Phosphatidylserine exposure by developing astrocytes initiates microglia-mediated developmental cell death https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.20.700660v1

My department, Duke Neurobiology, is searching for a new chair. Ad below. Come work with me, @jmgrohneuro.bsky.social @ennatsew.bsky.social @jorggrandl.bsky.social @jnklab.bsky.social @sbilbo.bsky.social @neurocircuits.bsky.social and many other amazing folks! @dukemedschool.bsky.social

Our latest paper is out! While the circadian photoentrainment circuit has been extensively studied, the mechanisms regulating its development remain poorly understood. Here we show that retinal Müller glia play a key role in this process. Check it out! www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

I wrote a quick-start guide for people to replicate this across the country. It was, in our experience, a very effective way to get real action in a short amount of time. People are willing to talk to scientists! And when you provide everything, they are happy to contact their reps too. Try it!

I have previously posted about the slow issuance of NIH award in fiscal year 2025 compared to fiscal year 2024. jeremymberg.github.io/jeremyberg.g... These data were across all of the institutes and centers at NIH. The results can be examined for each institute and center. 1/n

Check out our new preprint! Microglia in different layers of the developing retina express distinct gene profiles - implications for how microglia influence development not just in the retina but throughout the CNS.

☀️📣 Looking for a STATE LEAD and VOLUNTEERS to help us #standupforscience2025 in North Carolina! Know someone interested? Fill out this form: airtable.com/app4h5wUssMG... #scienceforall #sciencenotsilence

Let's just say it gets bigger everyday... @standupforscifr.bsky.social We're doing this for the next generation of scientists. To uphold the integrity of science, protect its accessibility, and ensure its benefits serve all people. Join us. @standupforscience.bsky.social

The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, led by Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA) - a gastroenterologist with an MD from LSU, just released a report entitled NIH IN THE 21st CENTURY: ENSURING TRANSPARENCY AND AMERICAN BIOMEDICAL LEADERSHIP. Since he is the ranking Republican, 1/n

Horace Barlow, by all accounts, was thinking about 30 years ahead of his time. Here is a transcript of the opening keynote I gave at a symposium honoring Horace's scientific legacy: markusmeister.com/2024/12/14/h....

3 reviews on planning, execution, & validation of transcriptomic experiments in neuroscience published in @natureportfolio.bsky.social #NatureNeuroscience. A MUST READ if you're doing transcriptomics. 3 reviews, an amazing editorial, a beautiful cover – this is the issue of the year! (mini thread)

New preprint! A wonderful collaboration of our @FellerMarla lab with Matthew Po, and @shekharlab. Here, we dive into the impact of spontaneous activity on the transcriptome of retinal ganglion cells (RGCs), the sole output neurons of the retina. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

RNA-programmable cell type monitoring and manipulation in the human cortex with CellREADR https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.12.03.626590v1

“While even the agency’s defenders acknowledge that the NIH needs modernization, the radical reforms proposed would be difficult, if not impossible, without YEARS of legal wrangling and significant support from Congress” Exactly! So let’s work on allies in congress www.nytimes.com/2024/12/01/h...

Parable time: After the incredible successes of quantum electrodynamics in the late 1940s, particle physics went through what is now considered a pretty fallow period in the the 1950s and 60s. Many interesting ideas from that time that survived (selectively summarized much later in Coleman) 1/n

While our bodies seem static, our cells are constantly changing shape or on the move during tissue homeostasis or wound repair & even more dramatically during embryonic development, during events like gastrulation. Defining how cellular machines mediate these events is a key task for our field 1/n

This is one of my all-time favorite figures. It shows the size comparison between a retinal bipolar cell and a cortical pyramidal cell in a mouse. Scale bars are great and all but sometimes the sizes just don't compute. Masland. (2012). The Neuronal Organization of the Retina. 🧪 #neuroskyence

Excited to publish a broad set of enhancers to target interneuron types in the brain, along with a broad set of collaborators. Part of the BI armamentarium. Together this will help revolutionize the targeting of brain circuits.https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.07.17.603924v2

New @bioRxiv #preprint with @chiarafornetto.bsky.social and @teuler.bsky.social : www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

There are lots of us missing, but so many joining so quickly Please do share, and comment below to be added go.bsky.app/5f2V6L6 (microglia starter pack also here by @mancusorenzo.bsky.social - bsky.app/starter-pack...)

go.bsky.app/Eaua5Jk my starter for neuroimmunology

Neural development community coming together like Voltron with Sergiu’s Starter Pack!

The retina provides pretty pictures even when antibodies misbehave. I'm calling this one "bipolars in a starry sky".

"However, since the specific aims are abstracted for internal management and public reporting, including figures can interfere with application processing. Please advise your colleagues and other investigators not to include figures in the Specific Aims attachment of an NIH grant application."

Our paper on retinal mosaic patterning came out in today’s issue of Cell Reports. See below for a thread I wrote last fall and check out the full paper here: www.cell.com/cell-reports... Congrats to co-authors Chris Kozlowski and Sarah Hadyniak!

Once again, retinal neurons challenge textbook knowledge about wiring patterns and functional properties ❤️ 🧪 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

very nice! possibly relevant, we showed making more copies of a neuron is sufficient to create tiling by homotypic repulsion (heimanlab.com/content/2016...) -- I wonder what you minimally would need to express in another cell type to get it to be treated as part of the mosaic by starburst amacrines?

Many types of retinal neurons are arranged in strikingly regular patterns known as mosaics. The term "mosaic" means that neurons of a given type are spaced evenly across the retinal surface. How do mosaics form during development? Here's a 🧵 on our new paper

New paper just dropped - thread coming soon! But in the meantime here’s the link.

Development of a high-throughput pipeline to characterize microglia morphological states at a single-cell resolution https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.11.03.565581v1

Announcing the 2024 Gordon Research Conference on Visual System Development. We’re very excited about the program - whether you’re new to the meeting or returning, we hope you’ll apply! Trainees - also check out the GRS pre-meeting.

Question for retina folk. We observe defects in outer retinal lamination when we directly convert a majority of mammalian Muller glia to neurons. We can rescue this, at least partially, by simultaneously inducing glial proliferation. What is the most rigorous way to quantify this?

Hey this should be a pretty good first post: We just had a paper published! How do neurons avoid connecting to the wrong synaptic partners? https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1hYmA5Sx5gtx39