New work from the lab on how sickness reduces appetite. Turns out, it’s complicated :)

We focused on a single inflammatory cytokine, IL-1b, and even that reduces appetite via multiple mechanism.

Thanks to Nik Hayes for leading and sticking with this project and to everyone else who contributed!

🧠🏃 New in Neuron (open access): “Exercise-induced activation of VMH SF1 neurons mediates improvements in endurance”

Finally able to share what we learned about the brain & exercise 🧵

Need-selective gating of dopamine neuron cue responses by real and virtual hunger www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.11...

Long-term optical monitoring of genetically-encoded fluorescent indicators Abstract. Over the past several decades, genetically-encoded fluorescent indicators (GEFIs) have revolutionized neuroscience by enabling cell-type-specific

A new article from Jordan Cook in our lab and Qijun Tang in the Hattar lab: best practices in long-term fiber photometry recording. We argue that the field needs a standardized framework for experiments and analysis. academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/ad...

iGlucoSnFR2: A genetically encoded fluorescent sensor for measuring intracellular or extracellular glucose in vivo in mouse brain Genetically encoded fluorescent sensor reports extracellular or intracellular glucose fluctuations in mouse brains in vivo.

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Iowa sky tonight.

2025 Lasker–DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award Transformative Research in Cystic Fibrosis An illustrated diagram showing advances in the understanding and treatment of cystic fibrosis.

Drs. Michael Welsh, Jesús González, and Paul Negulescu have won the 2025 Lasker–DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award for their roles in developing treatments for cystic fibrosis. Learn more: nej.md/41L3UCI

#MedSky #PulmSky #Genetics

A brain center that controls consummatory responses The BNST brain region integrates a broad range of external and internal signals to flexibly regulate consumption, revealing a unified control over consummatory responses.

Discovery of a brain center (BNST) that controls consumption (including sweets, fats, salt and other foods) in mice
www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

We are proud of Omprakash Singh's new study just out in Cell Reports. Supported by Sepideh Sheybani-Deloui et al, Om's work identifies GHSR expressing SCN neurons as regulating food intake + feed efficiency at a single time of day, accounting for at least 7% of a mouse's BW

doi.org/10.1016/j.ce...

Excited to share work led by my PhD student Hayley McMorrow now published in @jclinical-invest.bsky.social. Hayley showed that GIP and GLP-1 receptor agonists rapidly inhibit AgRP neurons and that endogenous GIP is important for nutrient-mediated AgRP neuron inhibition. doi.org/10.1172/JCI1...

The hindbrain cAMP pathway is essential for GLP-1R dependent #weightloss www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Amid lots of uncertainty, anger, and exhaustion I am excited to share this work from my incredibly talented MSTP and @nuincomm.bsky.social student Haley Province. In it we explore the fascinating and powerful anti-aversive properties of GIPR agonists

A hypothalamic circuit that modulates feeding and parenting behaviours - Nature Single-cell transcriptomic analysis of mouse hypothalamus and behavioural experiments show that specific hypothalamic networks regulate conflicting feeding versus parenting behaviours of female mice.

How do animals decide if they should forage for food or stay home to take care of newborn offspring? Whose needs come first? For my PhD work now out in Nature, we examined how hunger and parenting neurons interact and are reshaped postpartum in mice 🧵⬇️ www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Very excited for this review to be out! A dive into PET/MRS techniques for measuring brain glucose concentrations and cerebral metabolic rate of glucose in the context of diabetes and obesity. #neuroimaging #obesity #diabetes #metabolism #neuroendocrinology

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

State-dependent central synaptic regulation by GLP-1 is essential for energy homeostasis - Nature Metabolism In this paper, the authors describe the energy state-dependent regulation of the PVNGLP-1R to DVC circuit, resulting in altered food intake and metabolic health, mediated by GLP-1 receptor signalling.

Studies in mice of CNS GLP-1R circuits reveals that state-dependent synaptic regulation by GLP-1 in PVNGLP-1R→DVC descending circuits is important for energy homeostasis @natmetabolism.nature.com www.nature.com/articles/s42...

Energy state guides reward seeking via an extended amygdala to lateral hypothalamus pathway - Nature Communications The lateral hypothalamic area (LHA) mediates reward seeking. Here, the authors show how LHA afferent connections promote reward seeking by shaping synaptic strength according to energy state, processe...

Excited to share our latest paper led by Kuldeep Shrivastava out now in @natcomms.nature.com
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
1/

What Nearly Brainless Rodents Know About Weight Loss and Hunger

Nice article in NY Times today about AgRP neurons, GLP1s, and hunger. By Gina Kolata. www.nytimes.com/2025/04/26/h...

The plan for NIH is in, source with full 64 page proposal for all of HHS is linked. Reported in WaPo. This is catastrophic. Reduction to 8 centers. 40% cut in budget. 15% IDC cap. This will decimate science across America open.substack.com/pub/insideme...

Sleep loss is a metabolic disorder Sleep deprivation shifts metabolic resources and deprioritizes processes that support cognition.

Dysregulated cell metabolism in sleep deprivation www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Hedonic eating is controlled by dopamine neurons that oppose GLP-1R satiety Hedonic eating is defined as food consumption driven by palatability without physiological need. However, neural control of palatable food intake is poorly understood. We discovered that hedonic eatin...

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Even Pikachu is out protesting Erdogan in Turkey.

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Changes in neurotensin signalling drive hedonic devaluation in obesity - Nature In mice, prolonged consumption of a high-fat diet decreases interest in calorie-rich foods as a result of reduced neurotensin expression and signalling, which uncouples hedonic feeding behaviour linke...

Why does obesity change the pleasure of eating, the dopamine rush from hedonic foods? A neural circuit mechanism involving explanation
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

🚨iGluSnFR4 is finally out!🚨🧪

We present iGluSnFR4f and 4s, a novel pair of genetically-encoded glutamate indicators designed for high-fidelity imaging of synaptic activity in the living brain. ⬇️

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

🎥 Below: iGluSnFR4s detecting minis in cultures w/ TTX

#Neuroscience

The time is now: accounting for time-of-day effects to improve reproducibility and translation of metabolism research - Nature Metabolism This broad group of authors summarizes the impact of circadian factors on metabolic biology and offers recommendations on how to account for and report biological, environmental and experimental facto...

New from Prof Satch Panda and colleagues. Time of day variation in metabolic phenotypes and implications for basic science research #circadian @naturemetabolism.bsky.social @salkinstitute.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s42...

Today, the study section I am a member of is one of 26 out of 26 canceled. No new post on the federal registry and councils are postponed indefinitely.
Universities focused on overhead cuts considering these a challenge to their survival. But *no grant at all* seems like the issue to battle first..

"If you think research is expensive, try disease" - Mary Lasker

Nothing else to say.

Thalamic opioids from POMC satiety neurons switch on sugar appetite High sugar–containing foods are readily consumed, even after meals and beyond fullness sensation (e.g., as desserts). Although reward-driven processing of palatable foods can promote overeating, the n...

Thalamic opioids from POMC satiety neurons switch on sugar appetite

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Whenever you hear someone sneer about scientific research that seems useless to them — “they’re studying the spit of lizards?!” — remind them that’s exactly how we got Ozempic.

globalnews.ca/news/9793403...

I can log in only in "incognito" mode.

A single dorsal vagal complex circuit mediates the aversive and anorectic responses to GLP1R agonists GLP-1 receptor agonists (GLP1RAs) effectively reduce feeding to treat obesity, although nausea and other aversive side effects of these drugs can limit their use. Brainstem circuits that promote satia...

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...