Incredibly honored and grateful to have received the 2026 Postdoctoral Enrichment Program (PDEP) from the @bwfund.bsky.social! 🎉 Huge thanks to my advisor Dr. Mrinalini Hoon at @uwmadison.bsky.social and to my peers for helping me prepare a successful application. Excited for the road ahead! 🙌🏾

Science peeps, particularly trainees: When reviewing grants, it really, really helps if you have a Google Scholar page, an ORCID account, or a website that makes getting information about you, easy. Some sort of web presence. I'm begging you. Make it easier for study sections to give you money.

Eyewire II is a great research project from @philipp.hertie.ai's lab and international collaborators! Read @janlause.bsky.social's thread to find out more👇

Really lucky to have this group of new PIs to traverse academia together. Continuing the legacy of the tight knit, collaborative, and kind retina neurobiology community. #RetNeuroSRC @annaintegrated.bsky.social @juanonyme.bsky.social

Roux said he doesn’t know what retinal neurobiology is but is willing to learn if I bring him to the FASEB conference. Apologies if my poster is coated in cat hair…

Remember the current NIH director going on about protecting researchers from government censorship? Today his people called the police in to forcibly remove my colleagues from their own society meeting for sharing an editorial published in their flagship journal that was critical of him. Gift link

ScaLABrino does summer

Great day for Wisconsin Vision Walk! Thankful to Foundation Fighting Blindness for all they do to support patients and researchers!

Oof got another rejection this morning. But I’m batting 0.500 for grants submitted in Feb, so I’ll take that as a win.

New record: got a grant acceptance and rejection in the same day!

In exciting personal news, the lead water service line to my house is being replaced today! One of approximately 65,000 in the city of Milwaukee.

I get it. It sucks to review grants that would be funded under normal circumstances. But we are shooting our profession and our colleagues in the foot by not serving.

Let's talk about the surprising world of trout vision & what it says about how these aquatic hunters find prey. We start with a literal 'fish eye lens', which in trout is spherical, magnifies objects on the edge of their visual field by 3X. Like inverse telescopes, magnifying /peripheral/ vision.

It should be a human right not to live amid raw sewage. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/11/u...

#ARVO2026 Karaoke was lit last night! I’m so happy to be part of the fun, supportive, silly @medicalcollegeofwi.bsky.social community: we had almost our whole contingent there and ready to sing!

Really reading the literature has always given scientists in training a huge advantage. But these days, it seems like a superpower. So many people skim/AI summarize papers, but then you miss out on so much! It's like reading a description of a Van Gogh painting vs. staring at it for 2h.

horrible. this country’s turn away from science based medicine in the name of “wellness” is killing children and will kill a lot more. www.propublica.org/article/more...

Great scientists make great friends. #arvo2026 @suprajagv.bsky.social @wertlaboratory.bsky.social

PROUD PI! Taylor gave an amazing 1st conference talk, absolute pro. #arvo2026

Why am I sitting through an all male session at ARVO in 2026? So disappointing.

Three generations at #arvo2026!

TODAY (Sunday) come see Tiffany Yee and Ashley Rowe present their research in poster sessions this afternoon! Amazing work with retinal organoids and looking into steroidal sex hormones #ARVO2026 @arvoinfo.bsky.social

It’s @aoiplab.bsky.social, @icanhasmiranda.bsky.social and company at #ARVO2026

Off to #ARVO2026 with @icanhasmiranda.bsky.social and Ross!

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

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...

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.

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

😭😭 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

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/...

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

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

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.

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

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.

Yes. This is another reason why public funding is what we want - why the government should support science with democratic mechanisms of oversight. Public support means not having to beg toxic billionaires for money.