Thomas Prevot, Ph.D.
Scientist, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health
Associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto
Associate Professor, Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, University of Toronto
Lead, Memory, Emotion, Drugs and Synapses Lab
Dr. Prévôt is a behavioral neuropharmacologist whose research focuses on the mechanisms linking stress, aging, and cognitive dysfunction across psychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders. His program investigates how GABAergic and somatostatinergic systems regulate mood and cognition, and how these systems can be targeted to develop new therapeutic strategies.
His work bridges basic neuroscience, preclinical pharmacology, translational psychiatry, drug development, and animal welfare refinement. In addition to leading the MEDS Lab, Dr. Prévôt has contributed to academic-industry translation through DAMONA Pharmaceuticals and is actively involved in national initiatives promoting responsible, transparent, and welfare-oriented animal research.
Our Research Focus
Dr. Prevot’s research focuses on the neurobiology of memory and emotion processes, and how these processes are affected by stress, aging, and their interactions, leading to psychiatric and neurodegenerative diseases. More specifically, the MEDS team focuses on the characterization of behavioral, cellular and molecular outcomes of preclinical models of depression and other stress- and age-related psychiatric disorders. With expertise in preclinical models, the team has developed a unique expertise in translational research, including the characterization of novel targets for therapeutic avenues and medication development for future clinical testing.
Dr. Prevot is actively involved in the translational research and medicine landscape at the University of Toronto, working across disciplines and being an advocate for bench-to-bedside discovery.
Inhibitory microcircuits in mood and cognition
We study how inhibitory signaling in the brain regulates emotional and cognitive processes, with a focus on GABAergic and somatostatin-positive interneuron systems. These circuits are particularly vulnerable to stress, aging, and psychiatric illness, and may represent key entry points for therapeutic intervention.
α5-GABAA receptors as therapeutic targets
A major focus of the MEDS Lab is the study of α5-containing GABAA receptors, which are involved in cognitive processing, dendritic inhibition, and cortical/hippocampal circuit function. Our work investigates whether positive allosteric modulation of these receptors can improve cognitive performance, reduce mood-related symptoms, and promote neurotrophic or disease-modifying effects.
Stress, aging, inflammation, and vulnerability
We use preclinical models to understand how stress, aging, inflammation, and biological risk factors alter brain circuits involved in resilience and vulnerability. Our goal is to identify mechanisms that explain why some individuals develop mood and cognitive symptoms while others remain resilient.
Translational behavioral pharmacology and drug development
The MEDS Lab develops and applies behavioral, molecular, and translational tools to evaluate novel therapeutic strategies. We work across disciplines, integrating behavioral neuroscience, molecular biology, computational modeling, EEG biomarkers, medicinal chemistry collaborations, and drug-development pipelines.
3D Handling Technique
We developed a standardized method to habituate mice to interact with human experimenters, and handlers. This approach demonstrated improved welfare for the animals, and removed the need for tail pick up.
Details can be found on JoVE, or on Protocols.io
Meet the team
Team Publication List
Yao HK., Guet-McCreight A., Mazza F., Moradi H., Prevot TD., Griffiths J., Tripathy S.J., Valiante T., Sibille E., and Hay E. Reduced inhibition in depression impairs stimulus processing in human cortical microcircuits, Cell Reports, 2022, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.celrep.2021.110232
Perez S.M., McCoy A.M., Prevot T.D., Mian M.Y., Carreno F.R., Frazer A., Cook J.M., Sibille E. and Lodge D.J., Hippocampal α5-GABAA receptors modulate dopamine neuron activity in the rat ventral tegmental area, 2022, Biol. Psychiatry Global Open Access; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bpsgos.2021.12.010
Grieco F., Bernstein B., et al., Measuring behavior in the home-cage: Study design, applications, challenges and perspectives, Frontiers, 2021, Front. Behav. Neurosci; https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2021.735387
Marcotte M, Bernardo A, Linga N, Guillou J-L, Sibille E and Prevot TD. Handling Techniques to Reduce Stress in Mice in 3 Days, JoVE, 202, DOI: 10.3791/62593
Codeluppi S.A., Chatterjee D., Prevot T.D., Misquitta K.A., Sibille E., Banasr M., Chronic Stress Alters Astrocyte Morphology in Mouse Prefrontal Cortex, Int J Neuropsychopharmacol 2021 Oct 23;24(10):842-853. doi: 10.1093/ijnp/pyab052.
Oh H., Prevot TD, Newton D., and Sibille E., From Serendipity to Rational Drug Design in Brain Disorders: In Silico, In Vitro and In Vivo approaches, Current Opinion in Pharmacol. 2021, DOI: 10.1016/j.coph.2021.07.012
Misquitta K.A., Miles A., Prevot T.D., Knoch J.K., Fee C., Newton D., Ellegood J., Lerch J.P., Sibille E., Nikolova Y., and Banasr M. Reduced anterior cingulate cortex volume induced by chronic stress correlates with increased behavioral emotionality and decreased synaptic puncta density, NeuroPharm, Epub 2021,; DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropharm.2021.108562
Fee C., Prevot TD., Misquitta KA., Banasr M. and Sibille E. Chronic stress exacerbates acute stress-induced neuronal activation in the anterior cingulate cortex and ventral hippocampus that correlates with behavioral deficits in mice. 2020. BioRXiV. DOI: 10.1101/2020.02.19.956672
Prevot TD., Sumitomo A., Tomoda T., Knutson DE., Li G., Mondal P., Banasr M. and Sibille E. Effect of chronic α5-PAM treatment on cognition and brain morphology in the aging mouse brain, 2020. BioRXiV. DOI: 10.1101/2020.02.28.964742
Prevot TD. and Sibille E. Altered GABA-Mediated Information Processing and Cognitive Dysfunctions in Depression and other Brain Disorders, Mol Psychiatry (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41380-020-0727-3
Abela AR., Browne CJ., Sargin D., Prevot TD., Lambe E., Lê, AD and Fletcher PJ. Median raphe serotonin neurons promote anxiety-like behavior via inputs to the dorsal hippocampus, Neuropsychopharm. 2020. DOI:10.1016/j.neuropharm.2020.107985
Prevot TD., Misquitta K, Fee C.J, Newton D, Chatterjee D, Nikolova Y, Sibille E and Banasr M. Residual avoidance: A new, consistent and repeatable readout of chronic stress-induced conflict anxiety reversible by antidepressant treatment. Neuropharmacology. 2019. DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropharm.2019.05.005
Prevot TD., Li G., Cook J.M. and Sibille E. Insight for the treatment of cognitive impairment across disorders, ACS Chemical Neuroscience 2019, DOI: 10.1021/acschemneuro.9b00148
Shukla R, Prevot TD, French L, Isserlin R, Rocco B.R, Banasr M, Bader G, Sibille E. The Relative Contributions of Cell-Dependent Cortical Microcircuit Aging to Cognition and Anxiety. Biological Psychiatry 2019, doi: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2018.09.019
Prevot TD, Guanguan Li, Aleksandra Vidojevic, Anja Santrac, Keith Misquitta, Corey J. Fee, Daniel E. Knutson, Alexander Arnold, Petra Scholze, Janet L. Fisher, Mounira Banasr, Jim Cook, Miroslav Savic and Etienne Sibille, Novel Benzodiazepine-Like Ligands with Various Anxiolytic, Antidepressant, or Pro-Cognitive Profiles, Molecular Neuropsychiatry 2018, DOI:10.1159/000496086
Nikolova YS, Misquitta KA, Rocco BR, Prevot TD, Knodt AR, Ellegood J, Voineskos AN, Lerch JP, Hariri AR, Sibille E, Banasr M.. Shifting Priorities: Highly conserved behavioral and brain network adaptations to chronic stress across species. Transl Psychiatry. 2018 Jan 22;8(1):26. doi: 10.1038/s41398-017-0083-5. PMID: 29353879
And more on Google Scholar.
Team News Feed
ALUMNI
Nathaniel LINGA (2020-2021) - 4th Year Undergrad
Kayla WONG (2021-2022) - Coop Student (4th Yr Undergrad)
Aimen ABBAS (2021-2022) - 4th Yr Undergrad
Ashley BERNARDO (2020-2023) - Postdoctoral Fellow
Celeste PINA-LEBLANC (2022-2023) - Coop Student
Rachel CHU (2023) - Coop Student
Adrien BOUCHET (2023) - International Summer Student
Srija DAS (2024) - Summer Student
Ravinder Naik DHARAVATH (2022-2025) - Postdoctoral Fellow
Jonathan HUA (2024-2025) - Coop Student
James CHIELLA (2024-2025) - 4th Yr Undergrad and Summer Student
Tiffany HUI (2025) - Summer Student
Rayan RASHID (2025) - Summer Student
Agbonlahor OKHUAROBO (2024-2025) - Postdoctoral Fellow
Kexin "Coco" Guo (2025-2026) - Summer Student and Placement Student
Cassandra Marceau-Linhares (2023-2026)- Research Analyst