channels. Dr. Bowie contributed to this year's edition, which was recently published. Check it out here!

The Molecular Neuroscience Group (MNG) Seminars resumed with presentations from the Bowie Lab (see pics below). The MNG brings together neurophysiologists from accross campus and offers trainees the opportunity to present their work in an informal setting. The first meeting of the 2021-2022 season kicked off with presentations from Amanda (PhD candidate) and Arjun (PDF). For the full schedule, visit the MNG webpage.

The lab grows again as we welcome Pharmacology undergrad student, Razmig Aredjian.

We are pleased to announce that former undergraduate student, Megan, is now working as a Research Assistant on Fragile X related projects.

Dr. Bowie chaired a virtual conference on Ionotropic Glutamate Receptors: Structure, Function and Dysfunction that was hosted by the Physiological Society. The conference was co-chaired with Dr. David Wyllie from the University of Edinburgh who is also a senior editor of the Journal. Program details are availble on the event webpage.

September 2021 - The lab welcomes a new PhD student, Nils Koch, who will be co-supervised by Dr. Bowie and Dr. Khadra (Dept. Physiology). Welcome Nils!

August 2021 - Congrats to Xin-tong who was awarded the Max E. Binz Fellowship!

The lab said goodbye to Alexia who will obtain her MSc degree this Fall. All the best Alexia!

July 2021 - The Bowie Lab had a photo shoot and welcomes its newest recruit, Zhe Zhao, who will begin his MSc in the IPN. Welcome Zhe!

June 2021 - Congratulations to Xin-tong who successfully completed her PhD Candidacy Exam this month! Well done!

May 2021 - Welcome to Dr. Federico Miguez-Cabello, our newest post-doctoral fellow from Spain!

April 2021 - Congrats to our post-doc, Arjun, who was awarded the Best Trainee Presentation at the Pre-INSAR Blitz TACC (Transforming Autism Care Consortium) Research Forum. Arjun presented his ongoing work on hyperexcitability in Fragile-X Syndrome. Bravo! For more information on the TACC network, visit their website here.

March 2021 - Congrats to the Meyerson Lab at Cornell University, as well as Amanda and Patricia from our lab, for their recent paper in eLife that highlights structural and functional aspects of heteromeric GluK2/K5 receptors, the most abundant kainate receptor in the mammalian brain. To learn more about this collaborative work, read the paper here!

Congrats to Dr. Bowie for becoming a recipient of a Ignite Grant that will develop intellectual property associated with AMPA-type ionotropic glutamate receptors. The Ignite Grants are part of the Neuro Commercialization Grant program that aims to accelerate the maturation and commercialization of neuroscience-related technology derived from research conducted at McGill. The objective of the Ignite Grant is to support small-scale validation/proof-of-principle efforts in the development of a neuroscience-related technology.

February 2021 - The lab said goodbye to Ryan with a celebratory take-out lunch. He was also gifted with a caricature done by our very talented post-doc, Arjun. Best of luck at UCSF Dr. Alexander, we will miss you!

January 2021 - Many congratulations to former Bowie Lab trainee, Dr. Patricia Brown, who has co-authored an exciting paper in Nature on recent advances in cryo-electron microscopy with her colleagues at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, UK. If you are too busy to read the paper, watch the accompanying YouTube video that she stars in.

Congrats to Niklas and former PhD rotation student Preethi for excellent student presentations at QLS Research Day. Niklas and Preethi were awarded the 1st and 2nd place prizes, respectively. Bravo!

Dr. Bowie wrote an Editorial for the Journal of Physiology titled, "Neurotransmitter-gated ion channels, still front and centre stage" featured in the 15 Jan 2021 Vol 599.2 Issue. This issue includes the work of our very own Dr. Ryan Alexander, as well as cover art done by Amanda Perozzo (see Publications). There are also a number of excellent symposium reviews related to research presented at the 2019 iGluRetreat and ISN Satellite Conference.

November 2020 - Congrats to Dr. Erik Larson who successfully defended his PhD thesis, which was based on the neurobiology of Fragile X syndrome. Erik’s committee was composed of Dr. Stefano Vicini from Georgetown University, USA and Drs. Aparna Suvrathan and Ellis Cooper from McGill University. Given the restrictions due to COVID-19, Erik’s defense was virtual and livestreamed via YouTube for family friends who would normally attend in person. The lab celebrated with drinks and an outdoor lunch, and Erik was gifted with a caricature done by our very talented post-doc, Arjun.

Congrats also to Dr. Ryan Alexander who presented the inaugural trainee talk at the “NeuroWire Club”. Ryan’s talk entitled “The other kind of LTP” focused on his recent work on the plasticity mechanisms of voltage-gated ion channels that he has uncovered in molecular interneurons of the cerebellum.

October 2020 - Congrats to Dr. Ryan Alexander who had two papers accepted for publication on his work looking at the neurophysiology of cerebellar molecular layer interneurons. Learn more about the studies here.

Dr. Lisa Topolnik launched a virtual research network called “NeuroWire Club” which will focus on neuronal circuits of the brain with an emphasis on the plasticity of GABAergic inhibition. The first speaker was Dr. Igor Timofeev who talked about the complex roles of GABAergic signaling in sleep mechanisms of different species. Learn more about NeuroWire at www.neurowire.ca and sign up for the email notifications of upcoming seminars.

September 2020 - We welcome a new undergraduate student, Megan, who will spend two terms with us for her NSCI 420 research project.

Congrats to our MSc student, Alexia Gene, who received an IPN Returning Student Award. Bravo!

August 2020 - Congrats to our PhD student, Xin-tong Wang, who has become this year’s recipient of the Harold H. Helm fellowship, as well as receiving a McGill Faculty of Medicine Internal salary award. Well done!

Congrats also to Erik Larson who submitted his PhD thesis, and in doing so, completes the penultimate step towards obtaining a PhD. Erik will now prepare the public defense of his PhD work which should be in the coming months. We are proud of you Erik!

June 2020 - Dr. Bowie made the virtual trip to the Chengdu province of China to give a talk to trainees and faculty at the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China (UESTC) shown below. Dr. Bowie was part of a delegation of McGill professors who presented their work remotely rather than in person due to ongoing issues with COVID-19. A short video presentation by Dr. Derek Bowie can be seen on the Bowie lab YouTube channel. Check it out and subscribe to it here.

June 2020 - After nearly 3 months, on-campus research has started to gradually ramp up at McGill. Ryan and Amanda (pictured below in PPE) are the first to return to the lab with patch-clamp recordings underway!

April 2020 - Senior PhD Candidate Erik presented his Thesis Seminar to a large audience, including Bowie Lab and McGill alumni from around the world. Top left: Erik's seminar presentation and audience; Top right: Erik's captivated audience; Bottom: The after party to celebrate Erik, featuring Bowie Lab alumni Patricia (Cambridge, UK), Martina (London, UK), Edward (Vancouver, BC), and Adamo (San Francisco, USA) and McGill/Bellini Building alumni Sandra (Germany) and Filip (Germany). Congrats Erik!

The Bowie lab is working hard from home during the COVID-19 pandemic. Group members are meeting (virtually) throughout the week via Zoom to discuss data and projects. Pictured below is our first remote lab meeting (left) and words of encouragement around Montréal (right). Ça va bien aller!

March 2020 - Celebrations are in order for PhD Candidate Erik. His first author paper was accepted in the Journal of Neuroscience! See the early release here.

Congratulations to Derek who was awarded an Ignite Neuro Commercialization Grant from Healthy Brains, Healthy Lives (HBHL). This grant will fund work on a novel therapeutic identified by the Bowie lab for the treatment of Fragile X syndrome.

We welcome two PhD rotation students to the lab, Sabine (Integrated Program in Neuroscience) and Preethi (Quantitative Life Sciences).

February 2020 - We welcome our new Post-Doctoral Fellow, Arjun, to the lab. Click to see his bio.

Our collaboration with the Khadra lab has yielded another great study. Congrats to Saeed and Ryan! See the full article here.

January 2020 - We welcome our new Research Associate, Heika, to the lab. Click to see her bio.

December 2019 - The lab said goodbye to Edward and celebrated the end of year with dinner at local restaurant, Le Quartier Général. Best of luck with your PhD studies at UBC, Edward!

Derek gave two talks at the University of Ottawa in the Department of Chemistry and Biomolecular Sciences as well as the Faculty of Medicine.

The lab celebrated the holidays at Thompson House with the Cell Information Systems Group.

November 2019 - Many congratulations to Dr. Ryan Alexander who graduated with gusto at his recent PhD exam!

Congratulations also to our newest member of the lab, Xin-tong Wang, who was awarded the Harold H. Helm fellowship. The fellowship was established in 1960 to honour Harold Helm who was then Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Board of Trustees of Princeton University.

Drs. Bowie and Murai recently hosted a delegation of researchers from Japan's National Institute for Physiological Sciences (NiPS) who spent two days at McGill discussing research projects and planning for the next steps in the partnership. The visit included a trip to McGill's Gault Nature Reserve, which is situated on Mont St. Hilaire, east of Montreal. The group photo was taken in front of the Gault property showcasing the beginning of winter snowfall in Quebec.

Dr. Bowie recently visited the campus of Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia to present a research seminar on the lab's latest findings to members of the Department of Physiology and Biophysics. Dalhousie University was founded in 1818 and is one of Canada's oldest universities.

October 2019 - Dr. Bowie made a trip to the Rome with a delegation of McGill researchers to attend the 2nd joint McGill-Hebrew University-EBRI symposium that was held at the Accademia Dei Lincei (see photo) that included a meeting with her excellency, Alexandra Bugailiskis, the Canadian Ambassador to Italy who attended the opening ceremony.

The short walk to the conference passed many of Rome's historic sites including St Peter's square, the Colosseum, the Castel Sant'Angelo and the Victor Emmanuel II National Monument (or Vittoriano).

Dr. Bowie also made an invited presentation of the lab’s work at the Sophion-Amgen sponsored Ion-Channel Modulation symposium (ICMS) that was held in Boston, USA (http://sophion.com/news-and-events/icms2019-boston-ma/). The conference was attended by both academic, clinical and industry researchers (see photo below).

The lab also attended Pharmacology Research Day that was held in Saint Sauveur, a small ski-town in the Laurentians. Ryan, Amanda, and Edward presented posters on their research projects.

Congratulations to Edward for successful completion of his Master's Thesis Seminar! Well done, one step closer to your MSc. degree!

September 2019 - Congrats to Ryan and all contributing authors on Mitry et al., 2019 (see paper here). This publication was the result of a collaborative effort with the lab of Dr. Anmar Khadra in the Dept. of Physiology at McGill.

The 2019-2020 MNG schedule is now posted!

August 2019 - Congratulations are in order for a number of Bowie lab students:
- Former MSc. student Marika submitted her final thesis. Best of luck with your ongoing studies at veternary school!
- Former MSc. student Adamo is off to UCSF to begin a PhD. Good luck on the west coast!
- PhD Candidate Ryan submitted his initial PhD thesis this month. Well done Ryan, you are one milestone closer to the finish line!

Many generations of Bowie lab students were reunited at the iGluR Retreat and ISN Satellite Meeting. Pictured below (from left to right around the table): Erik (PhD Candidate), Edward (MSc Candidate), Amanda (PhD Candidate), Marika (MSc, Alumni), Mark (PhD, Alumni), Brent (PhD, Alumni), Julia (PhD, IPN Alumni, Brent's fiancée), Ryan (PhD Candidate), Dave (PhD, Alumni), and Patricia (PhD, Alumni).

Drs. Derek Bowie and Katherine Roche from the NIH hosted a satellite conference of the International Society for Neurochemistry on the McGill campus that included many great talks from the world’s leading researchers on ion-channel biology. PhD student Amanda Perozzo from the lab made a presentation on her unpublished data looking at the structure-function relationship of different AMPA receptor auxiliary subunits (see photo below). The group photo of the conference participants can be found here.

July 2019 - Drs. Derek Bowie and David Stellwagen hosted the 7th annual iGluRetreat on the McGill campus. There were many great presentations this year, including a session on “Non-iGluR topics”. MSc student Edward Yan from the lab made a presentation on his data looking at the auxiliary subunit stoichiometry of native AMPA receptors (see photo below). The group photo of the conference participants can be found here.

June 2019 - Dr. Bowie made a trip to the UK to present a research talk at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology and attend the 2019 Ion Channel Conference hosted by Sophion at Cambridge University. He also passed through University College London to meet with some colleagues and old friends from his graduate school days. Below are some of the photos snapped as he made his travels that include (top row) the Jesus College and the LMB in Cambridge, as well as (bottom row) Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, the Tower of London, Tower Bridge and St Paul’s cathedral.

May 2019 - Ryan presented his Thesis Seminar, completing one of his final PhD milestones. Well done!

Congrats to former MSc, now PhD, student Amanda for successful completion of her Transfer/Candidacy Exam!

The Bowie Lab attended the Canadian Association for Neuroscience (CAN) 2019 Meeting in Toronto. The Bowie students enjoyed a home-cooked meal together on the first night (see group photo below) as well as exploring the city. Grad students Ryan, Erik, Amanda, Adamo and Niklas all presented posters (see poster abstracts here).

Dr. Bowie also passed on his role as CAN Treasurer; he is pictured below with CAN's new president, Dr. Katalin Toth (centre), President-elect, Dr. Charles Bourque (left), advocacy chair, Dr. Karun Singh (right) and past president, Dr. Jaideep Bains (centre-left).

Congrats to PhD student Ryan for his first author manuscript published at eNeuro. We are proud of you Ryan! Check out the full article.

We said goodbye to visiting student Kathrine and undergraduate student Tian with lunch at McGill's Thompson House. See photo below.

April 2019 - Congratulations to Bowie lab members for their recent publication in Neuron! The multi-disciplinary and international study was performed in collaboration with the labs of Dr. Mike Edwardson (Cambridge University), Jette Kastrup (University of Copenhagen) and Nelson Barrera (Catholic University of Chile). See publications.

The website for the 7th Annual iGluRetreat (30-31st July 2019) and ISN Satellite Meeting (1st-2nd Aug 2019) was recently launched. These two conferences will be held this summer in Montreal. Peruse the website to see a list of speakers and registration details!

Many congrats to Amanda for being awarded a prestigious 3-year NSERC doctoral fellowship for her PhD thesis work. Well done!

March 2019 - Dr. Bowie travelled with NEURO colleagues, Drs. Ted Fon (middle) and Stefano Stifano (left), as the McGill delegation that visited the Neuroscience faculty at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. The groups photo shows Edinburgh’s Drs. David Wyllie (right) and Siddarthan Chandran (3rd from right) with the University Principal and Vice-Chancellor, Dr. Peter Mathieson (2nd from left), at the signing ceremony with Derek, Ted and Stefano. The group were also treated to a traditional breakfast fry-up with black pudding and haggis with an evening of some whisky tasting and dinner at Edinburgh’s Scotch Malt Whisky Society (www.smws.com).

January 2019 - Congrats to the Bowie lab for renewing their CIHR grant entitled "Unravelling the complex roles of AMPA receptor auxiliary subunits in the mammalian brain" which will provide funding to the lab for the next five years. See more details here.

November 2018 - New Bowie Lab photo! See header above.

October 2018 - Dr. Bowie and Dr. Keith Murai led a delegation of McGill professors and 2 McGill students to the National Institute of Physiological Sciences (NiPS) in Okazaki, Japan to start the next phase of the McGill-NiPS partnership. Photo below shows the McGill professors with some of NiPS researchers during the visit including Director General, Dr. Keiji Imoto (far left) see photo below).

Dr. Bowie was also invited by Dr. Chen-Tung Yen to present two talks on the lab's research work during visits to the Academia Sinica (https://www.sinica.edu.tw/en) and the National Taiwan University (NTU) (http://www.ntu.edu.tw/english/) which are both situated in Taipei, Taiwan. Dr. Bowie was also taken on a cultural trip to the National Palace Museum (https://www.npm.gov.tw/en/, see image below, left) and Hu Shih Memorial Hall (https://www.sinica.edu.tw/en/articles/50). Photo below, right, shows Dr. Bowie with Dr. Yen on the campus of NTU.

September 2018 - Welcome to our new rotation students, Rebecca Cummers and Niklas Brake, who will work on the structure of AMPA receptors and biology of sodium channels, respectively.

Also, many congrats to PhD student, Ryan Alexander, who is the recipient of the 2018 Life Sciences Award for his poster presentation at Pharmacology Research Day.

The program for the 2018-2019 MNG has been posted here: http://www.medicine.mcgill.ca/pharma/dbowielab/mng.html

August 2018 - Dr. Bowie and Amanda attended the 2018 iGluRetreat that was held at the University of Pittsburgh hosted by Drs. Jon Johnston and Maria Kurnikova. Photo shows the attendees in front of the Frick Fine Arts building where the retreat was held. Follow the link for more info about the Fine Arts building: https://www.tour.pitt.edu/tour/frick-fine-arts-building (see photo below). More information about the conference can be found here.

Also, congratulations to MSc student, Amanda Perozzo, who was awarded the J.P. Collip Fellowship 2018-2019 from the Faculty of Medicine. Well done, Amanda!

July 2018 - Dr. Bowie attended and chaired a session at the Sophion Ion-Channel conference which was held on the spectacular grounds and in the auditorium of Memorial Court, Clare College, University of Cambridge (see photo below).

June 2018 - Welcome to our new summer students, Alek Ebbeling and Tian Xie, who will be working on the functional and structural properties of ionotropic glutamate receptors. See their photos and biographies here.

June 2018 - Dr. Bowie recently hosted Drs. David Wyllie and Siddarthan Chandran from the University of Edinburgh who visited McGill as part of an ongoing discussion to build stronger inter-institutional ties. As part of their 3-day visit, Drs. Wyllie (left) and Chandran (right) made a tour of the McGill campus with a mandatory stop at the statue of McGill's founder and fellow Scot, James McGill (see photo below).

May - June 2018 - Having completed their research project at the National Institutes of Physiological Sciences in Okazaki, Japan, Dr. Bowie, Edward and Adamo made the long trip back to Montreal. Before departing, Dr. Bowie visited the husband and wife research team of Drs. Masaki Fukata (left) and Yuko Fukata (right) and their graduate student, Yuri Miyazaki (centre, see photo below).

May 2018 - Many congrats to Edward (Yuhao) Yan who was recently awarded a Master's student scholarship from the FRQS. Bravo Edward, well deserved!!

April-May 2018 - Dr. Bowie and graduate students, Adamo Mancino and Edward (Yuhao) Yan, from the Bowie lab, travelled to the National Institutes for Physiological Sciences (NiPS) in Okazaki, Japan as a part of an ongoing collaboration with the lab of Dr. Yoshihiro Kubo. Drs. Bowie and Kubo have established an international collaboration between their institutes, namely McGill and NiPS, to promote inter-disciplinary research on neuroscience. Photos below show Adamo and Edward working in the lab with Dr. Takushi Shimura, a day trip to Kyoto and a visit by McGill's Dr. Jean-Francois Trempe to NiPS to present his lab's latest findings on Parkinson's disease.

April 2018 - Dr. Bowie was invited by the Canadian Society for Molecular Biosciences to speak about his lab's research work at the conference on "Membrane proteins in health and disease". The meeting was held in the Canadian Rockies at the spectacular conference centre in Banff, Alberta (see photo below).

March 2018 - Dr. Bowie recently visited the University of Copenhagen in Denmark to join the PhD thesis jury of Stine Møllerud, a student candidate from the labs of Drs. Jette Kastrup and Daryl Pickering. Stine passed with flying colours so congrats to her! Dr. Bowie also had the opportunity to meet with researchers at Sophion Bioscience who have their headquarters in Copenhagen.

January 2018 - Many congrats to Dr. Patricia Brown, a recent PhD graduate student from the Bowie lab, who was awarded a Marie Curie postdoctoral fellowship to join the lab of Dr. Radu Aricescu at Cambridge's MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology (see photo below).

December 2017 - Patricia and Hugo publish an article in the Journal of General Physiology. Congratulations!

November 2017 - Dr. Bowie visits Washington DC to attend the Society for Neurosciences meeting and serve on the International Brain Research Organization (IBRO) committee. Photos courtesy of Dr. Derek Bowie.

October 2017 - Dr. Takushi Shimomura from Japan's National Institutes of Physiological Sciences joins the lab for a short sabbatical stay. The photo shows the lab tasting the Japanese savoury pancake dish called Okonomiyaki.

September 2017 - Dr. Bowie recently hosted a delegation of researchers from Japan's National Institute of Physiological Sciences (NiPS) who spent two days visiting the McGill campus and participating in a research symposium at McGill's Faculty Club. The visit culminated in the signing of a Memorandum Of Understanding (MOU) (see photo below) in the presence of Mr. Hideaki Kuramitsu, the Consulate General of Japan in Montreal. The MOU permits the neuroscience communities of McGill and NiPS to begin the exchange of student and postdoctoral fellows as well as to establish joint research projects. The event was reported in the McGill Reporter (http://publications.mcgill.ca/reporter/2017/10/mcgill-signs-mou-with-leading-japanese-research-institute/).

August 2017 - Below is a photo of some of the attendees at the 2017 GEPROM Summer Student Symposium, including Amanda Perozzo, that was held at McGill on August 18th.

August 2017 - Some members of the Bowie lab travelled to Yale University for the 5th Annual iGluRetreat. The Retreat this year was particularly special as many of the speakers were brought from across the World to reflect upon and celebrate the career of Dr. James Howe, a Yale researcher who has made many seminal contributions to the study of inotropic glutamate receptors. The photo shows many of the attendees and speakers who attended the Retreat. Dr. Howe is 5th from the left on the front row.

Below is a photo of several of the attendees at the 2017 iGluRetreat at Yale including (left to right) Dr. Mark. Fleck and Jessica Nuwer (Albany Med College, NY), Dr. Mark Aurousseau, Amanda Perozzo and Ryan Alexander from the Bowie lab, Irene Riva (FMP Berlin) and Drs. David MacLean (URochester), Jim Howe (Yale), Stuart Cull-Candy (UCL, UK) and Derek Bowie.

August 2017 - Dr. Bowie recently visited Rio de Janeiro as an invited speaker at the 38th International Union of Physiological Sciences (IUPS) conference. The photo speakers of symposium that includes (left to right, back row) Drs. Marc Gielen (Pasteur Institute, France), Filip Van Petegem (Univ British Columbia, Canada), Frank Bosmans (Johns Hopkins Univ) (front row) Dr. Yoshihiro Kubo (Natl Inst. Physiological Sciences, Japan), Cecilia Bouzat (Universidad Nacional del Sur, Argentina) and Dr. Derek Bowie

June 2017 - Check out this interview of Loïs Miraucourt with Charles Tisseyre, talking about night vision!

June 2017 - Dr. Bowie, Erik and Ryan attended the Gordon Research Conference on "Inhibition in the CNS" that was held in the picturesque French Swiss town of Les Diablerets. They took time out from the conference to visit an ice field, Glacier 3000 (see video: http://www.glacier3000.ch/en), located high up on the Swiss Alps. From left to right, the group photo shows Erik, Mariana Zaichuk (UZurich) and Ryan with Dr. Steven Brown (UZurich) and Dr. Beni Lüscher (UPenn) who is accompanied by his wife Pam.

June 2017 - Dr. Bowie was recently invited to speak at the School of Life Sciences at the University of Sussex, UK where he met with Drs. Ruth Murrell-Lagnado and Andy Penn (see photo below). He then attended the "Ion-Channel Modulation" Symposium at St. Claire's College, University of Cambridge where he chaired a speaker's session.

June 2017 - Dr. Bowie recently presented the lab's new findings on the neurodevelopment disorder, Fragile X syndrome, at the recent annual meeting of the Canadian Association for Neuroscience that was held in Montreal. Photo shows the others speakers of the symposium that focused on the emerging roles of the developing cerebellum in neurological disease. From left to right: Drs. Derek Bowie, Alanna Watt (McGill), Dan Goldowitz (UBC), Lu-Yang Wang (SickKids) and Yi-Mei (Amy) Yang (U Minnesota).

May 2017 - Bowie lab members are involved in the organizing of the "Beautiful Minds" Pint of Science 2017 event, which will take place on May 15-17th, 2017 in Montreal. Register at https://www.pintofscience.ca/mtl-en-2017.

April 2017 - Dr. Bowie recently visited Northwestern University in downtown Chicago where he caught up with some old friends and colleagues from the neuroscience community. Photo shows Dr. Bowie with Drs. Anis Contractor, Gianmaria Maccaferri and Geoff Swanson.

April 2017 - MNG has been cancelled for this Wednesday. See link on the left.

April 2017 - Congratulations to Erik and Ryan for receiving a GREAT Travel Award from the IPN!

April 2017 - Congratulations to Ryan for receiving a Graduate Research Mobility Award from the Faculty of Medicine!

April 2017 - Photo of several members of the executive committee for the Canadian Association for Neuroscience (CAN) who got together to show support for the upcoming "March for Science" event that will be held in Montreal on the 22nd of April 2017. From left to right, Dr. Ed Ruthazer (CAN Secretary), Dr. Charles Bourque (CAN Board member), Dr. Derek Bowie (CAN Treasurer) and Dr. Alanna Watt (CAN Board member).

April 2017 - Congrats to graduate student, Adamo Mancino, and incoming graduate student, Amanda Perozzo from the University of Ottawa, who were each awarded the prestigious NSERC Masters student award. Adamo is currently working on voltage-gated sodium channels and Amanda will be working on ionotropic glutamate receptors.

April 2017 - Congrats to our undergraduate student, Yuhao (Edward) Yan, who won the prize for best oral presentation at the undergraduate student research day called PURE. Edward is shown in the middle of the photo with other prize winners.

March 2017 - The MNG schedule has been updated as of March 7th, 2017. Make sure to mark your calenders!

February 2017 - Dr. Bowie recently visited Japan's National Institute of Physiological Sciences (or NiPS) in Okazaki, Japan where he met with researchers and visited some historic sites. Dr. Keith Murai from the Montreal General Hospital also joined the trip with Dr. Yoshihiro Kubo as the host from NiPS.

Images show Drs. Bowie. Mura and Kubo visiting Nagoya Castle and Ichihatasan Yakushi-ji Temple and dining at a fugu restaurant.

January 2017 - Welcome to the newest members of the Bowie lab, Martina and Adamo!

November, December 2016 - Congratulations to Brent and Patricia for successfully defending their PhD Thesis!

August 2016 - Some of the students and PIs at the GEPROM Summer Student Symposium on August 10th, 2016.

April 2016 - Brent and Mark's most recent paper (see Publications) has been recommended as being of special significance by the F1000 Faculty!

March 2016 - Welcome to Jihane Nouny from Université de Lille, who is visiting the lab during the next 6 months.

March 2016 - Congratulations to Ryan for obtaining the NSERC Doctoral Award!

March 2016 - Contratulations to Kaitlin and Marika, who obtained a summer studentship and trainee award from GEPROM!

February 2016 - Bowie Lab members go to the Biophysics Meeting in Los Angeles!

Hugo McGuire, Maria Musgaard, Mark Aurousseau, Patricia Brown, Anthony Auerbach and Alvin Shrier at Biophysics in Los Angeles, February 2016.

February 2016 - Congratulations to Brent and Mark for their recent publication in Neuron! Click here to see the press release.

December 2015 - Congratulations to Patricia for the acceptance of her paper in the Journal of Physiology!

December 2015 - Bowie Lab members visit the NIH in Bethesda, Maryland for a symposium in honour of Dr. Mark L. Mayer. Follow this link to watch the talks.

Brent, Ryan, Erik, Mark and Patricia visit Washington, D.C., December 2015

November 2015 - Congratulations to Dr. Michael Accardi for a successful PhD Thesis Defense!

Mike and his family after his PhD Defense, Nov. 12th, 2015

November 2015 - Welcome to Dr. Rafael Koerich Varaschin who recently joined our lab as a post-doctoral fellow.

October 2015 - The Biophysical Society of Canada publishes a newsletter in both the fall and spring of each calendar year. Click here to see the Fall 2015 Newsletter.

October 2015 - Welcome to Mariana Zaichuk from the lab of Dr. Jean-Marc Fritschy at the University of Zurich who recently joined our lab for a 3-month sabbatical stay

October 2015 - Congrats to Erik Larson who won the prize for the best IPN (junior) graduate student at the 2015 Pharmacology Research Day!

September 2015 - Congrats to Dr. David MacLean, Bowie lab alumni, who was recently awarded a K99 research grant to initiate his research program as an independent investigator at the University of Texas (see link).

September 2015 - The 2015-2106 MNG schedule has been published (see link).

September 2015 - SAVE THE DATE!!!! Bowie lab to host the 2016 Glutamate Receptor Retreat in Montreal (August, 2nd-4th). See link.

August 2015 - The Bowie Lab attends the 3rd annual iGluRetreat! See photos below!

Attendees of the iGluRetreat 2015

The Bowie Lab and collaborators from Oxford University and Copenhagen University

July 2015 - Mike publishes a paper in J Neuroscience and here is the press release!

June 2015 - Mark successfully defends his PhD Thesis! Congratulations, Dr. Aurousseau!

Dr. Mark Aurousseau right after his Thesis Defense.

April 2015 - Dr. Bowie was recently invited to speak at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology at Cambridge University (Link) and the Symposium on "Membrane Signalling & Transport" at Oxford University (Link). Dr. Bryan Daniels from the lab was also an invited speaker in Oxford.

Images below show sights passed along the way in London and Cambridge with a group photo in Oxford of Derek and Bryan with the labs of Drs. Ingo Gregor, Lucia Sivilotti, Phil Biggin, Mark Sansom, and Marc Baddan amongst others