Really? That’s so interesting. Do you have any data on this? I’ve never seen it reported.
06.03.2026 17:54
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Really? That’s so interesting. Do you have any data on this? I’ve never seen it reported.
We noticed something interesting (and frustrating) this winter because we had a number of cold spells here in Florida - when humidity drops, the food in our cages loses moisture and therefore weight, artificially increasing our food consumption measures. Curious if anyone else has noticed this?
Circuit mapping of PKCdelta–expressing neurons in the lateral capsule of the CeA identified opioid-sensitive inputs, implicating central amygdala protein kinase C-delta neurons as key mediators of the somatic features of opioid withdrawal
So excited to finally be on this list!!
Third time’s a charm 😜
Thanks to all those who wrote me letters, gave advice and extended meeting invites over the years!
Thrilled that we could play a small role in this very exciting work! Congratulations Yoav and team!
Second Stern Lab escape room outing. Even when things feel difficult, I’m so grateful to be able to work with these fantastic people every day!
Today, after two years, I can finally remove the yellow ribbon from my profile. A huge sense of relief with an almost unbearable sadness for everything in between.
שהחינו וקימנו והגיענו לזמן הזה
Episode 3 of Science Amplified is up now! I talk to Dr. Rachel Marsh about her pioneering research on mother-baby outcomes from prenatal covid exposure and the consequences of terminating her funding for that project.
Please share and give us a rating!
open.spotify.com/episode/0rCp...
Shameless plug 1: looking for someone who could make me some intro music for the podcast
Shameless plug 2: looking for more scientists to interview!
I know it’s a really challenging time, but you never know when a little time could have a big impact down the road!
We had a really fun conversation about her unconventional path to science, how her projects are contributing towards improving human health and we demystify the concept of indirect funds.
Enjoy and please share with your friends and colleagues!
Heading into the weekend by sharing the second episode of my podcast Science Amplified, where I interview scientists like @ScienceYael whose funding has been cut, either temporarily or permanently.
open.spotify.com/episode/1YZT...
Please double check the expiration date on any NOFO you are applying do. They are updated on the form, (Expiration date) with a link to the notice, but other aspects aren't edited.
Thank you!
The number of people who qualify for this is growing everyday. Have your voice, and your science, heard!
Thank you!
There are lots of other interesting results and tidbits in the full manuscript and we are excited to hear your feedback!
We are very excited about the idea that the insular cortex has direct access to information about internal states, and in the future we hope to understand more about how the insula integrates this internal state information with exteroceptive information to control behavior.
Lastly, although we find that most LepR connections are local, they make a projection to the BLA, which also controls latency to pellet retrieval in an operant learning task.
Moreover, we found that administering leptin reshapes the transcriptome in the insula, and particularly in neurons that have previously been associated with food intake control. Leptin also reshapes overall insular cortex neural activity in response to feeding.
We also found that this effect is specific to food restriction compared to water restriction, suggesting that LepR neurons receive information specifically about hunger states.
What do these neurons encode? Through a series of calcium imaging experiments we found that LepR neurons encode feeding bouts, but they are particularly responsive to hunger states, and alter their responsivity to food during food restriction.
This is quite consistent with what we know about the insular cortex, where broad inhibition impacts learned feeding behaviors, but not normal food intake. (See Stern et al 2021, Livneh 2017)
Interestingly, activation & inhibition of LepR neurons broadly had little impact on homeostatic food intake. However, it DID decrease 📉 pellets retrieved in an operant learning task and induced place aversion, suggesting that LepR is responsible for regulating learned feeding
Many previous studies assumed that cortical LepR neurons are nonfunctional. We show that these LepR neurons are responsive to leptin and become more excitable. And what about behavior?
We identified a small population of leptin receptor (LepR) neurons in the insula that we hypothesized might receive direct information from the periphery about hunger states.
The insular cortex has long been hypothesized as an interoceptive hub. But how does information about bodily states arrive at the insula? Some studies suggest that there may be direct interoceptive input, but how?
Thrilled to share our latest preprint and first major project from the lab, where we show a mechanism for direct interoceptive input to the insular cortex. Work by the incredible @zhezhao2017 with help from many others including @stefanoberto83.bsky.social
Still ironing out some kinks, like getting onto Apple Podcasts, but we have two more episodes coming soon, with Ya’el Courtney and Rachel Marsh. Please share, especially with your non-scientists friends and family. I would love to keep interviewing, so please keep in touch if interested!
You can listen to Episode 1 with Dr. Paul Bieniasz here. We discuss a wide range of topics, including his research on SARS-CoV-2, how to restore trust in science, and why basic research is still necessary.
open.spotify.com/episode/2pWn...
As grants started getting cancelled a few months ago, I felt compelled to give a voice to scientists whose work has been targeted & share with the public what they do and why it’s so vital.
Happy to announce the start of my new podcast, Science Amplified
open.spotify.com/episode/6aUZ...