Fantastic talk from @christineliu.art as part of the UAB Neuroscience Seminar series - really intriguing to see rigorous quantification of the behavioral effects of psychedelics across several institutions, and mechanistic circuit dissections with cutting edge tools!
Really thrilled to share my lab's latest work where we characterize the role of the CeA in integrating exogenous GLP-1 signals.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Delighted to share our latest research from the 23andMe Research Team, just published in @nature.com !
We looked at data from >27,000 participants to uncover how human genetics influences weight loss efficacy and side effects of GLP-1 medications like semaglutide. A short thread 🧵👇
A short episode of social interaction reduces reinstatement of cocaine seeking after abstinence
This effect depends on a competition between functionally specialized dopaminergic ensembles within the VTA
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
This Saturday, meet the UAB CNC team at Hoover Library at 11AM for Brain Chats in collaboration with the @uabcappi.bsky.social!
UAB CAPPI Director, Dr. Karen Cropsey will present “Trying the Tide on Overdose: Science, Solutions, and Hope”.
Bring a friend and join the discussion! 🧠
Special thanks to CNC Associate Director @visscherlab.bsky.social and CNC Program Director Audrey Coachman! It takes incredible efforts by many people to pull off fun hands-on demos, train volunteers, and structure programming in the most effective ways, but these leaders make it happen.
Very cool to see the UAB Comprehensive Neuroscience Center leading the charge in communicating neuroscience to our local communities in a variety of formats. Last week we reached over 3,000 people as part of #BrainAwarenessWeek activities with the McWane Science Center (@mcwanescience.bsky.social).
The color indices reflect a distinct subclass ID according to the Allen Brain Atlas reference taxonomy. Thanks to the amazing team at @u-bds.bsky.social, which provided all of the analyses to generate these images.
For #FluorescenceFriday, some of my favorite sections from a new 10X Xenium run at different locations in the anterior/posterior axis of the mouse brain (credit to Olivia Drake, an MD/PhD student in the lab). Each dot marks the location of a specific type of deep layer excitatory neuron.
The poster looks amazing Lindsay!
Ugh, as the PI on a new 5th percentile proposal this has me worried! Would love to continue work on this project.
Our NIAAA funded Post-DoctT32 has received its NoA (non competing renewal). Are you looking for a post-doc and interested in joining our amazing center? If so, reach out! Here is a convenient form that you can use to upload CV and a cover letter!
unc.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...
🚨The Sweis Lab for Translational Neuroeconomics at Mount Sinai is searching for a postdoctoral research fellow! If you or someone you know is searching for a position, please share!
📄 📌Link to job flyer here:
tinyurl.com/3vapfpn5
🧠 🐁 🔬🏙️🌆🧪🧬💊🧫💡🏥
@sinaibrain.bsky.social @mountsinai.bsky.social
Major thanks to @sfn.org for organizing this - they really made it easy and coordinated all of the meetings with representatives. If you have not participated in Hill Day activities in the past, I'd recommend it.
I am not sure the staff were willing to offer any commitments since we had just sent the "ask" over email a few days prior, but everyone we met with was engaged, curious, and stated support for strong federal funding of science. All were aware of what this means to the state.
Great conversations with representatives for Senator Britt, Senator Tuberville, Rep. Palmer, and Rep. Sewell as part of @sfn.org's Hill Day activities. We discussed the need for stable and timely federal support for biomedical research and shared what this support means for Alabama. #hillday
Did not have snow flurries on my calendar for today! Springtime weather in Birmingham is always a fun surprise.
Snooping through the lab network drive for #FluorescenceFriday images and came across this stunning image from UAB master's student Caroline Fiore. 🟡 is mu opioid receptor protein in the rat brain in a coronal section that includes the nucleus accumbens and dorsal striatum.
New work involving CNC member Dr. Peter Hendricks shows that psilocybin therapy is more likely to result in long-term smoking cessation as compared to a nicotine patch.
jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...
"GRNs, which should provide mechanistic explanations, are increasingly reduced to statistical correlations — ‘hairballs’ that fail to capture molecular causation"
By Maizels and @jamesbriscoe.bsky.social
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Check out our latest research drop! We show BLA dopamine signaling encodes the emotional weight of sensory transitions, but not the associative strength or value of stimuli. These signals dynamically rescale when the learning context changes: "this matters most!" www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Graph of award probability of R35 and R01 from NIH factbook as a function of review rank percentile. As is apparent, 2025 is a significant departure, with lower award probabilities at all scores <40 and significant departures from norm, where even being in the top 10% is no longer a nearly certain indicator of success. Data source: https://report.nih.gov/nihdatabook/report/302
The data is in: the NIH goalposts have shifted.
What were once almost certain fundable scores have become coin flips and what used to be likely grants have become aspirational, leading to fewer awards.
Another manifestation of how HHS policies have led to fewer awards and less science.
Excited to share this preprint that describes my latest work on using GPUs to accelerate processing of RNA-seq data.
The title says it all: "RNA-seq analysis in seconds using GPUs" now on biorxiv www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... and github github.com/pachterlab/k...
Figure 1 shows they key result
Best evidence yet that GLP-1 drugs reduce the risk of substance abuse, from >600,000 US Veterans with T2 diabetes across alcohol, nicotine, opioid, cocaine, cannabis @zalaly.bsky.social
@bmj.com
www.bmj.com/content/392/...
UAB is recruiting neuroscience faculty at two different levels - come join our vibrant neuroscience community!
The UAB Heersink School of Medicine is seeking to recruit up to 16 new research-intensive faculty as part of a major strategic investment in neurosciences. Faculty will be housed in a brand new research facility at the heart of campus, which is scheduled for completion this summer.
NAL is dead
NMB is dead
ARM is dead
