New study led by Ning Shen w/ @phruzycki.bsky.social: a genome-wide in vivo CRISPR screen in a retinitis pigmentosa mouse model identifies genes whose loss accelerates photoreceptor death. Overexpressing two, UFD1 and UXT, preserves photoreceptors, retinal function, and vision. 🧵

We’re now at 17 new and competitive renewal R01s from the NEI FY26.

Finally, neurological basis for Trinity’s very orange very dumb behaviors.

Why would I use "AI," I actually know how to fucking write

This is amazing

I’m hiring a research tech to join my lab! Anyone interested can reach out to me for more information. This is a good opportunity for someone looking to expand their research skills prior to graduate school.

mcw.wd503.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/Extern...

My main gripe with the alphafold example is how it shows you need decades and decades of high quality data, well structured, open and accessible to train a model -- and yet they always gloss over it and pretend it's just AI and magic. No, we need to continuously invest in real data and FAIR data.

New paper out in @cp-neuron.bsky.social 🎉

What determines contextual modulation in V1? Why does the visual surround sometimes facilitate and sometimes suppress a neuron's response to its preferred stimulus?

Among the frustrating aspects of the funding situation in the U.S. is that the strategic response is to apply for more grants, with the result that the equilibrium success rate is pushed lower (up to a point). Scientists get less while spending more time writing grants rather than doing science.

Only two competitive grants funded by NEI in FY26 so far.

People marching. Sign saying no kings.

People marching. American flag on the left. Signs say “I am a patriot and did not vote for this shit” “the new DEI: Donald Employs Idiots” and “the only monarch I need with a picture of a monarch butterfly”

Milwaukee showed up for #nokings Proud of this community and forever willing to stand up for science, immigrants, education, and democracy.

I defended my PhD 10 years ago today. That was the least remarkable thing that happened that day. Sharing something I wrote about it last year. Since then "the horrors persist but so do we." And with dignity.

🧵 New preprint led by @bingbrunton.bsky.social, @elliottabe.bsky.social, @lawrencehu.bsky.social

We gave a worm brain control of a fly body and it walked

What did we learn? Nothing, other than deep reinforcement learning is effective

We call it the digital sphinx

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

$2.45 billion NIH grant cuts and ~2300 terminated active research grants were DOGE'd in early 2025
Who were most affected?
www.pnas.org/doi/full/10....
Early career and women researchers

screen shot showing the percent change in R01-equivalent awards between 2024 and 2025

😭😭
grants.nih.gov/news-events/...

Inhibitory neurons are among the most transcriptomically diverse class of neurons in the CNS, with some brain regions having 60+ distinct cell types. Do humans share the same repertoire as rodents? Birds? Fish? 1/13

NIH Office of Extramural Research announcements of feedback sessions for NIH-wide strategic plan for March 16 and April 8.

IMPORTANT---IMPORTANT---IMPORTANT

NIH is seeking input for the NIH-wide Strategic Plan. Open to everyone but Registration is Required!

Your chance to listen and get your 2 or more cents in.

grants.nih.gov/news-events/...

Congrats, Marcos!

Good news from NIH!

Michael Chiang has apparently been reappointed as Director of the National Eye Institute

www.nei.nih.gov/about/our-mi...

Yes. Important in the context of the release of the NIH budget bill today.

NIH has been dismantled this year, and it’s NOT because of a Congressional budget cut.

It’s b/c of Project 2025/Russell Vought reaching into NIH in an unprecedented way and screwing up how it’s run. The budget bill does…

10+ years of vision 👁️research in mice 🐭recasts our ideas about the brain 🧠and sharing data 🧪📈... a brief guide 👇 Thanks to many colleagues and @gtresearch.bsky.social @gt-neuro.bsky.social for connecting us w @us.theconversation.com

Not yet! Christmas party is next week. Yall look excellent!!

Thrilled Scalabrino Lab graduate student Taylor Rau passed her qualifying exam yesterday!

A Scientific Pipeline to the Nobel Prize Fueled by Immigrants

gift article: www.nytimes.com/2025/12/10/s...

This paper on S-cone circuitry in the cone dominant 13-lines ground squirrel is absolutely stunning. I want to spend the rest of my day (week? month?) playing with the interactive data.

I am obsessed.

The U.S. Is Funding Fewer Grants in Every Area of Science and Medicine (Gift Article) A quiet policy change means the government is making fewer bets on long-term science.

New York Times article on science funding with some depressing but familiar curves with interactive graphics.

www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Screenshot of the session. “Chair 1:00 PM-2:45 PM Nov 16 Miranda Scalabrino Deep conservation of amacrine cell diversity across the vertebrate phylogeny 1:00 PM-1:15 PM Nov 16 Dario Tommasini, Aboozar Monavarf... Adaptive mechanisms allow retinal ganglion cell selectivity to homogeneous stimuli in n... 1:15 PM-1:30 PM Nov 16 Baptiste Lorenzi, Samuele Virgili, D... Afadin-deficient retinas exhibit severe neuronal lamination defects but preserve v... 1:30 PM-1:45 PM Nov 16 Akiko Ueno, Konan Sakuta, Chieko... The role of inhibition in the diurnal modulation of information transfer through... く 1:45 PM-2:00 PM Nov 16 Elliot Birkett, Katarzyna Kupczyk, Le.. Potential mechanism of homeostatic plasticity for synapse maintenance during... 2:00 PM-2:15 PM Nov 16 Taylor Rau, Molly Rasper, Aryan Bh... Physiology of noncanonical ON bipolar cells innervating the accessory ON layer of mou... 2:15 PM-2:30 PM Nov 16 Yao Xue, Seunghoon Lee, David Be... Bipolar Cell Polarity Switch Generated through Rod Signaling Pathway 2:30 PM-2:45 PM Nov 16 Tomomi Ichinose, Deborah Beaudoi.”

Proof:

Screenshot saying “Nanosymposium- Photoreceptors and Retinal Circuitry. Sunday Nov 16 1-2:45pm Room 32A”

At #SfN2025? Come check out the Photoreceptors & Retinal Circuits nanosymposium at 1! I’ve heard all the cool kids will be there and the chair is an absolute rockstar.