Using optogenetics to safely create arrhythmia on demand, Chao Zhou @washuengineers.bsky.social and team provide insight into the heart-brain connection and the broader systemic consequences of cardiac dysfunction. @science.org #WashUNeuroCommunity

Bruce Carlson of Biology @washu.edu and grad student Marty Jarzyna found that in electric fish, the MCA brain region is a hub for corollary discharge, the universal process of distinguishing sensory inputs from self vs from others. @currentbiology.bsky.social #WashUNeuroCommunity

Comparing conventional vs high-frequency spinal cord stimulation, Ismael Seanez @washu.edu and team found that conventional stimulation promotes motor recovery by recruiting sensory nerves, a more effective route to spinal cord injury recovery. @natrevgenet.nature.com

A new computational tool developed by Sheng Chih (Peter) Jin @washugenetics.bsky.social and team can identify repeat expansions in the gene RFC1, supporting broader genetic testing for those with idiopathic peripheral neuropathy. The tool is publicly available on @github.com.

A team including Ning Shen, Daniel Kerschensteiner and Philip Ruzycki @washumedicine.bsky.social showed that boosting expression of two candidate genes reduced photoreceptor death, maintained light-sensing capabilities of the retina and preserved vision. @cellpress.bsky.social bit.ly/4u0VLoM

Phase 1 trial results published in @natcancer.nature.com show that the DNA-based vaccine to treat glioblastoma developed by Tanner Johanns @washumedicine.bsky.social and team is safe and elicits robust and broad immune responses. @sitemancenter.bsky.social bit.ly/4fvSev8

Ryan Raut @washumedicine.bsky.social and colleagues use wide-field optical imaging to show that pupil dilation can predict brain-wide activity patterns such as changing neural activity, oxygen levels or metabolic activity. @nature.com #WashUNeuroCommunity

Yifan Dai @washuengineers.bsky.social and team show how biomolecular condensates create oxygen-based radicals without presence of enzymes, providing the molecular basis for study of the roles of condensates in cellular physiology and diseases. @acs.org

A team @washu.edu and Northwestern University led by Song Hu @washuengineers.bsky.social developed super-resolution functional photoacoustic microscopy (SR-fPAM) to image blood flow + oxygenation at single-cell resolution, with potential insight for microvascular health and disease bit.ly/3OeYFaC

How a ketogenic diet reduces seizures was unknown. New findings by Ghazaleh Ashrafi, Gabor Egervari and Vitaly Klyachko @washumedicine.bsky.social identify changes in genetic activity and in excitatory and inhibitory signaling. @cp-cellreports.bsky.social #WashUNeuroCommunity bit.ly/4swTuBR

Using computer vision + machine learning to study courtship behavior, Yehuda Ben-Shahar @washuartsci.bsky.social and team demonstrate the role of the visual system, and show that spatial recognition involves independent neuron populations, not a single specialized pathway. bit.ly/4loS6OY

Susan Stark and team at the @WashU School of Public Health find that a fall can be an early warning sign for Alzheimer's disease (AD). She suggests that older people who fall should be screened for AD, and people with AD should be screened for fall risk. bit.ly/40l9M4A

Fall 2025 @washu.edu Ignite Interdisciplinary Grant awards: How wildfires trigger headaches; Promoting healthy brain development; Safely prescribing opioids for sickle cell disease; and other efforts to solve society’s deepest public health challenges

A team led by Erica L. Scheller @washumedicine.bsky.social, with Xiao Zhang and others identified a potent pathway that begins in the brain and leads to loss of all body fat without reducing food intake. Findings published in @natmetabolism.nature.com. #WashUNeuroCommunity

A team including Rajendra Apte @washumedicine.bsky.social and Andria Ford @washuneurology.bsky.social demonstrate a correlation between macular volume and brain white matter loss in RVCL-S. #WashUNeuroCommunity bit.ly/4t1pleD

Chenyang Lu @washuengineers.bsky.social, Lisa Tabor Connor and team created a potential AI assistant that may help individuals with cognitive decline cook meals and maintain independence. #WashUNeuroCommunity bit.ly/4b9Jmt1

Recent work in functional imaging by Adam Bauer and @jordacular.bsky.social @washumedicine.bsky.social and Joshua Siegel published in @natneuro.nature.com, shows that psychedelics can reset brain network activity, possibly explaining their therapeutic benefit.

Timing matters: @erikherzog.bsky.social @washu.edu , Joshua Rubin and team analyzed 5 years of glioblastoma biopsy results and conclude, “We are hopeful that this chronodiagnostic approach will help identify better ways to treat this devastating disease.” Published in the Journal of Neuro-Oncology.

With $3.3M funding from National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health; Meaghan Creed @washumedicine.bsky.social hopes to pinpoint how, when and where dopamine signaling is disrupted in the brain as neuropathic pain becomes chronic. #WashUNeuroCommunity

Catherine Lang from the @washu.edu program in Physical Therapy pioneered wearable sensors to track/enhance stroke recovery and has been installed as the inaugural Barbara J. Norton Professor of Physical Therapy, the program’s first named professorship. #WashUNeuroCommunity

Collaborators Alexander H. Stegh, @washumedicine.bsky.social and Chad A. Mirkin at Northwestern University show that nasal delivery of spherical nucleic acids safely/effectively activates immune response to attack glioblastoma. @pnasnexus.org #WashUNeuroCommunity

The PRIME fiber optic device developed by Song Hu @washuengineers.bsky.social + @kepecslab.bsky.social @washuneurology.bsky.social uses optogenetics to deliver multi-site, reconfigurable optical stimulation through a single, hair-thin implant, enabling study of neural circuits and behavior.

Developing new machine learning and AI algorithms in AD, Ganesh B.Chand at @washumedicine.bsky.social MIR aims to be the first to systematically investigate the intricate relationships among biomarkers, neuropsychiatric symptoms, vascular risks and genetic predisposition. bit.ly/49KMAlR

The lab of Alexandra Rutz including Anna Goestenkors @washuengineers.bsky.social created granular hydrogels made of microparticles. With Barani Raman, hydrogels on tips of locust antennae enabled measurement of field measurements during locusts' odor sensation.

The BRAVE project @arpa-h.bsky.social aims to develop bioaerosol sensors to disrupt infectious disease transmission. WashU team includes Rajan Chakrabarty @washuengineers.bsky.social, John Cirrito @washuneurology.bsky.social, Carla Yuede in Psychiatry @washumedicine.bsky.social bit.ly/4nnINym

With funds from NIH, @alsassociation.bsky.social , and Target ALS Foundation, Macy Sprunger and Meredith Jackrel @washu.edu and collaborators purified and visualized Matrin-3, a major advance for studying the root causes of ALS. Findings published @cp-molcell.bsky.social . bit.ly/4oAYHq3

With an NIH grant, ShiNung Ching from the McKelvey School of Engineering and Ben Palanca @washumedicine.bsky.social seek personalized medicine strategies for treatment-resistant depression by developing a data-driven modeling method to identify how the brain responds to propofol. bit.ly/42Qv63q

New study by Joe Feldman @washuartsci.bsky.social and collaborators links lead exposure to lower standardized test scores. Using models to fill in missing lead exposure data, they predict an even stronger impact of lead on test score performance. #WashUNeuroCommunity bit.ly/3IN3rcS

A team including Jose Moron-Concepcion, Erik Musiek and Khairunisa Ibrahim @washumedicine.bsky.social and others generated a model to explore links between chronic pain and sleep disruption. Findings published in @npp-journal.bsky.social. #WashUNeuroCommunity

What do our words reveal about us? Josh Oltmanns of Psychological and Brain Sciences @washu.edu (Arts & Sciences) and colleagues are developing AI tools to help psychologists uncover hidden cues in language that reflect personality traits and mental-health signals. bit.ly/4ponpuX

A team led by @drbhooma.bsky.social @washuneurology.bsky.social @washumedicine.bsky.social identified an objective measure of leg dystonia in children with cerebral palsy, and mimicked this measurement in mice to better understand causes and possible therapies for dystonia. bit.ly/3JLFX7Z

Charles Conway (Psychiatry @washumedicine.bsky.social) reports a new study in which participants with treatment-resistant depression received vagus nerve stimulation for one year via a pacemaker-like device implanted under the skin. Patients reported improved lives. bit.ly/47OVZb7

Christina Gurnett and Lawrence Salkoff report in Frontiers of Pharmacology that fluoxetine (Prozac) improved seizure control in two sisters, patients of Dr. Gurnett with a rare pathogenic variant in the KCNC2 gene, identified by @tycheleturner.bsky.social‬. #WashUNeuroCommunity

Hong Chen @washuengineers.bsky.social in the Department of Neurosurgery aims to develop synthetic torpor (lower temp, metabolism) using focused ultrasound, with potential for stroke neuroprotection, organ preservation, lifespan extension and others. #WashUNeuroCommunity bit.ly/41gQs9x

A new study by Carlos Cruchage and Muhammad Ali WashU Psychiatry @washumedicine.bsky.social published in @naturemedicine.bsky.social used plasma from 10,500+ patients with Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's or FTD to create and validate a model to predict risk of each disease. bit.ly/41h5tYF

The @WashUNeurology @washuneurology.bsky.social has been selected by The Michael J. Fox Foundation as one of eight new sites for the Edmond J. Safra Fellowship in Movement Disorders. The new program will be led by Baijayanta Maiti, MD, PhD. #WashUNeuroCommunity bit.ly/3Uem3EB

A new paper by Theresa Gildner of @washuartsci.bsky.social and Annette Langer-Gould of Los Angeles General Medical Center finds that #MS is more common in Black than white women, and that disparities in the environment and the health system are driving that trend. bit.ly/3It6w19

Andrew Yoo and Zhao Sun of @washumedicine.bsky.social receive Morby Prize @curealzheimersfund.bsky.social ‪for seminal study in @science.org to show skin cells from patients with late-onset Alzheimer’s can be transformed into neurons and reproduce hallmarks of the disease bit.ly/4kxcmf6

The Saint Louis Science Center / WashU St. Louis Neuroscience Outreach invite you to Up Late: Experience Sound on July 19 where @washu.edu ‬grad students will be among the presenters testing the limits of human hearing. #WashUNeuroCommunity For tickets and more information, visit slsc.org/up-late

A collaboration among Ben Warner and Chenyang Lu at the McKelvey School of Engineering along with Sarah England and Peinan Zhao at WashU OBGYN shows sleep patterns in people experiencing pregnancy can effectively predict preterm birth. @washu.bsky.social #WashUNeuroCommunity bit.ly/4ns79bn

Keith Hengen @washuartsci.bsky.social notes that “criticality” - the tipping point between order & chaos - is the key to understanding how the brain works, & how to keep it free from Alzheimer’s and other diseases. Woodrow Shew @uarkansas.bsky.social #WashUNeuroCommunity bit.ly/3HTODZg

@iddrc-washu.bsky.social + The McDonnell Genome Institute @washumedicine.bsky.social secure a $12M NIH grant to form the Scalable Mouse Assay Center. Led by Joseph Dougherty - WU-SMAC will curate models of neurodevelopmental/psychiatric disorders known to be caused by a single gene mutation.

Rohit Pappu ‪‪@washuengineers.bsky.social - Center for Biomolecular Condensates with @stjuderesearch.bsky.social found 1) distinct mechanisms for biomolecular condensate vs fibril formation; 2) condensates are metastable sinks that detour proteins from pathological fibrillar solids.

Join the St. Louis Translational Pain Research Forum September 26-27, 2025, hosted by the Institute of Translational Neuroscience @slu-official.bsky.social and Center for Clinical Pharmacology @washumedicine.bsky.social Register Here: bit.ly/4n3Uo6F

Different kinds of mindfulness practices might be helpful for different varieties of anxiety, helping to illuminate how to match anxiety sufferers with more precise treatments. Resh Gupta and Todd Braver of @washuartsci.bsky.social #WashUNeuroCommunity

Astrocytes Take the Lead in Neural Rewiring - this discovery fundamentally changes current understanding about the determinants of brain network communication and activity. Dr. Thomas Papouin @washumedicine.bsky.social #WashUNeuroCommunity bit.ly/3FmVqK8

It's not too late - comment on proposed Schedule F! Under Schedule F, NIH Institute Directors could become political appointees. This is your opportunity to share your opinion: How would politicization impact the federal grant process? Deadline June 7! bit.ly/45ErmUK

A recent study from @washumedicine.bsky.social finds Alzheimer's drug safe, well tolerated in real-world use- beyond clinical trials. Dr. Suzanne Schindler - @suzanneeschindler.bsky.social Dr. Joy Snider #WashUNeuroCommunity Read More: source.washu.edu/2025/05/drug...

@fabbs.org webinar on responding to NSF grant terminations, for those in the behavioral and brain sciences: us02web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

FYI: The Spencer Foundation, Kapor Foundation, The William T. Grant Foundation, and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation have collaborated to offer $25K rapid response grants. "This rapid response bridge funding opportunity is for scholars and teams whose grants have recently been cancelled by NSF."