Evolution of monoamine reception and its role in cellular contractility.
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...
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...
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?
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...
We'd love to hear your thoughts! (6/6)
For the worm-types, the ultimate destination of the glucose-octopamine complex is CAN - whose function is essential but not well understood. CAN appears to have the capacity to release octopamine but not to make it itself, implying that it functions like a neuron under certain circumstances. (5/6)
Similar types of conjugates of neurotransmitters are present in many animals, and we think this might represent a way to inactivate and store these types of chemicals so that they can be re-used only under certain conditions or after specific experiences. (4/6)
With Frank Schroeder's lab, we found that octopamine is imported into the intestine, where it's linked to glucose, and then linked to fatty acids that depend on a specific diet. This allows octopamine to move to other neurons where it can be re-released and change olfactory behavior. (3/6)
Many diet and stress-related behaviors are controlled by a neurotransmitter called octopamine (think norepinephrine, but in invertebrates). In worms, there are only 2 neurons that make this chemical. How can a single neuron type in the head coordinate octopamine signaling in space and time? (2/6)
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) 🧵
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...
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
🚨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/...
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...
A screenshot of the termination notice showing "Outstanding Investigator Grants"
A screenshot of the termination notice with "This award is terminated effective the date of this award, due to unsafe antisemitic actions that suggest the institution lacks concern for the safety and wellbeing of Jewish students." highlighted
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...
🧪 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/...
