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Josh Dudman

@dudman.bsky.social
1.9K followers 575 following 64 posts

husband, father, neuroscientist, senior group leader at Janelia sending missives to the world in a personal capacity; he|him www.dudmanlab.org orcid.org/0000-0002-4436-1057

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Reposted by Josh Dudman
Davi Bock @dddavi.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Now I can say: last week we received Notice of Award from NSF on a Midscale Research Infrastructure Design proposal for a National Connectomics and Ultrastructure Volume Observatory (NCUVO) www.uvm.edu/uvmnews/news...
uvm.edu
UVM Launches $19 Million National Observatory to Unlock…
| The University of Vermont
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Laura Grima @lauragrima.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Grateful to have been selected as an Allen Institute Next Generation Leader - and for the opportunity to learn from and engage with this wonderful community!
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Terence Tao @teorth.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
A group of 25 Fields Medalists, including myself, have made a joint declaration on Math and AI: mathandai.org . We welcome additional signatories. See also this article in the Economist announcing the declaration: www.economist.com/science-and-...
mathandai.org
Declaration — Math and AI
Read the declaration and add your name.
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HHMI @hhmi-science.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
(1/2) When Janelia set out to map every neuron in the fly brain in 2008, many thought it couldn’t be done. Nearly 20 years later, a complete wiring diagram of the 166,000+ neurons of the adult male fruit fly is helping to reveal the brain’s secrets: bit.ly/4zT7jPf.
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Hansi Lo Wang (he/him) @hansilowang.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Dear registered voters, When was the last time you checked your registration status and verified your current name and address? You can find the links you need to do that at npr.org/vote
npr.org
How to register to vote and check your registration status
For the 2026 elections, NPR has collected deadlines and information on how to register to vote — online, in person or by mail — in every U.S. state and territory.
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Josh Dudman @dudman.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Lake Ontario 💙
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Jonna Singh @jonnasingh.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
We're excited to present EASI-PASS! We can record the activity of many neurons, and separately, the expression of many genes. A natural next step for the field is to link these two types of information. 🧵👇 1/n
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Stefan Pöhlmann @snpoehlm.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
🧪An exciting new preprint offers insights into how SARS-CoV-2 and other coronaviruses can acquire cleavage motifs for the cellular protease furin. A thread on the importance of the furin motif in the SARS-CoV-2 spike and its possible origins.🧵
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turrigiano.bsky.social @turrigiano.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
so rare and beautiful when someone famous dies, and all the secret GOOD things they did start to surface. RIP Dolly, you were an icon and an inspiration
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the Mountain Goats @themountaingoats.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
hey people sorry if some of you breeze past this part but it’s Friday. We do AI discourse on Wednesday and Thursday. Friday is for stuff that rocks and is actually fun. It’s in the TOS & the packet you got at orientation. get it together please
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STAT @statnews.com · 19/08/2026
Today's news: Moderna and Merck say mRNA cancer vaccine succeeded in late-stage melanoma trial www.statnews.com/2026/08/19/m...
statnews.com
Moderna and Merck say mRNA cancer vaccine succeeded in late-stage melanoma trial
A personalized mRNA cancer vaccine succeeded in a late-stage melanoma study, results that could herald a new, powerful approach in oncology.
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Mike Tadross @miketadross.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
1/6 Opioids trigger a dopamine surge that can create dangerous reward associations—yet that same dopamine signal may help shape central pain perception. Can the dopamine surge and reward associations be separated? Our recent Nature study says yes www.nature.com/articles/s41...
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Rune W. Berg @runewberg.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
New paper: Spinal circuitry modeled for locomotion using spatial transcriptomics and cell-type projections. Local excitation, long-range inhibition, and a longitudinal skew—an asymmetric "Mexican hat"—give rhythm, rotational dynamics, and gait, with no pacemakers. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
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Christophe 🔬 Leterrier @christlet.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
🚨 Want to start your lab in Marseille on a broad neuronal/brain development theme? There's an exciting tenure track opportunity at @inp-marseille.bsky.social and others Marseille institutes! Check more details here: neuro-marseille.org/en/blog/juni... or contact me if you have any question
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Marc Veldhoen @marcveld.bsky.social · 25/07/2026
Is This the End of the Endless Frontier? America’s prosperity, health, and technological leadership were built on an idea: sustained investment in fundamental research creates discoveries that transform society in ways no one can predict. time.com/article/202... 1/3
time.com
Is This the End of the Endless Frontier?
“Our country needs a new consensus on how to support science,” write Eric and Wendy Schmidt.
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Craig Spencer MD MPH @craigspencer.bsky.social · 18/07/2026
3 years ago I wrote this piece for @theatlantic.com about why we mustn’t take public health for granted. This is long before this admin’s deep cuts to public health. With the massive Cyclospora outbreak, I couldn’t help thinking about my own warning from the past.
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Jake Watson @jakefwatson.bsky.social · 11/07/2026
We have a new preprint! By studying neuronal heterogeneity in CA3, we found a weird but powerful new feature in the hippocampal circuitry! 🧠 #neuroskyence 🧵.. Morse-Mora et al. | Hippocampal CA3 forms a two-layer network of molecularly distinct cell types in mice and humans doi.org/10.64898/202...
Mouse hippocampal slice with deep cells labelled blue, patch-clamp recorded cells in yellow, and deep CA3 projections labelled purple
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I-75 Scientist @flscitriguy.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
“There's a piece of NIH's mission Atlas never mentions, because it doesn't fit his story: NIH doesn't just fund experiments, it funds people. Training grants, fellowships, career development programs, and research project grants that carry graduate students and postdocs through their formative yrs”
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Tim Behrens @behrenstimb.bsky.social · 27/06/2026
This paper is an absolutely beautiful combination of a deep set of cognitive ideas, a super creative task, a surprisingly impressive behaviour, and an elegant modelling framework. One of my favourite things in the last year.
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Lauren Dobson-Hughes @ldobsonhughes.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
Musk says not a single person has died due to him axing USAID. Sadly, part of my job involves tracking aid spending. So here’s a thread with just some of the people who lost their lives because of USAID cuts
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Daniel Colón-Ramos @dacolon.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
This shift comes at a large cost to be borne primarily by young investigators at Janelia, at a time when scientific environment is exceptionally uncertain. How innovative it is to repeat, in fish, what was done in flies remains an open question tbd. Not an open question: immediate cost and who pays
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Jeremiah Cohen @jeremiahycohen.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
Excited to move to the Department of Neuroscience at the University of Minnesota in the fall. We will continue our work on neuromodulators and behavior. Positions available in the lab. Please get in touch if interested, and share broadly! hr.myu.umn.edu/jobs/ext/374... hr.myu.umn.edu/jobs/ext/374...
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Thomas Dietterich @tdietterich.bsky.social · 06/06/2026
Excellent and thought-provoking essay by Ted Chiang. [gift link] www.theatlantic.com/philosophy/2...
theatlantic.com
No, Artificial Intelligence Is Not Conscious
Taken to its logical conclusion, this line of thinking is absurd—and damning.
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Dr. Lucky Tran @luckytran.com · 02/06/2026
Incredible! Scientists receive a rare standing ovation after announcing that a new treatment can double the survival time for pancreatic cancer, the deadliest cancer which was once considered “undruggable.” When we fund and support science, we can achieve anything! (Video: Dr. Wish Dhillon)
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Matteo Carandini @carandinilab.net · 01/06/2026
Neuropixels + Optogenetics = Neuropixels Opto Combining high-resolution electrophysiology and optogenetics. 960 sites, 28 emitters, 2 colors. Today in @natmethods.nature.com doi.org/10.1038/s415... Thanks to @wellcometrust.bsky.social, @alleninstitute.org, @hhmijanelia.bsky.social & team.
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TK (Takashi DY) Kozai @bioniclab.bsky.social · 01/06/2026
OMB just published 412 pages in the Federal Register (Docket OMB-2026-0034) giving political appointees authority to terminate any NIH grant, override peer review scores, and block you from publishing with federal funds. Comment period closes ~July 13. Thread 🧵
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Laura Grima @lauragrima.bsky.social · 23/05/2026
@fluketc.bsky.social and @dudman.bsky.social have hit it out the park again. In my (perhaps biased) opinion this - along with their previous papers - is field-defining work. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
science.org
Reward magnitude determines reinforcement learning efficiency
Standard animal learning studies minimize individual reward magnitudes to maximize the repetitions of reinforced behaviors. We investigated how reward magnitude influences initial learning across five...
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Jibran Khokhar @drjkhokhar.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
Cool new work from @dudman.bsky.social and @fluketc.bsky.social Reward magnitude determines reinforcement learning efficiency: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
science.org
Reward magnitude determines reinforcement learning efficiency
Standard animal learning studies minimize individual reward magnitudes to maximize the repetitions of reinforced behaviors. We investigated how reward magnitude influences initial learning across five...
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Marcus Stephenson-Jones @mstephensonjones.bsky.social · 22/05/2026
Great new paper from @dudman.bsky.social and @fluketc.bsky.social. It’s going to immediately change how we train our animals and make us think hard 🤔https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aeb0813
science.org
Reward magnitude determines reinforcement learning efficiency
Standard animal learning studies minimize individual reward magnitudes to maximize the repetitions of reinforced behaviors. We investigated how reward magnitude influences initial learning across five...
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Armin Lak @laklab.bsky.social · 22/05/2026
Awesome results from @fluketc.bsky.social @dudman.bsky.social and team, both for dopamine field and for all that train animals in tasks www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
science.org
Reward magnitude determines reinforcement learning efficiency
Standard animal learning studies minimize individual reward magnitudes to maximize the repetitions of reinforced behaviors. We investigated how reward magnitude influences initial learning across five...
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Paul Kristian LaFosse @lafosse.bsky.social · 15/05/2026
🚨 Ever wanted a simple way to control the activity of thousands of neurons? We introduce an all-optical raster photostimulation method to do just that! w/ @computingnature.bsky.social @marius10p.bsky.social #FluorescenceFriday #neuroskyence www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... 1/n
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Laura Grima @lauragrima.bsky.social · 09/05/2026
Really pleased that this work with @dudman.bsky.social is now out in Neuron: A global dopaminergic learning rate enables adaptive foraging across many options
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Laura Grima @lauragrima.bsky.social · 06/05/2026
Reminder that it's possible to set up a free personal website using GitHub pages: docs.github.com/en/pages Really straightforward to then use Jekyll to make something relatively nice (with the aid of your chosen LLM, of course...) Just updated my own using this approach: lauralgrima.github.io
docs.github.com
GitHub Pages documentation - GitHub Docs
GitHub Pages turns any GitHub repository into a live website—no separate hosting required.
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Ariel Levine @ariellevine.bsky.social · 05/05/2026
Posting for Vibhu Sahni: Due to unforeseen circumstances the Burke Neurological Institute will have to terminate its research operations 5/22. There are international postdocs on visas who are looking for new homes. Please reach out to Vibhu if you can help
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John Tuthill @tuthill.bsky.social · 04/05/2026
New preprint: Whole-body 3D kinematics of freely behaving 𝐷𝑟𝑜𝑠𝑜𝑝ℎ𝑖𝑙𝑎 New tech from @blobology.bsky.social & others at @hhmijanelia.bsky.social, which @ispizua.bsky.social and @elliottabe.bsky.social used to gain insight into 3D structure of locomotion & courtship www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
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Carl Zimmer @carlzimmer.com · 23/04/2026
Spending on new medical research by the National Institutes of Health has fallen roughly $1 billion behind the pace of years past, delaying thousands of scientific projects. Story by Ben Mueller & @irenatfh.bsky.social Gift link: nyti.ms/4ctOSqM
Graph showing NIH awards by year. 2026 lags far behind 2021-2024 average.
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Josh Dudman @dudman.bsky.social · 23/04/2026
Fascinating and really well explained in thread
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HHMI @hhmi-science.bsky.social · 20/04/2026
Scientists just discovered new "controllers" of the brain's most elite security checkpoint. Jiefu Li & team at our Janelia Research Campus have ID'd proteins that help open & close the blood-brain barrier — a step toward treating Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, & more: hhmi.news/4mkrDT2.
Janelia Group Leader Jiefu Li (right) and his team are uncovering how the blood-brain barrier functions.
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Ignacio Gallup-Diaz @igallupd.bsky.social · 19/04/2026
"Pancreatic cancer mRNA vaccine shows lasting results in an early trial: Scientists caution that more research is needed, but nearly all of the patients who responded to the personalized vaccine are still alive six years later."
nbcnews.com
Pancreatic cancer mRNA vaccine shows lasting results in an early trial
Scientists caution that more research is needed, but nearly all of the patients who responded to the personalized vaccine are still alive six years later.
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HHMI @hhmi-science.bsky.social · 14/03/2026
No-cost workshop opportunities for grad students, postdocs, & trainees! Our Janelia Research Campus is accepting applications for 3 specialized, intensive workshops with presentation & networking opportunities. Accommodations, meals, & travel expenses covered: bit.ly/4roghP6. 🧪
3 people gathered around a poster presentation at Janelia's Research Campus
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Matt Perich @mattperich.bsky.social · 10/03/2026
New paper hot off the (pre-)press! We dig into the evolutionary origins of neural computations for behavioral control across mice, monkeys, and humans: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6.... As our lab's first foray into comparative analysis of neural dynamics, I’m super excited about this work! 1/18
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Laura Grima @lauragrima.bsky.social · 24/02/2026
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
sites.google.com
learningfromscratch
march 16th, workshop day 1 @ cosyne 2026
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Sam Wang @samwang.bsky.social · 04/02/2026
News from central Jersey: I'm running to represent New Jersey's 12th Congressional District. By entering the fray, I hope to bring ideas of repairing our frayed republic. Not only to defend it in 2026, but to build something stronger, for generations to come! samwang.substack.com/p/entering-t...
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Joshua Weitz @joshuasweitz.bsky.social · 16/01/2026
Full survey results show American public have high levels of confidence in scientists while revealing some partisan differences (including on how to fund science), but statements asserting lost trust should be read instead as intentional efforts to degrade trust. www.pewresearch.org/science/2026...
Americans still have more confidence in scientists than many other groups in society
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Mark Peifer (He, him) @peiferlabunc.bsky.social · 14/01/2026
NIH funding underlies all of these advances--support fundamental science, and the bridge from there to the clinic 🧪
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Joe Hanson @drjoehanson.bsky.social · 13/01/2026
I am calling for a complete and total boycott of the Mercator projection in all news stories about Greenland until every member of the American public has seen this
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Roddy Grieves @roddy-grieves.bsky.social · 05/01/2026
Can humans & animals really use internal maps to take shortcuts? Tolman famously said yes - based largely on his Sunburst maze. Our new review & meta-analysis suggests evidence is far weaker than you might think. 🧵👇 doi.org/10.1111/ejn.... @uofgpsychneuro.bsky.social @ejneuroscience.bsky.social
doi.org
Tolman's Sunburst Maze 80 Years on: A Meta‐Analysis Reveals Poor Replicability and Little Evidence for Shortcutting
In 1946, Tolman et al. reported that rats could take a novel shortcut to a goal after training on an indirect route, supporting the Cognitive Map theory. However, a review of subsequent Sunburst maze...
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Jesse Geerts @jessegeerts.bsky.social · 05/01/2026
🧠 New year, new preprint! Why does motor learning involve multiple brain regions? We propose that the cortico-cerebellar system learns a "map" of actions where similar movements are nearby, while basal ganglia do RL in this simplified space. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
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adamezracohen.bsky.social @adamezracohen.bsky.social · 04/01/2026
What is the computational role of dendritic excitations? Byung Hun Lee and team mapped voltage dynamics throughout the dendritic trees of CA1 pyramidal neurons in mice navigating in virtual reality. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
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HHMI @hhmi-science.bsky.social · 31/12/2025
NYE fireworks < neurons expressing iGluSnFR3! Developed at our Janelia Research Campus, iGluSnFR3 is a fluorescent sensor designed to rapidly detect & image glutamate — our brains' main chemical messenger — allowing researchers to observe (dazzling) neural communication as it happens. 🎆
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