"Taken together, our rigorous quantification of sleep in phototransduction genetic mutants reveals the key role of visual input in promoting sleep." @kofanchen.biologists.social.ap.brid.gy
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Congratulations to Natalia Dominik on receiving a Guarantors of Brain non-clinical postdoctoral fellowship for 3 years from October 2026.
Was delighted to host Tzu-Ting (Tammy) Huang to give a talk and chat to everyone in the @jepsonlabucl.bsky.social at @ucl.ac.uk Institute of Neurology, she gave a fantastic talk for the UCL fly community & was great to reconnect after meeting at CSHL Drosophila Neurobiology programme in 2023! 🪰
Fly studies were again led by the amazing Dr. Natalia Dominik (check out her recent JCI paper too!), with help from Dr. Simon Lowe in the lab. 🪰 Thanks once more to @ukri.org (MRC) for funding this fly work!
This work was led by my fantastic colleague Prof. Andrea Cortese @uclqsion.bsky.social, alongside ourselves and Emmanuele Crespan's group at the Institute of Molecular Genetics IGM-CNR.
One more pre-print!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
This is an amazing collaboration investigating the mechanisms underlying an intriguing and mysterious neurodegenerative disorder: cerebellar ataxia and sensory neuropathy caused by AAGGG repeat expansions in the RFC1 locus.
This work was led by Dr. Natalia Dominik (who also led the Drosophila studies 🪰) and Dr. Stephanie Efthymiou, in collaboration with the Houlden, Lamarche-Vane, and Reilly groups @uclqsion.bsky.social and at McGill University, and leading clinicians throughout the world. Happy to see this published!
Also, quick additional post to highlight this fantastic work on novel genetic mutations in the ARHGAP19 gene that cause Charcot-Marie-Tooth (CMT) Disease, now published in @jci.org .
www.jci.org/articles/vie...
We are also very grateful to @ukri.org (MRC and BBSRC) for funding this research! 🙏
We hope that researchers, members of the public, and policymakers, interested in 1. how environmental contanimants may influence neurological disease, and 2. the interaction between memory and sleep, find these works of interest.
We suggest that this is consistent with a well-known postulated function of sleep: the synaptic homeostasis hypothesis. Overall, our data reveal an additional mode of memory - in addition to episodic, procedural, and aversive memory - that can be influenced by sleep.
Simon's work extends the range of sensory modalities in which habituation can be investigated. As importantly, we also found an unexpected role of night time sleep in modulating habituation. In essence, the less night sleep flies have, the slower they habituate to mechanical stimuli 🤔.
In pre-print no. 2, Simon has devised a novel protocol to measure habituation to mechanosensory stimuli in Drosophila.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Habituation is an ancient form of non-associative memory that has been widely studied in flies, but primarily to visual and olfactory stimuli.
MNPs are increasingly bioaccumulating in human tissues, particularly the brain. Simon's work suggests a concerning possibility: that humans harbouring mutations causing neurological diseases associated with mitochondrial dysfunction (such as PD) may be particularly vulnerable to rising MNP levels .
Simon's work provides proof-of-principle using a Drosophila model that ingestion of micro/nano-plastics (MNPs) - ubiquitous contaminants that disrupt mitochondrial function and cause oxidative stress - can enhance the pathogenic effects of genetic mutations causing Parkinson's Disease (PD).
This project was entirely devised and undertaken by Simon as a 'side project', which he introduced to us in almost complete form during a very memorable lab meeting 😲.
Pre-print alert! Very happy to highlight two fantastic pre-prints on bioRxiv led by stellar post-doc Simon Lowe @satlowe.bsky.social in the lab.
Pre-print no. 1 is a paper I am particularly proud of:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
My lab studies bacterial infections. We spend a lot of time looking at (or for) species-specific genetic and genomic databases for hosts and microbes. FlyBase is the best of all—there is literally no comparison. Its existence is under threat. Please donate.
www.philanthropy.cam.ac.uk/give-to-camb...
The Inaugural UCL Dystonia Day Symposium was held this week! An amazing line up of speakers, posters and panel discussion. It was fantastic (and important) to be joined by @dystoniauk.bsky.social. A big shout out to @jepsonlabucl.bsky.social for organising. We hope to make this a regular occurrence!
Today is the last chance to register for this exciting Symposium on dystonia mechanisms at UCL! Get your tickets via the link below 👍.
www.ucl.ac.uk/ion/events/2...
🎉We are delighted to congratulate the winner of the 2025 BNA Credibility in Neuroscience Prize: Rob Wykes, @uniofmanchester.bsky.social @epilepsyinst.bsky.social
www.bna.org.uk/mediacentre/...
Deadline for the UCL Dystonia Day Symposium is coming up this week! May 1st, 4pm! If you would like to join us to hear about cutting-edge research into dystonia patho-mechanisms, please visit the link below:
www.ucl.ac.uk/ion/events/2...
Very excited by the spectacular range of talks and posters we have planned for the UCL Dystonia Day Symposium on May 14th! Anyone in the neighbourhood who is interested in dystonia, please join us by registering through the link below:
www.ucl.ac.uk/ion/events/2...
Worth following @fly-broadcast.bsky.social for new fly papers on PubMed. They deserve a lot more than 50 followers!
@bdsc.bsky.social @flybase.bsky.social @fly-eds.bsky.social @dgrc.bsky.social
Last few days to apply!
Post-doctoral position 3 years Wellcome funded in UK
To investigate how experience shapes the brain
Drosophila neurogenetics, imaging, behaviour
Deadline 19/3/25
Pls RP.
#drosophila
#postdoc
#jobs
Apply here
edzz.fa.em3.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid...
Multiple group leader positions in developmental biology in @ibdm.bsky.social Marseille, at an institute that produces some great work.
We are particularly interested in showcasing the work of early career researchers performing fundamental investigations into dystonia mechanisms and treatments. Check out the website above to register, and please send potential talk/poster abstracts to the organiser (😉).
Just under two weeks to submit talk/poster abstracts for the inaugural UCL Dystonia Day Symposium!
www.ucl.ac.uk/ion/events/2....
Watch out for Abi's work soon, with more exciting investigations of #dystonia to come from her recent @wellcometrust.bsky.social Early Career Fellowship.
