Had a lot of fun writing this primer with @elisagalliano.bsky.social! If you've ever been transported back to childhood by the smell of a familiar scent, you might enjoy this. We unpack a new study revealing how neurons generated around birth help encode these lifelong olfactory memories.

Why are childhood smells so good at ambushing you decades later? The Mandairon lab has the answers in @plosbiology.org ⤵️ @chloeg-neuro.bsky.social and I wrote the accompanying primer featuring literary detours and a baby mouse having a lovely day at the beach, because why not 🐭🏖️ shorturl.at/hSEcq

After almost 5 yrs, @ailiemcwhinnie.bsky.social hang up up her patch pipettes. Devastated to see her fly the nest but bursting with pride as she takes up a Maria Leptin @embo.org Science journalism Fellowship hosted by @science.org 🤯 World, get ready for the unleashing of her insane comms talent 🚀

Experimental conditions today: heatwave + electricity blackout across half the city ⚫🥵 Panel A lab: dark, silent, slowly turning into a sensory deprivation chamber besides for heath sensing Panel B nearby pub: own generator, AC, WiFi, cold beers. Choosing was really not that hard 🍻

Huge congratulations to Dr Gadiwalla @neurosana.bsky.social for "defending" her thesis in Iceland on Monday. I was hoping for Viking swords & saga-level battle, but alas only intellectual sparring ⚔️🇮🇸 Thanks to superb "opponents" @neurovenki.bsky.social @inchinn.bsky.social & main supervisor Petur🥂

In the middle of the hottest may ever, this also happened last week 🥵🤩 Congratulations Dr McWhinnie, you made it out of PhD jail *and* you survived 30°C in synthetic gown and hood full regalia 💯💪 @ailiemcwhinnie.bsky.social

A pretty Cambridge college, three meals a day, bursaries (and otherwise heavily subsidised), a stellar organising team (@chloeg-neuro.bsky.social 💯✨), and OPEN SCIENCE theory and practice. If you don’t apply, you’re either a fool, a predatory journal owner, or (fair enough) on holiday⤵️

📢 Applications are open for the “Open Science in Practice” Summer School! A week of talks + hands-on workshops on open science, electronics, 3D printing, and DeepLabCut for students & early-career researchers. 📍Homerton College, Cambridge (UK) 📅 Apply by 9 June 2026 🔗https://cambridgeopenlab.org/

Sniffing Out Distance: How the Brain Tracks Odor Dynamics 🧠 🧪🧬 #AcademicSky #higherEd. #Olfaction #Neuroscience www.mcb.harvard.edu/department/n... @luxorboero.bsky.social @josephdzak.bsky.social @paulmasset.bsky.social @siddjakes.bsky.social @neurovenki.bsky.social @harvardbrainsci.bsky.social

Excited to see our paper describing a stereotyped receptor map for smell (led by @davidhbrann.bsky.social ) out in the world! See below for short thread with open access link to paper www.nytimes.com/2026/04/29/s...

Berlin is always a treat, but this time even more so thanks to the top-notch hosting from @liviadehoz.bsky.social and her lab 💯 So much incredible neuroscience, art, food… but the coolest thing had to be hearing Danionella vocalisations, courtesy of @benjulab.bsky.social 🐟🎙️

Yesterday was @camneuro.bsky.social annual meeting and after a day full of science this is how they fed us. An no, not an April Fools joke or AI generated, just your "standard conference dinner" at Queens’ College because… Cambridge 😳 Back to tea room lunches now, dreaming of our Cinderella night 🏰

Pablo's @neuropablo.bsky.social data blitz talk was worth delaying lunch for at the Cambridge Neuroscience Annual Meeting! Chapeau to him and his lab supervisor Chloe 🎩🔥 @camneuro.bsky.social @chloeg-neuro.bsky.social

Check out our latest paper - In neural networks with inhibitory feedback, local homeostatic adaptation can conflict with adaptation at the network level doi.org/10.1113/JP29...

Southbank with @fim.bsky.social, feeling daft because we sort of got lost in our old stomping ground, but also like the last 10+years did not happen... Bit of art, bit of coffee at Monmouth, and a proper chin wag: living life like it's 2014!

Finally got around to updating the website with some rather important news: @ailiemcwhinnie.bsky.social passed her PhD viva with flying colours, and @annelisepaupiah.bsky.social has joined as a postdoc ✨ Not used to such speedy changes, things in Cambridge normally require a few centuries to move 😁

Spent the last couple of days in Rotterdam 🇳🇱 revisiting my villain origin story 😈🧠 Funny how the big things have changed over the last decade, the small ones in the lab absolutely haven’t, en de mensen zijn nog steeds mijn andere familie

Brief respite from Cambridge’s aggressively pretty medieval stones

First commute of the year: snow, river, swan. Adequate.

Hello 2026 👋 Please be good 👍

From our lab to yours, happy holidays and best wishes for a great start of 2026 🎄🎆✨ @chloeg-neuro.bsky.social @connordoyle.bsky.social @harinw.bsky.social @edinagulacsi.bsky.social @neurosana.bsky.social @ailiemcwhinnie.bsky.social @neuropablo.bsky.social @tess-stanley.bsky.social

Cambridge folks, last 2025 NeuroTalk 🧠🍻 Shameless lab nepotism, with @ailiemcwhinnie.bsky.social inviting @harinw.bsky.social to give a xmas-themed talk🎄 He’s already showing a shocking lack of talent with this boring, poorly written abstract, clearly only invited because he knows the right people 😉

Turns out that when you have great students, the biggest obstacle to giving PhD theses feedback isn't the content, or the synchronized deadlines. It's the feline co-supervisor who insists in contributing right to the bitter end 📖🐈‍⬛😬 @neurosana.bsky.social @ailiemcwhinnie.bsky.social

Navigate the rise and fall of research topics over five decades using The Transmitter's interactive map, which is based on a semantic analysis of nearly 350,000 abstracts in leading neuroscience journals. Explore more: www.thetransmitter.org/publishing/p... #neuroskyence #StateOfNeuroscience

Massive FOMo seeing the posts of people heading to #SfN2025, all that beach...ehm.. science I’m missing 😭 If you’re there, go say hi to the brilliant Bruno Pilcher and the INSS crew, who just built my lab a custom multiphoton microscope with a spatial light modulator that is pure chef’s kiss 👨‍🍳💋✨

New @pnas.org paper led by my brilliant colleague & mentor Sue Jones 🎉 Estrogen drives plasticity in kisspeptin neurons during a developmental critical window, shaping how the female brain regulates fertility. Congrats to Yuanxin + Leonie & Lauren, happy to have played a tiny part shorturl.at/bItti

Hello Bilbao

Posters printed (5x), talks made (2x), symposia chairing ironed out (2x), preprint posted (1x), whole lab on board (7x): 𝐁𝐢𝐥𝐛𝐚𝐨, 𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐰𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞! #ECRO2025 🇪🇸🧠👃 ecro2025.com @chloeg-neuro.bsky.social @harinw.bsky.social @connordoyle.bsky.social @ailiemcwhinnie.bsky.social @neurosana.bsky.social

Thrilled to share this work, long time in the making! Carried through creatively by @siddjakes.bsky.social after initial design & piloting by @trackingskills.bsky.social, with help from @trackingactions.bsky.social. Modeling in collaboration with Massimo Vergassola & Nicola Rigolli.

Cambridge Junior Research Fellowship = centuries-old academic golden ticket of 4 years’ ££ + total scientific freedom 🎟️✨ JRFs are among the oldest, most competitive, and prestigious postdoctoral fellowships -and often a stepping stone to a PI gig. @chloeg-neuro.bsky.social, I couldn't be prouder 🥲👏

Straight out of a black-and-white Hollywood classic 🖤🤍🐾 #caturday

I'm more than psyched to share that my PhD paper is now out in Neuron! It's also my first paper as both first author and corresponding author, which means even more to me! Thank my partner Chi-Chieh for her contribution to the most adorable ever graphic abstract 🥰

I mean, what better way to cherish your friend than dragging them to Cambridge to gift them a printed copy of your PhD thesis?! Slightly megalomaniac, but also kinda cute 🫠 @lihuang.bsky.social @adorrego.bsky.social

The coolest gift, a book-like printed version of @lihuang.bsky.social’s thesis! We’ll keep it in the thesis hall of fame of the lab 😁

The Latin has been spoken, hands held, gown hooded with new colours 🔴 Congratulations to 𝗗𝗿 𝗛𝘂𝗮𝗻𝗴 @lihuang.bsky.social on finally escaping postgraduate prison 🎓🎉

The paper is out in journal format at EJN! We thank the reviewers for their insightful comments, and how they shaped the final form of this story. Check it out here: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... As usual, it's open access! We're getting the data ready for sharing very soon 👀🧠🧪

Me (July 2024): yay, one year of sabbatical leave!! I will emerge rested, renewed, caught up with the literature, 3 papers deep ✨💪📚 Me (July 2025):

Shreya @shreyac.bsky.social gave an excellent talk at this week's UKSN conference in beautiful Cambridge. bsky.app/profile/elis...

It was incredible to get the opportunity to talk at UKSN XXX, about some of my PhD work so far AND some surrealism as well! I had a great time 🐭👃🔬🎨

In this lab, we dress like our slides: bright, sharp, slightly animated, and with a dash of surrealism 🟡🎨 Well done to @harinw.bsky.social for smashing his talk at the 30th UK Semiochemistry Workshop, and to all the PhD speakers in his session for a stellar set of presentations 👏

🚨 New opinion piece written with Tara Keck 𝘐𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘣𝘦𝘵𝘸𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘩𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘰𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘤 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨: 𝘈 𝘳𝘰𝘭𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘪𝘯𝘩𝘪𝘣𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 rb.gy/m862ik It's part of a special issue born from an unforgettable science extravaganza hosted by @kitp-ucsb.bsky.social in Santa Barbara🌴🧠 1/🧵

Happy solstice from Dick Grayson, the robin who spends every sunny lunch hour at the picnic table outside the department lobbying hard for food & co-authorship 🌞🪶🎓 #birdwatching #SummerSolstice

Blink and you miss them, 15 years gone in a flash 🙀🎂

If you're at #FRM2025 @fens.org in Oslo, go talk to my brilliant student @neurosana.bsky.social She's presenting a poster this afternoon on the 2nd half Iceland/Cambridge PhD thesis, very cool results 🧠 PS She's on the postdoc job market. Need an electrophysiologist? Snap her up!!

If you fancy interdisciplinary discussion about scent, smell, olfactory system and cie, I bet you will enjoy the following...👃🔬📚 Also July is the ideal month to be in Cambridge 🇬🇧

Olfaction geeks, come to Cambridge next month for a 30yrs old cross-disciplinary smell chat from philosophy to clinics to circuits 🧠👃 Headliner @dattalab.bsky.social on his lab's brand new olfactory maps study Networking lunches, fancy College dinner, student discount, plenty of coffee. Go register!

Very happy that this work is finally out in ‪@pnas.org‬! We show that synaptic and intrinsic forms of homeostatic plasticity sense distinct aspects of network activity, and can thus be independently recruited by distinct network functions. A thread: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Absolutely superb episode with Eve Marder ✨ I just wish it were three times as long... Thanks @nightsciencepod.bsky.social! Everyone should give it a listen (and then go read some books 📚)

🚨 Preprint alert! 🚨 Can mice estimate the distance to an odour source? New work led by Cristina Marin and colleagues, jointly supervised by @andreas-t-schaefer.bsky.social at the @crick.ac.uk and myself. Spoiler alert: Yes, they can! Read the paper here: bit.ly/43A9tF9 Short 🧵 below

Maps are everywhere in the brain...and finally we've discovered one in the nose! Led by @davidhbrann.bsky.social, we uncovered the logic that specifies the positions of each of the 1,000 sensory neuron subtypes in the nose and aligns their projections to the brain.👇👃see more details below👃👇