Stay Current
Publications, milestones, awards, and updates from the Deppmann Lab.
Godschall, Gungul, Sajonia et al. published in Nature, identifying a central amygdala circuit through which next-generation GLP-1 weight-loss drugs suppress hedonic feeding, separate from the pathway that controls hunger. Co-led by the Deppmann and Guler labs at UVA.
Read in Nature →Sewell et al. published a single-cell signaling atlas of the spinal cord in eLife, measuring 19 signaling markers across 680,466 cells. Receptor levels set the potential for a BDNF response, but cell identity decides it — two microglial states carrying similar receptors read the same signal completely differently.
Explore the atlas →Katya Stepanova defended her PhD in Quantitative Neuroscience and Jiachen Shi his PhD in Biology. Katya's work uncovered how Schwann cells drive axon degeneration after nerve injury; Jiachen's mapped the cell death programs that shape the brain from development through degeneration, using single-cell and imaging mass cytometry. Katya has joined Amita Sehgal's lab at the University of Pennsylvania, and Jiachen has joined John Liu's lab at UCSF.
View alumni network →The lab published a single-cell mass cytometry atlas of the developing mouse brain, mapping cell diversity across many protein markers at once.
View publication →Shi et al. published a study showing how extrinsic apoptosis and necroptosis shape telencephalic development.
View publication →Sarah Hunter-Chang defended her PhD dissertation in Neuroscience and went on to launch a biotech startup.
View alumni network →Kumar, Kahle, Keeler, Zunder, and Deppmann published new methods for characterizing microglial signaling dynamics during inflammation using single-cell mass cytometry.
View publication →Godschall et al. posted a preprint showing how next-generation weight-loss drugs (GLP-1/GIP receptor agonists) change feeding behavior at the circuit level. The finished study appeared in Nature in 2026.
View publication →The lab received a new R01 grant (co-PI with Bruce Carter at Vanderbilt) totaling $2.6M for 2024–2029, investigating how long-distance regressive signaling sculpts the nervous system during development.
Mehrael Atkins, Cheng Yang, and Jingxuan Guo joined the Deppmann Lab as PhD students, taking on projects in Rett syndrome, p75NTR signaling, and peripheral nerve degeneration.
Meet the team →Amy Van Deusen defended her PhD dissertation in Neuroscience after eight years in the lab studying neural circuit development.
View alumni network →Deppmann Lab members presented posters and talks at the annual Society for Neuroscience meeting on axon degeneration, brain metabolism, and sensory neuroscience.
On the Air
Podcast appearances and media features by Chris Deppmann.
Chris Deppmann featured on the Nature Podcast, in conversation about the mechanism by which acute stress drives loss of melanocyte stem cells — and how that explains why hair turns grey.
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