Malu Murugan
@malu-murugan.bsky.social
Neuroscientist, Assistant Professor at Emory University www.muruganlab.com
Thanks @sfn.org. truly an honor.
Society for Neuroscience@sfn.org · 9mo agoCongratulations to the recipients of the 2025 Early Career awards & Promotion of Women in Neuroscience awards! These researchers are advancing neuroscience through groundbreaking discoveries, mentorship, & scientific excellence. Listen to their remarks: vist.ly/4e2ut #SfN25 #neurosky
I'm incredibly honored to receive the Janett Rosenberg Trubatch Career Development Award from @sfn.org SFN was the first research conference I ever attended and presented at. I feel truly humbled! Thanks to my fab research team who make me look good!
Society for Neuroscience@sfn.org · 9mo agoCongratulations to the 2025 SfN award & prize recipients! Their dedication to advancing the understanding of the brain paves the way for future discoveries. SfN looks forward to celebrating their achievements at #SfN25. Learn about the recipients. 🔗 vist.ly/4cni8 #neurosky
Really fantastic work led by Ben Dykstra!
Malu Murugan@malu-murugan.bsky.social · 9mo agoOur newest preprint! Work led by Ben Dykstra (co-mentored by @gordonberman.bsky.social). Some of the first recordings from the iCA3 region during social behaviors. Ben found that iCA3 neurons more strongly represent social recognition information relative to iCA1 . www.biorxiv.org/cgi/content/...
Our newest preprint! Work led by Ben Dykstra (co-mentored by @gordonberman.bsky.social). Some of the first recordings from the iCA3 region during social behaviors. Ben found that iCA3 neurons more strongly represent social recognition information relative to iCA1 . www.biorxiv.org/cgi/content/...
biorxiv.org
Very happy to share an expansion to the comparative gene editing toolkit: AAVs to reduce dopamine receptor levels that are functional in many rodent species. Fun collaboration with @malu-murugan.bsky.social, Elliott Albers and Frank Meye.
Comparative gene editing reduces dopamine receptor levels across rodent species
Translational challenges in neuroscience originate from species-specific differences that limit the generalizability of experimental findings. Comparative approaches can help distinguish conserved fro...
biorxiv.org
Check out this exciting new tool from @ajboender.bsky.social - An aav based CRISPR-Cas9 strategy to knockdown dopamine receptors. Works in mice, voles and hamsters. It was a fun collaboration. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Comparative gene editing reduces dopamine receptor levels across rodent species
Translational challenges in neuroscience originate from species-specific differences that limit the generalizability of experimental findings. Comparative approaches can help distinguish conserved fro...
biorxiv.org
Non-overlapping social and food reward representations in the basolateral amygdala https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.06.680770v1
Excited to share our latest preprint led by @jarildy.bsky.social looking at social and non social reward representations. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1.... with help from @hyma2194.bsky.social and @jennisisaac.bsky.social.
Non-overlapping social and food reward representations in the basolateral amygdala
The ability to consider and appraise positively valenced stimuli in the environment, such as food and social interaction, to guide appropriate action is important for survival of most animals. Several...
biorxiv.org
Come be my colleague! Lots of exciting science, fantastic students and supportive colleagues. Emory University Biology Department tenure-track assistant professor position in neuroscience. share.google/945Jko4W1MTA.... Please feel free to retweet and share widely.
Emory University Biology Department tenure-track assistant professor position in neuroscience - Atlanta, Georgia job with malia.escobar@emory.edu | 675335
Candidate uses experimental approaches to examine any aspect of neural function, including molecular, cellular, systems, or developmental neuroscience
share.google
Accepted manuscript version of this paper up on J.Neuro. @sfnjournals.bsky.social . Beautiful work led by @jennisisaac.bsky.social and @soniakarkare.bsky.social with help from @hyma2194.bsky.social characterizing various LS projection populations and their inputs. www.jneurosci.org/content/earl...
Organization of brainwide inputs to discrete lateral septum projection populations
The lateral septum (LS) is anatomically positioned to play a critical role in directing information from the hippocampus and cortex to downstream subcortical structures, such as the hypothalamus. In f...
jneurosci.org
Malu Murugan@malu-murugan.bsky.social · last yr.Lateral septum enthusiast? Interested in learning more about how LS projection populations and their inputs are organized. Check out our preprint in which @jennisisaac.bsky.social and @soniakarkare.bsky.social map out brain wide inputs to 6 LS projection populations. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Beautiful story on the lateral septum!
Dionnet L Bhatti Mazo@victoryofflight.bsky.social · last yr.Our new preprint: 𝐅𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞-𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐟𝐢𝐜 𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭 𝐜𝐨𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐧 𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐥 𝐬𝐞𝐩𝐭𝐮𝐦 𝐠𝐮𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐬 𝐝𝐞𝐟𝐞𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧. We describe how the LS guides defensive responses by forming critical computations built from functionally and molecularly distinct cells and their afferent inputs. www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-6...
Lab t-shirts are here finally. Thanks to fab undergrad Paul Kim for designing them.
A ventral hippocampal-lateral septum pathway regulates social novelty preference. Version of record - now available on @elife.bsky.social check it out doi.org/10.7554/eLif...
A ventral hippocampal-lateral septum pathway regulates social novelty preference
Projection-specific optogenetic and chemogenetic experiments reveal a hippocampal-lateral septal pathway that potentially acts via the ventral tegmental area to regulate social novelty preference beha...
doi.org
The Telly Awards has named our short film on the life and impact of our co-founder Jim Simons as a People’s Telly Gold Winner in the general non-broadcast category. Read more: www.simonsfoundation.org/2025/05/20/f... #science #philanthropy
Foundation’s Film About Jim Simons Named People’s Gold Winner at Telly Awards
The Simons Foundation’s short film on the life and impact of Jim Simons is a People’s Telly Gold Winner.
simonsfoundation.org
We’re hiring a postdoc with slice patch-clamp expertise to study head direction circuits and plasticity during spatial learning. Ideal for a neurophysiologist excited to combine ex vivo and in vivo approaches. Come join us in beautiful Cambridge! 🐭🧭🧠 📝 Apply by 9 June: www.jobs.cam.ac.uk/job/51282/
Congratulations on a masterful defense @jennisisaac.bsky.social So incredibly grateful to have had the opportunity to mentor you. Can't wait to see all the insanely cool stuff you do. Keep an eye out for Jenni's work on the lateral septum soon
I would be happy to host a HFSP fellowship @hfspo.bsky.social in Edinburgh. Write to me if you're interested 🧠🐀🔬
Human Frontier Science Program@hfspo.bsky.social · last yr.Got a radical idea that doesn’t fit the mold? #HFSP supports bold, high-risk postdoctoral research in #LifeSciences 🧪 Challenge the norm. Go international. Think beyond disciplines 💪 Apply now! 💥 Deadline May 15 | Initiate LOI by May 7 🔗zurl.co/gtbWu #sts
We’ve been working on this project for several years and it’s finally out on bioarxiv! Check out the anatomical organization of the lateral septum and its connectivity
Malu Murugan@malu-murugan.bsky.social · last yr.Lateral septum enthusiast? Interested in learning more about how LS projection populations and their inputs are organized. Check out our preprint in which @jennisisaac.bsky.social and @soniakarkare.bsky.social map out brain wide inputs to 6 LS projection populations. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Lateral septum enthusiast? Interested in learning more about how LS projection populations and their inputs are organized. Check out our preprint in which @jennisisaac.bsky.social and @soniakarkare.bsky.social map out brain wide inputs to 6 LS projection populations. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Organization of brainwide inputs to discrete lateral septum projection populations
The lateral septum (LS) is anatomically positioned to play a critical role in directing information from the hippocampus and cortex to downstream subcortical structures, such as the hypothalamus. In f...
biorxiv.org
Check out our protocol paper in @cp-starprotocols.bsky.social on operant social reward seeking. Work from @jennisisaac.bsky.social @hyma2194.bsky.social and @soniakarkare.bsky.social
STAR Protocols@cp-starprotocols.bsky.social · last yr.Protocol for the quantitative assessment of social and nonsocial reward-seeking in mice using an automated two choice operant assay #protocol #starprotocols #cellpress
Want to compare social and nonsocial reward seeking behavior? On STAR Protocols, we provide instructions for the assembly of a 2 choice operant chamber with an easy to use GUI-based acquisition system. Low cost and fully automated. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Protocol for the quantitative assessment of social and nonsocial reward-seeking in mice using an automated two choice operant assay
The complexity of social behaviors makes it difficult to study the neural mechanisms that underlie them. Here, we describe an automated, low-cost two …
sciencedirect.com
An exciting day for the lab. @jennisisaac.bsky.social wins the Emory Neuroscience Scientific Achievement award. @hyma2194.bsky.social wins the Mentorship award and @jarildy.bsky.social wins the Leadership award. What rockstars! May congratulations on your well deserved honors.
Would love to see this issue covered by more mainstream media... cc @sherylnyt.bsky.social @sangerkatz.bsky.social @joelachenbach.bsky.social @susansvrluga.bsky.social
Dr. Becca@docbecca.bsky.social · last yr.If the block on the Federal Register isn’t removed in the next few months, I fear a majority of labs will close within a year. This small procedural wrench has the power to kill US science indefinitely, losing an entire generation of discovery and innovation.
An absolute honor to be named as a Sloan Fellow. Many thanks to my mentors, colleagues and @emoryuniversity.bsky.social for their support. Biggest thanks to my lab for making the journey fun and worthwhile! Many congratulations to all the other fellows!
Alfred P. Sloan Foundation@sloanfoundation.bsky.social · last yr.🎉Congrats to the 126 early-career scientists who have been awarded a Sloan Research Fellowship this year! These exceptional scholars are drawn from 51 institutions across the US and Canada, and represent the next generation of groundbreaking researchers. sloan.org/fellowships/...
I was hoping that my first bsky post would be more cheerful. I recently joined NIH (NIEHS) as a PO. I fought hard for this position and was so excited to support health science from a new vantage point… I picked up my life and moved to NC. Unfortunately, my time at NIEHS was short lived.
I think some people hear “grants” and think that without them, scientists and government workers just have less stuff to play with at work. But grants fund salaries for students, academics, researchers, and people who work in all areas of public service. “Pausing” grants means people don’t eat.
White House pauses all federal grants, sparking confusion
The Trump administration has put a hold on all federal financial grants and loans, affecting tens of billions of dollars in payments.
washingtonpost.com
If you are looking to understand how social reward is organized. look no further. Check out this wonderful article that @jennisisaac.bsky.social and I wrote.
Trends in Neurosciences@cp-trendsneuro.bsky.social · 2y ago'Interconnected neural circuits mediating social reward' Review article by Jennifer Isaac & Malavika Murugan @malu-murugan.bsky.social www.cell.com/trends/neuro...
