1/3 A real highlight of the International Symposium on Regulation of Cell Functions by Transient Receptor Potential Channels was a beautiful talk by Frank Zufall, who presented his life’s work on olfaction and its signalling mechanisms. 👃🧠

The latest version of our collaboration with Katalin Torok and her lab is up. We report some new glutamate sensors. Great work from Sara Bertelli in Berlin and the whole team in London (Holly & Oanh particularly).

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

 1/6

The Easter Bunny, Porto-style 🇵🇹

🌶️ Why does spicy food make you feel hot—but actually cool you down? 👇 (thread)

🧠🌡️ New Comment in Nature Reviews Neuroscience: Neural adaptation to climate change: mechanisms, limits and opportunities (with Patrick Haggard, UCL). 🔗 [ rdcu.be/e8BEJ ]

📣 Postdoc position in Heidelberg (Neurobiology × Engineering): neuromodulation of thermoregulatory brain circuits to improve health. Deadline: March 31, 2026.

Outside temperature affects our eating habits: when it’s warm, many of us eat less. How does the brain link thermal state to appetite — and prevent overheating? ☀️🧠

I just did an interview in the Sueddeutsche Zeitung about how we detect cold temperatures — the journalist, Felix Hütten, did a nice job to make it accessible also for non-scientists. www.sueddeutsche.de/gesundheit/m...

It was really one of the best conferences I have ever attended: great science in a friendly atmosphere and a gorgeous setting.

It was great having you all there! Excellent discussions and fun! I hope all of you made it home safely.

What a great Titisee Conference! “Warm, cold, and life” brought together brilliant minds exploring how temperature shapes the brain, physiology, and behaviour — from mice, wild animals to humans. Thanks to Boehringer Ingelheim Fonds for the support!

How does temperature interact with the brain? This coming Wednesday Eve Marder, Laura Duvall and I will talk about thermally-induced neural activity, plasticity and the like.

How do mice decide which ambient temperature they prefer? Our new eLife paper by Muad (@hummuscience.bsky.social) explores how TRPV1 and TRPM2 channels shape temperature preference. A quick breakdown 👇 🔗 pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40215103/

Amid the Trump admin's dismantling of the US scientific ecosystem, Nobel Prize-winner @ardemp.bskyverified.social writes on @cnn.com: "I’ve already been approached with an offer to relocate my lab to China, complete with a promise of 20 years of stable research funding." www.cnn.com/2025/04/09/h...

This was a great meeting to mix and mingle with scientists of diverse fields broadly interested in how long-term environmental changes modulate neurobiology - thank you @kavlifoundation.bsky.social‬ and @alleninstitute.bsky.social !

Very interesting study by Lin Yuan & Co in the Julius lab, explaining how sensory neurons can adapt to exitotoxicity and calcium challenges e.g. by Trpv1 activation. Spoiler alert: the electron transport chain is involved - we enjoyed discussing it in Journal club. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Bodo Ramelow übt sehr nachvollziehbare Kritik auch an der Rolle der Medien beim Wahlerfolg der AfD, weil alle über kein anderes Thema als „kriminelle Ausländer“ mehr gesprochen haben. www.deutschlandfunk.de/interview-mi...

Can we perform genome-wide screens in any cell type in the body?! Excited to share our roadmap for leveraging advances in sgRNA delivery, library design, and phenotypic selection to enable unprecedented genetic dissection of organismal physiology and disease. www.cell.com/cell-genomic...

On February 12, shortly before “High noon”, scientists at German research campuses, including here in Heidelberg, will stand up for Democracy: “facts, not fake news are needed for democracy”. See aufstehenfuerdemokratie.de/englisch/ – there is also find a Petition related to the cause. Get involved.

This is true. LA County has a population greater than that of 40 individual U.S. states.

Just finished the book "Transformer" by Nick Lane, great inspiration to evolutionary biologists, bochemists and, yes, also neuroscientists - its all about transformation of organic molecules and energy flow and not (only) about genes. Highly recommended nick-lane.net/books/transf...

A short, personal account how our recent heat acclimation study came to life -- paywall-free version can be found here rdcu.be/d38Xr

Interesting thoughts on the type of biological problems AI research can help with, the complexity of biology that requires human intellect (and cannot be replaced by AI -- at least not currently, but I think it never will...), and human language that connects it all.

Many academics point to bioRxiv as “the one thing improving science publishing”. If so, the one thing you all can do is persuade colleagues to submit and make this a norm. 1/2

Pain research: Exciting insight into "silent" (or "sleeping") pain-sensing neurons from the Lampert Lab!

A strong, long-lasting sensory stimulus—be it visual, auditory, olfactory or tactile—triggers plasticity in the neurons that respond to it. But @jansiemens.bsky.social wondered: Does the same principle apply to prolonged heat? By @callimcflurry.bsky.social www.thetransmitter.org/thermoregula...

My inaugural post on Bluesky - quite fittingly, I'm thrilled to share our first study on heat acclimation, which identifies a neuronal mechanism that drives heat tolerance in mice. (www.nature.com/articles/s41... ) Here is the gist 🧵 (1/n):

I applaud this initiative to try to break the fascination with journal name prestige. As long as I remember to do it, I put only the PMID for my papers in the slides for my talks. If @ardemp.bsky.social can do it, so can you!