I am happy to share our latest manuscript, led by newly-minted PhD Justin Wang, identifying a neural population that selectively controls hedonic, but not homeostatic, feeding. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Ventral pallidal GABAergic neurons control hedonic feeding and obesity

Food intake is governed by two interacting drives. The homeostatic hunger drive regulates food intake to fulfill caloric needs while the hedonic drive promotes intake of palatable foods outside of cal...

biorxiv.org

When someone says „Scientists do not want you to know“ you can dismiss everything from there on. Scientists want you to know. They are desperate that you know. They can’t shut up about what they found out and want you to know.

2025 was a rough year for science worldwide (and in general), but, despite everything, I am optimistic. Why? Because of @qedscience.bsky.social! This crazy endeavour actually has a chance of changing how academia works.. 👇

a man pointing to a sign that says believe

ALT: a man pointing to a sign that says believe

media.tenor.com

@superkash.bsky.social Hey Tom any truck news lately?

Just got home from a trip and received this book by @juliabelluz.bsky.social and @kevinh-phd.bsky.social!

pyPhotometry v2 is now in our store! 🚀 ⚡Output current of the 2 onboard LED drivers increased to 300 mA 🔦🔦 2 alternative LED digital output channels to trigger external optical hardware that have integrated LED drivers 🔌Additional connections to the pyBoard for expansion #OpenEphys #pyPhotometry

pyPhotometry V2 — Open Ephys

SKU: OEPS-8011 pyPhotometry is an open source system for fiber photometry data acquisition . Version 2 includes: 2x Analog inputs for photometry signals. The system supports time-division mul...

open-ephys.org

Excited to share work led by my PhD student Hayley McMorrow now published in @jclinical-invest.bsky.social. Hayley showed that GIP and GLP-1 receptor agonists rapidly inhibit AgRP neurons and that endogenous GIP is important for nutrient-mediated AgRP neuron inhibition. doi.org/10.1172/JCI1...

If you missed out on a spot at the other neuroscience/psychoactive drug GRCs this summer, we still have spots open at the Cannabinoid GRC with an exciting program ranging from clinical to pre-clinical to big data to society! Register today! grc.org/cannabinoid-... RT please!

‼️🚨 postdoc position 🚨‼️ I am looking for a postdoc in psychoneuroimmunology - come join our group to work on sickness behavior in humans 🤒🦠 at Karolinska Institutet @ki.se !! ki.varbi.com/en/what:job/... deadline July 31st @pnirs.bsky.social #neuroskyence #PsychSciSky #interoception

Postdoctoral Researcher in Psychoneuroimmunology

Do you want to contribute to improving human health? Join a dynamic and inclusive research group at the forefront of psychoneuroimmunology, where we investigate the interplay between behavior, brain f

ki.varbi.com

This was a really fun project: We blocked obesity in mice by making them do a tiny bit of work for their food. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

A simple action reduces high-fat diet intake and obesity in mice

Diets that are high in fat cause overeating and weight gain in multiple species of animals, suggesting that high dietary fat is sufficient to cause ob…

sciencedirect.com

Thrilled to announce that my lab is now open at Ohio State! We study astrocytes as gene therapy targets for brain repair after ischemic stroke and in vascular dementia, developing new viral tools along the way. If you're interesting in joining or collaborating, please reach out! gleichmanlab.com

I found Jimmy Carter's Environmental Program (fittingly?) in the dumpster in the alley behind my house. "The sight of earthrise was awesome. It was also sobering. From that moment we could no longer avoid understanding that all life must share this one small planet and its limited resources."

It's funny that ChatGPT does this shit too

Thanks to @jaketapper.bsky.social for inviting me on his show yesterday! www.cnn.com/2025/04/17/h...

Top researcher quits NIH, citing censorship under RFK Jr. | CNN

Dr. Kevin Hall joins The Lead

cnn.com

The preliminary program for the 2026 Basal Ganglia Gordon Research Conference is up! www.grc.org/basal-gangli... Super excited about this program and to move the meeting to Europe for the first time - come join us in Tuscany!

After 21 years at my dream job, I’m very sad to announce my early retirement from the National Institutes of Health. My life’s work has been to scientifically study how our food environment affects what we eat, and how what we eat affects our physiology.

1/ Why do patients with late-stage cancer lose motivation & sink into apathy? 🔥 Our new Science paper shows chronic inflammation activates a cytokine-sensing brain circuit that lowers motivation. Huge team effort: Aelita Zhu, Sarah Starosta, Pignatelli & Janowitz labs! 🧵 🔗 doi.org/10.1126/scie...

A neuroimmune circuit mediates cancer cachexia-associated apathy

Cachexia, a severe wasting syndrome associated with inflammatory conditions, often leads to multiorgan failure and death. Patients with cachexia experience extreme fatigue, apathy, and clinical depres...

doi.org

12/ This project took a *huge* team, spanning neuroscience, immunology, and cancer. Grateful to co–first authors Aelita Zhu, Sarah Starosta, co–senior authors Marco Pignatelli & Tobias Janowitz & ours labs & all our amazing collaborators including @kravitzlab.com & Pavel Osten.

A pie graph worth keeping in mind as the NIH budget plummets jamanetwork.com/journals/jam... for 356 new FDA drugs approved

Trying something new: A 🧵 on a topic I find many students struggle with: "why do their 📊 look more professional than my 📊?" It's *lots* of tiny decisions that aren't the defaults in many libraries, so let's break down 1 simple graph by @jburnmurdoch.bsky.social 🔗 www.ft.com/content/73a1...

😂

Nature@nature.com · last yr.

It can be hard to say no to service requests in academia. We sought advice on how to ensure researchers don’t get stuck doing unpaid labour https://go.nature.com/3FsSD1p

About fifty years ago, NASA strapped a message in a bottle to a rocket and flung it into the deep dark It wasn’t supposed to go this far, but it did. Long past its mission, it’s still out there so far away now that a simple hello takes a day to reach it, and another day to hear if it says hello back

Special shout out this AM to NIH 🧪 grant mgmt specialists, POs, and SROs during this chaotic time - THANK YOU for caring for our grants and uploading scores/summary statements despite the unprecedented challenges you may be facing. You are science warriors and we APPRECIATE & SUPPORT YOU 🫶

I am recruiting for postdoctoral and technician positions at UCSD. If anyone with relevant skills/interests has lost funding due to the anti-DEI jihad or the NIH purge, I’m open to discussion of ways we can try to help out.

Most of these F31 applicants who had their apps pulled from review will be first time newbies to the NIH system. They are not hardened to the brutality like most of us. So heartbreaking to contemplate their disappointment and confusion and pain over the lost opportunity.

It's time to educate our neighbors about the importance of science funding. Local news papers still exist and are read by folks. Here is the op-ed I wrote for this week's "News of Orange", a local paper in Orange Co NC. Full text is on the alt-text 🧪

Reminder that a study on lizard saliva eventually led to the development of Ozempic so be real wary of the criticism of studies and funding that sounds non-sensical when presented with no context.

Reminder: You can always submit a grant late and include a cover letter saying why. NIH receipt and referral may take it. Or not. If you end up missing deadline because of these Commons access issues, there is this potential save move.

Journalists: When you ask the question this way, you are accepting the premise. The premise is that non-white men and women (including white women) are not qualified to do the job. Please don’t accept the premise. Frame the question in a way that challenges it. Thank you

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 2y ago

REPORTER: Are you saying this crash was somehow was the result of diversity hiring? TRUMP: It just could have been

guys I tried ChatGPT for drafting some summary sections in a grant application and it was just... really lame. Like vague and bland and not something that was ever going to engage a grant reviewer at 10.30pm on a Thursday night while they had a glass of red wine in their hand