Expansion microscopy image of perineuronal nets (unpublished).
1/ 97% of cortical PNNs are on PV interneurons. But PNN-positive and PNN-negative PV cells don't split into two groups — they sit at different ends of a transcriptional continuum of fast-spiking specialization. New preprint 🧵
Excited to share our new study on how the brain generates placebo pain relief!
We developed a mouse model that recapitulates key features of human placebo analgesia, then used it to identify causal circuitry.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
today.ucsd.edu/story/neurob...
1/n
Form follows function, or function dictates form?
📢Preprint: we build Perturb-CLEAR, in vivo screen of neuroanatomy! Disease perturbations produce selective morphology-RNA changes that RNA impact alone cannot predict. Was led by the invincible grad student Boli Wu!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
For decades, molecular biology and human genetics have been built around measurements of average gene expression. That was partly conceptual, but also technological: for a long time, the mean was the quantity we could measure most reliably. Our new preprint argues that this framework is incomplete.
💯@newyorker.com @paulnoth.bsky.social
@ravenwallace.bsky.social
@themindwanders.bsky.social
This study provides elegant evidence that motor learning is associated with the re-instatement of large-scale neural manifold structures. However, interpreting these manifolds as the retrieval of a stored motor plan may not be necessary.
A latent space thermodynamic model of cell differentiation www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03...
New paper from the lab led by @ericmulhall.bsky.social addresses how PIEZO1 and PIEZO2 are tuned to different types mechanical forces. From nanometer-scale super-resolution microscopy to in vivo experiments, links single-molecule observations to physiological function.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
An array of 9 purple discs on a blue background. Figure from Hinnerk Schulz-Hildebrandt.
A nice shift in perceived colour between central and peripheral vision. The fixated disc looks purple while the others look blue.
The effect presumably comes from the absence of S-cones in the fovea.
From Hinnerk Schulz-Hildebrandt:
arxiv.org/pdf/2509.115...
Dark blue hexagon, with a light blue frame. Features a brain facing the left, with the front half as a wire-frame mesh of light blue, and the back half with several polygon segments of different colours. Below is written "ggseg" in light blue.
The ggseg ecosystem finally has a proper home! 🧠
For those who don't know, ggseg is an R package ecosystem for visualizing brain atlas data. Think ggplot2, but for brains.
#rstats #neuroimaging #openscience
1/ Our new study, led by Jingwen Ding, examines the role of transcription factors during human neurogenesis to identify gene regulatory networks influencing cell fate, maturation, and subtype specification
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
A chicken broccoli taco for 3 dlls? that one other thing better be salsa.
I don’t worry about AI taking my job. I worry about AI destroying the very thing that makes my job make sense.
A read only for the DRG nerd: "Spatial organization, chromatin accessibility and gene-regulatory programs defining mouse sensory neurons". www.nature.com/articles/s42...
Not all pain is created equal: stepping on a nail feels different from a stomachache. We know there are many nociceptor types, but a key question remains: how is mechanical pain encoded across the body by those sensory neurons? Our new work helps answer this. 1/8
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
#Mastodon, the Command Center for Large-Scale Lineage-Tracing Microscopy Datasets, is finally heading for publication (well, let's see). To #cite or not to cite shall no longer be the question 🙃, because the #preprint. Software is available in every #Fiji near you.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Happy to see this out w/ @epsteinstatgen.bsky.social and @davecutler.bsky.social (paper: doi.org/10.1093/bioi...)! We tackled the problem of identifying dysregulated pathways (i.e. differentially co-expressed) in gene expression studies. We show that differential co-expression arises ...
Also, here’s an accessible video intro:
Enteric neurons join the pain conversation! New paper shows that cholinergic circuits in the colon signals through DRG pathways, especially after inflammation. www.cell.com/neuron/fullt...
The BIG DRG paper is now up on @biorxiv-neursci.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... so many people worked so hard to make this happen. Props to the whole PRECISION Human Pain Network.
Circuit-specific gene editing for precision modulation of neuronal activity with CRISPR-rabies virus www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11....
Our latest "Dynamic Landscape Analysis of Cell Fate Decisions: Predictive Models of Neural Development From Single-Cell Data"
A rigorous mathematical foundation for Waddington's landscape to study cell fate decision making
Applied to ventral neural tube development
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Thrilled to share my main postdoc work with @jamesbriscoe.bsky.social
We used genomic barcoding + scRNAseq in chick & human embryos to reveal a lineage architecture that reshapes how we understand neural tube development & cell fate decisions
🧵👇
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Labelled axons of calb1+ spinal projection neurons innervate multiple brain targets associated with cold sensation and thermoregulation. Darkfield images of different brain areas including the postal parabrachial and periaqueductal grey are shown with axons of ascending cells in yellow.
New preprint from the spinal cord group at Glasgow. Anatomical and functional characterisation of spinal circuits for cold, from sensory neurons to the brain…..www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10....
Dynamic and non-uniform expression of key transcription factors provides novel insights into the emergence of neural crest cells at the neural plate border www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10....
Ultrasensitive proteomics uncovers nociceptor diversity and novel pain targets www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09....
🤯
Now out in @nature.com: Our study discovering a neural circuit in Drosophila that predictively inhibits proprioceptor axons during voluntary leg movements, such as walking and grooming. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
