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: 🧵

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...

New @currentbiology.bsky.social paper from Dr. Leila Elabbady on neural circuits that transform a touch stimulus into spatially targeted grooming.

Leila discovered a leg somatotopic map and used it to infer tactile receptive fields in the fly VNC connectome.

authors.elsevier.com/a/1mvu83QW8S...

New preprint with @sevberg.bsky.social! We map Hopfield-like binary networks onto spiking networks with dendrites … and it works! Same memory capacity, bigger basins of attraction, plus selective recall through dendritic gating, and more. How? Dendrites! See below.

Are you a computational scientist? Within 7 years of your PhD? Come join us at Lund University! We have two new positions as assistant professor! Deadline: 25th of May. The advert is broad, but this is your chance to push computational neuroscience in a fantastic place!
lu.varbi.com/en/what:job/...

🎉New paper out from the lab, led by @baptistepiqueret.bsky.social: ant larvae chemically suppress the reproduction of their caregivers. bit.ly/4t8uZLG
An example of how social interactions are regulated at the molecular level. The work was made possible by the unique environment @mpi-ce.bsky.social

🧠 Johannes Kohl | Eric Kandel Young Neuroscientists Prize Lecture 🌟 At #FENS2026, join the Eric Kandel Young Neuroscientists Prize Lecture by Johannes Kohl, The Francis Crick Institute, on 9 July! 🔬 His lab integrates behavioural, systems and cellular approaches to uncover how internal states shape brain function and support adaptive social behaviour. 🏆 In 2025, he was awarded the Eric Kandel Young Neuroscientists Prize. His work has also been supported by EMBO, HFSP and Wellcome Trust, and received the Eppendorf and Science Prize for Neurobiology. Meet all the speakers 👉 https://buff.ly/wQ8V4Ha

🧠 Johannes Kohl | Eric Kandel Young Neuroscientists Prize Lecture

🌟 At #FENS2026, join the Eric Kandel Young Neuroscientists Prize Lecture by Johannes Kohl, @crick.ac.uk, on 9 July!

Meet all the speakers 👉 buff.ly/wQ8V4Ha

1/8. New preprint! ✨

How spontaneous is spontaneous behavior? 🧠🐭

We found that whole-brain fUSi signals predicted spontaneous behavioral transitions seconds in advance. Inhibiting one node of this transition-prone state, the medial septum, facilitated switching!

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Some of you saw a preview of this result at my Cosyne talk last week. We may have had too much fun working on this worm-fly model 🤣🤓🤣

(The digital sphinx may be imagery, but the lessons are real.)

Graphical abstract showing that NMDAR immunisation drives psychosis-like behaviour in mice, while clozapine reverses this. Upper panel: arrows show NMDAR immunisation producing a mouse exhibiting psychosis-like behaviour, with clozapine reversing this effect. Lower panels: anti-NMDAR antibodies bind neuronal NMDA receptors, which are then eliminated by microglia via phagocytosis, leading to psychosis. Clozapine restores NMDA receptor levels by reducing anti-NMDAR antibody levels, consistent with an immunomodulatory mechanism of action.

🥁🎉The Psychosis Collective proudly presents our first preprint

𝐂𝐥𝐨𝐳𝐚𝐩𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐬𝐮𝐩𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐮𝐭𝐨𝐢𝐦𝐦𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐝𝐫𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐩𝐬𝐲𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐬𝐢𝐬-𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐢𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐢𝐧 𝐦𝐢𝐜𝐞

𝘈 𝘥𝘪𝘴𝘤𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 𝘫𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘯𝘦𝘺 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘦𝘦 𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘴

starring Le He & Harriet Feldman

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

We wanted to understand how antipsychotics work. Thread🧵

How does an animal choose between exploring for a better food source and taking advantage of a known one? Our recent work in Current Biology demonstrates how recent feeding and metabolic state dynamically influence fly local search. bit.ly/3PfrIv3 #Science #Neurosky #Foraging #Drosophila

New paper out: www.nature.com/articles/s41... 🥳 Congratulations to our PhD student Katja for her inspiring work just published in Nature Communications on how the larval zebrafish brain processes multiple visual features.

Check out a short summary of the work here: tinyurl.com/yzv4ct9k

After 5 years of developing, a new preprint from the lab - introducing our workflow for comparative insect connectomics, aimed at democratizing connectomics. @erc.europa.eu @lundvision.bsky.social @biologylu.bsky.social Read it here: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

ShineGAL4 FLP-out clones

#Drosophila calling. Delighted to share our new collection of ShineGAL4 drivers for CNS, FB, muscles, enterocytes, oenocytes and MTs made by @vgirard.bsky.social, @sebsorge.bsky.social and colleagues @crick.ac.uk. All at Bloomington @bdsc.bsky.social

@dev-journal.bsky.social
tinyurl.com/4jpw9jd6

Mechanical Engineer, Hardware Systems - Card Lab Primary Work Address: 100 Haven Avenue, New York, NY, 10032 Current HHMI Employees, click here to apply via your Workday account. The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) advances the discovery and ...

The Card lab at Columbia Univ (NYC) is hiring a mechanical engineer! If you like tinkering with mechanical systems and want to help us build custom rigs for neuroscience research, this job is for you! Please feel free to pass along to interested folks.

hhmi.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/Extern...

Structural determinants for GPCR-mediated inhibition of TASK K2P channels by diacylglycerol and its dysfunction in disease - The EMBO Journal Two-Pore Domain K+ (K2P) channels are crucial determinants of the resting membrane potential and of cellular electrical excitability in many different cell types. TASK-1 and TASK-3 K2P channel activit...

Our latest work on the structural determinants for GPCR-mediated inhibition of TASK K2P channels by diacylglycerol is now finally published open access @embojournal.org

link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Do you: Have a strong interest in science? A passion for journalism and writing? Our paid 3-month internship might be for you! We are looking for talented candidates from all backgrounds, especially those traditionally underrepresented in publishing. Applications close 9 March 2026.

Calling all budding science writers!

Applications for our paid London-based internship, starting in June, are now open.

Deadline: 9 March 2026

Full info here: springernature.wd3.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/Spring...

#PaidInternship #Internship #Journalism

Quantitative Approaches to Behavior and Virtual Reality - CAJAL […]

You have until March 3rd to apply for the Cajal summer school on Quantitative Approaches to Behavior and VR at Champalimaud! Come surf and track animals with us 🏄🪰🐟🚶
cajal-training.org/on-site/quan...

Specialized parallel pathways for adaptive control of visual object pursuit Collie et al. show how adaptive control in Drosophila visual pursuit arises from two parallel pathways: one steers objects from the periphery toward the center, while the other maintains central fixat...

Thrilled to share that my graduate work is officially published in Neuron! 🎉
www.cell.com/neuron/fullt...

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

Our new preprint is out!

A state-dependent neural circuit resolves approach–avoidance conflicts

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Fantastic work led by Devika Bodas, with key contributions from Marine Balcou, and a great collaboration with Lisa Scheunemann Lab, fearuting Şevval Demirci.

🚨 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

"Saw her in the Amazon
With the voltage runnin' through her skin
Standin' there with nothin' on
She gonna teach me how to swim"

for more about the electric (f)eel, check this primer by Ken Catania ⚡ www.cell.com/current-biol...

(and yes, finally some current biology in Current Biology)

Very thankful for this thoughtful dispatch by @shaisrael.bsky.social sky.social and Moshe Parnas about our work. Learning and memory: Forgetting to remember: Current Biology www.cell.com/current-biol...

The first paper from the lab is now out in Science Advances: Multimodal social context modulates larval behavior in Drosophila
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
We find that fly larvae keep their distance to conspecifics in the absence of food, enjoy reading! @cbehav.bsky.social @uni-konstanz.de

Come join us to work on building AI for biosensor design!

Paper out now in eLife: DANCE. We combine machine learning with accessible hardware to quantify Drosophila social behaviors.

Low-cost behavioral rigs are not a compromise, they are a design philosophy. Accessibility changes the questions we can ask.

elifesciences.org/articles/105...

Pyramidal neurons proportionately alter cortical interneuron subtypes - Nature Pyramidal neuron-driven mechanisms actively promote the survival and terminal differentiation of their associated interneuron subtypes.

Excited for the publication of our recent work on how pyramidal cells shape the identity of interneurons in the Cortex! Big shout out to @artofbiology and Sherry Jingjing wu! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

European Conference on Mathematical & Theoretical Biology 2026 ECMTB is coming to Graz, Austria in July 2026. Registration and Call for Contributions are open!

🧬 Minisymposium deadline extended!

Good news for prospective organizers: new submission deadline is now 31 Jan 2026 (AoE).

A few extra days to finalize your proposals for ECMTB 2026 in Graz!

📅 July 13–17, 2026 | 📍 Graz, Austria

Details → ecmtb2026.org/call-for-contributions

Several fly larvae are crawling on an agar surface.

The second paper from the lab is now available on bioRxiv: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
We discovered that cannibalistic behavior in fly larvae is social-context dependent. Larval groups avoid dead conspecifics; individuals show high attraction. They only do it when no one is watching 😉