Anne Louise Wheeler

Anne L. Wheeler, PhD, is a Senior Scientist in the Neurosciences & Mental Health Program at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) and an Associate Professor in the Departments of Physiology at the University of Toronto. She leads the BRAiN Connectivity Hub (BRANCH Lab), where her research integrates advanced neuroimaging, animal models, and clinical studies to understand how brain development is altered by early-life experiences and injury.

Dr. Wheeler is an internationally recognized leader in paediatric neuroimaging and concussion research. She serves in leadership roles within several national research initiatives, including the Canadian Pediatric Imaging Platform, the Canadian Traumatic Brain Injury Consortium and the Canadian Concussion Network, and is committed to advancing collaborative, open science approaches that accelerate discoveries to improve child health.

Research

Dr. Wheeler's research focuses on the developing brain, with a particular emphasis on pediatric concussion, white matter development, and myelin plasticity. Her laboratory combines longitudinal MRI, functional brain mapping, cellular and molecular neuroscience, and translational clinical research to identify the biological mechanisms underlying recovery, resilience, and persistent symptoms following brain injury. Through national and international collaborations, her work aims to improve the diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment of children with neurological disorders.

Dr. Wheeler’s research program applies advanced neuroimaging methods to characterize brain connectivity and how changes in connectivity driven by traumatic injury, psychopathology, development, and genetics affect behaviour and cognition.

Education and experience

• 2004: B.Sc, Department of Biology, McGill, Montreal, QC
• 2011: PhD, Neuroscience, University of Toronto, ON
• 2012–2015: Postdoctoral fellow, Neuroimaging, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, ON

Achievements

• 2011: Frist-Jus Annual Memorial Award in Neuropsychopharmacology 

1. Nishat E, Scratch SE, Ameis SH, Wheeler AL. Disrupted Maturation of White Matter Microstructure After Concussion Is Associated With Internalizing Behavior Scores in Female Children. Biol Psychiatry. 2024 Jan 16;. doi: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2024.01.005. [Epub ahead of print] PubMed PMID: 38237797.
2. Gazdzinski LM, Mellerup M, Wang T, Adel SAA, Lerch JP, Sled JG, Nieman BJ, Wheeler AL. White Matter Changes Caused by Mild Traumatic Brain Injury in Mice Evaluated Using Neurite Orientation Dispersion and Density Imaging. J Neurotrauma. 2020 Aug 15;37(16):1818-1828. doi: 10.1089/neu.2020.6992. Epub 2020 Apr 29. PubMed PMID: 32242488.
3. Stojanovski S, Felsky D, Viviano JD, Shahab S, Bangali R, Burton CL, Devenyi GA, O'Donnell LJ, Szatmari P, Chakravarty MM, Ameis S, Schachar R, Voineskos AN, Wheeler AL. Polygenic Risk and Neural Substrates of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder Symptoms in Youths With a History of Mild Traumatic Brain Injury. Biol Psychiatry. 2019 Mar 1;85(5):408-416. doi: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2018.06.024. Epub 2018 Jul 12. PubMed PMID: 30119875; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC6330150.
4. Gazdzinski LM, Mak J, Lin XA, Lerch JP, Sled JG, Nieman BJ, Wheeler AL. Enrichment-induced forgetting is associated with white matter microstructure in mice. Behav Brain Res. 2026 Feb 4;497:115878. doi: 10.1016/j.bbr.2025.115878. Epub 2025 Oct 20. PubMed PMID: 41115575.
5. Gazdzinski LM, Mak J, Gumarathas K, Mellerup M, Collin A, Sled JG, Nieman BJ, Wheeler AL. Oligodendrogenesis Inhibition in the Juvenile and Adolescent Periods Differentially Alters Myelin in Mice. Dev Neurosci. 2025 Aug 8;:1-11. doi: 10.1159/000547880. [Epub ahead of print] PubMed PMID: 40784349.

View a full list of Anne Louise Wheeler's publications