It's been quite a year for hypothalamic development. With this heroic analysis of developmental cell lineage, coupled with earlier multimode-based gene regulatory network analysis, the prosomere model looks like it has passed into history. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

On our evolutionary branch, a few genes got an update unique to humans. Some used to think those variants might have been difference that made all the difference: the key to becoming human. This month's Q&A with Barbara Molz @mpi-nl.bsky.social gets into new results that tell a different story. 🧪

Second, not only does Ptpb1 not repress neurogenesis in adult glia, it doesn't do much in the developing CNS either. Scratch another master regulator off the list. doi.org/10.7554/eLif...

A couple of papers are finally out too. First, Meis factors are (unfortunately) not sufficient to respecify temporal identity in retinal progenitor cells. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Recent Hopkins Hub article highlighting our work on optic nerve regeneration in axolotl. Congratulations to Ted! hub.jhu.edu/2025/12/11/s...

Very proud to have Leah working with us.

Leah Elias, Ph.D., is our Featured Fellow! Elias' postdoctoral research in @sethblackshaw.bsky.social's lab is dissecting how the need for restorative sleep is encoded into our brains at the level of cellular circuits and molecular signals. Her findings may reveal novel therapeutic targets ... 1/

Exciting new study shows that organoid-derived human retinal ganglion cells survive when apoptosis is genetically inhibited.

Our latest manuscript is out, and this one tackles the problem of cellular aging in the retina, using comparative multiomic analysis of zebrafish, mouse, and humans. What led us to work on aging after studying development and regeneration? Explainer follows./1 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

👁️The retina — strikingly conserved across vertebrates, but an oddity among bilaterians! So how did it evolve? With @mikebok.bsky.social, @neurofishh.bsky.social and @denilsson.bsky.social, we argue that retinal complexity may 𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑑𝑎𝑡𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑒𝑦𝑒 𝑖𝑡𝑠𝑒𝑙𝑓. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... 1/n

Fantastic workshop !!!! Thank you again Seth and Michel !!!

Our latest preprint is out, focusing on characterizing the response of Lhx6-positive neurons of the zona incerta (ZI) to naturally-occurring and experimentally-induced changes in the need to sleep, also known as sleep pressure. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Now up, positively our lab's last word on Ptbp1. Developmental loss of function Ptbp1 turns out not to regulate neurogenesis or cell fate specification at all, but does alter splicing patterns and slightly accelerates expression of photoreceptor-specific genes./1 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Job alert ‼️ @thomasdwkim.bsky.social and I are recruiting a postdoc in single-cell genomics via the NORPOD program of the @nordicembl.bsky.social. Collaboration between @fimm-uh.bsky.social and @dandrite.bsky.social on multimodal data integration in neurodevelopment. jobs.helsinki.fi/job/Helsinki...

New collaborative study out with Mark Wu’s group identifies a thalamic reuniens-zona incerta circuit as both responsive to induced sleep deprivation and essential for mediating recovery sleep. Further perspective on this work follows./1 www.science.org/doi/epdf/10....

Our paper on gene regulatory networks controlling hypothalamic and prethalamic development is now out in Cell Reports./1 www.cell.com/cell-reports...

Meis1/2 are transcription factors that are predicted to regulate early-stage temporal identity in retina based on single-cell multiomic analysis. We tested whether Meis1/2 were sufficient to confer early temporal identity./1 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

OK everyone, you know what to do, particularly if you live in a red state with a major medical school. donmoynihan.substack.com/p/the-nih-bu...

New preprint from former lab member Joe Bedont on Bmal1 in hypothalamus tanycytes. Tanycyte-specific loss of function of Bmal1 inhibits both weight gain on high-fat diet and tanycyte-derived neurogenesis. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Our latest manuscript (7 years in the works) tackles the question of how diurnal ground squirrels evolved a cone-dominant retina, in contrast to the ancestral rod-dominant retina retained by virtually all other mammals./1 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

The final version of our eLife manuscript on viral Oct4-mediated neurogenic reprogramming of retinal Muller glia is now out, with all reviewer comments addressed. elifesciences.org/reviewed-pre...

A second new study describes JACUZI-SD, a new method for efficiently and non-stressfully inducing sleep deprivation in larval zebrafish, which works by delivering randomized water pulses via a custom milli-fluidic device integrated with a 96-well plate. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Our latest manuscript on glia-to-neuron conversion in retina is out in @elife.bsky.social. We show that AAV-mediated overexpression of Oct4 induces glia-to-bipolar cell conversion in wildtype retina, and that this is greatly enhanced by loss of function of Rbpj. elifesciences.org/reviewed-pre...

Check out this tour de force work from @christ3na.bsky.social in my lab! Her studies reveal how developmental timing in the retina is controlled like an hourglass. The progenitor:neuron ratio shifts to control signaling levels and trigger photoreceptor development over time. Check it out!!

Standing up for science with lab members in DC yesterday.

Nice story on fabulous new work from @dingliu.bsky.social in my lab, just out today!...

Our new review article with @michelcayouette.bsky.social is out on temporal patterning and glial reprogramming in adult CNS, and its implications for treating degenerative diseases. All work from our lab discussed here was funded by NIH. authors.elsevier.com/a/1kfup3Q9h2...

Happy to make our own small contribution to this exciting new study from the Iijima and Sesaki labs on Parkin/PINK1-dependent regulation of mitochondrial fusion. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Get ready to #standupforscience in 2.5 weeks!

PA, NC, TN, MO hit very hard proportionally. Impact per capita impact in the last three comparable to California, with PA nearly 40% higher. Contact your Republican senators in these states.

Keep up the pressure. When you’re explaining, you’re losing.

Remind them of this.

End game for Vought and the Project 2025 coalition is impoundment to starve universities. They can do a lot from OMB. I think this indirect cost cut was a political error for them because it’s mobilizing people from many states. I think they saw it as a wedge issue against Harvard but miscalculated

These actions are highly unpopular, which is why they are using these illegal means to implement them. Simmering in their social media cauldrons for so long, they have been convinced that the wind is at their back, and they have broad support. We need to make it crystal clear that they do not.

Some numbers here.

The NIH Notice about the new indirect cost rate "plan"

This is the way. Republicans can't pass either a budget or a debt limit increase on their own. Ending this nonsense immediately is the price of cooperation. www.nytimes.com/2025/02/07/u...

Here's a very important update from the AAMC (Association of American Medical Colleges) on the proposed cuts to NIH Indirect costs: "Every year since 2017, the annual spending bill that funds NIH has included language prohibiting the Administration from making changes to F&A cost rates" 1/2 🧪

Call your R reps. If you have a regional accent, make the most of it. Tell them you didn't vote for CANCER and ask them what the hell they're gonna do to stop Musk and Trump. reps.fyi

For sympathetic members of Congress, emphasize the following: 1. This action is illegal, and just one of a series of illegal actions that threaten America's prosperity and security. 2. Democrats in Congress have leverage to stop these illegal actions in upcoming budget and debt ceiling votes.

Contact numbers for my fellow Marylanders and Baltimoreans: Senator Chris van Hollen 202-224-4654 Senator Angela Alsobrooks 202-224-4524 Representative Kweisi Mfume: 202-225-474 (MD 7) Representative Johnny Olszewski Jr: 202-225-3061 (MD 2) Representative Sarah Elfreth: 202-225-4016 (MD 3)

Ultimately, if this were to stand, there would be two major effects: 1: a ton of people will lose their jobs, and 2: we will cede being the world leader in scientific research. There is no amount of foundation or philanthropic money can replace this.

It looks like the massive indirect rate cut from NIH is not legal--and will face judicial challenges. But for scale, look at your state, and knock off about 25% to see the damage.

A good point to raise with your red state congress members.

this is the right framing

To my friends and colleagues at UAB, IU, UF, FSU, UL, WashU, OSU, CWRU, etc, etc. Call both your senators and your representative. They listen. Emphasize the direct economic impact of NIH research, and the indirect impacts on pharmaceutical/biotech. Underscore its relevance to national security.

A Primer on Indirect Cost Rates

On changes to #NIH indirect rates, there is a law in place that prohibits NIH from making such changes without the approval of Congress. See Division D, Title II Section 224 of The Further Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2024 (Public Law No: 118-47) grants.nih.gov/grants/guide...

We’re hiring a new research fellow. Come join us in London to study glial cells in the ageing retina using killifish as a model. www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/...