Naguib Mechawar, PhD

Contact
naguib.mechawar@mcgill.ca
6875 Boulevard LaSalle
Montréal, QC
H4H 1R3
Office:F-2101.1, Frank B. Common Pavilion
Office phone: (514) 761-6131 x3365
Lab website: https://mgss.ca/naguib-mechawar
ORCID iD: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4960-756X
BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/naguibmechawar.bsky.social
Researcher and Leader, Stress, Anxiety, Depression and Suicide Theme-based group
Professor, Department of Psychiatry, McGill University
Director, Douglas – Bell Canada Brain Bank
Graduate Program Director, Dept of Psychiatry, McGill University
Co-Director, Réseau québécois sur le suicide, les troubles de l’humeur et les troubles associés – RQSHA
Lab name: Molecular neuroanatomy of mood disorders and suicide
Theme-Based Group: Stress, Anxiety, Depression, and SuicideDivision: Human Neuroscience
Expertise: Glia, neuroplasticity, and neuroinflammation in the human brain
Naguib Mechawar, PhD, joined the Douglas Institute and the McGill Group for Suicide Studies in 2007. He investigates the molecular neuroanatomy of major depression and suicide, with a particular focus on the lasting consequences of childhood adversity.
Different research themes are explored in his laboratory, namely:
- Neuroinflammation in depression and suicide;
- Neuroplasticity in the human brain;
- Astrocytic abnormalities in depression and suicide;
- The lasting impact of child abuse on cerebral oligodendrocytes and myelination.
Dr Mechawar’s research is currently (2024) funded by CIHR, ERA-NET Neuron (FRQ-S).
CIHR New Investigator (2012-17)
Bell Senior Fellow in Mental Health (2012-14)
Lab members:
- Maria Antonietta Davoli (research assistant)
- Reza Rahimian (postdoctoral fellow)
- Christa Hercher (PhD student)
- Kelly Perlman (PhD student)
- Refilwe Mpai (PhD student)
- Candice Canonne (PhD student)
- Sophie Simard (PhD student)
- Elisa Gonçalves de Andrade (PhD student)
- Rebecca Chen (MSc student),
- Clémentine Hosdey (MSc student),
- Dominique Lumley (MSc student),
- Andrew VanderBerg (BSc Honors student)
Alumni:
- Louise Toutée (BSc student)
- Emanuel Curto (BSc Honors student)
- Jamie Marshall (BSc student)
- Gina Abajian (BSc student)
- Lena Hug (BSc student)
- Dongyue (Anne) Xi (BSc student)
- Ally Huang (BSc student)
- Stefanie Netto (BSc student)
- Florence Mechawar (BSc student)
- Roy Khalaf (BSc student)
- Jasmine Kotsiopoulos (BSc student)
- Liam O’Leary (PhD student)
- Marina Wakid (PhD student)
- Claudia Belliveau (PhD student)
- Arnaud Tanti (postdoctoral fellow)
- George Perlman (research technician)
- Emily Clark (undergraduate research student)
- Ashley McFarquhar (undergraduate research student)
- Cynthia McMahan (undergraduate research student)
- Christopher Ma (undergraduate research student)
- Kimiya Adjedani (undergraduate research student)
- Katharine Birkness (undergraduate research student)
- Fanny Denux (undergraduate research student)
- Katie Vandeloo (undergraduate research student)
- John Kim (MSc student)
- Qiyuan Huang (visiting PhD student)
- Madelyn Barton (undergraduate research student)
- Marilyn Cyr (PhD student, co-supervised by M-A Bédard)
- Julia Devorak (MSc student)
- Haseeb Khan (undergraduate research student)
- Alexander Freibauer (undergraduate research student)
- Sandra Yogendran (undergraduate research student)
- Archchun Ariyarajah (undergraduate research student)
- Samuel Comeau (undergraduate research student)
- Diana Elwell (undergraduate research student)
- Erika Freemantle (PhD student, co-supervised by G. Turecki)
- Christa Hercher (MSc student, co-supervised by G. Turecki)
- Alexandra Hoehne (undergraduate research student)
- Masanobu Ito (postdoctoral fellow)
- Donald MacIsaac (undergraduate research student)
- Calvin Qiang (undergraduate research student)
- Adeline Rachalski (postdoctoral fellow)
- Stephanie Tan (undergraduate research student)
- Ian Mahar (PhD student)
- Marissa Maheu (PhD student)
- Susana Gabriela Torres-Platas (PhD student)
- Dominique Mirault (research technician)
Key publications
- Simard S, Rahimian R, Davoli MA, Théberge S, Matosin N, Turecki G, Nagy C, Mechawar N (2024) Spatial transcriptomic analysis of adult hippocampal neurogenesis in the human brain. J Psych Neurosci (in press).
- Rahimian R, Perlman K, Fakhfouri G, Mpai R, Richard VR, Hercher C, Penney L, Davoli MA, Nagy C, Zahedi RP, Borchers CH, Giros B, Turecki G, Mechawar N (2024) Proteomic evidence of depression-associated astrocytic dysfunction in the human male olfactory bulb. Brain Behav Immun (in press).
- Simard S, Matosin N, Mechawar N (2024) Adult hippocampal neurogenesis in the human brain: updates, challenges, and perspectives. The Neuroscientist 17:10738584241252581.
- Tanti A, Belliveau C, Nagy C, Maitra M, Denux F, Perlman K, Chen F, Mpai R, Canonne C, Théberge S, McFarquhar A, Davoli MA, Belzung C, Turecki G, Mechawar N (2022) Child abuse associates with increased recruitment of perineuronal nets in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex: a possible implication of oligodendrocyte progenitor cells. Mol Psychiatry 27:1552-1561.
- Perlman K, Chouinard-Watkins R, Tanti A, Cisbani G, Orri M, Turecki G, Bazinet RP, Mechawar N (2021) Fatty acid dysregulation in the anterior cingulate cortex of depressed suicides with a history of child abuse. Transl Psychiatry 11(1):535.
- O’Leary LA, Mechawar N (2021) Implication of cerebral astrocytes in major depression: A review of fine neuroanatomical evidence in humans. Glia 69:2077-99.
- Tanti A, Lutz P-E, Kim J, O’Leary L, Turecki G, Mechawar N (2019) Evidence of decreased gap junction between astrocytes and oligodendrocytes in the anterior cingulate cortex of depressed suicides. Neuropsychopharmacology 44:2099-2111.
- Tanti A, Kim JJ, Wakid M, Davoli MA, Turecki G, Mechawar N (2018) Child abuse associates with an imbalance of oligodendrocyte-lineage cells in ventromedial prefrontal white matter. Mol Psychiatry 23:2018-2028.
- Lutz PE, Tanti A, Gasecka A, Barnett-Burns S, Kim JJ, Zhou Y, Chen GG, Wakid M, Shaw M, Almeida D, Chay MA, Yang J, Larivière V, M’Boutchou MN, van Kempen LC, Yerko V, Prud’homme J, Davoli MA, Vaillancourt K, Théroux JF, Bramoullé A, Zhang TY, Meaney MJ, Ernst C, Côté D, Mechawar N*, Turecki G* (2017) Association of a History of Child Abuse With Impaired Myelination in the Anterior Cingulate Cortex: Convergent Epigenetic, Transcriptional, and Morphological Evidence. Am J Psychiatry 174:1185-1194.
- Mahar I, Labonte B, Yogendran S, Isingrini E, Perret L, Davoli MA, Rachalski A, Giros B, Turecki G, Mechawar N (2017) Disrupted hippocampal neuregulin-1/ErbB3 signaling and dentate gyrus granule cell alterations in suicide. Transl Psychiatry 7:e1161.
- Mechawar N, Savitz J (2016) Neuropathology of mood disorders: do we see the stigmata of inflammation? Transl Psychiatry 6:e946.
- Torres-Platas SG, Nagy C, Wakid M, Turecki G, Mechawar N (2016) Glial fibrillary acidic protein is differentially expressed across cortical and subcortical regions in healthy brains and downregulated in the thalamus and caudate nucleus of depressed suicides. Mol Psychiatry 21:509-515.
- Torres-Platas SG, Cruceanu C, Chen GG, Turecki G, Mechawar N (2014) Evidence for increased microglial priming and macrophage recruitment in the dorsal anterior cingulate white matter of depressed suicides. Brain Behav Immun 42:50-59.
- Maheu M, Davoli MA, Turecki G, Mechawar N (2013) Amygdalar expression of proteins associated with neuroplasticity in major depression and suicide. J Psych Res 47:384-390.
Recent Publications
2021
miR-323a regulates ERBB4 and is involved in depression Journal Article
In: Mol Psychiatry, vol. 26, no. 8, pp. 4191–4204, 2021, ISSN: 1476-5578.
Cocaine-related DNA methylation in caudate neurons alters 3D chromatin structure of the IRXA gene cluster Journal Article
In: Mol Psychiatry, vol. 26, no. 7, pp. 3134–3151, 2021, ISSN: 1476-5578.
Lesch-Nyhan disease causes impaired energy metabolism and reduced developmental potential in midbrain dopaminergic cells Journal Article
In: Stem Cell Reports, vol. 16, no. 7, pp. 1749–1762, 2021, ISSN: 2213-6711.
Extraction of nuclei from archived postmortem tissues for single-nucleus sequencing applications Journal Article
In: Nat Protoc, vol. 16, no. 6, pp. 2788–2801, 2021, ISSN: 1750-2799.
How stress physically re-shapes the brain: Impact on brain cell shapes, numbers and connections in psychiatric disorders Journal Article
In: Neurosci Biobehav Rev, vol. 124, pp. 193–215, 2021, ISSN: 1873-7528.
Non-CG methylation and multiple histone profiles associate child abuse with immune and small GTPase dysregulation Journal Article
In: Nat Commun, vol. 12, no. 1, pp. 1132, 2021, ISSN: 2041-1723.
In: Front Psychiatry, vol. 12, pp. 804269, 2021, ISSN: 1664-0640.
In: Front Hum Neurosci, vol. 15, pp. 669120, 2021, ISSN: 1662-5161.
Widespread Decrease of Cerebral Vimentin-Immunoreactive Astrocytes in Depressed Suicides Journal Article
In: Front Psychiatry, vol. 12, pp. 640963, 2021, ISSN: 1664-0640.
2020
Severe childhood and adulthood stress associates with neocortical layer-specific reductions of mature spines in psychiatric disorders Journal Article
In: Neurobiol Stress, vol. 13, pp. 100270, 2020, ISSN: 2352-2895.
In: Nat Neurosci, vol. 23, no. 6, pp. 771–781, 2020, ISSN: 1546-1726.
In: Mol Neurobiol, vol. 57, no. 6, pp. 2563–2571, 2020, ISSN: 1559-1182.
Stimulation of L-type calcium channels increases tyrosine hydroxylase and dopamine in ventral midbrain cells induced from somatic cells Journal Article
In: Stem Cells Transl Med, vol. 9, no. 6, pp. 697–712, 2020, ISSN: 2157-6580.
Developmental trajectory of oligodendrocyte progenitor cells in the human brain revealed by single cell RNA sequencing Journal Article
In: Glia, vol. 68, no. 6, pp. 1291–1303, 2020, ISSN: 1098-1136.
GPR56/ADGRG1 is associated with response to antidepressant treatment Journal Article
In: Nat Commun, vol. 11, no. 1, pp. 1635, 2020, ISSN: 2041-1723.
Molecular adaptations of the blood-brain barrier promote stress resilience vs. depression Journal Article
In: Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, vol. 117, no. 6, pp. 3326–3336, 2020, ISSN: 1091-6490.
Characterization of Vimentin-Immunoreactive Astrocytes in the Human Brain Journal Article
In: Front Neuroanat, vol. 14, pp. 31, 2020, ISSN: 1662-5129.
2019
The Consortium for the early identification of Alzheimer's disease-Quebec (CIMA-Q) Journal Article
In: Alzheimers Dement (Amst), vol. 11, pp. 787–796, 2019, ISSN: 2352-8729.
Evidence of decreased gap junction coupling between astrocytes and oligodendrocytes in the anterior cingulate cortex of depressed suicides Journal Article
In: Neuropsychopharmacology, vol. 44, no. 12, pp. 2099–2111, 2019, ISSN: 1740-634X.
In: JAMA Psychiatry, vol. 76, no. 8, pp. 854–861, 2019, ISSN: 2168-6238.