Great talking to Patrick Jack at Times Higher Education about my starting a group at the LMB in Cambridge, UK — people and institutions over here are getting things done. I've been amazed how quickly my capital equipment purchases are being processed — that's how you make the science go faster!

Connectomics is in an incredible exciting phase — it really feels like we are seeing breakthroughs every few months, now. This is built on decades of hard work and creative thinking, of course. Still, it is difficult not to feel as if even greater things are in the air.

E11's self-correcting neuron barcoding technology PRISM is getting us closer to scalable connectomics — this will enable connectomics research we've been dreaming of for decades 🌈🧠🔬

The Molecular Brain Mapping group at the MRC-LMB is hiring! 🌈🧠 I'm looking for people who are excited about developing multimodal analysis and visualization tools to capture the "hidden connectome," in a highly intersectional environment exploring ideas in meta-science. mrc.tal.net/vx/mobile-0/...

The Molecular Brain Mapping group at the MRC-LMB is hiring! 🌈🧠 I'm looking for people who are excited about revealing the many molecular layers of the "hidden connectome" with expansion microscopy, in a highly intersectional environment exploring ideas in meta-science. mrc.tal.net/vx/mobile-0/...

This is why I really appreciate Katalin Karikó's "Breaking Through" — her account is full of hardship. Most fascinating: her love for science and unquenchable curiosity never fade from her account — the hardship is the point, not something she ever let hold her back.

The cat is officially out of the bag! The LMB is home to a unique community of outstanding connectomics scientists — I'm so excited about adding my own molecular and expansion microscopy expertise to the mix! This is going to be the most exciting journey of my scientific career — more soon! 🌈🧠

It is concerning how much fundamental scientific infrastructure is at the whim of, ultimately, disinterested third-party funders. I don't know how to solve this, but scientific independence should become a movement. We need long-term stability. www.thetransmitter.org/community/ha...

Many of you in #AcademicBsky in the northern hemisphere might not know the dire state of Australian academia. This essay by Andrew Dean is a fair snapshot of the state of the sector. Thinking today especially of academics in some Aus unis facing mass job cuts ~ 3,000 jobs on the chopping block now.

🚀 Today we're launching the 'Night Science Institute', a non-for-profit organization to lead a cultural shift in science! You may say we're dreamers 😉, but we think we're not the only ones. Perhaps today you will join us to make the Day Science and Night Science parts of the process live as one!

A rare opportunity to work directly with the inventor of LICONN at Janelia! Mojtaba is pushing the frontier of the exciting new field of molecular connectomics, which promises to change how we map the brain. If you want to understand the brain and build the technology to do so, get in contact!

Woodstock.Bio2 in Prague and the woods of Bohemia was super fun! I tried to capture the smile of @chaichinta.bsky.social as best I could in this blind drawing game xD

ERC Starting Grant window will be moved from 2–7 years after PhD to 0–10 years! 🥳 This is obviously great but also slightly bizarre... I'm currently too old for an ERC Starting Grant but will be young enough again by 2027 — thank you for planning on making me feel young again in my late 30s, ERC 😆

E11 Bio is launching Volara: an open-source Python library for block-wise processing of large volumetric microscopy datasets! 🧪🔬 Volara features block-wise task abstractions, making scalable image processing more accessible, robust, and repeatable. Read more: e11.bio/blog/volara

I see the debate around THAT "research is becoming less disruptive" paper has reignited. Many reject its findings on the basis of flawed metrics. And, fair point. But this paper is not the only clue. I'm surprised there aren't more scientists who feel the truth of this in their bones.

This is one of those reviews where I kept thinking for some time "damn, I wish there was a good round-up of the extant literature..." — well, now we have one :D Very well curated resource on combining expansion microscopy and optical super-resolution techniques!

Maybe the most underestimated accelerator of research is sustaining a phase of deliberation before diving into a project. Once a project is started, it takes on a life of its own that makes course corrections difficult — and stopping pretty much impossible. So we better chose the project wisely.

I always knew the Canadians are not to be trifled with, and only conciliatory up to a point — and, important lesson: America isn't the irresistible force of nature it sometimes seems to be 😜

Having recently read "To Be Taught, If Fortunate" by Becky Chambers (recommended!), where chirality plays a major role — making the peptide part of an ExM membrane probe indigestible to proteinase K by using D- instead of L-amino acids is such a fun solution! 👏🥳 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Combining expansion microscopy with mass spec imaging has long been a dream of mine. This is technically very challenging (as you may guess) but the field has been seeing breakthroughs — most recently by Hua Zhang & Lang Ding et al. This is really impressive stuff! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

I did my PhD at the IMPRS Molecular Biology in Göttingen, Germany. There is also a Neuroscience sister program. Truly fantastic place with outstanding support for international students but rarely gets American applicants — check it out, you have options! uni-goettingen.de/en/663690.html

No matter where I live — I'll always come back to Vienna, my love, even if it means crossing oceans ❤️ Tonight's entertainment is a light show at the Votivkirche!

I visited Bratislava for the first time this weekend and had a great time — steeped in such tumultuous history, with a beautiful Old City, amazing food (especially baked stuff!), unique modern buildings (TV tower! UFO bridge!), great hikes, and friendly people!

Check out this @asimovpress.bsky.social essay by X. Balwit on connectomics & @e11bio.bsky.social! I particularly enjoyed Balwit highlighting how connectivity mapping & molecular annotation are BOTH essential. In the field, this is often a very polarizing question. press.asimov.com/articles/bar...

A compelling perspective on the scalability of connectomics by @logantcollins.bsky.social — the focus on hard numbers in the projections, in particular, is a rare treat! Contrasts the potential of EM and optical tech very nicely, too. Very enjoyable read! 🧠 www.cell.com/cell-reports...

I have a new favorite paper commentary title xD And not just because it's a commentary on PlantEx... Enjoy this gem, which I hope will be widely adopted: "Super-califragilisticexpialidocious-resolution microscopy: How expansion microscopy can be applied to plants" academic.oup.com/plcell/artic...

I'm really hoping to see some applications of PlantEx this year — tell your plant friends! 🍀 If you are a plant biologist yourself and interested, skeptical, or struggling implementing expansion microscopy — just write me; it's easy & I'd love to be of assistance! 🌺 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

I don't think I'm ever going to get tired of expansion microscopy, so this makes for a great first post here to look back on in the years to come 😄 Mouse brain slices, unexpanded and at two different expansion levels, skillfully prepared by @damstra.bsky.social and Aashir Meeran at E11 Bio! 🧠