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Matt Collie

@mottcallie.bsky.social
437 followers 567 following 64 posts

🧠 neuroscientist. 🍌 postdoc in the bean lab (harvard) developing new ion channel-targeted drugs and characterizing pain-sensing neurons.

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Reposted by Matt Collie
John Tuthill @tuthill.bsky.social · 12/06/2026
A glowing profile of my post-doc advisor. As @yvetteefisher.bsky.social says in the piece, Rachel is truly "...one of these generational scientists who thinks extremely incisively about both the details and the big-picture frameworks." magazine.hms.harvard.edu/articles/stu...
magazine.hms.harvard.edu
By Studying Fruit Flies, Rachel Wilson Is Changing How We Understand the Brain
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Wei-Chung Allen Lee @darbly.bsky.social · 12/06/2026
A great privilege of science is working with remarkable people. A nice piece highlighting @mindyisminsu.bsky.social. Her grit, esp through the pandemic, was foundational to the #BANC project. hms.harvard.edu/news/making-...
hms.harvard.edu
Making Connections, in the Brain and in Science
PhD student Minsu Kim gained confidence, experience in the lab of neurobiologist Wei-Chung Allen Lee
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Reposted by Matt Collie
Jan Drugowitsch @jdrugowitsch.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
Please check out @darbly.bsky.social & @asbates.bsky.social 's thread at bsky.app/profile/darb..., or HMS News at hms.harvard.edu/news/researc... for a quick overview, or read the full paper at doi.org/10.1038/s415... for details.
hms.harvard.edu
Researchers Publish First Complete Connectome of Fruit Fly Brain and ‘Spinal Cord’
Open-source resource poised to propel research on how nervous systems work
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Reposted by Matt Collie
Wei-Chung Allen Lee @darbly.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
Now published - the #BANC! A full central nervous system (CNS) connectome of a limbed animal at single-synapse resolution, enabling us to follow sensory-motor arcs and understand how the CNS controls the body. rdcu.be/fncjS. #neuroscience. Video by @quorumetrix.bsky.social 1/18
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Matt Collie @mottcallie.bsky.social · 24/03/2026
Hey if the model models 🤷
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Reposted by Matt Collie
The Brain Prize @brainprize.org · 05/03/2026
Warm congratulations to The Brain Prize winners 2026, Professor David Ginty and Professor Patrik Ernfors, for their pioneering work on how the nervous system detects and processes touch and pain. Karolinska Institutet HHMI #Neuroscience #BrainPrize2026
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Matt Collie @mottcallie.bsky.social · 20/02/2026
Wow what a neat prep! Those imaging results look awesome for such a simplified fly holder. Thanks for sharing this as a resource!
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Matt Collie @mottcallie.bsky.social · 19/02/2026
Probably! AOTU019 is directly downstream of PFL3. We can only speculate atm, but it seems likely that AOTU019 is recruited during CX-mediated navigation and may help drive small error corrections. For example, we see that both AOTU cells corr with steering in darkness.
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Matt Collie @mottcallie.bsky.social · 18/02/2026
Together, these mechanisms allow more robust pursuit performance across diverse and changing conditions, and may offer design principles for adaptive engineered systems as well. Huge thanks to my advisor Rachel Wilson and my incredible labmates.
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Matt Collie @mottcallie.bsky.social · 18/02/2026
Our work points to two general strategies for adaptive control in biological feedback systems: 1️⃣ Multiple feedback pathways allow smooth interpolation between control strategies. 2️⃣ Selective state-dependent recruitment or tuning of each pathway allows context-appropriate control rules.
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Matt Collie @mottcallie.bsky.social · 18/02/2026
This architecture enables flexible control gain and logic. For instance, the central pathway is more flexible and increases steering gain when an object is moving away from the midline, the pursuer is running faster, or during social arousal (I.e. courtship and aggression).
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Matt Collie @mottcallie.bsky.social · 18/02/2026
Using Drosophila as a model, we identified two specialized, parallel pathways that drive visual tracking. One detects peripheral objects and steers them toward the center of the visual field. The other detects central objects already, steers them toward the midline and drives forward acceleration.
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Matt Collie @mottcallie.bsky.social · 18/02/2026
How does the brain continuously adjust its own control parameters to match changing conditions? Across species, behavioral studies have shown that visual object pursuit involves adaptive (i.e. flexible) control, but the neural mechanisms behind this flexibility are not well understood.
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Matt Collie @mottcallie.bsky.social · 18/02/2026
Thrilled to share that my graduate work is officially published in Neuron! 🎉 www.cell.com/neuron/fullt...
cell.com
Specialized parallel pathways for adaptive control of visual object pursuit
Collie et al. show how adaptive control in Drosophila visual pursuit arises from two parallel pathways: one steers objects from the periphery toward the center, while the other maintains central fixat...
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Matt Collie @mottcallie.bsky.social · 05/01/2026
Ooh very cool story! What is this neuron called in FAFB/FlyWire?
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Chris J Dallmann @chrisjdallmann.bsky.social · 05/01/2026
How does the brain control locomotion? In our new preprint, we uncover a brain circuit in Drosophila that controls forward walking independently of turning. This dedicated locomotor circuit enables flexible motor control and might reflect a shared principle across species. doi.org/10.64898/202...
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Jan M. Ache @jan-ache.bsky.social · 19/12/2025
How do animals channel sensory information into motor pathways to generate flexible behavioral output? Excited to share a new preprint addressing this question by leveraging the new #maleCNS connectome, behavioral experiments, and in-vivo recordings: doi.org/10.64898/202.... A long🧵...
Landing and takeoff sensorimotor pathways illustrated alongside fly drawings showing behavioral responses.
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Matt Collie @mottcallie.bsky.social · 16/12/2025
🤩
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Matt Collie @mottcallie.bsky.social · 04/11/2025
Always fun designing the most unnecessarily extravagant posters for our department happy hours 😁
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Matt Collie @mottcallie.bsky.social · 03/11/2025
Our findings in females build on the incredible work from @ceschretter.bsky.social on aIPg cells. Also big s/o to the team @hhmijanelia.bsky.social and the Lab of @jefferis.bsky.social for generating the male brain #connectome dataset. Such an amazing resource and it was a pleasure to dig into.
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Matt Collie @mottcallie.bsky.social · 03/11/2025
I could go on with new behavioral, ephys, and modeling data, but I encourage folks to check it out! Big takeaway is adaptive control in the #drosophila pursuit system emerges from two parallel pathways with specialized roles and different control gain/logic. These pathways are key in both sexes.
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Matt Collie @mottcallie.bsky.social · 03/11/2025
(3) We then show that female AOTU neurons are similar to their male counterparts, in terms of their LC10a connections and visual receptive field properties. These results argue that the core visual pursuit circuit has similar physiological properties in both sexes.
(A) LC10a cells with dendrites in the lobula (LO) and axons in the anterior optic tubercle (AOTU), color-coded by synapse count onto AOTU019 (left) or AOTU025 (right). Data from females (Flywire-FAFB). Scale bar: 20 μm.
(B) Estimated visual receptive fields for AOTU019 and AOTU025 in males (top, MaleCNS) and females (bottom, Flywire-FAFB), derived from LC10a input density along the LO medial–lateral axis, including 15° binocular overlap. Right: Estimated receptive fields (male) projected onto the anterior–posterior axis of the right retina.
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Matt Collie @mottcallie.bsky.social · 03/11/2025
(2) We show that optostimulation of "arousal neurons" in females (i.e., aIPg cells) drives visual pursuit and preferentially depolarizes AOTU019. Previously, we had shown that the same is true in aroused males (i.e., P1 optostimulation).
Example recordings from AOTU019 and AOTU025 cells before and during arousal stimulation. Effects were similar in males (left: P1) and females (right: aIPg). Right hemisphere recordings were made while flies walked in darkness.
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Matt Collie @mottcallie.bsky.social · 03/11/2025
To highlight just a few of the newest features: (1) With the new male connectome, we were able to perform comparative analyses of AOTU cells in males and females. We showed that, in both sexes, AOTU019 and AOTU025 are the key links between visual input (LC10a) and pre-motor outputs (DNs).
(A) In visual pursuit, the pursuer’s task is to keep the target object (e.g., another fly) at the visual midline (0°). The angular deviation (θ) represents the error from this setpoint, which should drive
corrective turning to re-center the object via feedback control.
(B) Proposed feedback control model of visual pursuit in Drosophila. LC10a cells detect moving visual objects and influence steering descending neurons (DNs), largely via AOTU019 and AOTU025.
(C) Top five AOTU cell types in males (top) and females (bottom) receiving direct LC10a input and providing direct outputs to walking-related steering DNs. DNa03 primarily targets other DNs, including DNa02 (Fig. S1B). Synapse counts averaged across hemispheres. Connectivity in males (MaleCNS) and females (Flywire-FAFB).
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Matt Collie @mottcallie.bsky.social · 03/11/2025
Delighted to share an updated pre-print on how adaptive control in visual pursuit is implemented at the circuit level. New behavior and neuronal data in females (!) shows how two AOTU pathways are key elements in both sexes. Check it out on @biorxiv-neursci.bsky.social : doi.org/10.1101/2025...
doi.org
Specialized parallel pathways for adaptive control of visual object pursuit
To pursue a moving visual object, the brain must generate motor commands that continuously steer the object to the center of the visual field via feedback. The gain of this control loop is flexible, y...
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John Tuthill @tuthill.bsky.social · 29/10/2025
Do flies feel pain? Spooky new preprint from our lab on the cells and circuits that mediate nociceptive behaviors in adult Drosophila, led by graduate student (and newly minted PhD!) @jonesjes.bsky.social. 🪰⚡👻🎃 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
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Matt Collie @mottcallie.bsky.social · 23/10/2025
How it feels pushing a pre-print update (thread coming soon!)
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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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Greg Jefferis @jefferis.bsky.social · 15/10/2025
Excited to share our new #biorxivpreprint: “Sexual dimorphism in the complete connectome of the Drosophila male central nervous system” www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... We describe the #connectomics reconstruction and analysis of an entire adult #maleCNS #drosophila central nervous system. 1/10
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Matt Collie @mottcallie.bsky.social · 15/10/2025
Congratulations Sven! Looking forward to having your lab just across the river!
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Matt Collie @mottcallie.bsky.social · 05/10/2025
😍
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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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Philipp Brand @pbrand.bsky.social · 21/08/2025
Exciting new Ruta lab preprint by @annaryba.bsky.social et al. on the neural underpinnings of intraspecific behavioral variation: Strain variation identifies a neural substrate for behavioral evolution Drosophila www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
biorxiv.org
Strain variation identifies a neural substrate for behavioral evolution in Drosophila
Sexual selection acts on heritable differences within species, driving the parallel diversification of signal production in one sex and behavioral responses in the other. This coevolution implies that...
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Greg Jefferis @jefferis.bsky.social · 21/08/2025
Neuronal diversity is written in transcriptional codes 🧬. But what is the logic of these codes that define cell types and wiring patterns? To find out we built a #scRNAseq developmental atlas of the Drosophila nerve cord and linked it to the #connectome 🪰🧠 #preprint thread ⬇️1/8
ALT text: A UMAP representation of a single cell RNAseq dataset from the Drosophila ventral nerve cord as well as images of the Drosophila nerve cord connectome and different stages of fly development.
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Bence Ölveczky @olveczky.bsky.social · 21/08/2025
And now for an update on my office window. www.thecrimson.com/article/2025...
thecrimson.com
Harvard To Remove Black Lives Matter Message From Biology Professors’ Office Windows | News | The Harvard Crimson
A Harvard administrator told two professors on Tuesday that a Black Lives Matter sign displayed in their office windows would be taken down by this Saturday, describing it as a violation of the Univer...
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FlyBase @flybase.bsky.social · 15/08/2025
FlyBase needs your help! We ask that European labs continue to contribute to Cambridge, UK FlyBase, whereas US and other non-European labs can contribute to US FlyBase. For more information and how to donate: wiki.flybase.org/wiki/FlyBase...
wiki.flybase.org
FlyBase:Contribute to FlyBase - FlyBase Wiki
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Minsu Kim @mindyisminsu.bsky.social · 05/08/2025
It’s surreal to think that every neuron and synapse in the fly brain + cord that was dissected almost five years ago (the photo’s still on the lab slack!) is now just a click away on Codex codex.flywire.ai?dataset=banc. This wouldn’t have been possible without the incredible team behind it!
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Matt Collie @mottcallie.bsky.social · 04/08/2025
Like c'mon this is both accurate and comedic gold.
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Matt Collie @mottcallie.bsky.social · 04/08/2025
We need more papers that start with Steve Urkel quotes. Thank you @kylethieringer.com and @tuthill.bsky.social for this wonderful and fun review of our recent paper describing limb feedback in the visual system! doi.org/10.1016/j.cu...
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rachelirenewilson.bsky.social @rachelirenewilson.bsky.social · 03/08/2025
There is so much to learn from this dataset that it's overwhelming. It feels amazing to connect everything, from the "cognitive" regions of the brain all the way down to muscles, internal organs, and endocrine systems. With the analyses in our preprint, we've only just scratched the surface.
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Matt Collie @mottcallie.bsky.social · 03/08/2025
Congratulations! This is such an awesome resource.
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Matt Collie @mottcallie.bsky.social · 03/08/2025
I am living for this electricity animation.
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Wei-Chung Allen Lee @darbly.bsky.social · 03/08/2025
Our data support an architecture of distributed, parallelized, and embodied control, reminiscent of “subsumption architectures” from autonomous robotics, where behavior-centric feedback loops are organized s that they can be combined or subsumed to generate complex or resolve competing behaviors.
Schematic example of subsumption architecture. This example has two local loops (behavior 1 and behavior 2), corresponding e.g.
the control of individual legs. Behavior 3 is positioned to take control of both local loops (subsumption), contingent on some input from
both sensors. Behavior 4 is positioned to subsume all other behaviors, based on some other input from both sensors.
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Wei-Chung Allen Lee @darbly.bsky.social · 03/08/2025
Moreover, Zaki Ajabi developed a computationally efficient method for quantifying the “influence” any neuron has on any other neuron in the CNS. We applied this method to estimate the pairwise interactions between all cells in the CNS, amounting to more than 20 billion influence scores.
Cartoon of directed network graph and schematic depicting the influence of source cells on target cells is estimated via linear dynamical modeling.
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Wei-Chung Allen Lee @darbly.bsky.social · 03/08/2025
How is the nervous system organized to coordinate behavior? To approach this massive question, a team led by @asbates.bsky.social, @jasper-tms.bsky.social, @mindyisminsu.bsky.social, & Helen Yang present the BANC: a Brain and Nerve Cord connectome. Preprint: doi.org/10.1101/2025... 🧪#Neuroskyence
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Meg Younger @megyounger.bsky.social · 31/07/2025
New preprint from @darbly.bsky.social‬ @briandepasquale.bsky.social‬ and my labs! If you love (or hate) mosquitoes, have a look: doi.org/10.1101/2025... We used TEM to describe the circuitry used for CO2 detection by mosquitoes. As usual with mosquitoes, nothing is as expected! 🌬️🦟
doi.org
Recurrent connectivity supports carbon dioxide sensitivity in Aedes aegypti mosquitoes
The mosquito Aedes aegypti′s human host-seeking behavior depends on the integration of multiple sensory cues. One of these cues, carbon dioxide (CO2), gates odorant and heat pathways and activates hos...
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Alexander Shakeel Bates @asbates.bsky.social · 02/08/2025
Public access to the first fly connectome that spans the whole CNS - BANC!: codex.flywire.ai?dataset=banc Different from prior connectomes - it is brain + cord (think spinal cord) We use it to ‘embody’ the system and find it resembles ‘subsumption architecture’ doi.org/10.1101/2025...
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Wei-Chung Allen Lee @darbly.bsky.social · 03/08/2025
With @megyounger.bsky.social's lab, et al., we present the first connectomics work in the disease-vector mosquito Aedes aegypti, revealing how its brain is wired to detect host cues. Preprint: doi.org/10.1101/2025... #Neuroscience #Connectomics #vEM #VectorBiology 🧪
Diagrams (top-left) of an adult female Ae. aegypti head and (bottom) a basiconic sensillum on maxillary palp (gray) which contain dendritic processes of olfactory sensory neurons (OSNs), including CO2-sensitive Gr3-expressing OSNs. OSN axons project centrally to the antennal lobes in the brain. On the right is a volumetric rendering of the mosquito brain neuropils including the antennal lobes (light blue) (Heinze et al., 2021; Matthews et al., 2019). Scale bar 100 μm.
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Alexander Shakeel Bates @asbates.bsky.social · 02/08/2025
A massive community effort, centred on @harvardmed.bsky.social‬ @princetonneuro.bsky.social‬. EM data from @darbly.bsky.social‬ lab, collected by @jasper-tms.bsky.social‬ ‪@mindyisminsu.bsky.social‬.
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Dionnet L Bhatti Mazo @victoryofflight.bsky.social · 16/06/2025
Our new preprint: 𝐅𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞-𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐟𝐢𝐜 𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭 𝐜𝐨𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐧 𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐥 𝐬𝐞𝐩𝐭𝐮𝐦 𝐠𝐮𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐬 𝐝𝐞𝐟𝐞𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧. We describe how the LS guides defensive responses by forming critical computations built from functionally and molecularly distinct cells and their afferent inputs. www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-6...
researchsquare.com
Feature-specific threat coding in lateral septum guides defensive action
The ability to rapidly detect and evaluate potential threats is essential for survival and requires the integration of sensory information, with internal state and prior experience. The lateral septum...
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