Thanks @phiejacobs.bsky.social for featuring our work in @science.org! Why did Apollo astronauts skip on the Moon? Our study shows that reduced gravity reveals a proprioception-dependent mechanism for locomotor state selection. @alesantuz.bsky.social leading the way to the moon 🐭🚀

David Grimm@david-grimm.bsky.social · 3w ago

The first foot set on the Moon was famously one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind. But did you know there was a spring in that step? And do you know why? Fun story by @phiejacobs.bsky.social for @science.org

Finally out in @natneuro.nature.com! A forgotten memory isn't always gone. We show that forgotten memories persist as silent memory traces, can be recovered by reminders, and can even be reconstructed into false memories. Excited to finally share this work! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Been a good #PainResearch day for our lab in @phar.cam.ac.uk with 2 papers out in Journal of Neuroscience: 1. Led by @mayadannawi.bsky.social focuses on the impact of Prdm12 overexpression in adult sensory neurons www.jneurosci.org/content/earl..., walkthrough 👉 bsky.app/profile/psal...

AAV-mediated overexpression of Prdm12 in knee-innervating afferents reduces inflammatory joint pain and neuronal hyperexcitability in female mice

Inflammatory joint pain features in numerous musculoskeletal disorders that affect millions globally. The Prdm12 gene encodes a conserved zinc finger transcriptional regulator expressed selectively in...

jneurosci.org

Ewan St. John Smith@psalmotoxin.bsky.social · 10mo ago

New pre-print from @phar.cam.ac.uk & Bellefroid lab at ULB! Led by @mayadannawi.bsky.social w support from @interlukein.bsky.social & more! We investigate impact of overexpressing the zinc finger transcriptional regulator Prdm12 on sensory neuron function / joint pain. #neuroskyence #PainResearch

Finally got my Canadian visa sorted (the joys of being a non-EU traveler 😅), so I’m flying out this weekend for the NeuroEthology congress! I’ll be presenting a poster on courtship behaviour and vocalisation in naked mole-rats. If anyone wants to catch up or meet for the first time, let’s chat!

For me this paper is a career highlight..truly astonishing biology! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

A queen odour mediates reproductive suppression in a eusocial mammal - Nature

Naked mole-rat (Heterocephalus glaber) queens produce isopropyl myristate, a low-volatility ester that high-ranking animals detect and avoid, which alters prolactin and progesterone in other females t...

nature.com

Our new paper is out in @nature.com! We uncovered how a naked mole-rat queen 👑 controls an entire colony: a natural contraceptive scent that suppresses reproduction in other females! A remarkable mammalian parallel to bees and ants! 🐝🐜 @garyrlewin.bsky.social youtu.be/enfv3zJrWKM?...

Naked mole-rats are ruled by a queen: this chemical puts her in power

YouTube video by nature video

youtu.be

Lab's latest: sculpting sex-biased metabolic territories in the intestine by tuning ploidy and lipid metabolism. Myc is to blame; Laura, Pedro and Chris found out www.cell.com/developmenta...

Myc sustains sex-biased organ zonation in the Drosophila intestine

Amourda, Blackie, Gaspar, et al. show that sex-biased activity of Dsx and Myc shapes intestinal zonation and lipid metabolism in Drosophila. Elevated Myc activity in female enterocytes increases ploid...

cell.com

We are delighted to announce that Ahmed R. Ismaieel successfully defended his PhD thesis on the olfactory role of mouthparts, legs and genitalia in the hawkmoth Manduca sexta. Congratulations to Ahmed and his supervisors, Sonja Bisch-Knaden, @nmvandam.bsky.social, and Bill Hansson. Well done!

Beautiful work on the evolution of sensory perception. Existing neuronal lineages are often recoded throughout evolution by the expression of novel olfactory receptor genes. The Arguello lab reconstructed all the steps in this sensory neuron recoding. A must-read!

@tomtom-auer.bsky.social · 2mo ago

How do duplicated receptor genes "find a home" in olfactory circuits? Great study by the Arguello lab shows the re-coding of olfactory channels across species. Neat combination of phylogenetic reconstruction, sc-transcriptomics and more. Check out the pre-print: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

How do duplicated receptor genes "find a home" in olfactory circuits? Great study by the Arguello lab shows the re-coding of olfactory channels across species. Neat combination of phylogenetic reconstruction, sc-transcriptomics and more. Check out the pre-print: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Evolutionary Recoding of Olfactory Sensory Neurons

Odorant receptors ( Or s) are the interface between an animal’s nervous system and its olfactory environment. In insect genomes, the Or s are often the largest gene family, and their rapid duplication...

biorxiv.org

Happy to share this amazing work! We found lactase!? activity in birds, re-gaining of sweet-taste among other adaptations to frugivory in Manakins. This helped these birds evolve complicated and energetic mating behaviors! www.cell.com/current-biol...

Genomic and physiological changes in a sexually selected and frugivorous bird radiation

Balakrishnan et al. take an integrative approach to explore the evolution of manakins, a frugivorous bird lineage with elaborate courtship displays. They detect genome-wide signatures related to sexua...

cell.com

Come and join us @phar.cam.ac.uk for a PhD with Maxion Therapeutics www.findaphd.com/phds/project... Deadline: July 30th Funding: Home Fee status only

Regulation of neuronal excitability using IgG targeting of ion channels and GPCRs at Babraham Institute (Cambridge) on FindAPhD.com

PhD Project - Regulation of neuronal excitability using IgG targeting of ion channels and GPCRs at Babraham Institute (Cambridge), listed on FindAPhD.com

findaphd.com

🚨 Preprint alert! 🚨 How does the olfactory bulb transform overlapping sensory inputs into representations that are easier to distinguish? New study by Sina Tootoonian, Yikai Yang, @andreas-t-schaefer.bsky.social @crick.ac.uk and myself.‬ www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... A short 🧵 below

Here is a banger! Our new paper in @currentbiology.bsky.social is out! We have used museomics to sequence a 45yr old specimen of Drosophila enhydrobia, a rare and most unusual fly whose larvae are aquatic(!) and predatory(!). Very cool, big success. authors.elsevier.com/sd/article/S...

Excited to have this #PainResearch paper out from our @phar.cam.ac.uk lab: "Monoclonal antibody inhibition of PAR2 reduces phenotype severity and pain in murine inflammatory bowel disease" journals.lww.com/painrpts/ful...

Monoclonal antibody inhibition of PAR2 reduces phenotype... : PAIN Reports

mising therapeutic target for visceral pain management in IBD. Objectives: We set out to determine signaling mechanisms deployed by PAR2 in the lumbar splanchnic nerve and whether inhibiting PAR2 with the mouse monoclonal antibody (mAb), PAR650097 (mPAR650097) provided therapeutic benefit in dextran sulfate sodium (DSS)-induced colitis. Methods: We first used ex vivo electrophysiological recordings of mouse lumbar splanchnic nerve to determine how stimulation of PAR2 alters afferent activity and the intracellular signaling mechanisms involved. Second, we used the DSS model of colitis in mice and determined how mPAR650097 altered disease activity, behavior, colon histology, and the activity of nociceptive circuitry. Results: Protease-activated receptor 2 stimulation in the colon activated visceral afferent fibers and sensitized them to mechanical and chemical stimuli. We found that endosomal internalization and protein kinase A/C signaling mediate both activating and sensitizing effects of PAR2 in visceral pain. We further show that inhibiting PAR2 with the mAb mPAR650097 reduces DSS-induced colitis severity and pain. mPAR650097 also reduced several colitis-induced pain correlates at key points along the pain-signaling axis, including peripheral nociceptive neuron signaling and sensitivity, expression of proinflammatory mediators, spinal cord signaling, and, fundamentally, behavior. Conclusion: These findings illustrate that mAb inhibition of PAR2 represents a promising approach to provide relief from abdominal pain in those living with IBD....

journals.lww.com

Great!😂 @cellpress.bsky.social Garlic inhibits mating and egg laying in Aedes vector mosquitoes

And another great paper in Cell from the best ever behavioralist, Dr. Shimaa Ebrahim!!!

@shimaaebrahim.bsky.social · 4mo ago

nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com?url=https%3A... I’m thrilled to share my journey from the kitchen to the lab, which has ultimately led me to publish in Cell Journals. I hope you enjoy reading my latest paper:

nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com?url=https%3A... I’m thrilled to share my journey from the kitchen to the lab, which has ultimately led me to publish in Cell Journals. I hope you enjoy reading my latest paper:

We are looking for a postdoctoral scientist to work on challenging and exciting neuroproteomics problems. Close collaboration with @coscialab.bsky.social Apply: jobs.helmholtz-hzi.de/job/Braunsch...

@mdc-berlin.bsky.social Excited to see our paper with Sam @amapruns.bsky.social and Fabian Coscia now published. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

🎉New paper out from the lab, led by @baptistepiqueret.bsky.social: ant larvae chemically suppress the reproduction of their caregivers. bit.ly/4t8uZLG An example of how social interactions are regulated at the molecular level. The work was made possible by the unique environment @mpi-ce.bsky.social

Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology@mpi-ce.bsky.social · 4mo ago

A research team from @yukoulrich.bsky.social‘s lab at our institute has identified the first brood pheromone in ants—thereby proving that larvae of clonal raider ants actively influence the colony’s reproduction cycle. www.ice.mpg.de/550783/PR_Pi...

New Review 👇 The molecular evolution of vertebrate organs: www.nature.com/articles/s41... Margarida Cardoso-Moreira discusses rates of evolution of organs and cell types, molecular mechanisms of organ evolution and how complex traits contributed to the diversification of vertebrates.

The molecular evolution of vertebrate organs - Nature Ecology & Evolution

This Review discusses recent advances in the molecular evolution of vertebrate organs, including rates of evolution of organs and cell types, molecular mechanisms of organ evolution and how complex tr...

nature.com

Crick evolutionary biologist @margaridamcm.bsky.social is working with conservation charity ZSL to investigate an enduring mystery: how the placenta has evolved with incredible variation across species. Read the full story: www.crick.ac.uk/news/2026-03...

🗞️Our March issue is live, with killifish artwork by Dario Valenzano on the cover!🎨Read work on senescence in mammary gland remodelling, structural protein changes as readouts of Alzheimer’s disease, the 201 Parkinson’s disease trial & more ✨https://nature.com/nataging/volumes/6/issues/3

We are very proud: Julio Antonio Otárola Jiménez successfully defended his PhD thesis today! His research topic was "From Courtship to Egg-Laying: How Chemical Cues and Experience Shape Reproductive Strategies in Drosophila melanogaster". Congratulations, Julio!

Why is Spotted Wing Drosophila attracted to fruit at its prime, instead of overripe fruit like other flies? Xue and Dweck found the neuron receptor shifts responsible for this $500M agricultural problem, in this impressive 2-author work out of the CT Ag Experiment Station!

Hany K. M. Dweck (هاني دويك)@dwecklab.bsky.social · 4mo ago

I am very happy to share that the latest work from the lab, led by Dr. Qi Xue, has been published in PNAS and is now online: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

I am very happy to share that the latest work from the lab, led by Dr. Qi Xue, has been published in PNAS and is now online: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Receptor sequence divergence, gain, loss, duplication, and neofunctionalization drive olfactory adaptation in Drosophila suzukii | PNAS

Shifts in ecological niches are often driven by evolutionary changes in the olfactory system, yet the underlying mechanisms remain poorly understoo...

pnas.org

Aging killifish show systemic inflammation and accumulating DNA damage in progenitor-like immune cells, offering a window into the evolutionarily conserved mechanisms of vertebrate immune aging. Great work from Gabriele, @mdonertas.bsky.social, and the whole team. www.nature.com/articles/s43...

Spontaneous aging-associated inflammation and genome instability in the immune system of turquoise killifish - Nature Aging

Turquoise killifish are naturally short-lived vertebrates that serve as a model system for aging. The authors show that killifish exhibit age-related transformation in the immune system, which rapidly...

nature.com

Drosophila santomea males frequently court other males due to specific changes in their pheromone signals and how these cues are interpreted. By rewiring chemical communication, this species shows how social signals can drive striking shifts in mating behaviour www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Happy to see this one out! Convergent and lineage-specific genomic changes shape adaptations in sugar-consuming birds | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Convergent and lineage-specific genomic changes shape adaptations in sugar-consuming birds

High-sugar diets cause human metabolic diseases, yet several bird lineages convergently adapted to feeding on sugar-rich nectar or fruits. We investigated the underlying molecular mechanisms in hummin...

science.org