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Jan Siemens

@jansiemens.bsky.social
148 followers 85 following 70 posts

Heat, cold, brain - viva sensory science and the hypothalamus siemenslab.de

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Jan Siemens @jansiemens.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
1/4 With scorching temperatures outside, it feels timely to think about those especially vulnerable to heat — including people living with neurological disorders such as MS, epilepsy, and others.
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Jan Siemens @jansiemens.bsky.social · 15/04/2026
1/3 A real highlight of the International Symposium on Regulation of Cell Functions by Transient Receptor Potential Channels was a beautiful talk by Frank Zufall, who presented his life’s work on olfaction and its signalling mechanisms. 👃🧠
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Andrew Plested @andrewplested.bsky.social · 12/10/2025
The latest version of our collaboration with Katalin Torok and her lab is up. We report some new glutamate sensors. Great work from Sara Bertelli in Berlin and the whole team in London (Holly & Oanh particularly).

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

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biorxiv.org
iGlu3Fast and iGlu3Slow, improved fluorescent reporters for detection of spontaneous glutamate activity in the brain
The genetically-encoded fluorescent glutamate sensor, iGluSnFR3, characterised by a high dynamic range and rapid on-kinetics, is an attractive sensor for glutamate imaging in the central nervous syste...
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Annie, as ever @annieasever.bsky.social · 05/04/2026
The Easter Bunny, Porto-style 🇵🇹
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Jan Siemens @jansiemens.bsky.social · 05/04/2026
🌶️ Why does spicy food make you feel hot—but actually cool you down? 👇 (thread)
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Jan Siemens @jansiemens.bsky.social · 18/03/2026
🧠🌡️ New Comment in Nature Reviews Neuroscience: Neural adaptation to climate change: mechanisms, limits and opportunities (with Patrick Haggard, UCL). 🔗 [ rdcu.be/e8BEJ ]
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Jan Siemens @jansiemens.bsky.social · 02/03/2026
📣 Postdoc position in Heidelberg (Neurobiology × Engineering): neuromodulation of thermoregulatory brain circuits to improve health. Deadline: March 31, 2026.
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Jan Siemens @jansiemens.bsky.social · 28/02/2026
Outside temperature affects our eating habits: when it’s warm, many of us eat less. How does the brain link thermal state to appetite — and prevent overheating? ☀️🧠
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Jan Siemens @jansiemens.bsky.social · 28/11/2025
I just did an interview in the Sueddeutsche Zeitung about how we detect cold temperatures — the journalist, Felix Hütten, did a nice job to make it accessible also for non-scientists. www.sueddeutsche.de/gesundheit/m...
sueddeutsche.de
Warum manche Menschen schneller frieren als andere - selbst die Wissenschaft tut sich schwer
Temperaturwahrnehmung ist einer der ursprünglichsten Sinne des Menschen. Warum ist das so? Fragen an den Pharmakologen Jan-Erik Siemens.
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Felix Viana @neuroviana.bsky.social · 12/10/2025
It was really one of the best conferences I have ever attended: great science in a friendly atmosphere and a gorgeous setting.
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Jan Siemens @jansiemens.bsky.social · 12/10/2025
It was great having you all there! Excellent discussions and fun! I hope all of you made it home safely.
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Jan Siemens @jansiemens.bsky.social · 12/10/2025
What a great Titisee Conference! “Warm, cold, and life” brought together brilliant minds exploring how temperature shapes the brain, physiology, and behaviour — from mice, wild animals to humans. Thanks to Boehringer Ingelheim Fonds for the support!
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Jan Siemens @jansiemens.bsky.social · 11/05/2025
How does temperature interact with the brain? This coming Wednesday Eve Marder, Laura Duvall and I will talk about thermally-induced neural activity, plasticity and the like.
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Jan Siemens @jansiemens.bsky.social · 20/04/2025
How do mice decide which ambient temperature they prefer? Our new eLife paper by Muad (@hummuscience.bsky.social) explores how TRPV1 and TRPM2 channels shape temperature preference. A quick breakdown 👇 🔗 pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40215103/
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
Diverging roles of TRPV1 and TRPM2 in warm-temperature detection - PubMed
The perception of innocuous temperatures is crucial for thermoregulation. The TRP ion channels TRPV1 and TRPM2 have been implicated in warmth detection, yet their precise roles remain unclear. A key c...
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Meg Tirrell @megtirrell.bsky.social · 09/04/2025
Amid the Trump admin's dismantling of the US scientific ecosystem, Nobel Prize-winner @ardemp.bskyverified.social writes on @cnn.com: "I’ve already been approached with an offer to relocate my lab to China, complete with a promise of 20 years of stable research funding." www.cnn.com/2025/04/09/h...
cnn.com
Nobel laureate: I owe America my success. Today, its scientific future is in danger | CNN
Dr. Ardem Patapoutian says he watches “with deep sadness as the United States’ remarkable scientific enterprise, which took generations of hard work and national investment to build, faces a concerted...
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Jan Siemens @jansiemens.bsky.social · 19/04/2025
This was a great meeting to mix and mingle with scientists of diverse fields broadly interested in how long-term environmental changes modulate neurobiology - thank you @kavlifoundation.bsky.social‬ and @alleninstitute.bsky.social !
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Jan Siemens @jansiemens.bsky.social · 12/03/2025
Very interesting study by Lin Yuan & Co in the Julius lab, explaining how sensory neurons can adapt to exitotoxicity and calcium challenges e.g. by Trpv1 activation. Spoiler alert: the electron transport chain is involved - we enjoyed discussing it in Journal club. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
biorxiv.org
Metabolic tuning facilitates nociceptor resilience to excitotoxicity
The capsaicin receptor, TRPV1, mediates the detection of harmful chemical and thermal stimuli. Overactivation of TRPV1 can lead to cellular damage or death through excitotoxicity, a phenomenon associa...
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Stefan Niggemeier @niggi.bsky.social · 24/02/2025
Bodo Ramelow übt sehr nachvollziehbare Kritik auch an der Rolle der Medien beim Wahlerfolg der AfD, weil alle über kein anderes Thema als „kriminelle Ausländer“ mehr gesprochen haben. www.deutschlandfunk.de/interview-mi...
deutschlandfunk.de
Interview mit Bodo Ramelow, Linke, Ex-Ministerpräsident Thüringen, zur Wahl
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Kristin Knouse @kristinknouse.bsky.social · 24/02/2025
Can we perform genome-wide screens in any cell type in the body?! Excited to share our roadmap for leveraging advances in sgRNA delivery, library design, and phenotypic selection to enable unprecedented genetic dissection of organismal physiology and disease. www.cell.com/cell-genomic...
cell.com
A roadmap toward genome-wide CRISPR screening throughout the organism
Genome-wide CRISPR screening in the organism has tremendous potential to answer long-standing questions of physiology and disease; however, technical limitations have prevented its broad application. ...
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Jan Siemens @jansiemens.bsky.social · 08/02/2025
On February 12, shortly before “High noon”, scientists at German research campuses, including here in Heidelberg, will stand up for Democracy: “facts, not fake news are needed for democracy”. See aufstehenfuerdemokratie.de/englisch/ – there is also find a Petition related to the cause. Get involved.
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Katharine Gammon @kategammon.bsky.social · 09/01/2025
This is true. LA County has a population greater than that of 40 individual U.S. states.
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Jan Siemens @jansiemens.bsky.social · 27/12/2024
Just finished the book "Transformer" by Nick Lane, great inspiration to evolutionary biologists, bochemists and, yes, also neuroscientists - its all about transformation of organic molecules and energy flow and not (only) about genes. Highly recommended nick-lane.net/books/transf...
nick-lane.net
Transformer: The Deep Chemistry of Life and Death — Nick Lane
What brings the Earth to life, and our own lives to an end? Nick Lane turns the standard view upside down, focusing on Krebs cycle
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Jan Siemens @jansiemens.bsky.social · 23/12/2024
A short, personal account how our recent heat acclimation study came to life -- paywall-free version can be found here rdcu.be/d38Xr
rdcu.be
Heat acclimation induces hypothalamic temperature sensitivity that promotes heat tolerance
Nature Neuroscience - After long-term heat exposure, a discrete group of hypothalamic neurons in the anterior ventromedial preoptic area become hyperactive and acquire temperature sensitivity. This...
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Jan Siemens @jansiemens.bsky.social · 23/12/2024
Interesting thoughts on the type of biological problems AI research can help with, the complexity of biology that requires human intellect (and cannot be replaced by AI -- at least not currently, but I think it never will...), and human language that connects it all.
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Richard Sever @richardsever.bsky.social · 21/12/2024
Many academics point to bioRxiv as “the one thing improving science publishing”. If so, the one thing you all can do is persuade colleagues to submit and make this a norm. 1/2
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Jan Siemens @jansiemens.bsky.social · 23/12/2024
Pain research: Exciting insight into "silent" (or "sleeping") pain-sensing neurons from the Lampert Lab!
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The Transmitter @thetransmitter.bsky.social · 11/12/2024
A strong, long-lasting sensory stimulus—be it visual, auditory, olfactory or tactile—triggers plasticity in the neurons that respond to it. But @jansiemens.bsky.social wondered: Does the same principle apply to prolonged heat? By @callimcflurry.bsky.social www.thetransmitter.org/thermoregula...
thetransmitter.org
To beat the heat, hypothalamus neurons in mice ramp up their firing
The uptick may help the rodents acclimate to temperature hikes and keep their cool.
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Jan Siemens @jansiemens.bsky.social · 10/12/2024
My inaugural post on Bluesky - quite fittingly, I'm thrilled to share our first study on heat acclimation, which identifies a neuronal mechanism that drives heat tolerance in mice. (www.nature.com/articles/s41... ) Here is the gist 🧵 (1/n):
nature.com
Thermally induced neuronal plasticity in the hypothalamus mediates heat tolerance - Nature Neuroscience
Ambroziak, Nencini, Pohle and colleagues identify a slowly emerging plasticity mechanism in a discrete set of hypothalamic preoptic neurons that is triggered by long-term heat exposure and that drives...
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Andrew Plested @andrewplested.bsky.social · 06/12/2024
I applaud this initiative to try to break the fascination with journal name prestige. As long as I remember to do it, I put only the PMID for my papers in the slides for my talks. If @ardemp.bsky.social can do it, so can you!
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