Lisa Fenk
@fleyes.bsky.social
Vision, active sensing, eye movements, flies | Lise Meitner Research Group Leader at MPI for Biological Intelligence
🚨Last day to vote 🚨 Dear #ISN members, until TOMORROW you have the chance to have a say in the future leadership of our society and you can choose you favourite site for #ISN2030 - Vienna 🇦🇹 or Los Angeles 🇺🇲? Please vote 🗳 if you have not alredy done so and share widely 🤗 #Neuroethology 🧠🧪
Many thanks to @lochlanw.bsky.social and @prelights.bsky.social for highlighting our preprint!
Lochlan W@lochlanw.bsky.social · 2w agoexcited to share my first preLight summarizing such an exciting preprint! from Tjalda Falt et al. @fleyes.bsky.social Vectorial efference copy and visuomotor transformation through gap junctions prelights.biologists.com/highlights/v...
Revised preprint on mitochondria in central brain of Drosophila now online: much new analysis + details of largest resource for analyzing neuronal mitochondria generated so far, with ~6M mitochondria, >20k neurons, >5k cell types. Much thanks to all coauthors, enjoy! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Connectomic Analysis of Mitochondria in the Central Brain of Drosophila
Mitochondria are integral to the metabolism and cell biology of a neuron. Electron microscopy images of fly brain volumes, taken for connectomics, can be analyzed for mitochondria as well as the cells...
biorxiv.org
🧵 New paper! We’re excited to release OPTICS: software that immediately predicts color sensitivity from any opsin protein sequence. In other words: give OPTICS any opsin sequence, and it predicts the wavelength of light the pigment is most sensitive to 🌈👁️ academic.oup.com/mbe/advance-...
Accessible and Robust Machine Learning Approaches to Improve the Opsin Genotype-Phenotype Map
Abstract. Predicting phenotypes from genetic variation is a central challenge in biology. Here, machine learning (ML) offers great promise, but its use is
academic.oup.com
A day full of science, curiosity, and connection! It was wonderful to see the community come together to share knowledge and push the boundaries of interdisciplinary neuroscience – exactly what the Munich Brain Day is all about. 🧠 ✨ ➡️ munichbrainday.com @mpi-psychiatry.bsky.social @lmu.de @tum.de
Now published - the #BANC! A full central nervous system (CNS) connectome of a limbed animal at single-synapse resolution, enabling us to follow sensory-motor arcs and understand how the CNS controls the body. rdcu.be/fncjS. #neuroscience. Video by @quorumetrix.bsky.social 1/18
Last call for this awesome opportunity: www.czbiohub.org/program-mpi-.... If you hold a US-PhD degree and want to join one of the labs at the @mpi-cbg.de or @mpipks.bsky.social for a fully-funded postdoc, apply! Deadline is May 20.
Global Science Scholars - Max Planck Society
Learn about the international postdoctoral fellowship program from Biohub and the Max Planck Society.
czbiohub.org
I am hiring a PhD student to join our group in Lund, Sweden working on an ERC-funded project to untangle color and polarization vision in some amazing crustaceans – minute water fleas and pugnacious mantis shrimp! Please forward this to promising students. Apply here: lu.varbi.com/en/what:job/...
🐟+🐚 =🏠 Shell-dwelling cichlids are true underwater architects, instinctively transforming empty snail shells into protective nests. New research shows: They improve with practice, remember what they learned, and adapt to unusual conditions. 🔗 Press release: www.bi.mpg.de/news/2026-04...
If you'd be interested in a postdoc with us using CT scans of trilobite eyes to model their visual abilities, watch this space...!
Lauren Sumner-Rooney@laurensr.bsky.social · 6mo agoSo excited to have received an #HFSPResearchGrant to study trilobite eyes with Luke Parry @oxuniearthsci.bsky.social and Gil Ju Lee (Pusan National University)!🥳 I'll be recruiting a postdoc @bristolbiosci.bsky.social - if 3D data, optical modelling, and fossils tickle your interest, stay tuned!
New #PhD on #bees (BeeHd?)! Despite the ad saying "UK Students only", a limited number of scholarships are available for international candidates. So please apply!
Vivek Nityananda@viveknityananda.bsky.social · 8mo agoNew PhD alert! We'll be applying animal welfare ideas to look at how stress affects bees, looking at the effect on bee brains with @lenariab.bsky.social, and working with @sensibee.bsky.social developing new monitoring methods. Please spread the word! #bees #PhD 🧪 www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
*First preprint from our lab* !!!!! How does the brain learn to anchor its internal sense of direction to the outside world? 🧭 led by Mark Plitt @markplitt.bsky.social & Dan Turner-Evans, w/ Vivek Jayaraman: “Octopamine instructs head direction plasticity” www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... Thread ⬇️
How do neural circuits generate the walking rhythm? Using connectome simulations, @sarahpugly.bsky.social found a minimal central pattern generator (CPG) that produces oscillations in leg motor neurons. Same circuit motif for each 🪰 leg. w @bingbrunton.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Have you ever wondered what you would find if you could keep your eyes on a bee for more than a few meters? Us, too! preprint (with videos!) + thread 🧵 Precise, individualized foraging flights in honey #bees 🐝 revealed by multicopter drone-based tracking www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... 1/9
Jumping spiders can recognise one another. This ability to learn, remember and represent images is quite surprising for such a tiny-brained animal! buff.ly/dCkwPr0
🌍Open call: Junior Group Leader positions! Join a world-class biomedical research institute at the heart of the Vienna BioCenter, where curiosity drives discovery. Lead your own lab, pursue bold ideas, and shape the future of science at the IMP: www.imp.ac.at/career/open-...
Excited to announce our new pre-print (www.biorxiv.org/cgi/content/...)! This collaborative work (co-led by Adriane Otopalik and Gerry Rubin) examines how neuronal circuits regulate social behaviors, like courtship🫶 and aggression🥊, across sexes. #neuroscience #Drosophila #WomenInSTEM 🧪1/
Excited to share our new #biorxivpreprint: “Sexual dimorphism in the complete connectome of the Drosophila male central nervous system” www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... We describe the #connectomics reconstruction and analysis of an entire adult #maleCNS #drosophila central nervous system. 1/10
Apply now to become a speaker at our Institute! We invite excellent postdocs in neuroscience, ecology and other fields related to our research to apply for our Emerging Scientist Talk Series. Apply by October 24: www.bi.mpg.de/ess @chr-mayer.bsky.social @fleyes.bsky.social @michaelahau.bsky.social
Come to the MBL in Woods Hole @mblscience.bsky.social for a GRASS FELLOWSHIP @grassfoundation.bsky.social 🦑 🐙🐛 There are two application deadlines this year: Oct 15, 2025 (submit by then to receive feedback on your application!), and Dec 1, 2025 (final deadline). grassfoundation.org/application-...
Job Alert! The University of Tübingen is hiring a FULL PROFESSOR (W3) in FUNCTIONAL ECOLOGY! Come and join our institute, and maybe our new excellence clusters @terra-cluster.org and @greenrobust.de. @gfoesoc.bsky.social @britishecologicalsociety.org @ecologicalsociety.bsky.social Please repost!
New preprint from @darbly.bsky.social @briandepasquale.bsky.social and my labs! If you love (or hate) mosquitoes, have a look: doi.org/10.1101/2025... We used TEM to describe the circuitry used for CO2 detection by mosquitoes. As usual with mosquitoes, nothing is as expected! 🌬️🦟
Recurrent connectivity supports carbon dioxide sensitivity in Aedes aegypti mosquitoes
The mosquito Aedes aegypti′s human host-seeking behavior depends on the integration of multiple sensory cues. One of these cues, carbon dioxide (CO2), gates odorant and heat pathways and activates hos...
doi.org
Happy Friday! The female adult fly brain-and-nerve-cord (BANC) connectome is now LIVE! Explore the data here: codex.flywire.ai?dataset=banc Check out the preprint here: doi.org/10.1101/2025...
a man with a mustache in a blue suit says tiny celebration in front of a group of people
ALT: a man with a mustache in a blue suit says tiny celebration in front of a group of people
media.tenor.com
Now out in @natneuro.nature.com: Temporal control of progenitor competence shapes maturation in GABAergic neuron development in mice. Congrats to first authors @annrosebright.bsky.social, Yana Kotlyarenko, @flo-neuhaus.bsky.social, and thanks to all collaborators! www.nature.com/articles/s41... 1/n
Temporal control of progenitor competence shapes maturation in GABAergic neuron development in mice - Nature Neuroscience
Unlike cortical progenitors, ventral telencephalic progenitors retain the ability to generate diverse neuron types during neurogenesis. Here, the authors show that ventral telencephalic progenitor mat...
nature.com
cool new paper in @nature.com about moth migration, showing they use the stars to navigate up to the mountains in the summer 🧪🌍🐙 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Bogong moths use a stellar compass for long-distance navigation at night - Nature
Every spring, Bogong moths use the starry night sky as a compass to navigate up to 1,000 km towards their alpine migratory goal.
nature.com
The Neural Systems & Behavior Course at the Marine Biological Laboratory is going to be looking for a co-director. If you're a faculty member who is interested in helping to organize and run this incredible course, submit a brief statement and your CV at this website. www.mbl.edu/education/ad...
Faculty Opportunities in MBL Courses | Marine Biological Laboratory
MBL courses bring experts in research and industry to offer lectures and serve as course faculty. To build on this incredible convening power and expand our footprint, we are posting this open call fo...
mbl.edu
Are you interested in visual systems? How are they similar or different across species? Read the review by Ryosuke @ryosuketanaka.bsky.social and Ruben published today in @natrevneuro.nature.com. It is available here: rdcu.be/enlpC
Interested in a PhD connecting sensory ecology and evolutionary genetics? Applications are now open for a project on the Speciation Genomics of Eye Size Variation in Heliconius Butterflies in our lab at LMU Munich: www.evol.bio.lmu.de/research/mer... Please repost!
Today, I signed my first contract as a principal investigator @uni-wuerzburg.de. My Emmy-Noether group can now officially start on 1st of May. If someone is interested working with me on the spatial memory of 🐝 as a PhD student or postdoc, contact me. More details: www.spatial-navigation.com
Beetz Lab
Our group studies the neural mechanisms underlying spatial memory in insects. As central place foragers, honeybees begin their foraging trip at a fixed location, i.e., their nest. This site fidelity.....
spatial-navigation.com
