Our new paper is out in @nature.com! We uncovered how a naked mole-rat queen 👑 controls an entire colony: a natural contraceptive scent that suppresses reproduction in other females! A remarkable mammalian parallel to bees and ants! 🐝🐜 @garyrlewin.bsky.social youtu.be/enfv3zJrWKM?...

Naked mole-rats are ruled by a queen: this chemical puts her in power

YouTube video by nature video

youtu.be

📣 📣 📣 📣 To all Drosophilists: the call for Workshop proposals at the 2027 European Drosophila Research Conference in Bonn (20-23 September 2027) is OPEN! Go to link below for instructions. Closing date: 30 September 2026. 👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻 tinyurl.com/45y8trzd

Very excited for our new paper, now out in @cellcellpress.bsky.social! /🧵 The protein Tau forms intracellular toxic tangles in neurons in Alzheimer’s disease and Tauopathies. Tau pathology slowly spreads from cell-to-cell but the mechanisms are not clear /1 authors.elsevier.com/sd/article/S...

Arc mediates intercellular tau transmission via extracellular vesicles

Tau pathology spreads cell to cell, but the mechanisms of intercellular tau transmission remain unclear. We find that the neuronal gene Arc is critica…

authors.elsevier.com

Quick plug for our new resource, the Drosophila Species Stock Exchange. This is a database and mailing list that documents species currently in culture and the labs holding them. If you want to know more or sign up then please get in touch. See attached for more info and please share!

Leipzig U and the MPI for Evolutionary Anthropology (MPI-EVA) have an open faculty position (W2) in evolutionary population genetics! This position is tenured and comes with generous core funding. We are eager to welcome a new colleague! Deadline March 11. www.uni-leipzig.de/en/newsdetai...

@annaryba.bsky.social's paper on the neural underpinnings of intraspecific behavioral variation is now out in @currentbiology.bsky.social Highly recommend! -> Paper identifies neural substrate for variation in promiscuity among Drosophila melanogaster strains🧪 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Strain variation identifies a neural substrate for behavioral evolution in Drosophila

Sexual selection acts on heritable differences within species, driving the parallel diversification of signal production in one sex and behavioral res…

sciencedirect.com

Philipp Brand@pbrand.bsky.social · 12mo ago

Exciting new Ruta lab preprint by @annaryba.bsky.social et al. on the neural underpinnings of intraspecific behavioral variation: Strain variation identifies a neural substrate for behavioral evolution Drosophila www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Fun news! @gcbias.bsky.social and I are teaching a 2-week online population genetics workshop this summer to raise money for the Center for Population Biology at UC Davis. We're trying to gauge interest -- please fill this out if you might be interested! And please share broadly!

Davis Summer Population Genomics Program

Want to learn population genetics? Please fill out this form to indicate your potential interest in a 2-week intensive online summer population genetics course taught by Jeffrey Ross-Ibarra and Graham...

docs.google.com

Postdoc position in systems neuroscience! Excited to recruit a postdoc for my lab at the University of Bonn. 🔬 In vivo physiology (Neuropixels, 2P/miniscope) 🐭 Head-fixed & freely moving behaviour 💡 Optogenetics/chemogenetics ⏳ Start: ASAP | Application deadline: 28.02.2026 More info below ⬇️

Why do some worms graze on bacteria while others hunt and kill? Our study, published today in Nature, reveals how predatory aggression evolved in nematodes. Led by @gunizgozeeren.bsky.social and @leoboeger.bsky.social across the @jameslightfoot.bsky.social and @monikakscholz.bsky.social labs.

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

A study in @science.org from Paul Cohen's lab, led by @maschakoenen.bsky.social, demonstrates how beige fat directly influences blood pressure. The findings offer a new target for treating vascular disease and could lead to more precise therapies for hypertension: https://bit.ly/4pK0hGh

www.cell.com/cell/fulltex... We had a lot of fun working on this project (led by Itzel Ishida, not on bluesky). Some interesting highlights from the paper -

Neuronal calcium spikes enable vector inversion in the Drosophila brain

In the fly central complex, PFNa neurons switch from firing classical sodium spikes when depolarized to firing non-canonical T-type calcium spikes when hyperpolarized. This bidirectional spiking allow...

cell.com

📢 Join us, the Haberkern lab, @uni-wuerzburg.de for a postdoc studying neural circuit mechanisms of navigation. You’ll spearheading neurophysiology experiments on our brand new 2P! ⏳ Apply by 28th February 2026 Details: www.haberkernlab.de/docs/ENPostd... #neuroscience #academicjobs #postdoc

Finally got the job ad—looking for 2 PhD students to start spring next year: www.gao-unit.com/join-us/ If comp neuro, ML, and AI4Neuro is your thing, or you just nerd out over brain recordings, apply! I'm at neurips. DM me here / on the conference app or email if you want to meet 🏖️🌮

My main postdoc work is now out :) In the group of @tomtom-auer.bsky.social with Justine Pascual, @bruzz-1.bsky.social , Noemi Sgammeglia , with crucial collaboration with @dahaniel.muench.bio and @ribeirocarlitos.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Our preprint is out! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... Peter Skovorodnikov and I are excited to present FERAL: a new video-understanding toolkit that maps raw video directly to behavior, no pose estimation required. It works across species, from lab to field, and even in collective systems. (🧵1/n)

FERAL: A Video-Understanding System for Direct Video-to-Behavior Mapping

Animal behavior unfolds continuously in time, yet quantitative analyses often require segmenting it into discrete, interpretable states. Although manual annotation can achieve this, it remains slow, s...

biorxiv.org

@rorycoleman.bsky.social and I wrote an opinion piece called 'From neurons to novelty: Circuit mechanisms shaping courtship evolution' We argue that now is a great time for neuro-evo research www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

From neurons to novelty: Circuit mechanisms shaping courtship evolution

The vast diversity of animal behaviors has long inspired ethologists and neuroscientists, but circuit mechanisms driving this variation remain elusive…

sciencedirect.com

Apply now to become a speaker at our Institute! We invite excellent postdocs in neuroscience, ecology and other fields related to our research to apply for our Emerging Scientist Talk Series. Apply by October 24: www.bi.mpg.de/ess @chr-mayer.bsky.social @fleyes.bsky.social @michaelahau.bsky.social

Do you want to do a Masters in Evolutionary Biology? The call for applying to the MEME program is now open! MEME is a fantastic 2-year MSc between four European Universities on all areas of Evolutionary Biology. Apply and study in Sweden/France/the Netherlands/Germany/USA/Switzerland! www.evobio.eu

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

🧠🌟🐭 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

People thought I was bonkers studying courtship and mating in Drosophila erecta nearly 50 years ago. Sometimes you just have to wait.

Philipp Brand@pbrand.bsky.social · 10mo ago

Our new paper would not have been possible without a brilliant team! Huge thanks to Katie Keller, @rorycoleman.bsky.social, @noelleeghbali.bsky.social, Sarah Zylka, @neuroluci.bsky.social 🪰🧪✨ Especially grateful for guidance and inspiration by my mentor Vanessa Ruta www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Our new paper would not have been possible without a brilliant team! Huge thanks to Katie Keller, @rorycoleman.bsky.social, @noelleeghbali.bsky.social, Sarah Zylka, @neuroluci.bsky.social 🪰🧪✨ Especially grateful for guidance and inspiration by my mentor Vanessa Ruta www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Ecological cues orchestrate concerted courtship in a Drosophila host specialist

Mating decisions are often attributed to the sensory signaling between prospective sexual partners. Yet these interactions are also shaped by the broader environmental context in which they unfold, to...

biorxiv.org

Philipp Brand@pbrand.bsky.social · 10mo ago

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

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

BIG ANNOUNCEMENT📣: I haven’t been this excited to be part of something new in 15 years… Thrilled to reveal the passion project I’ve been working on for the past year and a half!🙀🥳 (thread 👇)

Excited to share our new #biorxivpreprint: “Sexual dimorphism in the complete connectome of the Drosophila male central nervous system” www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... We describe the #connectomics reconstruction and analysis of an entire adult #maleCNS #drosophila central nervous system. 1/10

We're very proud to be releasing the complete male fly CNS connectome! It's the product of a huge team effort here at Janelia in partnership with the Cambridge Fly Connectomics group (@jefferis.bsky.social and colleagues), plus invaluable collaborators. More soon... www.janelia.org/project-team...

Male CNS Connectome

A team of researchers has unveiled the complete connectome of a male fruit fly central nervous system —a seamless map of all the neurons in the brain and nerve cord of a single male fruit fly and the ...

janelia.org

Academic authors, here's a peek into the black box of journal publishing from an journal editor if you can bear it:

If you’re interested in ants, olfaction, gene regulation, or all of the above, here’s a new preprint from the lab for you. It describes an unorthodox mechanism of transcriptional interference by which ant olfactory sensory neurons produce a single functional receptor. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Transcriptional Interference Gates Monogenic Odorant Receptor Expression in Ants

Communication is crucial to social life, and in ants, it is mediated primarily through olfaction. Ants have more odorant receptor (OR) genes than any other group of insects, generated through tandem d...

biorxiv.org