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: 🧵
Excited to share our latest paper from the lab, now out in iScience! 🧠✨
Huge credit to the incredible team whose creativity and hard work made this study possible—so proud of my team! 🙌
#Neuroscience #Sleep #Drosophila #Behavior #Connectomics
www.cell.com/iscience/ful...
Another breakthrough in connectomics!!!
We are so looking forward to CSHL Neurobiology of Drosophila 2026 🔬 🧠.
The new application deadline is April 13th. Come join us!
@cshlnews.bsky.social
@cshlcourses.bsky.social
@rister.bsky.social
New article from @cientificolatino.com !!!
On the struggles of first year grad students and how to support them 💜
Oh I hear you. 2 weeks ago I was in that spot and I cancelled all meetings and had multiple tabs open on 2 computers for each week and camp. I got 50% of desired camp bookings and we will now look for other less popular ones to fill the summer and plan vacation around no camp weeks. All the best.
Hahaha. I agree. When does one’s point become so key that they ignore evidence. Sadly we only find these contaminating cells while others have beautiful breathtaking slides and data.
On the left, the image shows a schematic of a fly head, ring neurons and EPG neurons together with some calcium imaging frames. On the right is a photo of a fly on a ball in virtual reality and another schematic of a VR system.
📢 Join us, the Haberkern lab, @uni-wuerzburg.de for a postdoc studying neural circuit mechanisms of navigation. You’ll spearheading neurophysiology experiments on our brand new 2P!
⏳ Apply by 28th February 2026
Details: www.haberkernlab.de/docs/ENPostd...
#neuroscience #academicjobs #postdoc
www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
We had a lot of fun working on this project (led by Itzel Ishida, not on bluesky). Some interesting highlights from the paper -
We’re excited to announce @tarnopol.bsky.social as the recipient of the 2026 Larry Sandler Award! 🎉 She’ll present the Larry Sandler Memorial Lecture during the #Dros26 opening session on March 4—she'll share how her research explores how protein toxins evolve to shape host–parasite interactions.
Constant Sexual Aggression Drives Female Tortoises to Walk Off Cliffs On a remote island in North Macedonia, male Hermann’s tortoises outnumber females 19 to 1, an imbalance driving the population to extinction.
"researchers have found that the relentless males are driving their population to extinction."
Well, that sounds familiar...
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/14/s...
If you are interested in my research program and also want industry experience here is the opportunity for us to work together.
News from central Jersey: I'm running to represent New Jersey's 12th Congressional District.
By entering the fray, I hope to bring ideas of repairing our frayed republic. Not only to defend it in 2026, but to build something stronger, for generations to come!
samwang.substack.com/p/entering-t...
Educators, the deadline to apply for our python workshop is approaching quickly! Apply by February 2 to join us in Seattle for this hands-on workshop.
💻 No prior coding experience needed.
✈️ Travel, meals, & stipend included.
🔗 alleninstitute.org/events/educator-coding-w...
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 😉
So sorry for your loss Casey. As an international trainee I can understand what those connections mean in a new country and as someone who used catmaid in my teaching I am so sorry for the loss to our scientific community.
Another cool paper from Iran: nature.com/articles/s41... Prenatal stress makes mouse offspring more anxious, hyperactive, forgetful, and more drawn to morphine while laterodorsal tegmentum cholinergic neurons become hyperexcitable. From Kerman, a city with reported violent crackdowns on protests.
So I guess we went from not discussed to competitive not discussed. What a tease!!!
Please apply. Amazing opportunity to dive into connectomics datasets for research, educational initiatives, outreach and whatever else your heart desires. Feb 2nd deadline.
“Not discussed” on NIH eRA today. My next few months have been planned out for me so I guess we do nothing today or this week. Maybe start with the 3hr 40 min Bollywood movie that everyone is recommending.
Infra-slow brain rhythms found in sleep in lizards, humans, rats and pigeons!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Congrats @antbergel.bsky.social!
Teach neuroscience to undergrads? Learn how to incorporate our connectomics data into your courses!
🗓️ July 23-24
🛫 Travel funds available
⏳ Apply by Feb. 2. alleninstitute.org/events/incorporating-ope...
Schematic of how ER-EPG plasticity enables the bump of activity in EPGs to accurately track visual cues. As a fly makes a counter-clockwise turn (top to bottom) it will view visual cues (e.g. the sun) from a new angle and the EPG activity bump (red) will swing clockwise around the network by integrating self motion signals with these visual inputs. When the fly faces a different angle, distinct visual ER neurons are active. Plasticity forms a trough of weak synapses (large circles - strong synapses, small circles - weak synapses) that allow ER neurons with distinct visual tuning to move the EPG bump via disinhibition.
*First preprint from our lab* !!!!!
How does the brain learn to anchor its internal sense of direction to the outside world? 🧭
led by Mark Plitt @markplitt.bsky.social & Dan Turner-Evans, w/ Vivek Jayaraman:
“Octopamine instructs head direction plasticity” www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Thread ⬇️
No not an ESI. Thanks for all the information.
Is there any clear advantage to applying to MIRA as a New Investigator (NI), given that the NOFO also mentions established investigators?
Electron microscopy is @nature.com's Method of the Year! 🧠🔬🏆
@natmethods.nature.com shares why MICrONS and FlyWire are proof that #ElectronMicroscopy is helping us see the brain and its incredible complexity at a new level: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41592-025-02988-6
🧠📈 #studyBRAIN
No NCE button for R15s nearing their end date—1st NCEs need prior approval through the NIH Prior Approval Module. More steps, delays, and stress since active R15 PIs can’t be PIs on other NIH grants. Nothing I submitted in 2025 has even been reviewed/decisioned. I guess it was nice having a lab.....
No NCE button for R15s nearing their end date—1st NCEs need prior approval through the NIH Prior Approval Module. More steps, delays, and stress since active R15 PIs can’t be PIs on other NIH grants. Nothing I submitted in 2025 has even been reviewed/decisioned. I guess it was nice having a lab.....
NCE button has not appeared for my R15 grant that is ending 02/28/26. Did it appear for you 90 days before end date or later? I am panicking and wondering if its time to contact PO and GMS.
