So I found this guy at the game today. What a great unplanned meeting.

I swear it was cheaper when the other dude was president. What’s up with that?

They take it very seriously

Meanwhile, in Columbia….#MIZ

What else?

I’m pleased to report that I am no longer an Assistant Professor. It took a long time but just heard I was tenured. Thank you to lab members, colleagues, funding providers, reviewers, editors, and anonymous letter writers for all the support through the years.

Coming back to the lab after 4 weeks away and finding that AC failed over the weekend in one of my rooms….significant loss of stocks. Great way to restart.

Why do some neurons say “sleep” while others shout “stay awake!” — inside the same brain? In fruit flies, researchers just mapped the molecular chaos behind this nightly tug-of-war. And it’s wilder than we thought. buff.ly/nA9M8EM

Thanks for coming. Great to see you again

We wrote an insight on a recently published paper @elife.bsky.social from groups at Janelia and California State University. The paper describes novel cell-specific tools to manipulate central complex neurons in Drosophila. elifesciences.org/articles/106...

Rory….man. So deserved #masters

I must be doing something right.

Declan Rice…unbelievable. Two of the best free kicks I have ever seen.

Thank you @giorgio.gilest.ro for writing a primer for @plosbiology.org on our recent dFB paper. The fly is a great model but the tools we use need to be specific. journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...

Good to see this

Quite a cool composite figure they made here. Two of these lines are not like the other…

I am pleased to report that our paper on dFB neurons is available on Plos Biology. I am extremely grateful to Dave and Brandon, my grad students, Jen, our technician/lab manager and the many undergraduate students involved in this. journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...

What a week… I am laughing about it cause there is nothing else to do. I don’t believe in coincidences m, and also it is worth repeating again: 23E10-GAL4 is not a dFB-specific driver, so any reported sleep effects seen with that tool MAY or MAY NOT be dFB related. Time will tell….

Pink Floyd is my favorite band. « Sorrow » one of my favorite songs. The lyrics contain « And silence that speaks so much louder than words ». I could not agree more today. Unanswered emails….admission of guilt

Authors of a paper in review « your preprint is cool, it’s the most extensive dFB investigation that I have seen. Can I have your flies? » Same author once their paper is accepted coming to the same conclusion as our study. « No need to cite that work ». Make it make sense.

So I’m pleased to see that some people who were really adamant that the dFB does not modulate sleep have changed their minds. However I don’t understand why on earth they did not cite our work which demonstrates this and is now accepted at PLOS Biology. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

@neuropsi.bsky.social has a call for new group leaders. You can apply there : dao-neuropsi.cnrs.fr Deadline : May, 30

Journée portes ouvertes : le saviez-vous ? Les mouches drosophiles sont des modèles de choix pour les scientifiques. En effet, leur cerveau fonctionne selon les mêmes principes physiologiques que le cerveau humain.

Look who I ran into today

Abhi and Nina representing the lab at the undergraduate research day at the Missouri Capitol. I’m proud of them. Well done.

The lab has a new website. research.umkc.edu/dissel/resea...

An optimized appetitive visual short-term memory paradigm in Drosophila https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.02.28.640815v1

An optimized appetitive visual short-term memory paradigm in Drosophila https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.02.28.640815v1

Pleased to introduce our latest manuscript. A few years back I asked my grad student to implement visual appetitive learning in the lab. He did just that, and made some adaptations to a previous protocol. This is all Brandon’s work. Very proud of him and the work. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Postdoc opportunity in UK, Wellcome funded, 3 years, to investigate neurogenetics underlying how the brain changes throught life: plasticity vs degeneration. Drosophila, imaging, behaviour. Candidates of all nationalities welcome. Application deadline 19 March. Pls repost. #Drosophila #postdoc #job

Open positions in our lab. Just sayin…

☀️ JEFFERSON CITY, MISSOURI friends! We're Standing Up for Science in your state on March 7th, 2025, because science is for everyone! More information at www.standupforscience2025.org, and RSVP at this link: www.eventbrite.com/e/stand-up-f... (RSVP not necessary!) #standupforscience2025

I am deeply grateful to the extremely hard-working and dedicated staff at the NIH and NSF. Thank you to all of the Program Officers, Scientific Review Officers, Grants Management Specialists, and so many more, who have made the engine of US science and innovation run.

Do we need to get used to get catastrophic news about science in this country every Friday? I would like to understand what’s the endgame here? How is this going to benefit the country?

Absolutely, these cuts will affect the whole economy, way beyond academia

Kind of interesting that our University received R1 status in the current climate.

March 7. Stand Up For Science. Rallies in DC and nationwide. 🧪 Please visit the website and spread the word. www.standupforscience2025.org

The NIH’s new imposed standard indirect cost rate threatens life-saving brain & behavior research that benefits millions of Americans. SfN, with other scientific organizations,urge reversal of this policy & implore Congress to protect critical research infrastructure. Full statement: bit.ly/4jVJnCL

A group of us went to our Senators' regional offices this morning, met with the Regional Directors. They were engaged and know the importance of research (in general terms). However, they did not seem to know about what is going on currently (re: F&A). If you can make a similar trip - please do.

Man the chiefs suck…..it’s almost hilarious. This game is so over but I don’t want to hear anything about the refs helping them.

March for science? AAUP & other unions are working on action plans and messaging around NIH, DEI, and other slashes Feb 13: National call in 8PM (below) Feb 19: National day of action on campuses (details soon) Feb 25: National Action & Press Conference in DC (details soon) @aaup.bsky.social

Just woke up. Please tell me this whole thing is just a nightmare and it did not really happen. Meanwhile, this weekend I’m supposed to review a paper and write my RPRR. Why bother?? People don’t realize how much we work in academia, most are cheering for this. It’s terrible

Well, I guess we all need a drink after todays’ news. This decision is so shortsighted, it does not make any sense. It will kill smaller institutions like mine who do not sit on billions in endowment. Yet we do really important and cool science.The domino effect on the community will be devastating.

I have submitted a new R01 today. Normally I would celebrate. I always celebrate submissions. But this time I’m not even in the mood. These are depressing times.

Don’t want to brag but since I joined KC we have gone to 5 SB. Surely that can’t be a coincidence, right?

The Chiefs…. Obviously.

Very worrying news from the NIH. I have been working on a new RO1 to submit for the February deadline. Don’t even know if it can be submitted now?

As much as I agree that some of the calls were dodgy against Houston, you can’t blame the chiefs or the refs for the numerous f… ups done by many teams against them all season long

I usually don’t drink on a Monday. But sometimes you get an email telling you you have been waitlisted for a meeting you have attended 4 times….go figure. Then you get another email from an editor with the word ACCEPTED….the high and lows of this job. The drink is for the second email.

Snowmaggedon is here. It’s only 11 and it’s supposed to continue snowing until tonight. I’m thinking university will be closed tomorrow.