Spatial, temporal and Notch determination of terminal selector expression controls neuronal cell fate in the Drosophila optic lobe - Nature Neuroscience The authors characterized the spatial origin of Drosophila medulla neurons, completing their previous characterization of the temporal and Notch origins of these neurons and allowing them to correlate...

Félix Simon's paper is out in its final form 😍
When we got into (extreme) detail in the temporal and spatial patterning of neuroblasts, Félix asked a simple question "sure, but how does this translate into neuronal cell fate?". www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Monoclonal antibody inhibition of PAR2 reduces phenotype... : PAIN Reports mising therapeutic target for visceral pain management in IBD. Objectives: We set out to determine signaling mechanisms deployed by PAR2 in the lumbar splanchnic nerve and whether inhibiting PAR2 with the mouse monoclonal antibody (mAb), PAR650097 (mPAR650097) provided therapeutic benefit in dextran sulfate sodium (DSS)-induced colitis. Methods: We first used ex vivo electrophysiological recordings of mouse lumbar splanchnic nerve to determine how stimulation of PAR2 alters afferent activity and the intracellular signaling mechanisms involved. Second, we used the DSS model of colitis in mice and determined how mPAR650097 altered disease activity, behavior, colon histology, and the activity of nociceptive circuitry. Results: Protease-activated receptor 2 stimulation in the colon activated visceral afferent fibers and sensitized them to mechanical and chemical stimuli. We found that endosomal internalization and protein kinase A/C signaling mediate both activating and sensitizing effects of PAR2 in visceral pain. We further show that inhibiting PAR2 with the mAb mPAR650097 reduces DSS-induced colitis severity and pain. mPAR650097 also reduced several colitis-induced pain correlates at key points along the pain-signaling axis, including peripheral nociceptive neuron signaling and sensitivity, expression of proinflammatory mediators, spinal cord signaling, and, fundamentally, behavior. Conclusion: These findings illustrate that mAb inhibition of PAR2 represents a promising approach to provide relief from abdominal pain in those living with IBD....

Excited to have this #PainResearch paper out from our @phar.cam.ac.uk lab:

"Monoclonal antibody inhibition of PAR2 reduces phenotype severity and pain in murine inflammatory bowel disease"

journals.lww.com/painrpts/ful...

GLP-1 and the Neurobiology of Eating Control: Recent Advances Abstract. Obesity is now considered a chronic relapsing progressive disease, associated with increased all-cause mortality that scales with body weight, af

Really proud to start the year by sharing our new review in @endosocjournals.bsky.social on the roles of GLP-1 in eating and obesity treatment, led by superstar postdoc @laurenjonesucl.bsky.social!

academic.oup.com/endo/article...

🧪🧠📈 #neuroscience #neuroskyence #GLP-1 #obesity #wegovy #ozempic

The critical role of gut–brain signalling in eating behaviour and obesity - Nature Reviews Gastroenterology & Hepatology This Review outlines the role of gut–brain signalling in eating behaviour and obesity, highlighting gut-derived signals and cues relevant during eating phases. Underlying mechanisms of this gut–brain ...

Really pleased to share our review of evidence for the diverse roles of the #vagus in each phase of eating behaviour, and our thoughts on how dysfunctional vagal #interoception drives obesity pathogenesis.

Hope it provokes some thoughts, and many experiments!

🧠📈 🧪

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

The terrible Turkish effects in Europe? Did you say that because I'm talking to myself here? Okay, it sounds a bit mad to use it like a diary, but still, what a terrible side of me you've seen. How rude, aşk olsun :(

Direct microglia replacement reveals pathologic and therapeutic contributions of brain macrophages to a monogenic neurological disease Hematopoietic stem cell transplant is the gold standard for treatment of globoid cell leukodystrophy, also called Krabbe disease. Aisenberg et al. define the molecular signature of disease-associated macrophages (globoid cells) and demonstrate that brain-specific high-efficiency macrophage replacement in the twitcher model of Krabbe disease improves neuropathology, macrophage dysfunction, and survival.

Online now: Direct microglia replacement reveals pathologic and therapeutic contributions of brain macrophages to a monogenic neurological disease

Somatic mutations in microglia brain cells (the same mutations as seen in cancer) are enriched in and may drive the neuroinflammation of Alzheimer's disease
@cellcellpress.bsky.social

cell.com/cell/fulltex...

The Unfolding World: Causal & physical cognition in humans and other animals - CRASSH Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities

There are still three more days to register for what will undoubtably be a fantastic workshop at the University of Cambridge organised by Marta Halina and Mariel Goddu www.crassh.cam.ac.uk/events/49983/

This has been a long time coming - but our M1 Development/M1-RN paper is finally out in its final form!

Rather than re-hash the original story, I'm going to talk about one of the biggest reviewer-suggested additions, as well as some unpublished data!

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

The Last Woman Who Knew Everything: The Omnivorous Mind of Clémence Royer. When Clémence Royer died on February 7, 1902, she took with her into oblivion perhaps the last human brain that believed in and aimed for Complete Knowledge. She had devoted her life to the propositio...

French polymath Clémence Royer was born 196 years ago today. Now she is most known for her 1862 translation of On the Origin of Species which pushed Darwin's ideas into the realm of human evolution, but in her day she was celebrated for her encyclopedic knowledge.

tinyurl.com/5cbam92f

#WomenInStEM

Brain clocks capture diversity and disparities in aging and dementia across geographically diverse populations - Nature Medicine Analyses of neuroimaging datasets from 5,306 participants across 15 countries found generally larger brain-age gaps in Latin American compared with non-Latin American populations, which were influence...

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Microglia-glioblastoma crosstalk mediates glioblastoma invasion at the far infiltration zone.
Felix Nebeling et al.
@cp-immunity.bsky.social (2026).
DOI: doi.org/10.1016/j.im...

Recent developments in Friedreich’s ataxia: a state-of-the-art review Chapman et al. review current advances in understanding Friedreich’s Ataxia and emerging therapies. They discuss the complex cellular and metabolic phenoty

Recent developments in Friedreich’s ataxia: a state-of-the-art review 🔓 academic.oup.com/braincomms/a...

How to tell complex stories in an engaging way: Leonid A. Klimov takes up Nature Marsilius Visiting Professorship for Science Communication at Heidelberg University www.uni-heidelberg.de/en/newsroom/...

ICYMI: Latest @soeptech.bsky.social episode features an interview with Dr Robert Prey @oii.ox.ac.uk talking about how AI is reshaping the music world and sharing findings from his new report ’Musicians at Work in the Platform and AI Era’. Download the report: bit.ly/42lKVOM

📣 So happy to share with you the results of my main PhD study, where two human predators worked together to hunt a human prey in Minecraft, and had their brains scanned simultaneously using fNIRS 🎮🧠

We find that the brains of the predators are synchronised in the prefrontal cortex during hunting! 💡

Was sind diese ominösen Queer Studies eigentlich?
Das habe ich mich auch wiederholt gefragt - also vor allem 2016 in meinem Bachelor.

Wir schauen uns das mal fix an!

Disclaimer hierzu: Es ist ein interdisziplinäres Ding, man kann es aber auch direkt studieren. Oder einfach so machen, wie ich.

Paper alert !
Escartin’s team show that #STAT3 and #NF-kB pathways shape cortical astrocyte heterogeneity in WT and #Alzheimer’s mice. These cascades define astrocyte subpopulations with specific morphology, transcriptional signature, functional features, and impact on disease.
@bosremi.bsky.social

Astrocyte cell volume dynamics across cortical states and transitions Deng et al. used in vivo two-photon imaging to characterize sleep-wake-dependent changes in astrocyte volume. Using chemogenetic and optogenetic activation of locus coeruleus tyrosine hydroxylase-posi...

❗❗NEWS︱Neuron
👏👏Prof. Fengfei Ding’s Team Uncovers the Mechanisms of Cortical Astrocyte Volume Regulation During Sleep-Wake State Transitions.
BrainVTA website: www.brainvta.tech
MORE
www.cell.com/neuron/abstr...

Power without accountability: The Palantir manifesto The problems with our tech philosopher kings

New, from me: Take the Palantir manifesto seriously, if not literally.
It reveals that our tech philosopher kings want public money, but without public accountability. This creates a dilemma for governments unaligned with its techno-fascist vision. 🧵
donmoynihan.substack.com/p/palantir-w...

Jennifer Doudna in lab Source: © Nick Otto For The Washington Post via Getty Images

Chemistry Nobel Laureates Jennifer Doudna, David MacMillan, and Omar Yaghi on failure, success, and how "good chemistry" leads to good science! Read here: https://ow.ly/yQA250YN8N0

Hypergravity exposure leads to persistent effects on geotaxis and activity in Drosophila melanogaster Gravity, a constant force throughout evolution, has fundamentally shaped biology, playing a critical role in locomotion, balance, and orientation across species —from unicellular organisms to complex ...

Gravity is an omnipresent force. But what happens in cases of hypergravity? Scientists of the Giraldo lab tested how hypergravity affects locomotion and energy homeostasis in flies. journals.biologists.com/jeb/article/... @jexpbiol.bsky.social

New pre-print alert! How do children learn magnitude words like "long" and "high", which often denote multiple domains? With @urvi.bsky.social and @drbarner.bsky.social, we find that children start with narrow meanings restricted to the labeled domain, before analogically extending

osf.io/ucxra_v1

Neuraminidase A controls pneumococcal recognition and fate: deficiency enhances immune sensing and intracellular survival, while treatment promotes phagocytic clearance. Abstract. Streptococcus pneumoniae (pneumococcus) is a leading cause of bacterial meningitis worldwide and is associated with cerebrovascular complications

How Streptococcus pneumoniae interacts with innate immunity matters. New open‑access research shows neuraminidase A (NanA) shapes immune sensing and phagocytic clearance in microglia and macrophages, with implications for pneumococcal meningitis.

vist.ly/4y22j

Summary of main findings. Left: Main contributions of the somatosensory inputs to the generation of motor activity in M1. Cortical state generation is independent from somatosensory inputs. Right: Schematic Vm modulations of an M1 neuron in an intact mouse (IT Vm) and in a nerve cut mouse (NC Vm) during a Quiet to Movement transition. The removal of forelimb inputs did not impact the occurrence of quiet/active periods in the membrane potential, but (1, vertical line) reduced pre-movement input; (2, gray box) reduced Vm correlations with ongoing forelimb movement; and (3, horizontal line) disrupted the reach reversal potential.

How does somatosensory input to the #MotorCortex contribute to limb movement? This study shows that loss of #somatosensory inputs disrupts voluntary forelimb movements & motor cortex neuronal dynamics, highlighting the role of somatosensory input in motor control @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/3QcbXph

When searching the web, Gen AI chatbot prefers:

Reddit over PubMed.
Commercial sites over academic sites.

But it does NOT tell you that.

Chatbot web searches are silently homogenizing the results you get, particularly those to your first prompts.

📢 BIG ANNOUNCEMENT! 🥁...

Research Modernization NOW, our #SciencePolicy roadmap, has become a living online resource!

📚 Dive into a resource packed with everything you need to know about animal experimentation and why we must transition to human-relevant, non-animal methods.

🧵

Our new meta-analysis is out!
Can exercise increase hippocampal volume in depression?

Animal: Yes — exercise shows positive effects, especially in the CA4/dentate gyrus.
Humans: Not yet — effects are very small and non-significant.

We need longer, more intensive, and better-controlled trials.

Super happy to see our last meta-analysis out !! Kudos to Miriam and the whole team !!

What if exercise doesn’t just improve symptoms but also the underlying biology in schizophrenia?
Our study suggests:
• Modulation of kynurenine metabolism
• Psychosocial benefits from high-intensity training
• Picolinic acid as a potential marker
Curious to see how this develops in larger trials!