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Philipp Brand

@pbrand.bsky.social
1.1K followers 1.2K following 89 posts

PI of Evolutionary Neuroscience and Behavior Group at the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research. Evolution of behavior, neural circuits, chemical senses, and speciation. he/him brain.mpg.de/brand

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Philipp Brand @pbrand.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Amazing job opportunity @mpinb.mpg.de !! Highly recommend starting a lab with an Independent Max Planck Research Group Leader position! Added Bonus: Inspiring colleagues like @monikakscholz.bsky.social and @jameslightfoot.bsky.social Do apply!!
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Monika Scholz @monikakscholz.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Come be our colleague @mpinb.mpg.de ! jobs.b-ite.com/jobposting/4... Bonn has a great community of neuroscientists and it's been a great place to start a group! #neuroethology @neuroethology.org
jobs.b-ite.com
Max Planck Research Group Leader (W2) in Neuroethology (m/f/div)
limited contract
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Leah Houri-Zeevi @leahhouri.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
🩸🩸🩸TODAY WE SHARE TWO MAJOR DISCOVERIES🩸🩸🩸 1. We peered into genomes and brains of the rare mosquitoes that QUIT feeding on blood and found what biting is built from 2. Humans got rid of isoleucine in their blood, malaria suffers from it, and mosquito proteomes budget for it THREADS>
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Stephen Montgomery @ebablab.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Are you a #NewPI in Ecology & Evolution? Would you like to meet with peers to chat about work, the future and life as a new PI? 🍪☕️ Then I have the form for you! 📋 Help us gauge interest in a new network/event by filling in this short survey: forms.cloud.microsoft/e/K4wUiuLuFn Please RT! 🙏
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Philipp Brand @pbrand.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
We are looking for a research assistant to join our team. brain.mpg.de/brand Apply using the link below if you are interested in doing research on the neural and genetic underpinnings of behavioral evolution. jobs.brain.mpg.de/jobposting/6...
Description of job ad for Research Assistant in the lab of Evolutionary Neuroscience and Behavior Lab at the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research.Description of job ad for Research Assistant in the lab of Evolutionary Neuroscience and Behavior Lab at the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research.
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Alexis Stamatakis @stamatak.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
The RAxML-NG v2.0 preprint is out: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... v2.0 features integrated model testing, fast branch support metrics, automatic parallelization, phylogenetic difficulty prediction, genotype evolution models, to name but the most important features. And it is A LOT FASTER of course
biorxiv.org
RAxML-NG 2: Automatic model selection, novel tree search heuristics, and fast branch support metrics
RAxML-NG is a widely used tool for maximum likelihood based phylogenetic inference. In the seven years since the last RAxML-NG publication, we have continuously improved and extended the code. Here, w...
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Philipp Brand @pbrand.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Congratulations Begüm! 🥳
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Philipp Brand @pbrand.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
Thank you!!!
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Philipp Brand @pbrand.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
Thanks a lot! I’m glad you like it
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Philipp Brand @pbrand.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
depends on how important writing a paper is for reproductive isolation
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Philipp Brand @pbrand.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
Thanks Nikos!
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Philipp Brand @pbrand.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
Thank you!
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Philipp Brand @pbrand.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
Thanks Yuko! Yes, your encouragement early on was a great confidence boost :)
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Philipp Brand @pbrand.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
thank you!
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Philipp Brand @pbrand.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Thanks Max. Right back at you for your Emmy Noether!!
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Philipp Brand @pbrand.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
We are looking for a Research Assistant to work on the project! Deadline is September 30th bsky.app/profile/pbra...
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Philipp Brand @pbrand.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
We're about to start an exciting new project with generous support from the @erc.europa.eu In SIMBIO, we want to know how bacterial endosymbionts modify neurons on the genetic and functional level and how this shapes the evolution of their host's mating behavior.
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Philipp Brand @pbrand.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
yes Jeff! Please do!! :)
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Philipp Brand @pbrand.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Salary starts at TVöD E6 or higher, dependent on experience. Should currently be around 2907 Euros per month before taxes.
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Philipp Brand @pbrand.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
@mpibrain.bsky.social @neuroethology.org @fens.org
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Max Farnworth @maxfarnworth.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
🚨 I AM HIRING a 3-year postdoc & 4-year PhD student 🚨 [PLEASE SHARE WIDELY] My Emmy Noether @dfg.de funded Neural Circuit & Systems Evolution lab (🌟) at the @unimainz.bsky.socialÍ wants to start existing. So..., what do we need? WELL... we need you! APPLY UNTIL 21 SEPTEMBER.
static.klipy.com
ALT:
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Philipp Brand @pbrand.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
We are looking for a research assistant to join our team. brain.mpg.de/brand Apply using the link below if you are interested in doing research on the neural and genetic underpinnings of behavioral evolution. jobs.brain.mpg.de/jobposting/6...
Description of job ad for Research Assistant in the lab of Evolutionary Neuroscience and Behavior Lab at the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research.Description of job ad for Research Assistant in the lab of Evolutionary Neuroscience and Behavior Lab at the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research.
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Philipp Brand @pbrand.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
Congrats Max!! Looking forward to having you as a neighbor! ✨
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Mohammed Khallaf @khallaf.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
Our new paper is out in @nature.com! We uncovered how a naked mole-rat queen 👑 controls an entire colony: a natural contraceptive scent that suppresses reproduction in other females! A remarkable mammalian parallel to bees and ants! 🐝🐜 @garyrlewin.bsky.social youtu.be/enfv3zJrWKM?...
youtu.be
Naked mole-rats are ruled by a queen: this chemical puts her in power
YouTube video by nature video
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Philipp Brand @pbrand.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
Nice!!! Congrats Mohammed!! 🔥
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European Drosophila Society @fly-eds.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
📣 📣 📣 📣 To all Drosophilists: the call for Workshop proposals at the 2027 European Drosophila Research Conference in Bonn (20-23 September 2027) is OPEN! Go to link below for instructions. Closing date: 30 September 2026. 👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻 tinyurl.com/45y8trzd
The image is the logo of the 2027 European Drosophila Research Conference in Bonn, Germany: an adult male fly overlaid on a view of Bonn city.
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Jason Shepherd @jasonsynaptic.bsky.social · 29/06/2026
Very excited for our new paper, now out in @cellcellpress.bsky.social! /🧵 The protein Tau forms intracellular toxic tangles in neurons in Alzheimer’s disease and Tauopathies. Tau pathology slowly spreads from cell-to-cell but the mechanisms are not clear /1 authors.elsevier.com/sd/article/S...
authors.elsevier.com
Arc mediates intercellular tau transmission via extracellular vesicles
Tau pathology spreads cell to cell, but the mechanisms of intercellular tau transmission remain unclear. We find that the neuronal gene Arc is critica…
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Ben Hopkins @brhopkins92.bsky.social · 06/03/2026
Quick plug for our new resource, the Drosophila Species Stock Exchange. This is a database and mailing list that documents species currently in culture and the labs holding them. If you want to know more or sign up then please get in touch. See attached for more info and please share!
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Jenny Tung @jennytung.bsky.social · 05/03/2026
Leipzig U and the MPI for Evolutionary Anthropology (MPI-EVA) have an open faculty position (W2) in evolutionary population genetics! This position is tenured and comes with generous core funding. We are eager to welcome a new colleague! Deadline March 11. www.uni-leipzig.de/en/newsdetai...
uni-leipzig.de
Professorship in population genetics in the field of evolutionary anthropology and medicine (W2)
Faculties & Facilities
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Philipp Brand @pbrand.bsky.social · 27/02/2026
@annaryba.bsky.social's paper on the neural underpinnings of intraspecific behavioral variation is now out in @currentbiology.bsky.social Highly recommend! -> Paper identifies neural substrate for variation in promiscuity among Drosophila melanogaster strains🧪 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
sciencedirect.com
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 res…
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Jeffrey Ross-Ibarra @jrossibarra.bsky.social · 09/02/2026
Fun news! @gcbias.bsky.social and I are teaching a 2-week online population genetics workshop this summer to raise money for the Center for Population Biology at UC Davis. We're trying to gauge interest -- please fill this out if you might be interested! And please share broadly!
docs.google.com
Davis Summer Population Genomics Program
Want to learn population genetics? Please fill out this form to indicate your potential interest in a 2-week intensive online summer population genetics course taught by Jeffrey Ross-Ibarra and Graham...
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Tobias Ackels @tobiasackels.bsky.social · 01/02/2026
Postdoc position in systems neuroscience! Excited to recruit a postdoc for my lab at the University of Bonn. 🔬 In vivo physiology (Neuropixels, 2P/miniscope) 🐭 Head-fixed & freely moving behaviour 💡 Optogenetics/chemogenetics ⏳ Start: ASAP | Application deadline: 28.02.2026 More info below ⬇️
The research group “Sensory Dynamics and Behaviour” of Prof. Dr. Tobias Ackels at the Institute of Experimental Epilepsy and Cognition Research at the
University Hospital Bonn invites applications for a position as:
Postdoctoral Researcher (m/f/d)
The position is initially limited to three years (TV-L E13/100%),
starting from April 2026 or as soon as possible.
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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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The Rockefeller University @rockefeller.edu · 15/01/2026
A study in @science.org from Paul Cohen's lab, led by @maschakoenen.bsky.social, demonstrates how beige fat directly influences blood pressure. The findings offer a new target for treating vascular disease and could lead to more precise therapies for hypertension: bit.ly/4pK0hGh
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Sachin Sethi @sethisachin.bsky.social · 06/01/2026
www.cell.com/cell/fulltex... We had a lot of fun working on this project (led by Itzel Ishida, not on bluesky). Some interesting highlights from the paper -
cell.com
Neuronal calcium spikes enable vector inversion in the Drosophila brain
In the fly central complex, PFNa neurons switch from firing classical sodium spikes when depolarized to firing non-canonical T-type calcium spikes when hyperpolarized. This bidirectional spiking allow...
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Hannah Haberkern @hannah-haberkern.bsky.social · 23/12/2025
📢 Join us, the Haberkern lab, @uni-wuerzburg.de for a postdoc studying neural circuit mechanisms of navigation. You’ll spearheading neurophysiology experiments on our brand new 2P! ⏳ Apply by 28th February 2026 Details: www.haberkernlab.de/docs/ENPostd... #neuroscience #academicjobs #postdoc
On the left, the image shows a schematic of a fly head, ring neurons and EPG neurons together with some calcium imaging frames. On the right is a photo of a fly on a ball in virtual reality and another schematic of a VR system.
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Richard Gao @rdgao.bsky.social · 03/12/2025
Finally got the job ad—looking for 2 PhD students to start spring next year: www.gao-unit.com/join-us/ If comp neuro, ML, and AI4Neuro is your thing, or you just nerd out over brain recordings, apply! I'm at neurips. DM me here / on the conference app or email if you want to meet 🏖️🌮
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Philipp Brand @pbrand.bsky.social · 27/11/2025
Congrats Tom!!!!
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Philipp Brand @pbrand.bsky.social · 27/11/2025
Congratulations Enrico!! Looking forward to reading it
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Enrico Bertolini @enriberti.bsky.social · 27/11/2025
My main postdoc work is now out :) In the group of @tomtom-auer.bsky.social with Justine Pascual, @bruzz-1.bsky.social , Noemi Sgammeglia , with crucial collaboration with @dahaniel.muench.bio and @ribeirocarlitos.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41...
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Jacopo Razzauti @jacoporazzauti.bsky.social · 19/11/2025
Our preprint is out! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... Peter Skovorodnikov and I are excited to present FERAL: a new video-understanding toolkit that maps raw video directly to behavior, no pose estimation required. It works across species, from lab to field, and even in collective systems. (🧵1/n)
biorxiv.org
FERAL: A Video-Understanding System for Direct Video-to-Behavior Mapping
Animal behavior unfolds continuously in time, yet quantitative analyses often require segmenting it into discrete, interpretable states. Although manual annotation can achieve this, it remains slow, s...
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Philipp Brand @pbrand.bsky.social · 17/11/2025
Thanks to @tollkuhn.bsky.social and @jefferis.bsky.social for the invitation to contribute to the "Sexual dimorphism in the brain" special issue!
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Philipp Brand @pbrand.bsky.social · 17/11/2025
@rorycoleman.bsky.social and I wrote an opinion piece called 'From neurons to novelty: Circuit mechanisms shaping courtship evolution' We argue that now is a great time for neuro-evo research www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
sciencedirect.com
From neurons to novelty: Circuit mechanisms shaping courtship evolution
The vast diversity of animal behaviors has long inspired ethologists and neuroscientists, but circuit mechanisms driving this variation remain elusive…
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MPI for Biological Intelligence @mpiforbi.bsky.social · 19/09/2025
Apply now to become a speaker at our Institute! We invite excellent postdocs in neuroscience, ecology and other fields related to our research to apply for our Emerging Scientist Talk Series. Apply by October 24: www.bi.mpg.de/ess @chr-mayer.bsky.social @fleyes.bsky.social @michaelahau.bsky.social
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Mario Vallejo-Marin @nicrodemo.bsky.social · 24/10/2025
Do you want to do a Masters in Evolutionary Biology? The call for applying to the MEME program is now open! MEME is a fantastic 2-year MSc between four European Universities on all areas of Evolutionary Biology. Apply and study in Sweden/France/the Netherlands/Germany/USA/Switzerland! www.evobio.eu
Picture of MEME students on the beach
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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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Philipp Brand @pbrand.bsky.social · 23/10/2025
Very Cool! Congrats Kelsey
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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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