Headshot of Sheena Josselyn.

Sheena Josselyn

Senior scientist, Hospital for Sick Children;
Contributing editor, The Transmitter

Sheena Josselyn is senior scientist at the Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) and professor of psychology and physiology at the University of Toronto in Canada. She holds a Canada research chair in brain mechanisms underlying memory, and she is a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and of the U.S. National Academy of Medicine.

Josselyn is interested in understanding how the brain encodes, stores and uses information. Her primary model organism is mice. Because several conditions (ranging from autism to Alzheimer’s disease) may stem from disrupted information processing, this basic knowledge in mice is critical not only for understanding typical human brain function, but for developing new treatment strategies for these conditions.

She received her undergraduate degrees in psychology and life sciences and an M.Sc. in clinical psychology from Queen’s University in Kingston, Canada. She received a Ph.D. in neuroscience/psychology from the University of Toronto, with Franco Vaccarino as her supervisor. She conducted postdoctoral work with Mike Davis of Yale University and Alcino Silva of the University of California, Los Angeles.

Josselyn has received numerous awards, including the Innovations in Psychopharmacology Award from the Canadian College of Neuropsychopharmacology, the Effron Award from the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, the Andrew Carnegie Prize in Mind and Brain Sciences, and the Betty & David Koetser Award for Brain Research.

Explore more from The Transmitter

New dopamine sensor powers three-color imaging in live animals

The tool leverages a previously unused segment of the color spectrum to track the neurotransmitter and can be used with two additional sensors to monitor other neurochemicals at different wavelengths.

By Diana Kwon
25 July 2025 | 5 min listen

Cell ‘antennae’ link autism, congenital heart disease

Variants in genes tied to both conditions derail the formation of cilia, the tiny hair-like structure found on almost every cell in the body, a new study finds.

By Lauren Schenkman
24 July 2025 | 4 min listen
Illustration of people collaborating in different locations.

How to build a truly global computational neuroscience community

Computational sciences offer an opportunity to increase global access to, and participation in, neuroscience. Neuromatch’s inclusive, scalable model for community building shows how to realize this promise.

By Megan Peters, Bradley Roberts
23 July 2025 | 9 min listen