Looking forward to #Dros26 this week. My lab is recruiting and I would be delighted to chat with anyone interested in grad school/postdoc positions in evolutionary cell biology and developmental genetics. Please reach out if interested!
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!
An image of photoreceptor (magenta) innervating the Drosophila brain (green)
I am glad to say that the first manuscript from the lab is now available on BioRxiv
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.30.685496v1
We set out to answer a simple question:
If the fruit fly #Drosophila cannot see clearly, how would they #sleep?
New paper out: www.nature.com/articles/s41... π₯³ Congratulations to our PhD student Katja for her inspiring work just published in Nature Communications on how the larval zebrafish brain processes multiple visual features.
Check out a short summary of the work here: tinyurl.com/yzv4ct9k
fly circuit diagram
When a fly lands on your arm, how does your nervous system decide where to swat?
By reconstructing tactile axons in a Drosophila connectome, we found a leg somatotopic map and downstream circuits that sample the map to initiate targeted grooming
Led by Leila Elabbady, PhD
doi.org/10.64898/202...
Excited to share our latest work in @nature.com showing shared neural substrates for parenting and prosocial helping behavior. Full text available here: rdcu.be/e6PnY
After several years of work, my lab is starting to put out our first papers on learning in a unicellular organism (Stentor coeruleus).
Here we show evidence for a form of associative learning in Stentor:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
The School of Biosciences at the University of Birmingham is recruiting Assistant or Associate Professors (Research & Education).
Areas of interest:
β’ Engineering biology
β’ Epigenetics
β’ Mycology
β’ Plant science
β’ RNA biology
edzz.fa.em3.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid...
After 5 years of developing, a new preprint from the lab - introducing our workflow for comparative insect connectomics, aimed at democratizing connectomics. @erc.europa.eu @lundvision.bsky.social @biologylu.bsky.social Read it here: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Uppsala in late autumn
Join us at the Evolutionary Biology Centre at Uppsala University. Weβre searching for an Assistant Professor in Biology. www.uu.se/en/about-uu/...
Insect research has used Drosophila as a model organism for over a century. But todayβs tools now open up a much wider spectrum of insects which deserve to be studied. See the recent commentary in @fly-journal.bsky.social by @peterkdearden.bsky.social, βWhy just fly?β doi.org/10.1080/1933...
ShineGAL4 FLP-out clones
#Drosophila calling. Delighted to share our new collection of ShineGAL4 drivers for CNS, FB, muscles, enterocytes, oenocytes and MTs made by @vgirard.bsky.social, @sebsorge.bsky.social and colleagues @crick.ac.uk. All at Bloomington @bdsc.bsky.social
@dev-journal.bsky.social
tinyurl.com/4jpw9jd6
@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 strainsπ§ͺ
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Last days to register!
Our second keynote speaker is TomΓ‘s Ryan @tjryan.bsky.social. He is Professor of Neuroscience at
@tcddublin.bsky.social and Chair of the FENS Advocacy Committee. He will speak about advocacy for neuroscience in Europe.
Join our @fens.org Satellite π youngpisymposium2026.com
Excited to be co-organising a #cosyne2026 workshop with Alison Comrie on 'algorithms for learning from scratch'! With a great line-up of speakers, we'll be tackling the question of what processes enable naive biological & artificial agents to adapt to new situations. Info here: tinyurl.com/4u8enf7k
Neural circuits regulating social dominance implement a strategy predicted by evolutionary game theory https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.20.706896v1
Flores-Valle, A., Vishniakou, I., Seelig, J. D. (2025). Dynamics of glia and neurons regulate homeostatic rest, sleep and feeding behavior in Drosophila. Nat Neurosci, 28(6):1226-1240 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Dear UK #Drosophila @FlyBase Cambridge is now able to accept PO orders for support. So please get in touch with
https://wiki.flybase.org/wiki/FlyBase:Contribute_to_FlyBase
Thrilled to share that my graduate work is officially published in Neuron! π
www.cell.com/neuron/fullt...
Now in its final form published in @devbiol.bsky.social www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Using our bee-tracking drone, we discovered that honey bees π have highly precise and individual routes. Now published at @currentbiology.bsky.social : doi.org/10.1016/j.cu...
If neuroscience is serious about building general principles of brain function, cross-species dialogue must become a core organizing principle rather than an afterthought, writes @suthanalab.bsky.social.
#neuroskyence
www.thetransmitter.org/animal-model...
Fluorescent neurons on black background. We're hiring! PhD Student
π¨ We are #hiring a PhD Student to study cerebellum-like circuits in #Drosophila.
Please spread the word!
www.groschner-lab.org/join
#Neuroscience #PhD
How does evolution influence the brain and its ability to adapt? Join Kavli & @sfn.org on Feb. 18, 11amβ12pm EST with PhDs Marco Gallio, Katja Reinhard & Sophie Caron to explore advances in #neuroscience and the mechanisms of flexibility and adaptation. β¬οΈ
Incredibly excited to share that we've been awarded an ERC Consolidator Grant to reach new depths in our memory research! @erc.europa.eu #ERCCoG @biozentrum.unibas.ch @unibas.ch
New lab preprint! Can we study conscious perception of gut sensations in mice to reveal its neuronal basis? Can we train mice to report their gut sensations? Omer Rafael and Stav Shtiglitz in the lab teamed up to discover thatβ¦YES! Threadβ¦1/6 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Starvation suppresses shock responses only with food odours, via a defined neuromodulatory circuit that biases action selection towards goal-directed behaviour.
To survive, animals must balance opportunity and risk. We show that hunger gates nociceptive avoidance in Drosophila, enabling food approach under conflict.
Our new preprint is out!
A state-dependent neural circuit resolves approachβavoidance conflicts
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Fantastic work led by Devika Bodas, with key contributions from Marine Balcou, and a great collaboration with Lisa Scheunemann Lab, fearuting Εevval Demirci.
π¨ Postdoc opportunity to study memory or nutrition in #Drosophila πͺ°
I am looking for a candidate to support for a 3 year Addison Wheeler Fellowship application lnkd.in/e2rvNf5x
Interested? Please send a CV & cover letter with brief research outline by 20th February to vincent.croset@durham.ac.uk
