Excited to share our latest paper, published in Experimental Neurology. Congratulations to @ingapartlova.bsky.social on her first first-author publication! 🔗 You can read the paper here: doi.org/10.1016/j.ex...
Cathy Abbott
@cathyabbott.bsky.social
Professor, eEF1A2/neurological disorders. Mostly talks about research, EDI (tries hard to be a good ally) but sometimes veers off into crafts and photos of Scotland. She/her, views own.
Interesting finding that rats have a disproportionate expansion of deep cortical layers when compared to other mammalian species - an output of extended duration in deep-layer neurogenesis, mediated by prolonged canonical WNT activity - link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Interspecific diversity in the neuronal composition of the mammalian cortex arises from heterochrony in neurogenesis - The EMBO Journal
Mammals share a laminar cerebral cortex, with excitatory neuron subtypes organized in distinct layers. Although this framework is conserved, subtype balance varies markedly between species due to larg...
link.springer.com
So excited to share my first preprint of grad school! Check out this thread to learn more about a cool new technique we are using to learn more about hidden layers of RNA regulation! Thank you so much to my coauthors, mentors, and lab for helping us get this story up!
Stirling Churchman@stirlingchurchman.bsky.social · last wk.RNA-seq tells us how much RNA is present in the cell. But to understand gene regulation, we need to easily measure the synthesis and decay rates driving this abundance. We introduce AIR-seq: analog intrinsic recoding sequencing. (1/6) www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
The terrible, stupid waste of UK universities policy continues. Your cash down the drain. www.timeshighereducation.com/news/new-bri...
New British Academy fellows at risk in Exeter jobs cull
Being at the ‘top of your game’ no guarantee of job security, warns decorated historian now facing the chop
timeshighereducation.com
***New preprint from the lab*** showing “Generative replay across hippocampal-neocortical circuits”. In sleep we show spiking sequences in V1 (sensory neocortex!) that represent information that has not been directly experienced www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... @bndu.ox.ac.uk @ndcnoxford.bsky.social
Generative replay across hippocampal-neocortical circuits
To make flexible decisions, the brain needs to make inferences between events that were not directly experienced together. In sharp-wave ripple (SWR) events, during periods of rest and sleep, spiking ...
biorxiv.org
Fancy joining a vibrant, dynamic & collegiate School of Psychology? We've got three lectureships available, and it be great to see applications from health psychology colleagues. Deadline 5th August www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DSE550/l...
Lecturer (Teaching and Research) in Psychology (Three Posts) at University of Leeds
Looking for a new job opportunity in academia? Check out this job opening for a Lecturer (Teaching and Research) in Psychology (Three Posts) on jobs.ac.uk!
jobs.ac.uk
Yesterday was World Fragile X Day. At SIDB, exciting research is helping us further understanding of Fragile X Syndrome and how it affects the brain. 🔬 Learn more about our work by following the link in our bio! #WorldFragileXDay @edinunineuro.bsky.social @patrickwildcentre.bsky.social
Our laboratory is looking for a PhD student in Functional Genomics (fully funded position). Expected starting date: Oct 2026 More info here: www.igbmc.fr/en/igbmc/lif... Please share 📨
IGBMC: PhD position available in Raphaël Pantier's lab
igbmc.fr
IGBMC@igbmc.bsky.social · 2w agoPhD position in Functional Genomics, in Raphaël Pantier's lab: Interplay between transcription factors and genome architecture in embryonic stem cells more info : amethis3.unistra.fr/amethis-clie...
My stats (supervision/examination) are ~the same as the author's, but my views could not be more different. Conflating all science disciplines like this is nonsensical but also, the whole piece is just misguided self-promotion masquerading as an authoritative opinion. (why yes, I am in a bad mood)
Times Higher Education (THE)@timeshighered.bsky.social · 2w agoA science PhD can be completed within 18 months: supervisors should involve doctoral students with conducting, writing up and publishing experiments straight away, says Adrian Furnham #PhDs #research #supervision #academicsky https://ow.ly/5Fxb50ZpZ4O
UKRI says the reforms "will encourage universities, as autonomous institutions, to specialise and collaborate in ways that build the critical R&I capabilities the nation needs" QR gives universities freedom to use research funding how they see fit, so this sounds like strings are being attached
"Somewhere in a university shared drive, there is probably an Athena Swan action plan that took months to produce, drew on years of data, involved hours of unpaid or under-recognised labour, and identified inequalities that everyone agreed mattered." This really hit home.
Wonkhe@wonkhe.bsky.social · 3w agoNEW on Wonkhe: How do we move from collecting evidence and designing frameworks to meaningful transformation? Lauren Flannery and Helen Leggett look for accountability for equalities work buff.ly/fjZhGND
It's a strong public health system and preventative care and considering health impacts across all policies. UK should be proud of our world-class biomedical research but it's not a failure of translation of that research that is behind our ill-health. 4/4
Looking for a home for your neuroscience paper? We welcome research in all areas of neuroscience, including brain function, neuronal circuits, synapses, sensory processing, and motor pattern generation. Take a look at what we publish ⬇️ buff.ly/lKml0cv
Delighted that all this hard work by Cavan and Manuela is finally out in the public domain. We find that epilepsy/ID-causing mutations in EEF1A2 affect expression of specific genes but don't actually cause measurable differences in global protein synthesis rates in cells (unlike previous studies).
bioRxiv Neuroscience@biorxiv-neursci.bsky.social · 3w agoThe most common epilepsy-causing mutation in EEF1A2 (E122K) perturbs the translation of specific transcripts but not the rate of global protein synthesis https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.07.08.737232v1
And meanwhile, in Scotland, I am looking forward to attending graduation this afternoon because it will give me an extra layer of clothing... 😬
David Blanchflower BSc@davidbflower.bsky.social · last mo.UK temperatures forecast to exceed 30C as another heatwave imminent. 🧪 www.bbc.co.uk/weather/arti...
Do give us a follow at @edinunineuro.bsky.social - swanky new video in which I appear to be utterly miserable throughout (I was just concentrating hard on the autocue, honest 😀)
Edinburgh Neuroscience@edinunineuro.bsky.social · last mo.This is us; this is Edinburgh Neuroscience! This newly commissioned video summarises our purpose and vision. 👇
It’s been a real privilege to be able to collaborate with Andrew Jackson and colleagues, in a very minor way, on a model of progeria syndrome www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Taking apart the DNA-methylation clock with an epigenetic progeria syndrome
Nature Genetics - With advancing age, clock-like DNA-methylation changes occur across the genome. Whether these changes are passenger events or drive pathology remains to be determined. Here we...
nature.com
A lot of work from an excellent team to make this happen but what a fabulous day. And the tribute to Richard Morris was something I wll never forget ❤️
Edinburgh Neuroscience@edinunineuro.bsky.social · 2mo agoEdinburgh’s Neuroscience Day was, as ever, a brilliant showcase of brain and mind research taking place across the University. Thanks to everyone who made it happen!
Academia is basically working on a boat that's holed beneath the waterline, we're going down slowly with less than enough lifeboats and the captain is currently asking us to throw people overboard to make us lighter in the hope we'll float.
The editorial that the ADA was so afraid to have handed out at their annual meeting is really fantastic diabetesjournals.org/care/article...
Misguided Brushes of a Pen Continue to Dismantle and Destroy Biomedical Research in the United States: We Can No Longer Afford Complacency and Fear. We Must All Act Now!
The opinions expressed in this editorial are the personal views of the authors (S.E. Kahn, C.A.M. Anderson, J.B. Buse, and E. Selvin) and do not represent
diabetesjournals.org
Really good well balanced piece about the place of interviewing in grants (well, my remarks are not particularly well balanced, but the piece is!). Featuring @kirstygrainger.bsky.social too 🙂 www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-worl...
Can ‘high-stress’ interviews for grants save a system under pressure? - Research Professional News
Funders are using interviews to manage demand, but some worry about the consequences for applicants
researchprofessionalnews.com
For accuracy, I was Director of the UKRI Future Leaders Fellowships programme; describing me simply as an “ex-UKRI director” is misleading. Similarly, I led strategy within both the Research Culture and Talent portfolios, rather than holding a generic “Head of Strategy at UKRI” role. BUT....
Times Higher Education (THE)@timeshighered.bsky.social · 2mo agoRush to ‘get funding out of door’ after delayed budget settlement will harm quality of submissions and staff well-being, warns ex-UKRI director https://ow.ly/zltR50Z80Gs
"At Thermo Fisher, as the world leader in serving science, scientific integrity is a core value." Right. Not sure we'll be ordering from them again...
Reese Richardson@reeserichardson.bsky.social · 2mo agoThermo Fisher now has a page up in response to our observations. They flatly deny that images were manipulated or fabricated while repeating that images were "optimized for presentation and clarity on the website", no lie, six times. www.thermofisher.com/us/en/home/l...
For a scholar writing in their second language, under real pressure to publish, a language model can (in theory) be a genuine equalizer. The same tool can also flood journals with fluent, hollow text.
Ah, this is a really interesting and helpful take on leadership- really well done @emmawilson.eurosky.social ❤️
Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ@olivia.science · 2mo agoThis is so well put about something so many in academia and leadership fail to get, @emmawilson.eurosky.social: > lack of curiosity can lead to colleagues being excluded, unfairly treated or discriminated against. Therefore, we need to be open and respectful to feedback when we get things wrong 💯
It’s Pride 🏳️🌈 Spare one repost for a small creator? 🥺 My science and sci fi pins raise money for homeless LGBTQ+ people. Just sent another £800 to @aktcharity.bsky.social bringing total to £47,521 New for Pride 2026: 🌈Scientist🌈 🏳️🌈🐥🦜🦅🏳️🌈 🌈pronouns🌈 www.jamiebgall.co.uk/shop
ICYMI over the weekend... "Most of us have a support network, but there is a tendency in academia to put on a brave face. Few would like to admit publicly that they are anything but successful, efficient, confident and fearless..." My latest blog post, on academic burden bit.ly/4nXsFpb #AcademicSky
In which we keep below decks – for now | Mind the Gap
bit.ly
A man at a meeting I attended recently made a big deal about how his office door doesn't say "Professor", just his name, and that's how he encourages healthy research culture. I pointed out that that works for him because, unlike me, he probably won't be mistaken for his own secretary.
Dr Lindsey Fitzharris@drlindseyfitz.bsky.social · 2mo agoAh, I see the internet is determined to continue showing its ass this weekend. A woman spends years earning her degree only to be told that if she uses her title, she's pretentious.