Boris D Heifets
@theborislab.bsky.social
📤 1129
📥 310
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Anesthesiologist, neuroscientist, amateur psychiatrist. Mouse rave DJ. Legendary dancer.
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Boris D Heifets
Tyler Ekins
7 days ago
Excited to share our latest publication -- psychedelic drugs can enhance synaptic connectivity of neurons not expressing 5-HT2ARs (but requiring 5-HT2AR expression in the input neurons -- lots in the supplementals too!)
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
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Psychedelic neuroplasticity of cortical neurons lacking 5-HT2A receptors - Molecular Psychiatry
Molecular Psychiatry - Psychedelic neuroplasticity of cortical neurons lacking 5-HT2A receptors
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41380-025-03257-w
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Boris D Heifets
Allen Institute
about 1 month ago
Meet one of the winning teams of our MapMySections challenge! 🧠📈 Daniel Rijsketic, Austen Casey, and
@theborislab.bsky.social
developed UNRAVEL, a tool that precisely maps fluorescent labels across the mouse brain. Join us on 8/27 for a webinar and live demo:
alleninstitute.org/events/mapmy...
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Boris D Heifets
Allen Institute
about 2 months ago
🎯 Algorithm Accuracy Award 🎯 Daniel Ryskamp Rijsketic, Austen Casey, and
@theborislab.bsky.social
(
StanfordMedicine.bsky.social
) created UNRAVEL, a Python library for whole-brain fluorescent label mapping:
b-heifets.github.io/UNRAVEL/
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Ted Price
2 months ago
Hope this paper gets some recognition.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Basic pharmacological principles are kinda important for experimental design.
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Off-target effects of PLX5622 revealed: mixing microglial function in anesthesia and addiction withdrawal
Microglia have gained increasing attention as important regulators in the brain. Acute microglial depletion using the colony-stimulating factor 1 receptor (CSF1R) inhibitor, PLX5622, has become a popu...
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.07.18.665493v1?rss=1
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Sam Woodburn
2 months ago
#GRCPsychedelics
- What a blast! It was great to talk science with so many incredible people in the field. Can't wait to do it all over again!
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Melissa Herman
2 months ago
So happy the first
#GRCPsychedelics
was such a success. It was great to see everyone and share all the amazing science and community. Thank you to all the speakers and congratulations to the travel awardees!!
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Melissa Herman
2 months ago
So grateful to
@alexkwan.bsky.social
and
@vyazovskiy.bsky.social
for such a great program. Excited to plan for 2027 with
@viditavaidya.bsky.social
and new vice chairs
@theborislab.bsky.social
and
@mikaelpalner.bsky.social
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Alaina Jaster, PhD
2 months ago
I’ve been really feeling down recently, feeling a lot of stress around my job situation + coming to terms with identity shift. Being at the GRC has filled me with such love, such a sense of community and reminded me of my hard work and that I can continue to inspire people. Thank you ❤️
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Jibran Khokhar
3 months ago
We’ve got some with psilocybin and nicotine withdrawal that we really should publish!
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How much is the psychedelic experience influenced by what we see, hear and read? We made a way to measure it: The Psychedelic Media Exposure Questionnaire - developed by Audrey Evers, Chris Kelly,
@shaylalove.bsky.social
,
@tehseennoorani.bsky.social
, validated on >600 respondents. Link below:
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The Psychedelic Media Exposure Questionnaire: The development and validation of a new scale assessing psychedelic-related media exposure
Rationale: A reliable and valid instrument is needed to measure exposure to psychedelic-related media to examine the impact of media and expectations on outcomes in psychedelic clinical trials. Object...
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.06.30.25330536v1
3 months ago
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Max Wolff
3 months ago
This seems relevant to psychedelic research, where expectancy is still often viewed only as a baseline variable. We should also consider its dynamic changes, how (psychedelic & other) treatment experiences influence them, and their impact on outcomes.
@psybalazs.bsky.social
@theborislab.bsky.social
add a skeleton here at some point
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Boris D Heifets
Alex Kwan
3 months ago
Great lineup of speakers from preclinical to clinical, drug discovery to plasticity, and animals to human research. 🔥
@argelaguilarvalles.bsky.social
@rcbagot.bsky.social
@fredbarrettphd.bsky.social
@theborislab.bsky.social
@kepecslab.bsky.social
@nuro-science.bsky.social
@amykooz.bsky.social
...
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Psychedelic Brain Science
5 months ago
The final episode of Season 4 of Psychedelic Brain Science discusses a recent preprint that gets at the heart of reproducibility in science. This body of work titled "A multi-institutional investigation of psilocybin's effects on mouse behavior" can be found on BioRxiv!
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bioRxiv
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/
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Does ketamine reset the placebo response? Some interesting links emerging between opioids, placebo antidepressant responses, and maybe a ketamine mechanism to links them. Thx PsyPost for the writeup, lead author Theresa Lii. PsyPost write up here:
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Unexpected results from a ketamine study might reshape depression research
A new study suggests chronic opioid use may interfere with the brain’s natural ability to respond to placebo antidepressants. Surprisingly, ketamine’s antidepressant effects remained intact—raising in...
https://www.psypost.org/unexpected-results-from-a-ketamine-study-might-reshape-depression-research/
5 months ago
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What an afternoon! Never quite expected to have a serious conversation about drugs and dreaming, recorded no less - thank you Heather and Christof!
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5 months ago
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Boris D Heifets
Allen Institute
5 months ago
Can altering cognitive states under anesthesia impact trauma?
@theborislab.bsky.social
, Dr. Berlin, and Meritorious Investigator Dr. Christof Koch explore the latest research on Ketamine, the placebo effect, and the potential impact of anesthesia-induced dreams. 🧠✨ 📺
youtu.be/ssbz0nKVw5Q
🧠📈
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The Placebo Effect with Dr. Boris Heifets
YouTube video by Unlikely Collaborators
https://youtu.be/ssbz0nKVw5Q
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Boris D Heifets
josh hardman
6 months ago
I spoke to
@theborislab.bsky.social
&
@alexkwan.bsky.social
about a new preprint that has caused lots of discussion among psychedelics researchers. The 5-lab study failed to replicate many of the more exciting persistent effects of psilocybin in mice. Preprint:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
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Boris D Heifets
Stephen V Mahler
6 months ago
This is a very important paper That will be discussed for many years
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Alex Kwan
6 months ago
A much-needed joint effort from five labs to see which behavioral effects of psilocybin in mice are reliable, and which may be spurious 🐁🍄
@theborislab.bsky.social
@mazenkheirbek.bsky.social
@indigenerd.bsky.social
Vikaas Sohal and Stephan Lammel 👏
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
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A multi-institutional investigation of psilocybin's effects on mouse behavior
Studies reporting novel therapeutic effects of psychedelic drugs are rapidly emerging. However, the reproducibility and reliability of these findings could remain uncertain for years. Here, we impleme...
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.04.08.647810v1
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Sleep people- any experience w home sleep staging via wearable that allows access to raw data? Thinking re Oura, Fitbit or Whoop.
9 months ago
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Boris D Heifets
REMAP Therapeutics
9 months ago
Everyone should do a study with
@theborislab.bsky.social
..!
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Boris D Heifets
L. Alison Mcinnes MD, MS
9 months ago
Join me in being a research subject for the
@theborislab.bsky.social
dream study. It is a civic duty to be a participant as well as a researcher. I am wearing an EEG cap, face muscle and cardiac monitors etc. I hope my data helps patients with
#ptsd
dream better. Thx Pillerin Sikka and Ben Deveret
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Suresh Muthukumaraswamy
10 months ago
We’ve done this is humans. Paper in submission …
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Boris D Heifets
L. Alison Mcinnes MD, MS
10 months ago
Dream study with
@theborislab.bsky.social
@laurahack34.bsky.social
@acnporg.bsky.social
join me in being a research subject!
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Boris D Heifets
L. Alison Mcinnes MD, MS
10 months ago
I am a researcher and now I am a research subject in
@theborislab.bsky.social
&
@laurahack.bsky.social
dream induction study. I am at ACNP with Laura who is presenting a poster describing it
@acnporg.bsky.social
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Boris D Heifets
Alice Ting
10 months ago
Could one envision a synthetic receptor technology that is fully programmable, able to detect diverse extracellular antigens – both soluble and cell-attached – and convert that recognition into a wide range of intracellular responses, from gene expression and real-time fluorescence to modulation..
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Boris D Heifets
Mazen Kheirbek
10 months ago
I am excited that my first Bluesky post is to share our new paper in
@natureportfolio.bsky.social
- "Understanding the neural code of stress to control anhedonia." With
@fxia.bsky.social
,
@valeriafascianelli.bsky.social
and
@stefanofusi.bsky.social
.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
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Understanding the neural code of stress to control anhedonia - Nature
Examination of the neural activity in the basolateral amygdala and ventral CA1 of mice during tasks or rest following exposure to social stress reveals signatures of resilience and susceptibility to s...
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-08241-y
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Boris D Heifets
L. Alison Mcinnes MD, MS
10 months ago
I am a research subject in a highly innovative study that will look at whether anesthesia induced dream states can help patients with PTSD. I will explain more as I progress through the initial phase which will optimize dream induction.
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38476046/
@theborislab.bsky.social
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Reduction in Trauma-Related Symptoms After Anesthetic-Induced Intra-Operative Dreaming - PubMed
Reduction in Trauma-Related Symptoms After Anesthetic-Induced Intra-Operative Dreaming
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38476046/
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Boris D Heifets
Parker Singleton
10 months ago
hi! still growing this list of amazing peeps!
go.bsky.app/32Le3SU
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Daniel Cardozo Pinto
10 months ago
My paper is out!! 🎉 "Opponent control of reinforcement by striatal dopamine and serotonin", @Nature Here, we show that dopamine and serotonin signals form a gas-brake system for reward in the mammalian brain THREAD ⬇️ 1/n
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Has anyone ever just withdrawn a paper from a journal? We have an exciting finding that's been "with the editor" for six weeks, *after* reviews are in. At least two people reviewed. Editors aren't responding. Seems wild to completely stall at this stage.
10 months ago
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Boris D Heifets
Alex Kwan
10 months ago
How to get your psychedelic research proposal funded? 📝
@sofiyahupalo.bsky.social
(NIMH) and Tanya Ramey (NIDA) will hold an informal panel to discuss institute goals and funding priorities at the
#GRCPsychedelics
7/13-7/18/2025 Registration for the meeting is open -
www.grc.org/neurobiology...
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Boris D Heifets
Ken Paller
10 months ago
Dream Science 2.0 — AKA New Strategies for the Cognitive Science of Dreaming - Online ahead of print in Trends in Cognitive Sciences 2024 doi: 10.1016/j.tics.2024.10.004. by Remington Mallett, Karen R Konkoly, Tore Nielsen, Michelle Carr, and Ken A Paller
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Eiko Fried
almost 2 years ago
1/12 New paper on psychedelics as treatments for mental health problems is out! We discuss 10 challenges which limit conclusions that can be drawn about safety/efficacy of psychedelic therapy. We share a checklist for journalists, policymakers & others to assess quality of studies. Brief thread:
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History repeating: guidelines to address common problems in psychedelic science - Michiel van Elk, E...
Research in the last decade has expressed considerable optimism about the clinical potential of psychedelics for the treatment of mental disorders. This optimis...
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/20451253231198466
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