Mari Sosa
@marisosa.bsky.social
Assistant Professor, University of Colorado Boulder | Systems neuroscientist | BRAIN Initiative K99 | Leading Edge Fellow | Hippocampal memory and reward learning | She/her. All opinions my own.
🆘🚨⏰🫵🏼✍🏻💻 “the comments could still slow implementation of the changes because the OMB must reply to them. And a monsoon could persuade Congress… Comments also put into the public record objections that, if the government doesn’t address them, could be raised again in lawsuits to stop the changes.”
Jenna Norton@jenna-m-norton.bsky.social · 4w agoKeep those comments on the OMB proposed rule coming! www.insidehighered.com/news/governm...
Only a few days left to comment if you have not! Please take the time. Just a few paragraphs are needed.
Jenna Norton@jenna-m-norton.bsky.social · 4w agoKeep those comments on the OMB proposed rule coming! www.insidehighered.com/news/governm...
Reminder that there are 12 days left to submit a public comment in response to the OMB's proposed rule! Submit comment here: www.regulations.gov/commenton/OM... Here is a great summary of the proposed changes and how they will damage American science: elizabethginexi.substack.com/p/summary-of...
Summary of Key Changes in OMB’s Proposed Federal Financial Assistance Rule
Russell Vought is going to destroy American Science
elizabethginexi.substack.com
In this month’s “Liftoff,” @marisosa.bsky.social discusses the challenges and excitement of task-switching as a new PI, and @debyee.bsky.social shares how she plans to foster a culture of reproducibility in her lab. #neuroskyence By @franciscorr25.bsky.social www.thetransmitter.org/liftoff-new-...
Liftoff: New lab alerts
Learn about early-career scientists starting their own labs.
thetransmitter.org
“A single Tomahawk cruise missile runs about $3.6 million, roughly what it takes to fund one scientist’s multiyear grant. The entire National Science Foundation budget is less than what we spent in the first week of the war with Iran.” www.nytimes.com/2026/06/20/o...
Opinion | The Science That Turned Lizard Venom Into GLP-1s Is Under Attack
nytimes.com
I've seen a lot of info for specialized audiences (e.g. scientists, non-profits) on how to comment on the proposed OMB rule change for grants, but less for the general public. So I made this one-pager that can be shared more widely. docs.google.com/document/d/e...
So delighted to welcome the new Zara Weinberg cohort of Leading Edge fellows!!!
Leading Edge Fellows Program@leadingedgeprogram.bsky.social · 2mo agoWe are thrilled to announce the 2026 Zara Weinberg Leading Edge Fellows! 40 remarkable postdocs pursuing transformative research in biological/biomedical sciences. This is the 7th Leading Edge cohort and we are so excited to welcome them! www.leadingedgesymposium.org/fellows/
Several people have asked for possible content and structure for comments regarding the proposed OMB regulations. With some suggestions from others, I have posted on example (as a Word document) for downloading). jeremymberg.github.io/jeremyberg.g... I hope this is helpful.
jeremymberg.github.io
🚨🧪🧵URGENT INPUT NEEDED: NIH asks input for next strategic plan-including emphasis on non-animal models (NAMs) to replace animals. Per NIH insider, anti-animal responses now outnumber scientists 200-700x. Please please provide input. Deadline: May 26, 11:59 PM ET. grants.nih.gov/news-events/...
NIH Seeks Input on Framework for Next NIH-Wide Strategic Plan | Grants & Funding
grants.nih.gov
PinkyCaMP is finally published!! My first paper co-first authored with @sikmys.bsky.social where we make a great optogenetic and multiplex compatible red calcium indicator. Thank you to @massecklab.bsky.social and @campbell-lab.bsky.social for guiding this journey www.nature.com/articles/s41...
PinkyCaMP: an mScarlet-based calcium sensor with enhanced brightness, photostability and multiplexing capabilities - Nature Methods
PinkyCaMP is a red genetically encoded calcium indicator with improved brightness and photostability. Derived from mScarlet, it does not exhibit photoswitching upon blue light illumination and is ther...
nature.com
🎉🎉🎉
Lisa Giocomo@lgiocomo.bsky.social · 4mo agoNew paper! Congrats to @markplitt.bsky.social, Konstantin and team! The brain’s spatial map isn’t static but for hippocampus CA1 maps to change with experience, they need postsynaptic membrane fusion. A new link between synaptic machinery and flexible coding! www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
It was an honor to be part of this work! Getting the sparse knockout in CA1 to work with dual color 2p imaging — letting us compare Syntaxin3-KO cells to WT cells in the same animal — was particularly challenging and fun 😄
Mark Plitt@markplitt.bsky.social · 4mo agoMy final paper from grad school is out! Thank you to @marisosa.bsky.social @ellasay.bsky.social and my co-first author Konstantin Kaganovsky! We show that reward and novelty coding in the hippocampus requires a specific membrane fusion protein implicated in activity-dependent AMPAR mobilization!
Calling all neuroscientists with optical tables: do you float them with air or nitrogen? Why? Have used air in the past but am hearing arguments for both and trying to decide which is best! Context: mouse 2p imaging with behavior
1st McKinley Lab grad student’s 1st preprint! @claireang.bsky.social studied how the uterus safely excises massive amounts of tissue during menstruation and pregnancy. Come for her GORGEOUS images, stay for her incredible discoveries. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... w/ @akelleher1017.bsky.social
Claire Ang@claireang.bsky.social · 5mo agoExcited to share my new preprint from the McKinley lab, where we explored regenerative mechanisms across menstruation and pregnancy! We thought specialized glands would regenerate everything. We were wrong. But the real mechanism turned out to be way cooler :) 🧪🧵 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
The lab will be presenting two posters at #cosyne2026 #cosyne26 on dopamine-based distributed RL and hippocampal coding from a population-geometry perspective! @zijingwu.bsky.social @chenjiang01.bsky.social #compneurosky #neuroskyence
Awesome article on medical breakthroughs that came from basic neuroscience research in rodents. Major success examples in postpartum depression, non-opioid pain and migraine treatment. This is exactly why funding basic science is so important! www.thetransmitter.org/drug-develop...
How basic neuroscience has paved the path to new drugs
A growing list of medications—such as zuranolone for postpartum depression, suzetrigine for pain, and the gepants class of migraine medicines—exist because of insights from basic research.
thetransmitter.org
Thrilled to share our new paper, out now in @natneuro.nature.com, uncovering how estradiol, the most potent estrogen, modulates reinforcement learning and reward prediction errors across biological levels. www.nature.com/articles/s41... #blueprint 1/7
Estrogen modulates reward prediction errors and reinforcement learning - Nature Neuroscience
Dopamine encoding of reward prediction errors naturally fluctuates over females’ reproductive cycles with estrogenic signaling due to reduced expression of dopamine reuptake proteins.
nature.com
A “promise of a vote” is no better than a “concept of a plan”
This White House made a choice to pay ICE instead of SNAP and ATC - we could just as easily be flying just fine and feeding people instead of harassing them. Don't cave now
The Sosa Lab is going to #SfN25 and actively recruiting ✨postdocs✨ with systems neuroscience experience! We study both fundamental memory processes and how memory changes during pregnancy and postpartum. If you are interested in meeting at SfN, please email me! www.sosaneurolab.com/join/postdoc...
Sosa Lab - Postdoctoral Researchers
We are seeking postdocs to start in 2026!
sosaneurolab.com
The Leading Edge Fellows gathered this week to celebrate Zara Weinberg, a beloved member of our community. Our 7th cohort of Leading Edge Fellows (2026) will be named in her honor. The Zara Weinberg Leading Edge Cohort application is now open! Due Feb 2. www.leadingedgesymposium.org/apply/
Applications are open for the 2026 Zara Weinberg cohort of Leading Edge, named in honor of the incredible, brilliant, fearless @weinberz.witchlab.org. The LE community has been truly transformative for my scientific journey and my happiness. Please apply!! www.leadingedgesymposium.org/apply/
Apply | leadingedgesymposium
Apply. The 2026 Leading Edge cohort application is now open! This cohort is named the Zara Weinberg Cohort, in honor of 2021 Leading Edge Fellow, Zara Weinberg. Applications are due February 2, 2026.
leadingedgesymposium.org
I have been blown away by the level of support (both practical and emotional support!) from the #LeadingEdge community. I feel so grateful to be a part of this group. Consider applying!! www.leadingedgesymposium.org/apply/
Apply | leadingedgesymposium
Apply. The 2026 Leading Edge cohort application is now open! This cohort is named the Zara Weinberg Cohort, in honor of 2021 Leading Edge Fellow, Zara Weinberg. Applications are due February 2, 2026.
leadingedgesymposium.org
Zara Weinberg passed away earlier this week. She joined my lab earlier this year when her postdoc lab formally closed. She was a brilliant scientist, supportive mentor, dear friend, avid music fan, rabid believer in public transit, open science champion, and above all just an amazing human.
Hi everyone! We are taking a look at the state of funding in the neuroscience field so we are looking for PIs to answer this survey. Please feel free to fill out and share with colleagues. Ty!
Quantifying funding sources across neuroscience labs
We want to hear from you about the sources of funding for your research.
thetransmitter.org
The Sosa Lab website is now live! www.sosaneurolab.com We will be seeking a postdoctoral researcher to join the growing team! If you are a rodent neuroscientist and interested in doing systems neuro work in the mountains 🏔️, please check out the "Join" page.
Sosa Lab
sosaneurolab.com
New preprint alert! The uterus expands ~500-fold in pregnancy, yet we know little about how pressures are sensed. Led by @yunxiao-dr.bsky.social, we show PIEZOs are required for contractions and birth in mice, with dual roles of PIEZO1 in muscle and PIEZO2 in neurons www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
PIEZO channels link mechanical forces to uterine contractions in parturition
Mechanical forces are extensively involved in pregnancy and parturition, but their precise roles and mechanisms remain poorly understood. Here, we identify mechanically activated ion channels PIEZO1 a...
biorxiv.org
