I'm looking to recruit a post-doc to help push forward our growing interests in insect ecotoxicology. Apply here by Nov 30th! (thanks for reposting) career5.successfactors.eu/sfcareer/job...

🧠🌟🐭 Excited to share some of my postdoc work on the evolution of dexterity! We compared deer mice evolved in forest vs prairie habitats. We found that forest mice have: (1) more corticospinal neurons (CSNs) (2) better hand dexterity (3) more dexterous climbing, which is linked to CSN number🧵

bioRxiv Neuroscience@biorxiv-neursci.bsky.social · 10mo ago

Evolutionary expansion of the corticospinal system is linked to dexterity in Peromyscus mice https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.16.682851v1

Excited to share our new #biorxivpreprint We discovered that the fruit fly #drosophila erecta requires food odor to mate and arousal is further enhanced by social group motion. Cross-species analysis of brain activity reveals a novel gate evolved from within a conserved circuit shorturl.at/gGYm7

🚨Very happy that my PhD work is now out in @nature.com! We discovered that evolution, by acting in the midbrain, shifted the threshold to escape in Peromyscus mice, to fine-tune defensive strategies in different environments www.nature.com/articles/s41... This was a truly collaborative effort! 🧵⬇️

How does life evolve to adapt to modern cities? Out now in Science, my PhD work with @lindymcbr.bsky.social uncovers the ancient origin of the “London Underground mosquito” – one of the most iconic examples of urban adaptation. 🧵(1/n) @science.org www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.ady4515

Ancient origin of an urban underground mosquito

Understanding how life is adapting to urban environments represents an important challenge in evolutionary biology. In this work, we investigate a widely cited example of urban adaptation, Culex pipie...

science.org

Check out this review, which makes many new and interesting connections between human odor, skin biology, and evolution. 💯% of the insight provided comes from the independent literature sleuthing of first author @jlzung.bsky.social. I came along for the ride and learned some chemistry on the way!

Jessica Zung@jlzung.bsky.social · last yr.

Kicking off my Bluesky account by sharing a new review I wrote with @lindymcbr.bsky.social for @currentbiology.bsky.social! If you’ve ever wondered about the source of your stank or just want to learn why humans smell weird (it's true!), then this review is for you! 👃🧪🤔 doi.org/10.1016/j.cu...

BIG NEWS! The Mosquito Cell Atlas preprint is live! 🦟🧬 My first senior author paper! Massive and accessible snRNA-seq dataset and a lot of cool mosquito biology. A true collaborative achievement! #MCA biorxiv.org/content/10.1... See @oliviagoldman.net thread here

Mosquito Cell Atlas: A single-nucleus transcriptomic atlas of the adult Aedes aegypti mosquito

The female mosquito’s remarkable ability to hunt humans and transmit pathogens relies on her unique biology. Here, we present the Mosquito Cell Atlas (MCA), a comprehensive single-nucleus RNA sequenci...

biorxiv.org

Olivia Goldman PhD@oliviagoldman.net · last yr.

I am thrilled to present the Mosquito Cell Atlas! We analyzed 367K nuclei from 19 tissues in male & female mosquitoes, creating a comprehensive resource for vector biology & infectious disease research. Plus we made some surprising discoveries! 🦟🧵 biorxiv.org/content/10.1... 1/n

✨🦟✨HOW DO MOSQUITOES HAVE SEX? ✨🦟✨ Join us for a wild journey into hidden female control, rapidly evolving stimulation devices, fierce species competition, and DEADLY MOSQUITOES! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Here is @yukihaba.bsky.social and I underneath London collecting mosquitoes - very happy little researchers So fresh natural and the historic material in the @nhm-london.bsky.social collections were sampled (along with a lot more..)

John Jackson@johnjacksonnathist.bsky.social · last yr.

The London Underground Mosquito lives underground, feeds on mammal blood & breeds in confined spaces - has it evolved in 200 years, or does it have a longer history? Research on genomes @yukihaba.bsky.social &al @flygirlnhm.bsky.social suggests older Middle East origins doi.org/10.1101/2025...

1. Today the NIH director issued a new directive slashing overhead rates to 15%. I want to provide some context on what that means and why it matters. grants.nih.gov/grants/guide...

Great new study on evolutionary origins of a human pest, the Culex pipiens mosquito and its molestus form (famous as a mammal-feeding pest of the NYC, London and other subway systems) www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Ancient origin of an urban underground mosquito

Understanding how life is adapting to urban environments represents an important challenge in evolutionary biology. Here we investigate a widely cited example of urban adaptation, Culex pipiens form m...

biorxiv.org

I'm thrilled to be opening my own lab this Fall at the @maxplanck.de MPI for Brain Research in Frankfurt. The lab is going to investigate the neuronal and genetic underpinnings of behavioral evolution. We are hiring on all levels. Don't hesitate to share widely and reach out if interested.

Important new paper just out on the origins & #evolbiol of the London Underground Mosquito Culex p. molestus by @yukihaba.bsky.social @lindymcbr.bsky.social. Spoiler alert: Molestus originated 1000s of years ago in the Middle East www.biorxiv.org/content/bior... #evolviol #urbanevolution

New pre-print #2: Jérôme Mermet profiles living and dying lineages in the olfactory system to begin to explain how these sensory pathways are robustly specified but also evolvable: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Multilayer regulation underlies the functional precision and evolvability of the olfactory system

Sensory neurons must be reproducibly specified to permit accurate neural representation of external signals but also able to change during evolution. We studied this paradox in the Drosophila olfactor...

biorxiv.org

New pre-print: an one-stop shop for everything you wanted to know about the fly olfactory system: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

An integrated anatomical, functional and evolutionary view of the Drosophila olfactory system

The Drosophila melanogaster olfactory system is one of the most intensively studied parts of the nervous system in any animal. Composed of ~60 independent olfactory neuron classes, with several associ...

biorxiv.org

Come be my colleague! Public Health Entomology faculty position at Penn State (Assistant/Associate). 70% research, 30% extension. (I am not on the search committee but happy to answer any questions that I can) psu.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/PSU_Ac...

Assistant/Associate Professor of Public Health Entomology

APPLICATION INSTRUCTIONS: CURRENT PENN STATE EMPLOYEE (faculty, staff, technical service, or student), please login to Workday to complete the internal application process. Please do not apply here, a...

psu.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com

Fly neuro people: has anyone tried the Ting lab’s scFLARE (or variants) for labelling active neurons in Drosophila? Thanks.

AT LAST OUR PEER-REVIEWED PRE-PRINT IS PUBLISHED We finally vanquished Reviewer #3 - with great support from the academic editors @ScienceAdvances Cross-modal sensory compensation increases mosquito attraction to humans | Science Advances www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Cross-modal sensory compensation increases mosquito attraction to humans

Mosquitoes enhance sensitivity to human body heat by a sensory compensation mechanism when their sense of smell is disrupted.

science.org

Congrats to @jeffgroh.bsky.social et al on publication of "Ancient structural variants control sex-specific flowering time morphs in walnuts and hickories" www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Our open rank professor position in vector biology at FIU is now live! Those interested in arthropod molecular genetics, biochemistry, population genetics/genomics, neurobiology, or physiology are encouraged. Please apply to Job Opening ID 534013 at careers.fiu.edu by Jan 5th.