Michael Williamson, PhD

Principal Investigator
Scientist, SickKids Neurosciences and Mental Health program
Assistant Professor, University of Toronto

I received my BSc in 2016 from the University of Alberta where I worked in Fred Colbourne's lab studying the pathophysiology of brain hemorrhage. I then completed my PhD in 2022 at the University of Texas at Austin, working with Theresa Jones and Michael Drew on understanding mechanisms of repair after stroke. For my postdoctoral work I joined the lab of Benjamin Deneen at Baylor College of Medicine. There, I discovered how cooperative astrocyte-neuron ensembles regulate memory, and identified functionally distinct astrocyte subpopulations. I started my lab at SickKids in August 2026. We are interested in all aspects of astrocyte biology spanning cognition, disease, and development!