Jibran Khokhar
@drjkhokhar.bsky.social
Associate Professor, CRC in Translational Neuropsychopharmacology Western University Open-Source Behavioural Tools Committed to knowing better and doing better!
In two 1926 articles, Edgar Douglas Adrian revealed that neurons communicate through trains of spikes. @carandinilab.net describes the remarkable discovery and how it shifted focus from the medium (the nerve) to the message (the neural code). #neuroskyence www.thetransmitter.org/history-of-n...
The neural code at 100
In two 1926 articles, Edgar Douglas Adrian revealed that neurons communicate through trains of spikes.
thetransmitter.org
Holy shit FOUR members of the ethics committee in Denmark that gave the green light to allow the widely-condemned RFK Jr-funded trial to proceed in Guinea-Bissau have now resigned in protest This quote is 🔥 Great reporting by @melodyschreiber.com www.theguardian.com/society/2026...
Prof Gavin Yamey MD MPH@gavinyamey.bsky.social · 4d agoRFK Jr is funding a grotesquely unethical study on newborn babies in Guinea-Bissau; ethicists, pediatricians, clinical trial experts, & infectious disease experts are calling this horrific trial The New Tuskegee. It is unethical to withhold a life saving intervention from half of newborns FFS.
The deadline is approaching! NIH is proposing changes to how peer review is used in funding decisions and how outcomes are reported and they want to hear from you. Comments are due by October 13! Comment here: grants.nih.gov/grants/guide...
That symposium idea sitting in your group chat? This is its sign. Bring together complementary perspectives, build the scientific discussion, and submit your session for CPDD 2027 by October 22. cpdd.org/meetings/cur...
friday afternoon quick analysis of larger uni dataset (sorry can’t show) fall 2021-fall 2024 = 18% increase in CIHR PG registrations fall 2024-fall 2026 = 33.5% increase nearly twice the rate in only 2 years. 😳
for CIHR Project Grants, eligible faculty can register, as lead applicant, to submit 2 grants/competition (x2 comps /yr). This “rule” is set by CIHR, not by universities. Universities make sure grants are eligible, adhere to regulations, commitments etc. then sign off/submit once approved
Neuroinflammation may contribute to maternal anhedonia by disrupting dopamine-dependent reward circuitry.
Anhedonia in Postpartum Depression: The Role of neuroinflammation and dopamine dysfunction
Anhedonia is a core symptom of postpartum depression, yet the underlying neurobiological mechanisms remain poorly understood. Emerging evidence suggests that postpartum biological adaptations,…
bpsgos.org
After being on many scientists’ shortlists for years, the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine recognized optogenetics — a technology that allows researchers to control the brain’s neurons with pulses of light go.nature.com/3VH299m
Medicine Nobel awarded for brain ‘switch’ that controls neurons with light
Nature - Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel win the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their work on optogenetics, which has revolutionized neuroscience.
go.nature.com
❗❗❗Honored to be cited in Neuron 👏👏👏Why Does Motivation Gradually Decline? Prof. Weiguang Li’ team Reveals the Phasic Circuit Mechanisms Underlying Impaired Effort Persistence in Chronic Pain. BrainVTA offers AAV packaging services. www.cell.com/neuron/abstr...
Stepwise engagement of cingulate ensembles underlies motivational decline in chronic pain
Xu, Sun, et al. show that neuropathic pain engages anterior cingulate outputs in stages in male mice. Amygdala-projecting neurons contribute to early mechanical hypersensitivity, whereas habenula-proj...
cell.com
For this new series, @thetransmitter.bsky.social evaluated whether neuroscience still needs nonhuman primates & if alternative models are ready to replace them. Over the next few weeks, four articles will detail what we found—and what the loss of nonhuman primate research would mean. bit.ly/4AWPX4l
What if nonhuman primate research goes away?
As the U.S. government takes steps to stop using nonhuman primates in research, The Transmitter investigates what that shift means for neuroscience.
bit.ly
The first story tracks the history and role of the U.S. national primate research centers. After decades of flat funding, and amid mounting political pressure, their directors are trying to find a path forward. By @callimcflurry.bsky.social www.thetransmitter.org/what-if-nonh...
U.S. national primate research centers face an uncertain future
The facilities were meant to last 100 years. Four decades shy of that mark, amid flatlined funds and mounting political pressure, their directors are trying to find a path forward.
thetransmitter.org
In the second story out today, @thetransmitter.bsky.social asked 17 neuroscientists what questions could remain unanswered if support for nonhuman primate research continues to decline. Their answers span cognition and other subfields. By Alissa de Chassey www.thetransmitter.org/what-if-nonh...
The neuroscience questions that need nonhuman primates
The Transmitter asked 17 neuroscientists what questions might remain unanswered if support for nonhuman primate research continues to decline.
thetransmitter.org
definitely haven’t seen this in our data (our institute holds 1 in 4 of ubc’s cihr project grants)
Yeah it is a genuine mystery, so I really don't like this consultation on solutions to a problem that hasn't been adequately defined.
This would be the worst possible outcome! Any ideas that folks have about specialized programs are almost always self-serving and further entrench inequities! Keep the money in the open project competition and find/advocate for new money for your pet projects!
Michael Hendricks 🇨🇦@michaelhendricks.bsky.social · 3d agoBut app volume on its own does not justify rethinking how we evaluate grants, and it **certainly** doesn't justify reallocating funds to specialized programs based on topic or goals.
But app volume on its own does not justify rethinking how we evaluate grants, and it **certainly** doesn't justify reallocating funds to specialized programs based on topic or goals.
And this is biggest concern...it is a terrible idea to break up Project based on topic/goal for all the reasons this is always a bad idea: rewarding insiders and agenda-setters for program design, duplicating bureaucracy, and worst of all increasing applicant and reviewer burden even more.
I would be cautiously sympathetic and open to attempts to control app volume in ways that do not restrict opportunities for PIs who need funding.
CIHR bureaucratic capacity is not a fixed constant. We're talking about the federal government. If they want to turn grant peer review into the CRA call centre, they can, or they can fund it adequately.
But again, the crisis CIHR faces is an application volume handling crisis. That's very different from the "Reforms cull" crisis, where labs were being closed in order to concentrate funding. Is there a big uptick in labs that have losting funding? I don't know... doesn't show up here.
agree 💯 but also fear that it will again expand to fill the new space. this “application load crisis” happened in only a couple of years… how do we prevent it from repeating itself ? (IMHO this has NOTHING TO DO WITH PEER REVIEW or researcher expectations)
THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH THE PROJECT GRANT PROGRAM EXCEPT IT IS UNDERFUNDED. Breaking it, redesigning it, etc, cannot fix this.
So for me, the mystery remains. The last time funding rates cratered it was on purpose to pay for Foundation. Recovering from Foundation brought number of PIs back up to old levels, but with larger budgets (inflation) eating overall budget growth, and now with a massive increase in application rate.
- 2024-2026. Exit/entries balanced, but with applications continuing to go way up. CIHR declares crisis. This is a app volume crisis, which matters, but I don't see anything indicating an ecosystem-collapse crisis like the reforms created. Important distinction.
- 2023-2024 uninterpretable because of weird accounting, pay schedules, or data coding. But application rates start to skyrocket. Why? AI is tempting, but LLMs can't do the hard parts of applying. I don't buy it. If true, should be easily detectable slop.
- 2018-2022 PROJECT. Some increase in CIHR budget I think, but increase in avg grant size (inflation, basically) eats most of it. Killing Foundation lets more PIs back into the system. Balance tilts to entries, but total number of PIs AND number of grants restabilizes around pre-Foundation levels.
- 2014-2018 FOUNDATION feeding frenzy. Many PIs shown the exits to pay for foundation.
- 2009-2013 PLATEAU. Budget flattens, success rates fall, entry/exit balance shifts a bit toward exits. Everyone freaked the f out and reform fever takes hold. It's a good question whether the freak out was justified at all, thus caution now is warranted.