LAUNCH! ARTEMIS II LAUNCHES WITH A CREW OF 4 TOWARDS THE MOON

Artemis II launch was incredible!! Emotional to think how much research, brain power, and courage go into making this a reality!

🚀 Artemis II is safely in orbit! 🚀 A daring 10-day voyage will take four astronauts on a loop around the moon and set the stage for future forays to the lunar surface

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 preprint 🚨🚨 We found that the ovary directly controls protein appetite in Drosophila. Yes — the ovary doesn’t just make eggs… it tells the fly what to eat! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... If you want all the details, click above ☝️ If you just want the fun, GIF-guided overview, keep reading 👇

An amazing opportunity for students to get their foot in the door for neuroscience research! Great to see a program explicitly welcome applicants from community colleges and folks with no prior experience!! www.simonsfoundation.org/2026/03/10/a...

Ants are experts at telling nestmates from foreigners via subtle differences in odor profiles. In this new paper, we explore the conditions under which ants develop and maintain tolerance to foreigners. Turns out the ant recognition system is surprisingly plastic. www.cell.com/current-biol...

Sometimes failed experiments reveal gaps in how we are thinking about a problem, and digging into why an experiment didn't work can lead to discovery. This new preprint by Anne Sustar, in collaboration with Dion Dickman's lab, is one of those gratifying instances.🧵 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

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...

For all #Drosophila #neuroskyence researchers that have explained to someone, yes #insects have #brains: Here is @scottishwaddell.bsky.social & Annie Park's excellent argument for four 'cognitive primitives' underlying fundamental brain function conserved from humans to flies. tiny.cc/4cog

This is who runs this account

Thrilled to start 2026 with our latest preprint, in which we dive into a dedicated forward-walking circuit in the fly brain: doi.org/10.64898/202.... This effort was spearheaded by the fantastic @chrisjdallmann.bsky.social with help from a bunch of talented people in the lab.

At the Bernstein Conference 2024, Jeremie Lefebvre and I organized a workshop on the computational consequences of neural heterogeneity. Now, slightly more than a year later, we funneled the emerging discussions into a perspective piece: www.cell.com/neuron/fullt...

Interested in the latest advances in neuroscience (neural dynamics and internal models) and how they can be leveraged to build smarter, adaptive AI? ➡️ My first real solo piece 🖤🫶 @natneuro.nature.com rdcu.be/eWVmA

0.00003 foot tall xmas tree from a Drosophila flight steering muscle 🎄 image by @anne-sustar.bsky.social

These drugs were not stumbled upon or borrowed from traditional remedies. They were born out of a long arc of studies in the lab, writes @alexkwan.bsky.social. #neuroskyence www.thetransmitter.org/drug-develop...

Projection-specific Routing of Odor Information in the Olfactory Cortex https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12.12.694045v1

*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 ⬇️

How do neural circuits generate the walking rhythm? Using connectome simulations, @sarahpugly.bsky.social found a minimal central pattern generator (CPG) that produces oscillations in leg motor neurons. Same circuit motif for each 🪰 leg. w @bingbrunton.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

The final version of the clonal raider ant reference brain is now out OA in @currentbiology.bsky.social: 🐜 🧠 🐜 🧠 🐜 🧠 🐜 🧠 🐜 🧠 🐜 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Our new paper showcasing molecular connectomics with pan-expansion microscopy is out in @natbiotech.nature.com! www.nature.com/articles/s41... This wonderful collaboration with @bewersdorflab.bsky.social was led by Ons M'Saad (now founder/CEO of Panluminate) and @allisonphysics.bsky.social. (1/5)

Thrilled to share our new paper! With @tomtom-auer.bsky.social team, we asked how #evolution reshapes what animals #eat to match their ecological niches. Using pan-neuronal Ca2+ imaging, we show that the changes are in how the brain processes #taste. Link @nature.com: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

An inhibitory feedback circuit mediating sleep need and sensory gating in Drosophila https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.17.688806v1

🚀 New paper alert! Thrilled to share our latest study led by postdoc @gera_jayati published in eLife. 👉 doi.org/10.7554/eLif... Continue reading for a summary. 🧵

Olfactory biopsy analysis of Alzheimer's pathobiology across disease stages https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.11.687356v1

Excited to share my most recent postdoctoral work in the Jeanne lab @yaleneuro.bsky.social ! “Sensory processing reformats odor coding around valence and dynamics” www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... We ask: how is a sensory code transformed across multiple stages of processing to inform behavior?

1/ Hello Drosophila-philists and braino-maniacs! 👋🪰🧠🧪 The Caron lab has a new preprint, and it is about 🥁🥁🥁 democracy! Neuro-democracy, to be precise. So: drop EVERYTHING and listen up — a 🧶! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Do flies feel pain? Spooky new preprint from our lab on the cells and circuits that mediate nociceptive behaviors in adult Drosophila, led by graduate student (and newly minted PhD!) @jonesjes.bsky.social. 🪰⚡👻🎃 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Astrocytes have long been conceived as passive support player cells in the brain. But today @science.org (via 3 reports) they got a big upgrade for their active role in neuromodulation and control of brain function www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Control of Synaptic Communication through Molecularly Engineered Bioluminescence Light Emission and Sensing https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.27.684942v1

@senapati.bsky.social latest and greatest! Charly Treiber on board too. Over and out. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Excited to announce our new pre-print (www.biorxiv.org/cgi/content/...)! This collaborative work (co-led by Adriane Otopalik and Gerry Rubin) examines how neuronal circuits regulate social behaviors, like courtship🫶 and aggression🥊, across sexes. #neuroscience #Drosophila #WomenInSTEM 🧪1/

Out today in Nature: We uncover a neural mechanism for the integration of two internal states - hunger and estrous state - and how this integration shapes pup-directed behaviors in mice. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Excited to share our new #biorxivpreprint We discovered that the fruit fly #drosophila erecta requires food odor to mate and arousal is further enhanced by social group motion. Cross-species analysis of brain activity reveals a novel gate evolved from within a conserved circuit shorturl.at/gGYm7

Join us next Thursday (10/23) for #SYNAPSES, a senior postdoc symposium @yaleneuro.bsky.social @kavliatyale.bsky.social Talks will be given by: - @annrosebright.bsky.social, PhD👩‍🔬 - Peter Hasenhuetl, PhD 🔬 - Minhyeok Chang, PhD 🧑‍🔬 - @zhenggang.bsky.social, PhD 🥼 Register Today! Yale only.

Excited to share our new #biorxivpreprint: “Sexual dimorphism in the complete connectome of the Drosophila male central nervous system” www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... We describe the #connectomics reconstruction and analysis of an entire adult #maleCNS #drosophila central nervous system. 1/10

Ever wonder how fruit flies can be used to help uncover novel therapies for #AlcoholUseDisorder? My new paper with @karlakaun.bsky.social describes a behavioral assay pipeline using #Drosophila that can be used to screen new treatments and to investigate the mechanism of currently available drugs.

We were just having this conversation @meera-sundaram.bsky.social! Using C.elegans as a model in your lab as a PhD student, I learned to think about biological systems as integrated networks. This has shaped my approach to studying the nervous system, attempting to link the body and brain.

This one hits close to home. Jim is my office neighbor. Absolutely devastating.

Exciting news for #drosophila #connectomics and #neuroscience enthusiasts: the Drosophila male central nervous system connectome is now live for exploration. Find out more at the landing page hosted by our Janelia FlyEM collaborators www.janelia.org/project-team....

Distributed neural computation and the evolution of the first brains https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.03.680388v1

Using a new genetically-encoded voltage indicator in an all-optical approach to measure synaptic plasticity in awake behaving mice. Great work by @jacquescarolan.bsky.social and colleagues. Check out www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Although highly topical, kleptoparasitism does not get nearly the attention it deserves! Here, a plant exploits the kleptoparasitic behavior of a fly that likes to snatch ants killed by spiders. 🕷️🐜🪰🌿 So the thief itself gets taken advantage of. Nice going, plants! www.cell.com/current-biol...

✨ @cardsagainsthumanity.com just launched its 2026 Ambassador Scholarship: five $20K tuition scholarships to UG women & non-binary students in STEM! Applications close Monday, December 15: scienceambassadorscholarship.org

Our first big preprint, led by the great Dr. Qi Xue @Qi_Xue_94 . We discovered three mechanisms for olfactory adaptation in the fruit pest Drosophila suzukii, two of which are novel .Well Done Qi; you will be a great professor. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Excited to share our latest work - expressing the bacterial sodium channel in fly Kenyon cells surprisingly *decreases* their excitability, thanks partly to decreased endogenous sodium channels. This prevents learning and decreases odor-evoked calcium influx doi.org/10.1113/JP28...

From Sensory Detection to Motor Action: The Comprehensive Drosophila Taste-Feeding Connectome https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.08.25.671814v1

Mechanistic basis of dynamic and heterogeneous divisive normalization in visual cortex https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.08.19.671076v1

Neuronal diversity is written in transcriptional codes 🧬. But what is the logic of these codes that define cell types and wiring patterns? To find out we built a #scRNAseq developmental atlas of the Drosophila nerve cord and linked it to the #connectome 🪰🧠 #preprint thread ⬇️1/8

If you’re interested in ants, olfaction, gene regulation, or all of the above, here’s a new preprint from the lab for you. It describes an unorthodox mechanism of transcriptional interference by which ant olfactory sensory neurons produce a single functional receptor. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...