Please share widely. The new (simpler) MIRA R35 for Early Stage Investigators (ESI) NOFO is published. First due date is 10/2/2026. files.simpler.grants.gov/opportunitie...

🚨Exiting new preprint from Lerner Lab postdoc AJ Miller-Hansen examining the thalamus as a physiological driver of local, acetylcholine-dependent dopamine release! 🚨 DA-ACh interactions have been 🔥but what’s really going on in vivo? We think we have some answers. #neuroskyence🧪

Really pleased that this work with @dudman.bsky.social is now out in Neuron: A global dopaminergic learning rate enables adaptive foraging across many options

I’m very sad to share that Howard Fields has died. He made seminal discoveries in pain modulation, placebo, and addiction. He was also a wonderful mentor and friend who taught me how to think about the brain and the joy of scientific discovery. www.iasp-pain.org/publications...

Feeling pretty relieved I'm not teaching this semester with the Canvas ransomware hack that is coinciding with finals week

Kind of surprised that this hasn't been bigger news. It's finals week for a whole lot of universities, and yet, Canvas (a learning/grading platform used by ~9,000 schools globally) is currently inaccessible because of a pay-or-have-your-data-leaked hack. www.insidehighered.com/news/tech-in...

Happy to share with you that we have a new preprint up on @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social " Biased signaling at NTSR1 differentially regulates inhibitory synaptic transmission in the extended amygdala and suppressess motivated feeding in mice" www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Free and open-source images, icons, and tools for creating scientific illustrations doi.org/10.59350/5zt... 🧪

I am looking for a new reserach technician. This is an entry level position ideal for a graudating senior. Please re-post and send candidates my way! [email protected]

Sharing this screen grab from a friend at NIH (with permission). This is a checklist program officers have to complete before a grant can be awarded. The first question: "Is this grant All Clean/Clear in the NIH Text analysis Tool?" 🧵1/3

Down 70% (!!!) from the before times. We've plateaued and it's only April. So, so many labs will close this year.

The number of NIH competitive awards is down 50% from 2025, and down ~70% from prior years. Even if they catch up by the end of the year, only wealthy institutions can bridge these huge funding gaps.They're killing science-and violating the constitution-by weaponizing the bureaucracy

We're hiring a Research Assistant - Hope you'll consider applying if you're interested in a career in behavioral and/or addiction neuroscience! Open to either BS or MS level candidates, ideally looking for 2+ years in this role. Deadline is May 13. careers.drexel.edu/cw/en-us/job...

a lot of the feedback we received talked about how INCLUSIVE the meeting is, and that everyone loves that! Thanks we try hard, and for those that didn't exactly feel that way, we're going to try even harder next year! We definitely want to keep it that way, and you're all invited!

The scientific program it is what YOU make it (You are what you eat so to speak!) We get lots of feedback/some of it is contradictory ("there is too much addiction" "the substance [use] research portfolio seemed a bit low this year.") In general people want to see more of neuroscience represented!

Number 2: as program chair for the 2027 and 2028 meetings, you're going to be hearing a lot from me this year. I will be asking you to submit panels and posters to come to #WCBR2027 in the not too distant future, so start thinking about these things NOW!

Number 1: thank you to everyone who filled out the survey for the 2026 meeting. The whole board goes over it and we really appreciate the feed back! We want to make #WCBR the meeting that everyone wants to attend, and we do really try hard to make adjustments to make things better!

Just got off the #WCBR executive committee meeting. We're starting to plan things for #WCBR2027 and we need your help!

This rather cryptic tweet apparently refers to a plan to boot SROs off their study section and move them to another one if they’ve served “too long”. Unclear what interval will qualify for this movement. Domain expertise is apparently a bad thing.

As a reminder: I am hiring a postdoc and at least one research assistant for a project on VTA circuits and cognitive function that starts this summer. Get in touch if interested!

Our NIAAA funded Post-DoctT32 has received its NoA (non competing renewal). Are you looking for a post-doc and interested in joining our amazing center? If so, reach out! Here is a convenient form that you can use to upload CV and a cover letter! unc.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...

Incredibly proud of this paper led by @ossamaghenissa.bsky.social and @mathiasgua.bsky.social titled Basolateral 'Amygdala Astrocytes Encode Anxiety States'. www.cell.com/neuron/fullt... 🧵 below

13% success rates for FY2025 grant awards. NIH finally releases some FY2025 success rate data drugmonkey.wordpress.com/2026/03/18/n...

BREAKING: @delauro.house.gov announces at a House Oversight hearing with NIH director Jay Bhattacharya that OMB approved the agency's apportionment last night. That means the agency should have access to its appropriated funds — 42 days after its spending bill passed.

Here are some of the apportionments that have come in: - NIDDK, 200m for type 1 diabetes - NIEHS, 80m for superfund research - NIMH/NINDS, 115m from Cures Act - Buildings and facilities, 2.5m - ARPA-H's full apportionment (2/2)

Update 3/16: A very small handful of NIH apportionments have come through — with big exceptions. The ones that OMB has approved are all Congressionally mandated/earmarked. The broad discretionary funds that fund most NIH grants not yet been authorized. (1/2)

9/25

The data is in: the NIH goalposts have shifted. What were once almost certain fundable scores have become coin flips and what used to be likely grants have become aspirational, leading to fewer awards. Another manifestation of how HHS policies have led to fewer awards and less science.

UAB is recruiting neuroscience faculty at two different levels - come join our vibrant neuroscience community!

Excited to share our new paper: We uncover a locus coeruleus→amygdala circuit linking β-adrenergic signaling to transcription regulation in defined amygdala cells during memory reconsolidation—+ stress or elevated noradrenergic signaling at recall can strengthen memory. www.cell.com/neuron/abstr...

When someone says „Scientists do not want you to know“ you can dismiss everything from there on. Scientists want you to know. They are desperate that you know. They can’t shut up about what they found out and want you to know.

For extra reading about this issue, I recommend checking out the @centeronbudget.bsky.social report, "Trump Administration Abused Spending Safeguards to Advance Its Agenda — and Illegally Hid Its Actions" You know it's bad when the whole case study about weaponizing apportionment is about NIH

Um this is not normal. Haven’t ever seen this in 10+ years in San Antonio

$300 Million in jet planes lost to a fuckup. That’s 83 five year NIH R01 grants burned in minutes due to error, aka poor execution of this unnecessary war which serves only to make the world more dangerous.

New and Competitive Renewals Only 803 grants have been made compared to ~2650 in fiscal years 2023 and 2024 through February 20. All institutes and centers (include OD now) have made awards except NIAAA, NLM, NCCIH, and FIC. 3/4

🚨📃New Wassum Lab Paper 📃🚨 Out today, Melissa Malvaez, Nick Griffin, Andrea Suarez & team discovered that dopamine can enable reward predictions to shape how we pursue reward. Surprisingly, we find that dopamine can constrain instrumental reward seeking. www.jneurosci.org/content/46/8... 🧵👇🏻

I am so proud to share @forrestdrogers.bsky.social’s postdoctoral magnum opus, now out in @nature.com! Forrest discovered a novel role for Agouti in the MPOA of the hypothalamus to integrate socio-environmental information to flexibly tune paternal behavior www.nature.com/articles/s41... Thread! 👇🏻

DOG AT THE OLYMPICS FULL COMPETITION HIGHLIGHTS

New paper from lab on how VTA dopamine neurons + GABA inhibition contribute to punishment learning. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Very excited to post our paper led by @daburke.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41... where we uncover a simple mathematical rule underlying how brains learn that a cue predicts a reward. 1/26

PSA on PMC compliance with accepted manuscripts at journals with a publishing embargo. Apparently you need to upload a version of the manuscript yourself and the paper will get a PMC number. This original PMC will the get overwritten by another PMC number when the embargo is lifted

4,049 and counting. Attrition is real and ongoing. Schedule career / policy, the new pmap rationing, deranging the MSPB, ...

Don’t get me started on the hypocrisy of this organization aligning with the current NIH/HHS “leaders”: kill all the animals you want to eat more and more animal flesh and fat but it is unethical to use animals for life saving medical research

$1.65M per day in DC alone. That’s approximately two NIH R01 Grant *years* burned per day. Ninety *five year* R01s projects burned in the last seven months with no end in sight. Instead of lasting scientific advance we get….what? Civil rights violations and authoritarian replacement of democracy.

No matter who you are cheering for this Super Bowl I hope at this we all can agree that Chris Collinsworth should not be announcing this game

👇New biosketch requirement update. “After evaluating the number and types of recent technical inquiries we received to both the SciENcv and eRA Service Desks, we recognize the difficulties these issues have had on the community’s ability to comply with the original timeline of January 25, 2026.” 👇

We could all use some extra stress #resilience rn. But how does it work in the brain? On the surface, resilience looks like ignoring stress. Does the brain fail to respond? Or are active adaptations required? Or are resilience and susceptibility divergent paths? doi.org/10.1016/j.celrep.2025.116867

Okay #WCBR2026...this time I'm not messing around, bringing my own karaoke machine to this meeting. Get ready to rock!

The language in the bill restricts the amount of multiyear funding to the level is fiscal year 2025. The Senate bill limited it to that level in fiscal year 2024. This is not good news...better than nothing, but thousands of lost projects. 3/5