Sheena Josselyn

Sheena Josselyn is a Professor in the Departments of Psychology and Physiology at the University of Toronto and a Senior Scientist at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids). She holds a Canada Research Chair in Brain Mechanisms underlying Memory and is affiliated with the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR) as a Senior Fellow, and the Royal Society of Canada as a Fellow.

Education: B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Clinical Psychology from Queen’s University, followed by a Ph.D. in Neuroscience/Psychology from the University of Toronto under Dr. Franco Vaccarino. Postdoctoral training included work with Dr. Mike Davis (Yale University) and Dr. Alcino Silva (UCLA).

Research focuses on understanding how the brain encodes, stores, and utilizes information, particularly through memory engram studies in mice. Her work addresses disorders like autism, PTSD, and Alzheimer’s, aiming to inform therapeutic strategies. Key interests include synaptic plasticity, cell assembly dynamics, and translational neuroscience.

Awards include the CCNP Innovations in Psychopharmacology Award and ACNP Effron Award, recognizing her contributions to neuropsychopharmacology and memory research.

Labs/Teams: Leads research programs at SickKids and University of Toronto, focusing on neural mechanisms of memory and brain dysfunction in disease.