Decoding the language of sleep with artificial intelligence Sleep is one of medicine's underused data streams. Clinically, disturbed sleep has often been treated as a symptom of a disorder, but sleep is also a physiological state in which brain, cardiac, respi...

The data from sleep is incredibly rich, a window into health and risk of many diseases, decoded by AI.
Our new essay today
@jameszou.bsky.social @thelancet.com
thelancet.com/journals/lan...

Human hippocampal neurogenesis in adulthood, ageing and Alzheimer’s disease - Nature Mapping of neurogenesis in human hippocampi across ages and different cognitive abilities using multiomic single-cell sequencing reveals distinct signatures between cognitive preservation and decline.

New @nature.com
The brains of Super Agers produce more neurons than people some 50 years younger, a neurogenesis resilient signature linked to exceptional cognitive health and memory skills
nature.com/articles/s41...

Place cells in CA1 lack topographical organization of firing locations | PNAS Topography is a well-described and well-known concept for cortical organization in primary sensory and motor cortices of mammalian brains. Similar ...

A half-century old question may have its final answer. Using high-resolution #Mini2P microscopes, we find no evidence of local topography in #PlaceCells. Place fields of neighbouring cells are no more similar than those of randomly selected cells. 🧠🗺️ Out now in @pnas.org www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

A psychedelic quickly reduced depression (in patients with major depression disorder) in a small, double-blind placebo randomized trial
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Plus a new review on the science of psychedelic medicine
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

A new systematic analysis of intermittent fasting from 22 randomized trials shows no advantage for weight loss or other outcomes compared with regular diet advice
www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10....

Ca2+-mediated protein citrullination regulates proliferation in the regenerating and malignant CNS www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01...

A one-shot gene therapy to make a lifetime's worth of GLP-1 (like Ozempic) @FractylHealth. But it requires direct injection to the pancreas and there are lots of unknowns. A clinical trial is starting soon.
Front page @washingtonpost.com today
gift link www.washingtonpost.com/health/2026/...

U.S. vaccination rates are plunging. Look up where your school stands. Take a look to see what the kindergarten measles vaccination rates are in your area.

The vaccine takedown wapo.st/49zDc43

Do you know about LVA surgery that is being done to increase brain waste product drainage, with intent to treat or prevent neurodegenerative diseases?
In conversation with @jonykipnis.bsky.social
erictopol.substack.com/p/how-our-br...

My boos wish you all a very Merry Christmas✨🎄

How Our Brain Drains Its Waste Products Particular Relevance to Sleep, Alzheimer's Disease and Immune Surveillance

How Our Brain Drains Its Waste Products
and its relevance to our sleep quality and risk of neurodegenerative diseases
A podcast with @jonykipnis.bsky.social and illustrative text summary of 3 of his recent review articles
erictopol.substack.com/p/how-our-br...

Natural daylight during office hours improves glucose control and whole-body substrate metabolism Harmsen et al. compared the metabolic impact of natural daylight vs. artificial office lighting in individuals with type 2 diabetes over 5 days. Daylight improved glucose homeostasis, whole-body fat u...

Natural daylight and improved glucose control in Type 2 diabetes
cell.com/cell-metabol...

How basic neuroscience has paved the path to new drugs A growing list of medications—such as zuranolone for postpartum depression, suzetrigine for pain, and the gepants class of migraine medicines—exist because of insights from basic research.

“Basic neuroscience hasn’t produced new drugs.” 💊

Not true - zuranolone (PPD), suzetrigine (pain), gepants (migraine), and more... were born out of a long arc of studies in the lab.

I wrote a Perspective on why this matters. @thetransmitter.bsky.social

www.thetransmitter.org/drug-develop...

The top 10 people of 2025 @nature.com who shaped science.
Recognizes Dr. Susan Monarez, the CDC Director who was "fired for holding the line on scientific integrity"
www.nature.com/immersive/d4...

NIH shut out hundreds of young scientists from funding to start their own labs Special Report: The NIH has shut out hundreds of young scientists from funding to start their own labs.

Special Report: The NIH has shut out hundreds of young scientists from funding to start their own labs.
www.statnews.com/2025/12/08/t...

A 2025 neuropathy update: What does every family needs to know about numb feet and other body parts? 1 of every hundred people will develop neuropathy. Neuropathy refers to injury or dysfunction of peripheral nerves that carry sensory, motor and autonomic information. New paper in JAMA. #neuropathy

We used rabies virus 👾 to map how #psilocybin modifies long-range circuits 🧠, revealing network-specific reorganization that we didn’t expect.

The full study is now online at Cell. @cp-cell.bsky.social

Paper 👉 www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

Thread for a synopsis 👉
bsky.app/profile/alex...

Teens may have come up with a new way to detect, treat Lyme disease using CRISPR gene editing To compete at iGEM, a sort of science Olympics, teens at a Georgia high school set their sights on finding a better way to detect and treat Lyme disease. Their approach uses CRISPR gene editing.

Remarkable story of a Georgia high school team who used CRISPR to make a rapid diagnostic test strip for Lyme disease, speeding dx from 2 weeks to days
www.cbsnews.com/news/teens-m...

Do we need to go smaller (nano) for new Parkinson's, Alzheimer's and neurological disease therapies? Check out this sound-triggered liposome approach for brain and nerve drug delivery. Liposomes carry medications and release them precisely when activated by an external signal like ultrasound.

Jennifer Gunter & Eric Topol - Discuss Women’s Health and Recent Changes by FDA for MHT A live recording addressing many current women's health issues

A conversation with @drjengunter.bsky.social on many current women's health issues, including the recent change in FDA labelling erictopol.substack.com/p/jennifer-g...

Webinar on the new ERC Plus Grants YouTube video by European Research Council

Webinar on the new ERC Plus Grants live starting now www.youtube.com/live/Dzkas7f...

I tried an even harder example on Gemini Pro image generation and this is quite scary/amazing. I asked for a microscopy image of around 20 HeLa cells, GFP tagged 20% nuclear, 10% membrane, +1 nuclear staining, + overlap. Image below and prompt in the following post.

RFK Jr., American Psycho He needs to go. Now.

The man has to go. www.thenation.com/article/soci...

Autism-associated Scn2a haploinsufficiency disrupts in vivo dendritic signaling and impairs flexible decision-making | PNAS SCN2A is a high-confidence risk gene for autism spectrum disorder. Loss-of-function mutations in Scn2a reduce dendritic excitability in neocortical...

We’ve thought a lot about how 💊 drugs act on dendrites of neurons, but what about when it is a 🧬 mutation that affects dendrites?

PhD student Hao Wu studied #Scn2a deficiency in mice. Just out at @pnas.org, her research led to two major findings.

www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

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This is figure 1, which shows distribution of flux tower sites across artificial light intensity in North America and Europe.

The findings of a study in Nature Climate Change show that artificial light at night disrupts the fundamental energetic constraints on ecosystem metabolism, warranting the inclusion of light pollution in global change and carbon–climate feedback assessments. go.nature.com/44cCKWm 🧪

Young brain researchers ponder other careers amid federal funding cuts Cuts and disruptions to federal research funding are causing many young brain scientists to reconsider their career choice.

Hear SfN members talking about the impact of federal funding cuts on brain research. #neuroskyence #sfn2025 www.npr.org/2025/11/14/n...

Are you at #SfN25 and want VIP access to the Cai-Tye Collective event on Nov 17?

Come by my lab members' posters for a bracelet!

Hailey Rosenblum: Nov 15, 1-5pm PSTR040.05/BB6
Zoé Christenson Wick: Nov 17, 8am-12pm PSTR192.01/RR13
Zach Pennington: Nov 17, 1-5pm PSTR234.05/CC7

How genetically encoded sensors have lit up neuroscience Tools that track specific molecules in neurons have enabled researchers to probe previously unexplored aspects of neurobiology — although important caveats remain.

A technology feature in Nature describes the tools that track specific molecules in neurons that have enabled researchers to probe previously unexplored aspects of neurobiology, though important caveats remain. #Neuroskyence 🧪

So happy this paper is now out in @plosbiology.org! We investigated whether fluctuations in MEPs can be explained by phasic influences from internal bodily rhythms, and whether this might happen independently per organ system.
#interoception #neuroskyence

Heading to San Diego for #sfn25 today! I’ll be presenting a poster on this work Monday afternoon!

looking forward to meeting neuroscientists! please stop by my poster or reach out if you’re going and want to talk motor neuro/behavior, evolution, neuroethology…or whatever else! 🧠🥳 #neuroskyence