An animal’s body is in constant conversation with itself — & HHMI Janelia scientists have built a way to listen in. WHOLISTIC simultaneously records real-time activity from nearly every cell in a living larval zebrafish, a 1st step in understanding more complex bodies like ours: bit.ly/4xMR1Ww.

Whole-body cellular activity imaging in zebrafish, headed by Virginie Ruetten @vmsruetten.bsky.social - new paper is out: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Imaging cellular activity across all organs reveals body-wide circuits - Nature

An imaging system developed to record cellular activity throughout the whole body of zebrafish captures cellular organ dynamics and identifies multiple distributed circuits.

nature.com

How does the brain manage metabolism proactively? We show that a neuron–glia circuit helps zebrafish anticipate the delayed oxygen cost of movement and act before brain O2 drops. Excited to share our preprint on predictive oxygen regulation. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... #Allostasis

The brain is more than spiking neurons. Astrocytes, a large fraction of cells, propagate electrical influences without spiking. And cortical neurons spike only intermittently. Electrical signals are continuous and across all cells. #neuroscience www.quantamagazine.org/once-thought...

Once Thought To Support Neurons, Astrocytes Turn Out To Be in Charge | Quanta Magazine

New experiments reveal how astrocytes tune neuronal activity to modulate our mental and emotional states. The results suggest that neuron-only brain models, such as connectomes, leave out a crucial la...

quantamagazine.org

Out now in @currentbiology.bsky.social led by Kaarthik A Balakrishnan: We identify medullary circuits that represent the valence of thermal stimuli and control both long-term strategies of cold-avoidance and short term hot avoidance behaviors to enable thermoregulation. www.cell.com/current-biol...

Behavioral and circuit principles of temperature gradient navigation

Behavioral thermoregulation is critical for survival across animals. Balakrishnan and Haesemeyer discover that thermoregulatory behavior in larval zebrafish is organized into longer-term swim modes. T...

cell.com

Apply to the new CSHL grad program in BioAI/neuroAI! (Masters degree or equivalent required in a quantitative area such as computer science, physics, mathematics, or engineering) www.cshl.edu/phd-program/...

Full paper (to appear in NeurIPS 2025!) here: arxiv.org/abs/2506.00138

Autonomous Behavior and Whole-Brain Dynamics Emerge in Embodied Zebrafish Agents with Model-based Intrinsic Motivation

Autonomy is a hallmark of animal intelligence, enabling adaptive and intelligent behavior in complex environments without relying on external reward or task structure. Existing reinforcement learning ...

arxiv.org

Congratulations to my Ph.D. student Reece Keller for winning the best talk award at #CRSy25 on our project building the first task-optimized autonomous agent that predicts whole-brain data! Check out the post below for other cool talks!! Detailed summary: bsky.app/profile/reec...

Champalimaud Research@champalimaudr.bsky.social · 12mo ago

🐟 @reecedkeller.bsky.social @cmu.edu explored autonomous behaviour in virtual zebrafish, where intrinsic motivation drives self-directed exploration.

This is what democracy looks like. #NoKings

Just out in Nature! “The astrocytic ensemble acts as a multiday trace to stabilize memory.” We identified astrocytic ensembles that link experiences across days to stabilize memory nature.com/articles/s41.... New astrocyte tools are openly available at Addgene: addgene.org/Jun_Nagai/. 1/8

(Part 1) Hear from @hhmi_news Investigator David Stern about his research program and what he's uncovering in the lab. Stern will join the Institute in February 2026, bringing his lab and HHMI appointment to Kansas City. @hhmi.org Read more: bit.ly/4np96Fb

This moment from our latest episode with science writer @edyong209.bsky.social is 🔥 We asked Ed — how do we talk up the benefits of science in the face of government cuts? He told us that's the wrong approach. 🧪 Listen wherever, or watch on Spotify 👇 open.spotify.com/episode/7Evh...

It's official! We are moving to Stowers! Very exciting opportunity to expand our studies of insect-plant interactions. We have many opportunities available in biochemistry, development, behavior, genetics, evolution, genomics, AI, and even pest control. Interested in any of these things? Reach out!

Stowers Institute@stowersinstitute.bsky.social · 12mo ago

NEWS🎉 We’re excited to announce @hhmijanelia.bsky.social Investigator David Stern will join the Institute from Janelia Research Campus. His lab studies how aphids transform plants at the genetic level, uncovering secrets of #evolution & new strategies for pest control. @hhmi.org bit.ly/4np96Fb

New very cool work from the Yaksi lab: Hierarchical processing of sensory information across topographically organized thalamocortical-like circuits in the zebrafish brain www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Hierarchical processing of sensory information across topographically organized thalamocortical-like circuits in the zebrafish brain

Thalamocortical projections contribute to the spatial organization and functional hierarchies of the mammalian cortex. Primary sensory cortices receive topographically segregated information from firs...

biorxiv.org

Come to #HHMIJanelia to work on the frontiers of AI and biology. Apply now for an AI Engineer position working on protein biosensors: hhmi.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/Extern... More openings coming soon. Interesting AI is widespread at Janelia, like this diffusion model from Larissa Heinrich.

Amazing. Hopefully they replicate NIH/NSF’s peer review process, which is the core magic of what makes US science work so well. While I’m at it, the abundance people are wrong about NIH not being high-risk. So is Joe Lonsdale: he’s naive, at best, about US science.

Kai Kupferschmidt@kakape.bsky.social · last yr.

“Supporters of the proposal said it would effectively create a state version of the National Institutes of Health or the National Science Foundation, two of the nation’s largest institutional funders of scientific and public health research.” 🧪 #giftarticle

California is devising a plan to create their own National Institutes of Health to counter federal cuts to science research.

California’s $23 Billion Plan to Restore Federal Cuts to Scientific Research

nytimes.com

Preprint - Excited to present WHOLISTIC, which extends the concept of whole-brain functional imaging to the entire body. Pioneering work by incredibly talented Virginia Ruetten @vmsruetten.bsky.social, this platform reveals whole-organism cellular dynamics in vivo. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Become a Theory Fellow at Janelia. 🔍 Use computation & theory to tackle biological problems. 🖥️ Leverage state-of-the-art computational infrastructure 🤝 Collaborate across scientific disciplines Apply by Nov. 3 @ https://janelia.link/theoryfellowprogram

Of potential interest to those keen on motor control and/or multi-task networks. Congrats to Elom and Eric. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Motor cortex flexibly deploys a high-dimensional repertoire of subskills

Skilled movement often requires flexibly combining multiple subskills, each requiring dedicated control strategies and underlying computations. How the motor system achieves such versatility remains u...

biorxiv.org

Made possible only by the unique environment and amazing community at Janelia and the Gatsby. @hhmijanelia.bsky.social @gatsbyucl.bsky.social Feedback, ideas, or requests for transgenic lines, protocols, and code are warmly welcome!

Thanks Misha for the shout-out! It has been a truly mind-opening journey. WHOLISTIC is one step towards whole-organism neuroscience and a true physiological observatory - with extensions on the way! I am continually amazed by what the data reveals - so much remains to be discovered and mined.

Misha Ahrens@mishaahrens.bsky.social · last yr.

Preprint - Excited to present WHOLISTIC, which extends the concept of whole-brain functional imaging to the entire body. Pioneering work by incredibly talented Virginia Ruetten @vmsruetten.bsky.social, this platform reveals whole-organism cellular dynamics in vivo. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Preprint - Excited to present WHOLISTIC, which extends the concept of whole-brain functional imaging to the entire body. Pioneering work by incredibly talented Virginia Ruetten @vmsruetten.bsky.social, this platform reveals whole-organism cellular dynamics in vivo. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

✨ We’re #hiring Theory Fellows!✨ Janelia is recruiting early-career scientists to join our collaborative research environment and use #computation & #theory to tackle bold questions in #biology. 🔗 Apply by Nov. 3 👉 janelia.link/theoryfellow... @hhmi.org

Beyond housekeeping duties, astrocytes also coordinate complex computational tasks during modulation, expanding their role in the brain. By @claudia-lopez.bsky.social #neuroskyence www.thetransmitter.org/astrocytes/a...

Astrocytes sense neuromodulators to orchestrate neuronal activity and shape behavior

Astrocytes serve as crucial mediators of neuromodulatory processes previously attributed to direct communication between neurons, four new studies show.

thetransmitter.org

🧠 Janelia researchers are helping to uncover how neuromodulators reach neurons & revealing a significant role for astrolia in neuromodulation – highlighting the importance of including info about non-neuronal cells in research into how the brain works. www.janelia.org/news/on-the-...

Highlights new work from @mishaahrens.bsky.social et al. 🧠 🐟 🔗 to manuscript: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Voltage imaging reveals circuit computations in the raphe underlying serotonin-mediated motor vigor learning

As animals adapt to new situations, neuromodulation is a potent way to alter behavior, yet mechanisms by which neuromodulatory nuclei compute during b…

sciencedirect.com

Janelia Research Campus@hhmijanelia.bsky.social · last yr.

🐟 New research probing the inner workings of neuromodulation in zebrafish could help scientists better understand how the brain enables flexible behavior and provide insight into mood disorders like depression. 🔗 www.janelia.org/news/new-res...

🐟 New research probing the inner workings of neuromodulation in zebrafish could help scientists better understand how the brain enables flexible behavior and provide insight into mood disorders like depression. 🔗 www.janelia.org/news/new-res...

U.S. people: Be sure to turn out for No Kings Day protests tomorrow (Sat June 14) afternoon, google the one nearest you. With all that's happening on so many fronts, not least the movements toward authoritarian martial law amidst widespread raids of working people, it matters now more than ever.

Researchers at @hhmijanelia.bsky.social are decoding how neurons carry out computations carefully calibrated to an animal’s movement and environment to precisely regulate the release of neuromodulators—chemicals that fine-tune brain activity and enable us to adapt to new situations.