Can a single brain cell decide whether to eat or not? 🧠🪰
Turns out... yes. And we found it in the fruit fly.
A pair of neurons called SELKs (subesophageal leucokinin neurons) can drive feeding behavior in both directions. They promote it or suppress it. Here's how: 🧵
The new Chuck Norris: Polanski can run a government without even being elected
If it's sometimes hard to tell the difference between fossil-fuel lobbyists and the billionaire press, that's because there isn’t one.
My column on the politicians, journalists and junktanks using the Iran crisis as an excuse to extract our remaining gas and oil.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Sounds terrifying
An image montage advertising NeuroBioUK - 11th of September 2026 in York. The image is York cathedral superimposed over a fluorescent cortex mouse section coloured to look a bit like a dawn sky.
Save the date for #NeuroBioUK26
Do you like neurons? Maybe glia? Molecules? Cell biology? - The venue is booked and we are excited to see you and your incredible science there on the 11th of September! Please do join our email list to stay up to date.
neurobiouk.sites.sheffield.ac.uk
Yeah I figured it's Riesling, but is it the 2023 reserve or not?
2023 Réserve ?
Zack on the phone on the train
EXCL:
Zack Polanski overheard speaking loudly on his phone on a train saying there's shit loads of new green party members.
And the Greens are going to win elections right across England and Wales in May.
Join.greenparty.org.uk
Fluorescent neurons on black background. We're hiring! PhD Student
🚨 We are #hiring a PhD Student to study cerebellum-like circuits in #Drosophila.
Please spread the word!
www.groschner-lab.org/join
#Neuroscience #PhD
🚨 Postdoc opportunity to study memory or nutrition in #Drosophila 🪰
I am looking for a candidate to support for a 3 year Addison Wheeler Fellowship application lnkd.in/e2rvNf5x
Interested? Please send a CV & cover letter with brief research outline by 20th February to vincent.croset@durham.ac.uk
Fully-funded PhD with me and @srikipedia.bsky.social to study serotonin functions with cutting-edge experimental-computational approaches in a #NeuroAI framework.
Based at @durhampsych.bsky.social & @newcastleuni.bsky.social
🔗 www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
⏰ Deadline: 27 Feb 2026
More info👇
I watched much of Ian Chapman's (Head of @ukri.org) appearance this morning at @ukparliament.parliament.uk Science, Innovation and Technology Committee..
A few points and new information that bioscientists may find interesting...
A 🧵
Congrats to all the grant recipients!
Extra happy for Burak and Dennis from my lab.
And in this context: we’re hiring—open postdoc positions in the lab. Feel free to reach out if you’re interested.
Interested in the neurobiological basis of social behaviour and its dysfunction? Join the Ferreira and @wolfhuette.bsky.social groups at Northumbria University for a fully funded PhD opportunity studying group behaviour in flies. Further details are available here: www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
We have two advertised fully-funded PhD positions to work on memory or disease models in Drosophila! Please check the SWBio DTP website for more information and reach out if you are interested:
www.swbio.ac.uk/molecular-me...
@senapati.bsky.social latest and greatest! Charly Treiber on board too. Over and out.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
I'm looking to recruit a post-doc to help push forward our growing interests in insect ecotoxicology.
Apply here by Nov 30th!
(thanks for reposting)
career5.successfactors.eu/sfcareer/job...
A gut-brain axis for aversive interoception drives innate and anticipatory emesis in Drosophila. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10....
Having personally sworn for years that insects don’t use GPCRs for odour detection, Suguru Takagi (@sugurutakagi.bsky.social) discovers that, in fact, they sometimes do …
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Excited to share our collaborative PhD project with Adam Dobson (Adam.Dobson@glasgow.ac.uk) on interorgan signalling in the ageing gut. Please contact Adam If you are a highly motivated student wanted to work on a super exciting Fly project.
You still have some time to apply!
don't miss this opportunity
👀
Highly recommended 👇🏻
Just a reminder...
New preprint, taking our lab into ecotoxicology, with a nifty combination of experimental evolution and CRISPR screening in cells, to help unravel the still-mysterious resistance of Drosophila sechellia to its favorite fruit: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
I'm looking for teaching materials to help encourage cellular biology students to drop AI illustration and instead sketch during lectures—as well as while conceptualizing the future of food—without fear of lacking hard art skills. Suggestions, anyone?
Towards more sustainable research: reducing the environmental impact when working with #Drosophila. Challiner, Saurya., Patel, Raff, Fostier, Prokop, A. (2025) @genetics-gsa.bsky.social, in press -- doi.org/10.1093/gene... - Always happy to discuss and hear your ideas and views!
👋🏻
#Drosophila @flybase.bsky.social requires emergency funding:
"As it stands, by the end of July, 2025, there will be no future updates to #FlyBase, and in the worst case scenario access to the website will also be lost". Please help if you can!
SUSTAINABILITY & #DROSOPHILA - If you keep flies & have tried to re-use containers but then given up on it, please could you let us know & tell us the reasons? We urgently need statements for a publication about sustainability in fly labs. Please, contact Andreas.Prokop@manchester.ac.uk
🧠🍄Have you used classic or non-classic #psychedelics?
We are running an anonymous online study on how these experiences relate to mental processes.
Share your experience (takes less than 15 min):👉 durhamuniversity.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...