🚨 Preprint alert! 🚨 How does the olfactory bulb transform overlapping sensory inputs into representations that are easier to distinguish? New study by Sina Tootoonian, Yikai Yang, @andreas-t-schaefer.bsky.social @crick.ac.uk and myself.‬ www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... A short 🧵 below

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...

Scientists Unveil ‘Long Lost’ Map for Smell

nytimes.com

Many thanks and congrats to all who participated in this work esp. our collaborators (Tatsuya Tsukahara, @neuroboz.bsky.social , @andreas-t-schaefer.bsky.social , and Alex Fleishmann)!

“I think it’s a real mistake to forget where the pipeline for all this begins.” John Diffley reflects on the importance of basic research, his mission to decode DNA replication and recreate it in the lab, and the scientific optimism of the 1960s that helped shape it. www.crick.ac.uk/news/2026-03...

This work is the product of an outstanding multidisciplinary team operating across multiple countries. Special congrats to Safe Khan, lead author of the study. And congrats to all authors and supporting institutions! doi.org/10.1107/S160... @safekhan.bsky.social @andreas-t-schaefer.bsky.social

Critical point drying of brain tissue for X-ray phase-contrast imaging

X-ray phase contrast tomography can efficiently image brain tissue at subcellular resolution. Critical point drying allows a gentle replacement of interstitial material by air, enhancing X-ray phase c...

doi.org

#paper: Drying tissue samples enhances contrast in X-ray phase contrast imaging while largely preserving ultrastructure. 🧠🔬 doi.org/10.1107/S160... @safekhan.bsky.social @andreas-t-schaefer.bsky.social @crick.ac.uk @embl.org @imperialcollegeldn.bsky.social @esrf.fr @uclnpp.bsky.social

“We’re hoping doors will open for researchers to ask questions about how connections are made in the brain in mice and maybe, one day, humans.” - @andreas-t-schaefer.bsky.social Read about the new NIH-funded program to map brain circuitry using X-rays: www.crick.ac.uk/news/2026-03...

Can X-rays reveal how the brain is wired?

Neuroscientist Andreas Schaefer is spearheading a new project to capture the intricacies of the mouse brain using X-rays, bringing researchers closer to a complete map of its neural connections.

crick.ac.uk

The project will be co-led by @andreas-t-schaefer.bsky.social at the Crick and Chris Jacobsen at Northwestern University, working with @esrf.fr . It is part of the NIH’s BRAIN CONNECTS programme to map neural connections in humans and animals.

Very excited to host today's #MedicineAtTheCrick event @crick.ac.uk - Interfacing the brain: from Neurons to Networks. Amazing line-up and looking forward to great talks and discussions. #BCI Angelique Paulk Kai Miller David Brandman Harith Akram Mariska Vansteensel

Job alert! Join the Making Lab at the @crick.ac.uk. As a senior engineer in system design, programming, and hardware–software integration, you'll develop systems that make unique experiments possible. More about the role and apply here: crick.wd3.myworkdayjobs.com/External/job...

Senior/Principal Laboratory Research Scientist

Salary for this Role: SLRS: From £45,700 per annum with benefits, subject to skills and experience PLRS: From £55,555 per annum with benefits, subject to skills and experience Job Title: Senior/Princi...

crick.wd3.myworkdayjobs.com

Job alert! Join the Making Lab at the @crick.ac.uk. As a senior engineer in system design, programming, and hardware–software integration, you'll develop systems that make unique experiments possible. More about the role and apply here: crick.wd3.myworkdayjobs.com/External/job...

Principal Laboratory Research Scientist

Salary for this Role: From £55,555 per annum with benefits, subject to skills and experience Job Title: Principal Laboratory Research Scientist Reports to: Albane Imbert Closing Date: 27/Nov/2025 23.5...

crick.wd3.myworkdayjobs.com

From @bdpedigo.bsky.social: a super efficient, highly reliable, and very generalizable method for mesh structure classification, applied here to spine detection across basically every synapse onto a cell in the MICRoNS dataset.

bioRxiv Neuroscience@biorxiv-neursci.bsky.social · 6mo ago

A quantitative census of millions of postsynaptic structures in a large electron microscopy volume of mouse visual cortex https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.19.706834v1

Book your free tickets now for our next #MedicineAtTheCrick event on Thursday 12 March, hosted by @andreas-t-schaefer.bsky.social, where researchers and clinicians will explore ‘neurotechnologies’ that help us better understand and decode the brain. www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/medicine-a...

Medicine at the Crick| Interfacing the human brain: neurons to networks

Hybrid event taking place virtually and in person, organised by The Francis Crick Institute, London

eventbrite.co.uk

www.nature.com/naturecareer...

Department Chair, Duke Neurobiology - Duke University, Durham job with Duke University - School of Medicine | 12852576

The Duke University School of Medicine (SOM) seeks a distinguished neuroscientist to serve as the next Chair of the Department of Neurobiology.

nature.com

🔬🔦Our latest ‘Imaging spotlight’, by @carlesbosch.bsky.social, Ana Diaz, @adrianawanner.bsky.social & @andreas-t-schaefer.bsky.social, highlights the non-destructive X-ray tomography pipeline that the authors developed to map mouse brain ultrastructure & considers future applications & developments.

Imaging spotlight: Revealing mouse brain ultrastructure using non-destructive X-ray tomography - FocalPlane

Imaging spotlight: Revealing mouse brain ultrastructure using non-destructive X-ray tomography - News

focalplane.biologists.com

Here's a spotlight article on our recent study! Tissue ultrastructure can be resolved with X-rays, which impacts not only how we can study neuronal circuits but soft tissues more generally. Kudos to Ana Diaz, @adrianawanner.bsky.social, @andreas-t-schaefer.bsky.social and all authors.

Imaging spotlight: Revealing mouse brain ultrastructure using non-destructive X-ray tomography - FocalPlane

Imaging spotlight: Revealing mouse brain ultrastructure using non-destructive X-ray tomography - News

focalplane.biologists.com

FocalPlane @focalplane.bsky.social · 7mo ago

🔬🔦Our latest ‘Imaging spotlight’, by @carlesbosch.bsky.social, Ana Diaz, @adrianawanner.bsky.social & @andreas-t-schaefer.bsky.social, highlights the non-destructive X-ray tomography pipeline that the authors developed to map mouse brain ultrastructure & considers future applications & developments.

An optimized X-ray nanotomography method offers an attractive alternative to volume EM for connectomics. @crick.ac.uk @psich.bsky.social psich.bsky.social @adrianawanner.bsky.social @andreas-t-schaefer.bsky.social @ucl.ac.uk @uclnpp.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Nondestructive X-ray tomography of brain tissue ultrastructure - Nature Methods

Optimizations of X-ray nanotomography including the choice of resin allows high-resolution imaging of mouse brain tissue, approaching the resolution of volume electron microscopy. Since it does not re...

nature.com

By repurposing a radiation-hard epoxy resin from the nuclear/aerospace industry, we made samples withstand >1.15×10¹⁰ Gy and reached sub-40 nm resolution, revealing axons, dendrites, mitochondria and synapses without sectioning.

In a fantastic collaboration co-led by Ana Diaz (@psich.bsky.social), Carles Bosch @carlesbosch.bsky.social) and Andreas Schaefer (@andreas-t-schaefer.bsky.social) from @crick.ac.uk,we tackled a key barrier in X-ray ultrastructural imaging: achieving <40 nm resolution without destroying tissue.

X-rays can resolve ultrastructure - milestone for ultrastructure imaging w/o cutting. Thanks to an amazing team - @carlesbosch.bsky.social @adrianawanner.bsky.social Ana Diaz and collaborators @crick.ac.uk @psich.bsky.social and @esrf.fr and funders @wellcometrust.bsky.social @ukri.org

Carles Bosch@carlesbosch.bsky.social · 8mo ago

#paper! X-rays can resolve #ultrastructure in tissues non-destructively. www.nature.com/articles/s41... Shoutout to key collaborators at @crick.ac.uk and @psich.bsky.social Ana Diaz, @adrianawanner.bsky.social and @andreas-t-schaefer.bsky.social, and to the whole team that made this possible.

Enthusiastic about connectomics and X-rays? Several positions in our group at Crick for postdocs and senior scientists (permanent!). DM me if interested – and let’s talk if you are at Sfn next days or at the NIH BRAIN CONNECTS meeting today! Please share!

Join us at Crick - amazing team and great colleagues to collaborate on exciting design and development projects

@albaneimbert.bsky.social · 9mo ago

Job alert! Join the Making Lab at the @crick.ac.uk. As a senior engineer in system design, programming, and hardware–software integration, you'll develop systems that make unique experiments possible. More about the role and apply here: crick.wd3.myworkdayjobs.com/External/job...

Bit more than 2 weeks to go... DM me if you will be in San Diego at SfN and want to talk about it. Please share.

Andreas Schaefer@andreas-t-schaefer.bsky.social · 10mo ago

The Crick is an absolutely amazing place to work in - please share this opportunity widely with your colleagues and postdocs - and DM me if I can help in any way

Very excited to continue our amazing collaboration with @apacureanu.bsky.social at @esrf.fr - thank you @wellcometrust.bsky.social and all the collaborators at @crick.ac.uk and @esrf.fr

The Francis Crick Institute@crick.ac.uk · 10mo ago

Congratulations to @andreas-t-schaefer.bsky.social on receiving a £3.8 million @wellcometrust.bsky.social Discovery Award, working with @esrf.fr, to chart the brain circuity behind the sense of smell in mice. www.crick.ac.uk/news/2025-10...

The Crick is an absolutely amazing place to work in - please share this opportunity widely with your colleagues and postdocs - and DM me if I can help in any way

The Francis Crick Institute@crick.ac.uk · 10mo ago

We're now recruiting early career group leaders at the Crick to lead ambitious research programmes and explore bold scientific questions. Hear our Director, Edith Heard, explain why the Crick is a unique place for curiosity-driven research. Apply now ➡️ www.crick.ac.uk/careers-stud...

Judging by the last ones, this will be amazing - and with all the new developments at next gen synchrotrons, even more timely. Please re-post, join in person if you can travel to London or via zoom

Carles Bosch@carlesbosch.bsky.social · 10mo ago

Join us *next Monday*! #CrickXrays25 X-ray #nanoimaging of biological tissues 🇬🇧🌐 @crick.ac.uk & online tinyurl.com/crickxrays25 Sponsored by @dectris.bsky.social, @webknossos.org and @biologists.bsky.social and backed by @brukercorporation.bsky.social and Histomography

Motivated graduates with backgrounds in biological or biomedical sciences, physics, chemistry, mathematics, engineering and/or computer science are invited to apply to our 4-year fully funded PhD programme. Apply by 05 November 2025 www.crick.ac.uk/careers-and-...

PhD students

Our PhD programme attracts the brightest scientific minds and is an opportunity for talented people to embark on their career in biomedical research.

crick.ac.uk

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/...

Lots of exciting clinical PhD projects at Crick - including the opportunity for neurosurgeons to work with us and record electrical activity in patients with neuropixels probes. Please share widely!

The Francis Crick Institute@crick.ac.uk · 10mo ago

We're looking for clinicians who are passionate about research to join our 3-year fully funded clinical PhD programme. 🔬🩺 Apply by 14 November 2025. 👇 www.crick.ac.uk/careers-stud...