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Kelsey Tyssowski

@kelseytea.bsky.social
1K followers 828 following 96 posts

genetic and neural basis of dexterity…in deer mice! | postdoc at Harvard OEB/MCB, BRAIN K99/R00 | plant grower, music maker, crafter, bike rider, sometimes mountain climber | she/her ktyssowski.github.io

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Reposted by Kelsey Tyssowski
dianebissen.bsky.social @dianebissen.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
Back to Bluesky to share the most exciting news: my postdoctoral research is now published in Neuron! We used cricket hunting to show how ethological learning persistently rewires juvenile (but not adult!) visual circuits by co-opting homeostatic plasticity. Full story www.cell.com/neuron/fullt...
cell.com
Ethological learning during the critical period resets synaptic setpoints in mouse binocular visual cortex
Bissen et al. show that prey capture learning profoundly reshapes visual cortical circuitry and function during developmental critical periods, but not in adulthood. These learning-induced structural ...
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Nick Jourjine @nickjourjine.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
New preprint! TLDR: We mapped the genetic architecture of neonatal vocalization in deer mice, and found candidate genes expressed in the cerebellum that could be contributing to the evolution of temporal structure in infant cries #Bioacoustics #neuroskyence www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
biorxiv.org
The Genetic Architecture of Neonatal Deer Mouse Cries Implicates the Cerebellum in the Temporal Control of an Infant Social Behavior
Vocal communication is a conserved vertebrate social behavior that begins at birth with the cries of infants. These neonatal vocal signals vary across contexts to elicit parental care that matches inf...
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Graziana Gatto @ggatto.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
New PNAS paper from our lab! 🪰🐭👩‍🦰 We developed a toolbox AutoGaitA to compare locomotion across species, revealing conserved velocity gradients and aging effects despite divergent strategies for propulsion. A step toward understanding conserved principles of motor control. doi.org/10.1073/pnas...
doi.org
PNAS
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a peer reviewed journal of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) - an authoritative source of high-impact, original research that broadly spans...
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Harris Kaplan @harriskaplan.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
I'm thrilled to announce the opening of the Kaplan lab at the University of Virginia @uvabio.bsky.social ! We are a neuroscience lab aiming to define circuits underlying naturalistic behaviors in infants and adults. We're actively recruiting students and postdocs. Learn more at kaplan-lab.org.
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Kelsey Tyssowski @kelseytea.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
At the 2026 BRAIN Initiative Conference! if you‘re coming and want to meet up, lmk! 🧠
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Maria Antonietta Tosches @matosches.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
Excited to share a new preprint from the lab, by @andrewmatheson.bsky.social and team, where we dive into the superpower of newts: plasticity! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... Like many good projects, this started with a serendipitous observation... 🧵1/5
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Michael Clemens @mclem.org · 18/07/2026
Yesterday the US Administration supercharged its explicit effort to bar international students from staying in the US after graduation. All Americans should know: 1/3 of *all* STEM PhDs working in the US are immigrants who graduated from US universities, then stayed. www.piie.com/index%2Ephp/...
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Gregg Gonsalves @gregggonsalves.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
Universities in the US are governed now by "liberal autocrats." It's time to bring faculty, students, staff and alumni into leadership. Trustees and presidents are out of touch, unaccountable, and in this moment, selling us out to the Trump administration. www.thenation.com/article/soci...
thenation.com
The Higher Education Revolution We Need to Have
Our universities are selling us out. If we want that to change, we have to change the way they’re run.
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Jenny Chen @jennychen.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
So excited to announce that I will be starting the Chen Lab at EMBL Rome in September 2026 🎉 ! The Chen Lab will investigate the genetics + evolution of innate behavior w/ high-throughput sequencing + computational methods across diverse rodent species. Stay tuned for upcoming opportunities...
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Arkarup Banerjee @arkarupbanerjee.bsky.social · 07/05/2026
Really excited to see this in print!
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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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Nora Verlaine @noraverlaine.bsky.social · 26/04/2026
96% of surveyed early career researchers on NIH K awards reported that federal changes in science funding has impacted their career stability
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Kelsey Tyssowski @kelseytea.bsky.social · 09/04/2026
thanks, as always, to the deer mouse for teaching us so much! And thanks also to @siddhantpusdekar.bsky.social for covering our work! This was a great collaboration with @adamhantman.bsky.social and lab!
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The Transmitter @thetransmitter.bsky.social · 08/04/2026
Researchers reveal the neural basis of evolving new capabilities by investigating behavioral and morphological differences between deer mouse subspecies. #neuroskyence By @siddhantpusdekar.bsky.social www.thetransmitter.org/evolution/ar...
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Fabricio Nicola @fabricionicola.bsky.social · 14/03/2026
Mammals have hundreds of joints and muscles. Controlling them individually would be nearly impossible. How does the nervous system organize such complexity into coherent actions? Our new study explores this question through a natural behavior: jumping.
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Forrest Rogers, PhD @forrestdrogers.bsky.social · 18/02/2026
Why are some males caring toward infants while others are neglectful or abusive? I'm so pleased to share work that my colleagues and I @princeton.edu have just published @nature.com (an explanatory thread to follow!) (1/8)
nature.com
Agouti integrates environmental cues to regulate paternal behaviour - Nature
Expression of agouti signalling protein in neurons in the medial preoptic area is increased by group housing and negatively associated with care, and overexpression of Agouti reduces care and enhances...
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Reposted by Kelsey Tyssowski
Tomohiko Takei @tomohikotakei.bsky.social · 12/02/2026
Our paper is out in Science Advances! What makes primate hands so dexterous? We show that evolutionarily distinct spinal and cortical pathways work together to balance stability and flexibility, supporting remarkable primate hand control. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
science.org
Primate dexterous hand movements are controlled by functionally distinct premotoneuronal systems
Distinct spinal and cortical pathways coordinate muscle synergies and fine control to support primate dexterous hand movements.
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Ariel Levine @ariellevine.bsky.social · 04/02/2026
Want to come do a postdoc with us? We’re interested in how sensorimotor function is carried out by the cells and circuits of the spinal cord. We have an awesome team, lots of cool techniques, and we’re open to new ideas/approaches/connections. Get in touch!
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James Lightfoot @jameslightfoot.bsky.social · 21/01/2026
Why do some worms graze on bacteria while others hunt and kill? Our study, published today in Nature, reveals how predatory aggression evolved in nematodes. Led by @gunizgozeeren.bsky.social and @leoboeger.bsky.social across the @jameslightfoot.bsky.social and @monikakscholz.bsky.social labs.
nature.com
Predatory aggression evolved through adaptations to noradrenergic circuits - Nature
Noradrenergic circuits support and balance aggressive behavioural states in predatory nematodes, distinguish predatory from non-predatory nematode species and are associated with the evolution of comp...
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Grace Lindsay @neurograce.bsky.social · 18/01/2026
1. If the goal is to stop us from doing science, then doing science is more important than ever now. 2. We have radical uncertainty about the future. There is no sense in giving up in advance. 3. We have agency over the future. If you don't like what's happening, work to change what is happening.
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Ariel Levine @ariellevine.bsky.social · 08/01/2026
Excited to share @rbrianroome.bsky.social ‘s beautiful paper on development of the dorsal horn of the mouse spinal cord @science.org This is how the anatomical organization and cell types that process pain, touch, body position and more are laid down. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
science.org
Ontogeny of the spinal cord dorsal horn
The dorsal horn of the mammalian spinal cord is organized into laminae where each layer is populated by different neuron types, has distinctive circuit connections, and plays specialized roles in beha...
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Ann Kennedy @antihebbiann.bsky.social · 30/12/2025
"My New Year's Resolution is to find a principled way to think about all those cell types in the brain" Why friend, you are in luck, because @rgast.bsky.social has just the perspective for you: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
sciencedirect.com
How heterogeneity shapes dynamics and computation in the brain
Much effort has been spent clustering neurons into transcriptomic or functional cell types and characterizing the differences between them. Beyond sub…
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Kelsey Tyssowski @kelseytea.bsky.social · 13/12/2025
in non-science announcements: tonight I’ll be participating in the first ever live performance of Ian’s 20-years and counting original Christmas music project. If you’re in the Boston area, join us!
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Reposted by Kelsey Tyssowski
allen institute @alleninstitute.org · 12/12/2025
Spinal motor neurons in dazzling detail. ✨ Each green dot is a spinal motor neuron - crucial but rare cells making up just 1% of neurons in the spinal cord. In diseases like ALS, they are selectively damaged, making them of special interest to neuroscientists. #neuroskyence #FluorescenceFriday
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Malcolm Campbell @malcolmgcampbell.bsky.social · 10/12/2025
This is insane
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Mark Histed @markhisted.org · 27/11/2025
Second this. We need more people saying this: It’s not just US science and cancer cures at risk, it’s the whole US university system top to bottom. CEU and Orban are their model. CEU is now gone from Hungary. And the response needed is public pushback, not quiet go-along-to-get-along.
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Carlos Ribeiro @ribeirocarlitos.bsky.social · 26/11/2025
Thrilled to share our new paper! With @tomtom-auer.bsky.social team, we asked how #evolution reshapes what animals #eat to match their ecological niches. Using pan-neuronal Ca2+ imaging, we show that the changes are in how the brain processes #taste. Link @nature.com: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Evolution of taste processing shifts dietary preference - Nature
Calcium imaging of taste neurons and the ventral brain provides insight into evolutionary divergence of food choice in Drosophila species, supporting a role of sensorimotor processing in addition to p...
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Kelsey Tyssowski @kelseytea.bsky.social · 25/11/2025
ChaCha wants me to tell everyone she knows she's a different species from wolves because she's obviously a human
a very cute black dog with bits of grey hair looking at the camera with her mouth open. you can only see her head. green, leafy background.
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Cedric Boeckx @cedricboeckx.bsky.social · 19/11/2025
Great @currentbiology.bsky.social study by @xmikezheng20.bsky.social @cliffscience.bsky.social @arkarupbanerjee.bsky.social 🧪🧠🐭🎶 Vocal repertoire expansion in singing mice by co-opting a conserved midbrain circuit node www.cell.com/current-biol...
cell.com
Vocal repertoire expansion in singing mice by co-opting a conserved midbrain circuit node
Zheng and Harpole et al. show that singing mice produce two major vocal modes: ancestral USVs and novel songs that follow a linearly decelerating rhythm. Although acoustically distinct, songs and USVs...
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Kelsey Tyssowski @kelseytea.bsky.social · 17/11/2025
My poster is today!
Poster LBP107: evolutionary expansion of the corticospinal system is linked to adaptive dexterity in Peromyscus mice

Monday Nov 17 1-5pm
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Mari Sosa @marisosa.bsky.social · 07/11/2025
The Sosa Lab is going to #SfN25 and actively recruiting ✨postdocs✨ with systems neuroscience experience! We study both fundamental memory processes and how memory changes during pregnancy and postpartum. If you are interested in meeting at SfN, please email me! www.sosaneurolab.com/join/postdoc...
sosaneurolab.com
Sosa Lab - Postdoctoral Researchers
We are seeking postdocs to start in 2026!
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Kelsey Tyssowski @kelseytea.bsky.social · 13/11/2025
PSA: it’s gonna rain at #sfn25! @krissylyon.bsky.social tried to warn me, but I’d already left my house without a rain coat 🙀
Weather app screenshot showing rain in San Diego over 70% chance Friday through Tuesday
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Kelsey Tyssowski @kelseytea.bsky.social · 13/11/2025
Heading to San Diego for #sfn25 today! I’ll be presenting a poster on this work Monday afternoon! looking forward to meeting neuroscientists! please stop by my poster or reach out if you’re going and want to talk motor neuro/behavior, evolution, neuroethology…or whatever else! 🧠🥳 #neuroskyence
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Harmit Singh Malik @harmitmalik.bsky.social · 08/11/2025
Just channeling Stephen J Gould: "I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein's brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops"
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Yuki Haba @yukihaba.bsky.social · 25/10/2025
How does life evolve to adapt to modern cities? Out now in Science, my PhD work with @lindymcbr.bsky.social uncovers the ancient origin of the “London Underground mosquito” – one of the most iconic examples of urban adaptation. 🧵(1/n) @science.org www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.ady4515
science.org
Ancient origin of an urban underground mosquito
Understanding how life is adapting to urban environments represents an important challenge in evolutionary biology. In this work, we investigate a widely cited example of urban adaptation, Culex pipie...
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Kelsey Tyssowski @kelseytea.bsky.social · 23/10/2025
I want to emphasize that this work is NIH-funded! I'm supported by the BRAIN Initiative on a fellowship program that has been prematurely discontinued (i.e., no new applicants). It's time to organize, call our reps, and make sure we're supporting the NIH and basic research!
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Kelsey Tyssowski @kelseytea.bsky.social · 22/10/2025
🧠🌟🐭 Excited to share some of my postdoc work on the evolution of dexterity! We compared deer mice evolved in forest vs prairie habitats. We found that forest mice have: (1) more corticospinal neurons (CSNs) (2) better hand dexterity (3) more dexterous climbing, which is linked to CSN number🧵
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Venki Murthy @neurovenki.bsky.social · 20/10/2025
@luxorboero.bsky.social featured in the Humans of HBI series! @harvardbrainsci.bsky.social
brain.harvard.edu
Luis E. Boero - Harvard Brain Science Initiative
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Saikat Ray @ray-neuro.bsky.social · 17/10/2025
Neuroscience projects last several years, and you are usually a bit jaded by the time you wrap it up. Not this one– spending several months on an island in the middle of nowhere, away from all the craziness of the world reminds you how beautiful the world really is. www.youtube.com/watch?v=46sv...
youtube.com
Bat Island: The New Era of Science
YouTube video by Weizmann Institute of Science
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Philipp Brand @pbrand.bsky.social · 16/10/2025
Excited to share our new #biorxivpreprint We discovered that the fruit fly #drosophila erecta requires food odor to mate and arousal is further enhanced by social group motion. Cross-species analysis of brain activity reveals a novel gate evolved from within a conserved circuit shorturl.at/gGYm7
a group of Drosophila erecta fruit flies on a small food patch. flies on white background
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Dr. Ornella Bertrand @ornellabertrand.bsky.social · 15/10/2025
New paper out! It was an honor to collaborate with the legend Leah Krubitzer on this review to show that paleontologists and neurobiologists working together can only improve our understanding of brain evolution 🧠 www.nature.com/articles/s44... Full access to the paper: rdcu.be/eK167
nature.com
The functional adaptations of mammalian brain structures through a behavioural ecology lens - Nature Reviews Biodiversity
Palaeontologists and comparative neurobiologists share a common interest in the evolution of the mammalian brain, but often fail to realize the benefits of this shared interest. This Review draws thes...
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Andi Kautt @akautt.bsky.social · 03/10/2025
Reposting this open postdoc position with more detailed specifications. Couldn't find the right fit in the first round—not due to lack of strong candidates, but because we're looking for someone whose expertise matches a specific project. More details in the job ad. Apply! tinyurl.com/2uskxyrp
tinyurl.com
Postdoctoral Research Associate - Biology
Position Summary A postdoctoral position is available in the laboratory of Dr. Andreas Kautt in the Department of Biology on the Danforth Campus at WashU in St. Louis. The Kautt Lab studies the mechan...
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Kelsey Tyssowski @kelseytea.bsky.social · 08/10/2025
thank you to @harvardbrainsci.bsky.social for featuring me in #HumansofHBI and for doing a fun photo shoot with me at the Museum of Natural History! go check out other members of the HBI community in the #HumansofHBI!
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Ian L Morgan @ianlmorgan.bsky.social · 28/09/2025
DHS is proposing a rule that would end "duration of status" for J, F and other visa holders. This would decimate the international graduate student and postdoc population, which are a crucial part of the United States biomedical workforce. There's still time for you to comment on the proposed rule.
federalregister.gov
Establishing a Fixed Time Period of Admission and an Extension of Stay Procedure for Nonimmigrant Academic Students, Exchange Visitors, and Representatives of Foreign Information Media
Unlike most nonimmigrant classifications, which are admitted for a fixed time period, aliens in the F (academic student), J (exchange visitor), and most I (representatives of foreign information media...
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Bence Ölveczky @olveczky.bsky.social · 25/08/2025
Wrote a eulogy for the yellow letters in my office window. www.thecrimson.com/article/2025...
thecrimson.com
My Lab Displayed A Message of Solidarity on Our Windows. Harvard Took It Down. | Opinion | The Harvard Crimson
If we continue down this path, we risk not only Harvard’s future as an institution of free inquiry and expression but also its integrity and trustworthiness.
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Rachael Sirianni, PhD @docsirianni.bsky.social · 22/08/2025
Vox has a very good article explaining the mess that just happened at the Supreme Court. In the end, they are ensuring that no matter what happens to the canceled grants, there’s no chance of resolving fast enough to matter for the work or PIs. Struck a death blow www.vox.com/scotus/45886...
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Caroline Hu @hudrewthis.bsky.social · 20/08/2025
Seeking scientist volunteers for this fall! Want to practice science communication and help author a 🌟comic🌟 about your research? I need collaborators for the next cohort of SciComm & Comics art and design students. All countries and scientific fields eligible.
An anole extends its dewlap, which says "call for scientists!"
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Kelsey Tyssowski @kelseytea.bsky.social · 23/07/2025
Amazing work on the neural basis of the evolution of escape behavior in peromyscus! congrats, Felix!!
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Ian L Morgan @ianlmorgan.bsky.social · 14/07/2025
House FY26 Commerce, Justice, and Science Appropriations Bill proposes a 23% cut to funding for the National Science Foundation. Call your legislators and tell them no cuts to science funding! appropriations.house.gov/sites/evo-su...
Proposed science spending in FY26 House Commerce, Justice, and Science appropriations bill.
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Dr. Lucky Tran @luckytran.com · 08/07/2025
BREAKING: Scientists are staging a “science fair” in the lobby of a Congressional building to tell elected officials about the critical knowledge the US will lose because their research grants have been canceled.
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