Why do we feel an irresistible drive to sleep after being awake for too long? A recent study led by Prof. Anissa Kempf has revealed that, in fruit flies, a small set of neurons can sense when the fly needs rest. Learn more 👉 www.biozentrum.unibas.ch/news/detail/... @erc.europa.eu @snsf.ch #sleep

Congratulations to my friend Anissa Kempf for this paper emphasizing the need to use the proper genetic tools when linking sleep effects to specific neurons. This was needed. Well done www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Yes yes yes

This list is full of truth. As a recently tenured faculty I agree 100% with all of these advices.

Unbelievably nice weather for this time of year. Merry Xmas to all

📢 Join us, the Haberkern lab, @uni-wuerzburg.de for a postdoc studying neural circuit mechanisms of navigation. You’ll spearheading neurophysiology experiments on our brand new 2P! ⏳ Apply by 28th February 2026 Details: www.haberkernlab.de/docs/ENPostd... #neuroscience #academicjobs #postdoc

My 22 yo daughter is back for the holiday and playing her music. Live from KC it’s whole lotta love. And I love her so much.

Want to carry a PhD in London, in one of the best Universities in the world? We have two calls for PhD students to join our lab at Imperial College. Deadline January 12th. More details for applications in the link below. Feel free to keep in touch!

That’s timely. We recently got a review that was « interesting »….

I dealt with these last weekend. Looks like I did nothing. Not a fan….

🚨 Postdoc openings! We’re looking for postdocs excited about sleep, synapses & cellular neurophysiology (fly or mouse). Yes, we also have mouse projects! See details: www.flysleeplab.com/positions

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.