The brain is more than spiking neurons. Astrocytes, a large fraction of cells, propagate electrical influences without spiking. And cortical neurons spike only intermittently. Electrical signals are continuous and across all cells.
#neuroscience
www.quantamagazine.org/once-thought...
Out now in @currentbiology.bsky.social led by Kaarthik A Balakrishnan: We identify medullary circuits that represent the valence of thermal stimuli and control both long-term strategies of cold-avoidance and short term hot avoidance behaviors to enable thermoregulation. www.cell.com/current-biol...
Apply to the new CSHL grad program in BioAI/neuroAI!
(Masters degree or equivalent required in a quantitative area such as computer science, physics, mathematics, or engineering)
www.cshl.edu/phd-program/...
Full paper (to appear in NeurIPS 2025!) here: arxiv.org/abs/2506.00138
Congratulations to my Ph.D. student Reece Keller for winning the best talk award at #CRSy25 on our project building the first task-optimized autonomous agent that predicts whole-brain data! Check out the post below for other cool talks!!
Detailed summary: bsky.app/profile/reec...
This is what democracy looks like. #NoKings
Just out in Nature! “The astrocytic ensemble acts as a multiday trace to stabilize memory.” We identified astrocytic ensembles that link experiences across days to stabilize memory nature.com/articles/s41.... New astrocyte tools are openly available at Addgene: addgene.org/Jun_Nagai/. 1/8
(Part 1) Hear from @hhmi_news Investigator David Stern about his research program and what he's uncovering in the lab.
Stern will join the Institute in February 2026, bringing his lab and HHMI appointment to Kansas City. @hhmi.org
Read more: bit.ly/4np96Fb
This moment from our latest episode with science writer @edyong209.bsky.social is 🔥
We asked Ed — how do we talk up the benefits of science in the face of government cuts? He told us that's the wrong approach. 🧪
Listen wherever, or watch on Spotify 👇
open.spotify.com/episode/7Evh...
It's official! We are moving to Stowers!
Very exciting opportunity to expand our studies of insect-plant interactions. We have many opportunities available in biochemistry, development, behavior, genetics, evolution, genomics, AI, and even pest control. Interested in any of these things? Reach out!
New very cool work from the Yaksi lab:
Hierarchical processing of sensory information across topographically organized thalamocortical-like circuits in the zebrafish brain
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Come to #HHMIJanelia to work on the frontiers of AI and biology. Apply now for an AI Engineer position working on protein biosensors:
hhmi.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/Extern...
More openings coming soon. Interesting AI is widespread at Janelia, like this diffusion model from Larissa Heinrich.
Amazing. Hopefully they replicate NIH/NSF’s peer review process, which is the core magic of what makes US science work so well.
While I’m at it, the abundance people are wrong about NIH not being high-risk. So is Joe Lonsdale: he’s naive, at best, about US science.
California is devising a plan to create their own National Institutes of Health to counter federal cuts to science research.
Preprint -
Excited to present WHOLISTIC, which extends the concept of whole-brain functional imaging to the entire body. Pioneering work by incredibly talented Virginia Ruetten @vmsruetten.bsky.social, this platform reveals whole-organism cellular dynamics in vivo.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Become a Theory Fellow at Janelia.
🔍 Use computation & theory to tackle biological problems.
🖥️ Leverage state-of-the-art computational infrastructure
🤝 Collaborate across scientific disciplines
Apply by Nov. 3 @ https://janelia.link/theoryfellowprogram
Of potential interest to those keen on motor control and/or multi-task networks. Congrats to Elom and Eric.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Made possible only by the unique environment and amazing community at Janelia and the Gatsby. @hhmijanelia.bsky.social @gatsbyucl.bsky.social
Feedback, ideas, or requests for transgenic lines, protocols, and code are warmly welcome!
Thanks Misha for the shout-out!
It has been a truly mind-opening journey. WHOLISTIC is one step towards whole-organism neuroscience and a true physiological observatory - with extensions on the way! I am continually amazed by what the data reveals - so much remains to be discovered and mined.
Finally, Virginia @vmsruetten.bsky.social is now on the job market, ready to expand WHOLISTIC into a larger research program. Any institute will be lucky to hire her.
Thanks to all authors, including Wei Zheng and Guoqiang Yu, Amy Hu, and the Janelia @hhmijanelia.bsky.social and 4DCP communities, Maneesh Sahani, and others.
WHOLISTIC bridges cellular biology with whole organism physiology and behavior, and we believe will open up new avenues for studying vertebrate brain-body coordination, discovering new modes of long-range communication, and more.
Check out the website for more details: wholistic.janelia.org
and with Igor Siwanowicz are working towards whole-body atlases.
Together with Paul Tillberg, we advanced Whole Body Expansion Microscopy to access the subcellular scales of the organism and match cellular dynamics to their molecular substrate,
Combining WHOLISTIC with optogenetics, correlative brain–body dynamics can be tested causally, yielding a topological mapping between brain and body.
and coupled activation of motor circuits and muscle groups, as well as responses in other tissues, including the skin.
visualizes gut peristalsis together with enteric nervous system activity,
skin epithelium (video 100x sped up),
WHOLISTIC reveals many phenomena, including traveling waves along the kidney,
Using pan-cellular calcium sensors, WHOLISTIC simultaneously records activity across all organs of the larval zebrafish - brain, liver, muscle, pancreas, kidney, skin, and more.
