John Tuthill
@tuthill.bsky.social
Neuroscientist at University of Washington studying proprioception and motor control. Promoting the people and work in my lab (www.tuthill.casa). Also pursuing a snow fly side habit (www.snowflyproject.org).
If you want to submit a comment on NIH's catastrophic proposed changes to peer review, the summary and links from SfN are helpful. Deadline is tomorrow www.sfn.org/advocacy/pre...
Tell NIH to Preserve Transparency and Accountability in Scientific Peer Review
sfn.org
Nicole Rust@nicolecrust.bsky.social · 3h agoDeadline tomorrow!
DHS just proposed a $70,000 fee for every international student who uses OPT. For an undergrad that wants to work for a year as a tech before a PhD, that’s more than her salary. We train these students, then they have to leave? It's incredibly dumb Comment here: www.regulations.gov/commenton/IC...
Regulations.gov
regulations.gov
Happy to be hosting my post-doc advisor for a seminar @uwmedicine.bsky.social tomorrow. Rachel gives a damn fine seminar, not to be missed.
UW Neurobiology & Biophysics@uw-nbio.bsky.social · 6d agoWe're thrilled to welcome Rachel Wilson, PhD (Harvard Medical School) for the 2026 Lamport Lecture! 🧠 "Neural Networks for Navigation" 📅 Thursday, 10/8 📍 4:30 pm | Health Sciences T747
If you've ever wondered how the brain *really* keeps things in mind, come let Aaron, Nick & their colleagues in the Nagel lab tell you how the fly does it here: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
A split attractor design for rapidly writing a navigational goal - Nature
The recurrent h∆K–PFG neural circuit generates persistent heading memories through slow excitation, fast inhibition and a disinhibitory gate, where disinhibition controls the functional...
nature.com
The Transmitter @thetransmitter.bsky.social just published a piece on this: www.thetransmitter.org/connectome/b...
Inside a $19 million effort to expand connectome technology
Davi Bock’s lab took 21 million images for the fruit fly connectome. Now he wants to apply “this high-throughput flashlight” across biology.
thetransmitter.org
Here's the ad for the Genome Sciences faculty positions ap.washington.edu/ahr/position...
Position Details - Academic Personnel & Faculty
ap.washington.edu
Maitreya Dunham@maitreya.bsky.social · 3w agoExciting news: @uwgenome.bsky.social will be hiring for two tenure-track faculty positions this year, one open rank and one assistant professor. Both are “Genome Sciences” interpreted broadly so we welcome applicants working in a variety of fields and methods. Ad will be out shortly.
two new preprints from Wangchu Xiang (@darbly.bsky.social, Ginty labs) about connectomic reconstruction from electron microscopy of somatosensory afferents and projection neurons in the dorsal horn of the mouse spinal cord www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Single-neuron computations depend on the subcellular distribution and voltage sensitivity of ion channels. | @pnas.org #HorizonEU @erc.europa.eu (1/5) www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Distribution and voltage dependence of ion channels shape single-neuron computations | PNAS
Voltage-gated ion channels do not distribute evenly in the plasma membrane of a neuron; they localize to distinct domains where they govern the exc...
pnas.org
I am in Delhi, visiting only thankfully, and walked into a library before dinner 10 minutes ago, and from the shelf picked a copy of the @lrb.co.uk I always read the letters first, hoping to find interesting humans who write interesting letters (most fume).
John Tuthill@tuthill.bsky.social · last mo.longtime reader, first time writer to @lrb.co.uk www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
New lab preprint: @grace-padilla.bsky.social studied how zebrafish respond to chemical cues of death and decay. Brief exposure initiated a persistent state, but not through olfaction. Instead, these cues' basic pH was detected by trigeminal neurons and TrpA1 channels www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Decay chemicals activate a pH-sensing pathway to initiate a persistent state
Animals use multiple sensory systems to identify signs of danger, including dead conspecifics. Fish can identify decaying conspecifics from chemosensory cues, which prompt a long-lasting avoidance; th...
biorxiv.org
The legend Heiner Römer, who was among the first to do intracellular electrophysiological recordings in the field. His work showed that auditory tuning curves measured in the lab poorly predict communication outdoors. link.springer.com/article/10.1... At the sensory ecology course in Lund.
this story about @couchmicroscopy.bsky.social captures science at its best: a scrappy team, a homemade microscope in a motel room, working under funding duress, pursuing a fundamental question about the evolution of photosynthetic organelles. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/26/s...
In an $80 Motel Room, a Discovery to Shed Light on the Origins of Life
A scrappy science project led to a significant discovery: two new species of a rare organism that could elucidate a fundamental transition in the history of life on our planet.
nytimes.com
Applications are now open for the San Juan Winter School 2027 on Connectomics and Brain Simulation! Join us to learn how to analyze and simulate connectomes. sjcabs.com
This stuff may be fun, but sorry to say, it is thin soup, scientifically. See: www.thetransmitter.org/systems-neur... for a readable description of the issue.
‘Digital sphinx’ raises questions about connectome models
The sphinx, with a worm’s brain and a fly’s body, illustrates the potential pitfalls of using deep-learning techniques to model biological processes.
thetransmitter.org
supposedly, NIH study section members can still submit grants a couple weeks late if the panel meets within four weeks of the deadline. but the language is vaguely ominous. has anyone actually done this successfully? grants.nih.gov/grants-proce...
The Agrawal lab has published its first paper! "Sticking the landing: leg mechanosensory feedback coordinates the transition from flight to landing" www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... This project was led by a technician in the lab, Tse-Wei (Wayne) Kuo. Brief 🧵on what we found
Slack
agrawal-lab-workspace.slack.com
We just updated our preprint. A few new analyses, but biggest change is a much larger, well-curated, freely available dataset: 3D keypoints from 75 flies across a range of behaviors (including courtship), ~24h of tracked video at 800 Hz. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
John Tuthill@tuthill.bsky.social · 5mo agoNew preprint: Whole-body 3D kinematics of freely behaving 𝐷𝑟𝑜𝑠𝑜𝑝ℎ𝑖𝑙𝑎 New tech from @blobology.bsky.social & others at @hhmijanelia.bsky.social, which @ispizua.bsky.social and @elliottabe.bsky.social used to gain insight into 3D structure of locomotion & courtship www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
a good summary of how we got here and what it means. i would add is that everyone who works with the fly connectome datasets knows that they all far from "complete". each one, though monumental, has major reconstruction/annotation issues, not to mention the lack of a peripheral nervous system.
Patrick Mineault@patrickmineault.bsky.social · 4w agoAre virtual flies playing Beat Saber? SM64? Doom? No. The new fly connectome is an incredible achievement! Less is going on in the sim videos than it seems. I'm stoked to see people engage with neuroscience though. My breakdown: www.neuroai.science/p/are-flies-...
This article is so frustrating to read. First, this is not just “google’s brain” - there has been so much effort made by scientists around the world to get these connectomes to where they are today, and none of that is recognized here, instead it’s all turned into “big tech company 👍🏻”. And second -
Eurogamer@eurogamer.bsky.social · 4w ago"The more aroused the fly is the harder it tries to shoot" - Google's fully mapped fly brain is now playing Doom, Beat Saber, and more. https://bit.ly/46l7s0l
The sphinxes are multiplying! I can't believe our preprint didn't solve this issue.
Vinny Costa@vincentcostaphd.bsky.social · 4w agoApparently the lesson of the digital sphinx by @tuthill.bsky.social & @bingbrunton.bsky.social has already been forgotten. The fly isn’t “playing Doom”. elifesciences.org/reviewed-pre...
Biologists have tried to uncover the mechanism behind the magnetic sense of animals for so long that some call it a holy grail. New work in insects offers fresh leads. By @callimcflurry.bsky.social www.thetransmitter.org/sensory-syst...
Finally, a new route for the magnetic-sense field
Researchers have dueled for years over how the magnetic sense works. New data from monarch butterflies could finally help settle the debate.
thetransmitter.org
In his essay, Auke Ijspeert discusses why physics-based simulators and robotics models are particularly useful for demonstrating the sufficiency of specific mechanisms of motor control as opposed to just their necessity. www.thetransmitter.org/motor-behavi...
Neuromechanical models help explain animal motor control
Progress in physics-based simulators and robotics makes it easier to use neuromechanical modeling to test hypotheses about animal movement.
thetransmitter.org
When fruit flies catch a whiff of apple cider vinegar, they zigzag along the edge of the odor plume rather than traveling through the middle, new work shows. #neuroskyence By @callimcflurry.bsky.social www.thetransmitter.org/olfaction/fr...
Fruit flies use memory to track odors
When flies encounter a tasty smell, they stroll in and out of the odor plume to keep track of it, encoding a memory of the angle they need to travel.
thetransmitter.org
Surprisingly wide range of prey of the extinct "American cheetah": "Yukon population occupying an elevated trophic position consistent with exploitation of anadromous fish, while the Wyoming population functioned as a generalist terrestrial predator." cell.com/current-biol... 🧪⚒️ #Geology #Paleobio
New oldest insect! 24 legs, lived 324 million years ago, in present-day Texas www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Amphibious stem-insect sheds light on colonization of land - Nature
Restudy of a challenging fossil using cross-polarized light imaging and phylogenetic reconstruction identifies Chosha praecursor, a probable early-diverging insect, helping to bridge the longstanding ...
nature.com
The complete #connectome of the adult Drosophila male CNS has allowed researchers, inc @jefferis.bsky.social’s group, to compare male & female brains at synaptic-resolution for the first time. Read more here: mrclmb.ac.uk/news-events/... #LMBResearch 1/2
My department, Neurobiology and Biophysics at the University of Washington (nbio.uw.edu), is hiring a new tenure-track Assistant Professor, application deadline 09/30/26. It's a broad search — molecular to organismal, all of neuroscience/physiology/biophysics welcome. apply.interfolio.com/187735
NSF just announced its GRFP solicitation due in October - deadline varies by field: www.nsf.gov/funding/oppo... Now for the bad news... * NSF estimates they will issue 1,500 awards, down from 2,500+ last year. * NSF removed STEM Education and Learning Research as a Major Field.
NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP)
nsf.gov
