This week in Nature Neuroscience: our study links “foamy” GPNMB⁺ microglia/macrophages, oxylipins and lipid metabolism to lesion expansion and faster progression in multiple sclerosis. MAGL emerges as a potential therapeutic target www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Foamy microglia link oxylipins to disease progression in multiple sclerosis - Nature Neuroscience

Foamy microglia are associated with multiple sclerosis progression, linking phagocytosis, altered lipid metabolism (oxylipins) and lysosomal stress to nonclassical neuroinflammation and disease severi...

nature.com

Happy to share my postdoc paper with @joeycheers.bsky.social & collaborators! Building on the work of many former lab members, we describe a VP-VTA projection modulated by endocannabinoids that guides action selection informed by learned cues: www.cell.com/cell-reports...

Midbrain endocannabinoids actuate dopamine-based action selection

Dopamine signals guide adaptive responses to reward- and threat-predictive cues, yet the mechanisms shaping these rapid dynamics remain unclear. Luján et al. identify midbrain endocannabinoid signalin...

cell.com

The paper is open access in @CellReports! 👉 doi.org/10.1016/j.c... Huge thanks to co-first authors Luca Nava & Noemi Barsotti, PI @RaffaellaTonini, and the whole multi-institutional team that made this possible. @LabPasqualetti, @Nets3L, @joeycheers.bsky.social. 🙏 (7/7)

Endocannabinoid modulation of a reciprocal fronto-coerulear connection in contextual discrimination

The prefrontal cortex (PFC) and locus coeruleus (LC) form a bidirectional circuit essential for cognitive control and arousal. LC-derived norepinephri…

doi.org

Interested in epigenetics of stress? Today I’m presenting our work on the role of H3K36me3 and H3K27me1 in resilience and susceptibility to chronic stress at #ACNP2026 @harvardbrainsci.bsky.social @sinaibrain.bsky.social @ericjnestler.bsky.social Poster W139👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼

#cannabinerds coming in hot at #ACNP2026 🔥

This article is truly impressive, both for the significance of its findings and the enormous amount of work it represents! Briefly, it demonstrates that the gut-brain vagal axis exerts a considerable influence on dopamine-dependent reward-related processes... 1/n www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

TOMORROW: PIN PhD candidate Antonio Figueiredo from the Cheer Lab will publicly defend his dissertation - Endocannabinoids gate dorsal hippocampal acetylcholine release shaping reward-seeking and spatial memory. Join us in Davidge Hall at 1 pm to show your support!

📢Are you a Colombian Neuroscientist attending #SfN2025? "Tomémonos un tinto, seamos amigos". Let's celebrate the achievements of our community at the "Colombian Neuroscientist Networking Meeting" in San Diego! Mark your calendar and stay tuned for further details 🗓️ @joeycheers.bsky.social

Hiring: Research Technician and Postdoctoral opportunities! My lab is looking for candidates to join or research in systems neuroscience at the University of Illinois College of Medicine in Chicago @uofilsystem.bsky.social. See details below. Please share! lujanlabuic.squarespace.com/joinus

We are long overdue for more research on the benefits and risks of #cannabis use. However, the urgency for better policies for product standards and public education cannot be overstated. We need to act. Read more in the American Psychological Association's June Report: www.apa.org/monitor/2025...

🚨 300 lives are lost daily to overdose. @kahlertumsom.bsky.social is fighting back—2 years in, they’re launching bold clinical trials, tackling stigma, and building a future where addiction is treated with science and compassion. 💡💊 🔗 Learn more: shorturl.at/pi9ne #Research #OverdoseCrisis

Shelly-Ann racing in her kid's Parents Day race at the school is the funniest thing I've seen all week LMAO

We have multiple openings for basic addiction scientists interested in pursuing translational research within the Kahlert Institute for Addiction Medicine @kahlertumsom.bsky.social apply @ umb.taleo.net/careersectio... and learn about our institute @ addiction.umaryland.edu

Check out the amazing line up of speakers for the Catecholamines GRC! Apply for GRC www.grc.org/catecholamin... & GRS www.grc.org/catecholamin.... In these uncertain times we appreciate any donation to support the participants in the GRC my.grc.org/p/contributi... & GRS my.grc.org/p/contributi...

I'm proud of (and grateful for) this remarkable @upenn.edu sophmore for speaking up about the importance of science. In 2012, Whitehead became the first child treated with CAR T cell therapy, a treatment developed at Penn Medicine; she has been in remission since. www.cnn.com/2025/03/07/h...

Cancer survivor warns against threats to health funding | CNN

Emily Whitehead and Tom Whitehead join The Lead

cnn.com

Congratulations to Associate Director of the Kahlert Institute for Addiction Medicine Sarah Kattakuzhy, MD, MPH! Dr. Kattakuzhy has earned the 2025 Person of the Year – On the Rise award by the UMB Roundtable on Empowerment in Leadership & Leveraging Aspirations (UMBrella). @umbaltimore.bsky.social

New report shows that NIH grants fueled $95 billion in economic activity and 407,782 jobs in 2024. That's not to mention the countless lives that biomedical research has saved. Show me a better investment than that. www.forbes.com/sites/michae...

NIH Grants Fueled $95 Billion In FY 2024 Economic Activity, Finds New Report

National Institutes of Health grants generated almost $95 billion in economic activity nationwide in FY 2024 according to a new report by United for Medical Research.

forbes.com

One of the most powerful moments of the day came from Emily Whitehead who told the story of how she was the first pediatric patient to receive CAR T-cell therapy for her leukemia at age 5: “I stand up for science because science saved my life. And that’s a fact.” @standupforscience.bsky.social

NIH funding is central to the research enterprise, providing critical support for neuroscience research across the country and here at UM-MIND. What are the effects of federal budget cuts to neuroscience research? Learn more in the infographic below and share with your community. #NIHSavesLives

So excited to share the work of the fantastic Katarzyna, 1st 🧪PhD student of my lab 🧠, out in @natureneuro.bsky.social 🥂🥳 Cheers to the team, thanks to our precious collaborators and support from @braincanada.bsky.social #CIHR @fondsrechercheqc.bsky.social #newPI www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Astrocytic cannabinoid receptor 1 promotes resilience by dampening stress-induced blood–brain barrier alterations - Nature Neuroscience

The mechanisms of neurovascular adaptations underlying stress resilience remain unclear. Here the authors show that the astrocytic endocannabinoid system modulates the blood–brain barrier changes duri...

nature.com

🚨📃New Wassum Lab Paper📃🚨 Out today, @jackiegio.bsky.social discovered brain pathways that support agency and habit and how chronic stress disrupts them to rob of us our agency and cause us to form rigid habits 🧵👇 www.nature.com/articles/s41... Free full text: rdcu.be/eaxEv

A dual-pathway architecture for stress to disrupt agency and promote habit - Nature

Adaptive decision-making often requires an understanding of our agency in a situation; however, chronic stress can disrupt agency and promote inflexible, habitual behaviour by turning off a brain path...

nature.com

Upon learning that yesterday would be my last day as a program officer at the National Science Foundation, I shared this parting message with my colleagues. The next few months will be frenetic and stressful for them. Here are some things that you can do to help them with the mission ahead. (1)

We are pleased to announce the return of our Annual Research Symposium. Join us on Wednesday, May 28, for a day of research presentations & networking opportunities. Advanced registration is required. The symposium is free to attend. To register, please visit www.addiction.umaryland.edu/symposium.

Why we fund basic research

Derek Thompson@dkthomp.bsky.social · 2y ago

People sometimes make fun of science that sounds stupid and random. Meanwhile, a study of lizard saliva turned into a peptide medication, which was turned into a diabetes medication, which was turned into a GLP1 weight loss drug, that just became the first therapy every approved for … sleep apnea