Really excited to share our new preprint. Here we use our holographic optogenetics to ask a key question about how neurons need to fire to drive movements. We find a bunch of interesting things about what does, and doesn't drive movements. Brief summary below www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Excited to share this preprint from @ianoldenburg.bsky.social . To evoke movement with holo stim, you need the right pattern at the right time! Interestingly, the preparatory state before spont motion is not the same as the state permissive for evoked motion. Dig in! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

We are hiring a postdoc! We study neural activity and movement using holographic optogenetics, imaging, and recordings in awake mice. My first postdoc, Masashi, is starting his own lab, so now we have an opening. Seeking candidates excited about circuits, optics, coding, or ephys. oldenburglab.com

Last summer @cshlaboratory.bsky.social I met their poet-in-residence Liza Katz Duncan, and we ended up talking about one of academia’s biggest problems: our lack of communication with the broader public. She wrote a great essay about it. www.strangepilgrims.com/p/we-need-to...

Rutgers Health put together a gorgeous new research video, with lots of shots from our lab throughout. They even lit our holography rig in wildly impractical but very snazzy colors! vimeo.com/1158839664?f... @rutgersupress.bsky.social @rutgersbhi.bsky.social

The Constitution is being shredded by this president and his Project 2025 team now in the White House- from abolishing agencies created by Congress, to seizing spending power, to accepting bribes (emoluments), to war and tariffs without Congress. We must not normalize this.

Proud to share that my first postdoc, Masashi Hasegawa, will be starting his own lab as a Chica and Heinz Schaller Research Group Leader at Heidelberg University! He’ll be continuing our holography-based work on cortical circuits. Phenomenal scientist, even better human.

Nature research paper: Connectivity underlying motor cortex activity during goal-directed behaviour go.nature.com/4pFLw7V

A bad thing is unfolding at NIH this week: It looks like the Trump administration is trying to replace key civil servant scientific leaders, the Institute Directors, with political hires. These directors control the NIH budget, tens of billions. A bit of a video explainer here: 1/ 🧪

THIS IS IT! THIS IS HUGE!! PLAINTIFF'S WIN!! Judge Young rules that the NIH grant terminations at issue in these cases are illegal and therefore vacated. BOOM!

Riddle: When is an "optical invariant" is not so invariant? How can you get a larger field-of-view for free? No change in resolution or scan speed. No more stitching needed! For #MicroscopyMonday here's a new preprint to check out. 1/9

We're looking for another postdoc here at Oldenburg Lab. Interested in becoming a holographer? Let me know. oldenburglab.com jobs.rutgers.edu/postings/253...

We are hiring a new research assistant! Official job post to follow. Please reach out or visit markrossilab.org if you are interested.

They told me graduation is a formal event, I’m ready. #vaccinescauseadults

Excited to share my PhD paper! In it, we use targeted 2-photon optogenetic stimulation to determine how V1 activity is read-out in a detection task. We found that network influence, not visual coding properties, predicted the impact of ensembles on behavior - contradicting our expectations (1/5).

The Oldenburg lab is looking for another postdoc! If you want to use holographic optogenetics to answer questions about neural codes let me know. We like shooting lasers and thinking about movement. We're located at Rutgers in Piscataway NJ (its like ~45 min from NYC). oldenburglab.com/positions/

we're crowd-sourcing a searchable repository of tangible benefits stemming from federally-funded research. Come enjoy the great stories; or send in an idea; or volunteer to join the team. publicusaresearchbenefits.com please share and re-share so we get more great stories in there!

In 1981, PNI's John Hopfield received an NSF grant (~$300K) for the, then, obscure field of artificial neural networks. Today, that research powers a multibillion dollar AI economy and earned him a Nobel Prize. www.npr.org/2025/05/08/n...

The Oldenburg Lab is looking for another postdoc! The news these days is scary but we're pushing on. If you want to use Holographic Optogenetics to understand neural codes, the motor system, or something else fun let me know. We have federal and non-federal (aka stable) funds. oldenburglab.com

"Evidence suggests the local recurrent network encodes the structure of natural sensory input. & that it does so via active filtering, transforming network inputs to boost those associated w/ nat'l sensation" Amidst <waves hands> all this, I have a new review article that... arxiv.org/abs/2501.1...

"it's difficult to read this as anything other than an attempt to crush scientific research in the US. The harm that will be done to research (...) may be viewed as a bonus by a populist political movement that has shown a consistent disdain for expertise." arstechnica.com/science/2025...

This is the end of science as we know it if it stands—15% IDCs for all NIH Grants. grants.nih.gov/grants/guide...

Academic workers across the country are organizing to call on our congressional representatives on Thursday, 1/30, at 3pm ET / 12pm PT to demand these restrictions be lifted immediately. There will be a training over zoom at the beginning of the event. Join us! form.jotform.com/250226137228...

A coalition of states plans to file suit later today challenging the order to freeze all federal loans & grants. “My office will be taking imminent legal action against this administration’s unconstitutional pause on federal funding,” NY AG Letitia James said. www.nytimes.com/live/2025/01...

All Democrats in Congress and the Senate will fight this—it’s illegal. But Republican lawmakers NEED to hear from their constituents! Priority order: call, then email. Be clear about how this will hurt education, the economy, and health! 🧪 www.nytimes.com/live/2025/01...

This is legit - the organizers (including unions) are organizing. When I ask those in the know what we can do that will actually matter, the answer includes collective action of this type. I'm joining @nancykanwisher.bsky.social and all the others for this Thurs 3p ET effort. I hope you do too!

President Trump's effort to freeze nearly all federal funding is lawless, reckless, and unconstitutional. And it will hurt people in Northeast Ohio.

If you are worried about the recent cessation of NIH communication, the canceling of programs and the politicization of science funding, now is the time to contact your congressional representatives! Link to find and contact your representative: www.house.gov/representati...

Where do people post advertisements for technicians? We're looking for someone who wants to be the all around 'pinch hitter' for lab projects (and whacky Ian ideas). Rutgers has its listing (jobs.rutgers.edu/postings/240...) but I'm not sure how most people would find it.

Want to live in bucolic NJ (I'm serious)? With a quick commute to NYC and Philly? Have collaborative colleagues, including yours truly? While this job posting is in psychology, the position is in behavioral neuroscience across systems. Including #drosophila 🧪 jobs.rutgers.edu/postings/152...

Great paper on the transformation of vibro-tactile stimuli from the periphery to somatosensory cortex. Very detailed analysis of changes from a phase-locked code at the periphery to a rate code of stimulus tuned neurons in thalamus and cortex. #neuroscience 🧪 www.cell.com/neuron/fullt...

My department at Rutgers looking to hire Neuroscience Assistant (and Assoc) Professor(s)! We're trying to move quickly this year, so don't delay applying. I think our first application reviews are even in September! jobs.rutgers.edu/postings/234...

Not sure if we've hit critical mass here on bsky yet, but the lab is hiring! We've gotten some good news grants recently, and now have some funded projects that are looking for people to champion them. All projects use Holographic Optogenetics to study motor systems. oldenburglab.com/positions/

Our work using holographic optogenetics to study recurrent activity in visual cortex is out in Nature Neuro! This work was only possible due to the great collaboration between the Adesnik and Doiron labs, especially co-firsts Greg Handy, Will Hendricks, and me. www.nature.com/articles/s41...