We're hiring a postdoc to develop and use custom optical instruments for measuring and manipulating neural activity in worms and flies. Please apply via interfolio: apply.interfolio.com/186001

Opening for a #postdocjob in modeling of #genetics of host- #microbiome interactions in #Celegans at @bcmhouston.bsky.social — take a look here: www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/44... Questions or apply via cover letter, CV, and references to bucks [at] bcm.edu . Hiring ASAP! #microsky #jobs 🦠🪱🧬

Very cool study by @emilyleptich.bsky.social and @rnareylab.bsky.social showing insulin regulation of learning and memory in #Celegans! journals.plos.org/plosgenetics...

INS-17 acts as a nutrient deprivation signal to mediate adult IIS-regulated associative behaviors in C. elegans

Author summary Insulin signaling is a diverse actor that regulates many processes essential for life from growth and development, aging, cognition, among many others. However, how insulin signaling re...

journals.plos.org

How do #sponges coordinate their bodies despite lacking neurons and true muscles? We show that sponges use monoamines to control water flow in their canals — reminiscent of how adrenaline regulates blood vessels. My PhD story, now on BioRxiv: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... #Evolution

Another one with our next door colleagues! @marianneroca.bsky.social in @jameslightfoot.bsky.social's group found the IL2 neurons detecting prey (this study) are also sensing octopamine, which we recently found plays an important role in predatory aggression! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Predatory aggression evolved through adaptations to noradrenergic circuits - Nature

Noradrenergic circuits support and balance aggressive behavioural states in predatory nematodes, distinguish predatory from non-predatory nematode species and are associated with the evolution of comp...

nature.com

James Lightfoot@jameslightfoot.bsky.social · 6mo ago

How does evolution turn a harmless bacterial feeder into an active predator? Our new study led by @marianneroca.bsky.social and published in @pnas.org explores how sensory systems were rewired to enable prey detection and predatory behaviour in nematodes. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... 🧵below!

Ever wanted to do a genome-scale CRISPR screen for a microscopy phenotype? Pooled CRISPR screens are amazing, but hard to combine with imaging... Excited to share our latest work in Dev Cell on a technology platform for imaging screens and applications to primary cilia: www.cell.com/developmenta...

A microscopy-based CRISPR screening platform enables organellar functional genomics and illuminates ciliary biology

Sun et al. develop a microscopy-based CRISPR screening platform that combines ease of implementation with flexible analysis of live-cell or antibody-based markers. Screens in human cells using a serie...

cell.com

Excited to share my most recent postdoctoral work in the Jeanne lab @yaleneuro.bsky.social ! “Sensory processing reformats odor coding around valence and dynamics” www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... We ask: how is a sensory code transformed across multiple stages of processing to inform behavior?

Sensory processing reformats odor coding around valence and dynamics

Extracting relevant features of a complex sensory signal typically involves sequential processing through multiple brain regions. However, identifying the logic and mechanisms of these transformations...

biorxiv.org

Excited to share our latest work on a new cilia disassembly pathway and a link between this pathway and the neurological disorder focal cortical dysplasia: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... Brief summary: we used a genome-wide CRISPRa GOF screen to identify negative regulators of ciliary signaling...

A CRISPR activation screen reveals a cilia disassembly pathway mutated in focal cortical dysplasia

A gain-of-function screen uncovers a cilia disassembly pathway linked to genes somatically mutated in neurodevelopmental disease.

science.org

I'm thrilled to share our new preprint, in which we've found that neurotransmitters can be chemically "marked" as a way to incorporate metabolic history - such as diet or life stage. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... Led by Porhathai "Un" Malaiwong, Allen Schroeder and Tia Brown. (1/6) 🧵

Nuclear receptor-neurotransmitter coupling links behavior to metabolic state

Animals must flexibly respond to environmental stimuli to survive, and optimal responses critically depend on the organism's current needs. Many organisms have evolved both cell-intrinsic and intertis...

biorxiv.org

Despite the mess, we are grateful to be funded, have exciting science happening, and have an opening for a postdoc! If you are interested in sensory biology and esp in cilia, thermosensation, or interoception, and would like to join an interactive & supportive group - please email. Please RT 🙏

C. elegans is a real animal and we set out to understand how it comes to have its distinctive biogeography. Its ancestral center of diversity is in the higher elevation forests of Hawaii. Its closest relatives are spread across east Asia. Did they travel from Asia? [Preprint 🧵]

Thrilled to share a new preprint from the lab! We investigated how m6A regulates the transcriptome in chemoresistant glioblastoma through unexpected mechanisms, and the potential therapeutic applications of this discovery. Check out the preprint here ⬇️ www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

N6-methyladenosine promotes temozolomide resistance through non-canonical regulation of mRNA stability in glioblastoma cells

N6-methyladenosine (m6A) is a critical regulator of mRNA processing and function, impacting nearly every step of the mRNA lifecycle. Changes in m6A status have been implicated in many different types ...

biorxiv.org

Well, none of us may ever get funded again but in the meantime, here's some new science! Led by recent PhD Anjali Pandey w/ex-UG Maya Katz. Here we identify an asymmetric molecular mechanism that underlies symmetric context-dependent sensory plasticity in the AWC olfactory neuron pair in C. elegans

bioRxiv Neuroscience@biorxiv-neursci.bsky.social · last yr.

A lateralized sensory signaling pathway mediates context-dependent olfactory plasticity in C. elegans https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.07.25.666858v1

🚨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! 🧵⬇️

Despite all that is going on, we are still all working on our science. Our 2nd collaboration with @jisaacmurray.bsky.social‬ and Bob Waterston (UW) is out: Lineage-resolved analysis of embryonic gene expression evolution in C. elegans and C. briggsae | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Lineage-resolved analysis of embryonic gene expression evolution in C. elegans and C. briggsae

The constraints that govern the evolution of gene expression patterns across development remain unclear. Single-cell RNA sequencing can detail these constraints by systematically profiling homologous ...

science.org

Our posting for a research technologist is now live! This job is ideally suited for a recent college grad interested in lab experience. Please spread the word! uwhires.admin.washington.edu/ENG/Candidat...

Yesterday, the NIH R35 “Outstanding Investigator” grant to fund scientists in my lab studying antibiotic resistance was terminated for reasons not related to the content of the science, or any actions taken by me or members of my lab

OK If we are moving to Bluesky I am rescuing my favourite ever twitter thread (Jan 2019). The renamed: Bluesky-sized history of neuroscience (biased by my interests)

New paper ALERT!! Mara Cowen, PhD discovered and defined how conserved autism-associated genes modify a 'social' behavior in C. elegans!! So proud of her work in the lab! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Conserved autism-associated genes tune social feeding behavior in C. elegans - Nature Communications

C. elegans aggregate in large clumps during feeding. Here, the authors find conserved autism-associated genes mediate distinct molecular and circuit signaling components that tune C. elegans feed...

nature.com

🧪 Lab's latest!! Work by PD (and now PI) Alison Philbrook. C. elegans sensory neurons have gorgeous #cilia. We’ve always thought that a) no cilia = no sensory responses, & b) no IFT = no cilia. Punchline is we thought wrong. Read paper for more! #neuroscience journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...

Cilia structure and intraflagellar transport differentially regulate sensory response dynamics within and between C. elegans chemosensory neurons

The relative contributions of intraflagellar transport (IFT) and cilia structure to sensory neuron responses remains unclear. This study reveals unexpected complexity in the contribution of IFT and ci...

journals.plos.org