christine liu / two photon art
@christineliu.art
🧠 ucsf neuroscience postdoc 🍄 psychedelic researcher 🎨 www.twophotonart.com 🪡 weekend tattoo artist
Very happy to share our new review on visual computation in the cephalopod brain, with @vangeliqueallen.bsky.social, out now! We discuss exciting recent advances in understanding how the radically different brain of cephalopods processes the visual scene. 🐙🔬👀 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Protect our program officers!! Spend a few minutes standing up for their worker’s rights!
I-270, Exit 1@i270exit1.bsky.social · 3d ago🚨🚨 FEDS and everyone else 🚨🚨 🧵Tomorrow is the last day to comment on the Office of Personnel Management rule, “Promoting Employee Accountability" at www.regulations.gov/commenton/OP... This rule eliminates employee protections and rights, and hastens the firing process. Specifically, it... 1/4
If you have an NIH or NSF program officer, post a comment!
I-270, Exit 1@i270exit1.bsky.social · 3d ago🚨🚨 FEDS and everyone else 🚨🚨 🧵Tomorrow is the last day to comment on the Office of Personnel Management rule, “Promoting Employee Accountability" at www.regulations.gov/commenton/OP... This rule eliminates employee protections and rights, and hastens the firing process. Specifically, it... 1/4
The final version of our amygdala dopamine paper is out! BLA dopamine dynamically tracks emotional salience and not value or reward prediction error. Congrats to Dr. Megan Brickner!! www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Basolateral amygdala dopamine transmits emotional salience - Nature Communications
The basolateral amygdala dopamine system has received little attention. Here, authors show that BLA dopamine plays a unique role in learning, by encoding the emotional salience of sensory cues to supp...
nature.com
Notice of Award! 🚨 🧬 The DNA Observatory will be the next step in our vision of transforming every classroom in the US into a genome sequencing center—ensuring that students everywhere have firsthand opportunities to conduct their own research and become leaders in biotechnology.
Senate leadership on Sunday released the text of a bipartisan government funding stopgap measure that would block the White House’s proposal to give political appointees control over federal research grants. www.statnews.com/2026/08/02/s...
Senate measure would block Trump plan to politicize federal grants, for now
A White House proposal to subject research grants to political scrutiny meets at least a temporary roadblock in the Senate.
statnews.com
💼 Your neuroscience career can take you anywhere. Join #NeuroCareers at #BINW26 for "Becoming a Global Asset in Neuroscience," a career panel on building skills, expanding your network, and making an impact worldwide. 🗓 July 31 | 🕛 12–1:30 PM ET Registration is open now!
Our career panel is about to begin. Be sure to tune in through our zoom or you can stream it live on our YouTube 💫 #BINW26
Black In Neuro@blackinneuro.bsky.social · 2w ago💼 Your neuroscience career can take you anywhere. Join #NeuroCareers at #BINW26 for "Becoming a Global Asset in Neuroscience," a career panel on building skills, expanding your network, and making an impact worldwide. 🗓 July 31 | 🕛 12–1:30 PM ET Registration is open now!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Psilocybin asymmetrically modulates outcome-based choice and cortical processing under uncertainty
Emerging clinical research with psilocybin highlights the value of the psychedelic experience on successful treatment of a multitude of psychiatric disorders. While the psychedelic trip or clinical su...
biorxiv.org
Our new study ⬇️inspired by the question: does psilocybin influence meta-learning and cortical processing of unexpected uncertainty? Why is this important? Meta-learning may be critical for therapeutic effects of psychedelics and how the trip creates a window that facilitates clinical intervention
Congratulations to the 2026 @acnporg.bsky.social travel award recipients! Good to see a lot of familiar names on this list, including @mictott.bsky.social, @jtuscher.bsky.social, @kmcostalab.com, @laurenmac.bsky.social, @chanjenerational.bsky.social, and @outraajeous.bsky.social!
“Design something to interest the participants you’re trying to reach, not the institution.“ -Dr. Raina Croff 🔥🔥🔥 #BINW26
Black In Neuro@blackinneuro.bsky.social · last wk.🚨You can join the #BINW26 keynote address with Dr. Croff on YouTube right now! www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0bC...
I am in awe at the impact Dr. Croff is having with her research. Her interdisciplinary approach to understanding and supporting Black health and cognition is phenomenal. 🧠✨ #BINW26
Black In Neuro@blackinneuro.bsky.social · 2w ago🧠 Join Dr. Raina Croff for the #BINW26 Keynote: "Preserving Your Brain in a World Designed to Take It Away." As part of #NeuroRacism, this keynote explores brain health, equity, and the systems that shape neurological well-being. 🗓 July 29 | 🕐 1–2:30 PM ET
I’ve never laughed harder in a zoom meeting than with BIN organizers 💕 I promise you that virtual gatherings can definitely be FULL of joy!!!! And thinking about how #BlackInNeuro has thrived and survived the past 6 years brings me so much joy!!! 🫶
Black In Neuro@blackinneuro.bsky.social · last wk.💛 Wrap up #BINW26 with #BlackInNeuroJoy! Whether you're new to BIN or a familiar face, come meet the community, join the conversation, and have some fun with trivia. 🗓 Aug. 1 | 🕐 1–2 PM ET (6–7 PM BST)
💛 Wrap up #BINW26 with #BlackInNeuroJoy! Whether you're new to BIN or a familiar face, come meet the community, join the conversation, and have some fun with trivia. 🗓 Aug. 1 | 🕐 1–2 PM ET (6–7 PM BST)
Today we celebrate how neuroscience can bring us all together with #NeuroAcrossTheDiaspora 🌍. We are grateful that we can join each other online from all four corners of the world to create this beautiful community we call #BlackInNeuro. Use the prompts below to tell us where you are 😄 #BINW26
⏳ #BlackInTime celebrates the pioneers who shaped the future of science. People like Dr. Mary Logan Reddick and Timnit Gebru remind us that Black innovation has always been at the forefront of discovery. ✨ #BINW26
I am honoured to share that I have been selected as a recipient of the 2026 BBRF Young Investigator Grant! 🎉 I am incredibly grateful to the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation for this support and to my mentors, collaborators, colleagues, and trainees for their encouragement and support.
Happy #FluorescenceFriday 🔥 The title may be new, but the spectacular microscopy isn't! Congratulations to the newly minted DR @vanderspuy.bsky.social on a well-earned PhD! 🔬
According to my sister, stickers are the prison tattoos of laptops. This one's done some time! (Spot that gorgeous brain sticker from @christineliu.art !)
📣 REGISTRATION IS OPEN 📣 Our 7th annual #BlackInNeuroWeek is coming soon 🧠 From July 27th to August 2nd, we have an ✨AMAZING✨ week of events planned for you all, free and open to the public 🤗 Don’t miss out! Register for #BINW26 here ⤵️ events.zoom.us/ev/AgaErvpe_... #BlackInSTEM #Neuroskyence 🧪
Incredibly, mice with ablated VPGABA neurons (red line) completely failed to gain weight on high-fat diet. Normal control mice are in gray. By turning off over-eating outside of caloric need, we blocked obesity in mice.
I am happy to share our latest manuscript, led by newly-minted PhD Justin Wang, identifying a neural population that selectively controls hedonic, but not homeostatic, feeding. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Ventral pallidal GABAergic neurons control hedonic feeding and obesity
Food intake is governed by two interacting drives. The homeostatic hunger drive regulates food intake to fulfill caloric needs while the hedonic drive promotes intake of palatable foods outside of cal...
biorxiv.org
Psilocybin selectively rescues cognitive flexibility impairments caused by aberrant prefrontal error signaling https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.07.05.736652v1
It was actually pretty fun to come up with approximately 100 topics that the OMB is supposed to respond to individually. I felt like Reviewer 2 😝 but actually I was comment ~50,001. Make your voice heard too! Took only a few minutes. Regulations.gov/docket/OMB-2026-0034
Regulations.gov
regulations.gov
Alex Merz 🇺🇸🇨🇦🇺🇦@merz.bsky.social · 3w agoThere are only a few hours left to comment on the proposed OMB rule that would eviscerate American science. This is the single best summary, and guidance for how to write a comment, that I have seen. PLEASE submit something, even if it is only 2 or 3 paragraphs.
