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Stephanie Staszko

@sstaszko.bsky.social
457 followers 1.4K following 66 posts

Postdoc w/ Al Kaye @yale interested in ethology, neuromodulation, and learning. #firstgen 🧠 👁️ K99/R00 awardee Other interests: yoga, Ole Miss football, houseplants, Taylor Swift, & good food.

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Reposted by Stephanie Staszko
Natale R. Sciolino, PhD @sciolinolab.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Our paper has been accepted at Cell Reports (@cp-cellreports.bsky.social). Huge thanks to Will Fan, who spearheaded this work, and to Paula To for her contributions. See the graphical abstract below, and thread for the story behind the figures: doi.org/10.1016/j.ce...
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Stephanie Staszko @sstaszko.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Amidst finishing papers, faculty job apps, grant deadlines, and a seemingly never ending to do list, it can be hard to step back from the grind and take a look around. My niece mailed me this brain squishy, accompanied by Lisa Frank stickers and scientist animal figurines.
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Stephanie Staszko @sstaszko.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
New preprint alert! 🚨 🧠 My postdoctoral work in Al Kaye’s lab has focused on understanding how animals navigate and learn from threats in their environment. To study this, I developed a virtual visual cliff height threat task, inspired by Boone et al. 2021. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
biorxiv.org
An adaptive noradrenergic-prefrontal circuit for innate avoidance of heights
Innate preferences determine how animals interact with the environment, but how experience refines the neural processes underlying those intrinsic motivations is not well understood. Here we develop a...
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Stephanie Staszko @sstaszko.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Monday blues? Break up your routine and join us for our first speaker for the BlueSpot Slack Fall talk series! 12 PM today on Zoom. All are welcome, please reach out if you would like to be added to the Slack community. #norepinephrine #neuromodulation #experience 🧠
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Zoe McElligott @nanopharmnc.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
Gearing up for #WCBR2027! (Please repost!) Helpful links for submission (panels due 9/15/26, posters 10/13/26) and travel fellowships (Due 9/15/26): winterbrain.org/science-of-t... winterbrain.org/travel-fello...
Why Reserachers Choose Winter Brain, From the mouths of attendees: "Great quality science, small meeting, great location" "It was the perfect size for a meeting, with a great  networking opportunity" "The quality of the science and the networking combined with opportunity for snowboarding is very appealing"Find Your Way to Share Your Science
We are now accepting Panel, Perspective, Short Course, and Poster proposals for the 59th Winter Conference on Brain Research in Breckenridge, Colorado, January 30 – February 4, 2027.  Winter Brain seeks proposals from across different neuroscience disciplines and in different formats.

Build the Conversation: Panels
Panels have a cohesive scientific theme. Presentations that approach a theme from different experimental angles or have clinically translational themes are highly encouraged. 

Panel Proposal Deadline: September 15, 2026.
Challenge the Conversation: Perspectives
Perspectives are intended to bring people in a field together to discuss and debate ideas and findings. Brief slide presentations (1–5 slides per panelist) and audience participation should be encouraged by panelists.
Perspective Proposal Deadline: September 15, 2026.

Share Your Expertise: Short Courses
Short Courses introduce a topic/technique to non-experts, addressing its foundations, strengths, and limitations, with ample time for questions. Opportunities for hands-on participation are encouraged.
Short Course Proposal Deadline: September 15, 2026.

Put Your Research in the Spotlight: Posters
Share your latest research and connect directly with scientists in the Winter Brain Community through a Poster presentation.
Poster Proposal Deadline: October 13, 2026.Supporting the Next Generation of Neuroscience - Travel Fellows

The Travel Fellowships page provides information on how to apply for these junior investigator awards. The application deadline is September 15, 2026, for both Panel and Poster Travel Fellowships. In addition to Travel Fellowships, awards for best posters by junior investigators will be presented at the closing banquet. You can indicate your eligibility for a poster award when submitting your poster abstract.
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Dan Levenstein @dlevenstein.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
Yale Neuroscience is hiring another computational neuroscience position this year! Please share with anyone who might be interested, and feel free to reach out if you have any questions about the position, or growing neuro-AI community at Yale/WTI!
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Christophe 🔬 Leterrier @christlet.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
My reply to this question is usually "If we don't understand how it works, we won't understand how it doesn't work"
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Stephanie Staszko @sstaszko.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
Another wonderful Frontal Cortex GRS/GRC 🔥 looking forward to digging into all of my notes … after a weekend of many naps
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Stephanie Staszko @sstaszko.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
This thread and the commentary (while valid and honest) is h e a v y for those of us who are on the job market. I’ve had the philosophy that I’ll keep going until someone “tells me no” for awhile now, so I’m going to do that until the door is shut (and hope the door doesn’t shut).
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Stephanie Staszko @sstaszko.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
Studying norepinephrine? Have cool results to share? Want to join an online community of norepinephrine researchers? We are organizing our fall schedule for the Blue Spot Slack! We have monthly virtual seminars where you can share your work and get feedback in a supportive environment. Apply/join ⬇️
Immunohistochemical staining showing noradrenergic neurons of the locus coeruleus
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Jorge Miranda Barrientos @jorge-miranda.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
Also apply for the GRS!! Great opportunity for trainees to present and networking.
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GRC Frontal Cortex @grc-frontal-cortex.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
Meet your #GRC-FrontalCortex chairs! Only 2 weeks left to apply! For more info: www.grc.org/frontal-cort...
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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 29/05/2026
Of all the harm this administration has done to US science, today's proposed changes to the way federal grants are awarded and administered is the most damaging yet. The text of the federal register document is impenetrably tedious by design, so here's an excellent summary of what it says.
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elizabethginexi.bsky.social @elizabethginexi.bsky.social · 29/05/2026
Summary of Key Changes in OMB’s Proposed Federal Financial Assistance Rule. Russell Vought is going destroy American Science. elizabethginexi.substack.com/p/summary-of...
elizabethginexi.substack.com
Summary of Key Changes in OMB’s Proposed Federal Financial Assistance Rule
Russell Vought is going destroy American Science
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Stephanie Staszko @sstaszko.bsky.social · 28/04/2026
Firefox allowing you to group open tabs and minimize them in a nice organized stack in your browser is a simultaneous win and loss for academics everywhere 😂🧪🧠 #allthetabs #sorrycomputer
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Stephanie Staszko @sstaszko.bsky.social · 31/03/2026
Interested in norepinephrine? The Blue Spot is a Slack community for all things NE! We have a virtual monthly seminar series to share recent work in the field. This month’s talk from Will Fan, PhD candidate, combines two of my favorite things: NE and the taste system 👅
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Stephanie Staszko @sstaszko.bsky.social · 09/03/2026
Really informative and uplifting presentation this morning about both the work going on at The Transmitter and finding your way along your career path. Thanks again @wutsaiyale.bsky.social @thetransmitter.bsky.social !
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Stephanie Staszko @sstaszko.bsky.social · 21/01/2026
Now that I’ve had the chance to share the news with my collaborators (and time to accept it’s real) I’m so excited to share my K99/R00 award was funded! I plan to use pupillometry, NE/ACh/ calcium recordings, & virtual reality to study the effects of arousal on visual processing of threat stimuli.
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akaye.bsky.social @akaye.bsky.social · 21/01/2026
Grateful to have our lab's work presented on the circuits in innate threat and psychedelics presented at ACNP! Happy to have joined ACNP as an Associate Member this year, which is a great psychiatric neuroscience community. Thanks to @sstaszko.bsky.social and Sarah Jefferson who led the work.
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Keri Martinowich @martinowk.bsky.social · 21/01/2026
Applications for our summer internship program are open. This is a paid, 9 week experience designed to provide research experience to undergraduates interested in the neurosciences, especially as related to the molecular and cellular basis of neuropsychiatric disorders www.libd.org/summer-inter...
libd.org
Summer Internship
Summer internship
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Stephanie Staszko @sstaszko.bsky.social · 13/01/2026
I'm so excited to be at my first ACNP meeting. I'll be sharing my work in the Top-Down Control of Defensive State Selection in the Face of Threats panel tomorrow from 3-5 PM, then share some more science at my poster W28. Please stop by! #ACNP #ADAA @acnporg.bsky.social @kavliatyale.bsky.social
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Stephanie Staszko @sstaszko.bsky.social · 05/09/2025
It was so refreshing to spend time in Sunday River with friends and colleagues old and new. Plus how often do you get to share your work from a tree stump podium? Thankful for the opportunity and all of the helpful feedback! #GRC #GRS #GRCCatecholamines #Catecholamines
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Stephanie Staszko @sstaszko.bsky.social · 05/08/2025
Does anyone with an LRP award have experience working with Nelnet, and if so would you mind answering a few questions? #NIH #LRP #NIHLRP 🧠
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Stephanie Staszko @sstaszko.bsky.social · 20/06/2025
Starting off a week of vacation with the best possible news - NEI is funding my #NIHLRP award! After a challenging year which included watching my K99 slip through the cracks, I’m so thankful for this good news. 🧠 (1/3)
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Stephanie Staszko @sstaszko.bsky.social · 04/06/2025
When Taylor says you’ve had Rep TV all along 😂
A cat with a snake toy yelling and stretching out her paw
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Stephanie Staszko @sstaszko.bsky.social · 07/03/2025
#StandUpforScience by day, grant writing by night
A picture of people gathered at the Connecticut State Capitol Stand Up for Science Rally. A sign reads “Fund Science Not Fiction”A picture of people gathered at the Connecticut State Capitol Stand Up for Science RallyA picture of hot chocolate with a heart in the foam.
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Stephanie Staszko @sstaszko.bsky.social · 04/03/2025
Having a disability can make participating in demonstrations like this impossible or unsafe. I appreciate the list of ideas!
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Stephanie Staszko @sstaszko.bsky.social · 27/02/2025
Between *gestures broadly* and developing debilitating Postural Tachycardia Syndrome, every aspect of my life is different now than it was 6 months ago (when I wasn’t disabled and had gotten a promising score on my BRAIN K99). Re-calibrating expectations is hard, but so so important.
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Dr. Becca @docbecca.bsky.social · 14/02/2025
Today's action - contact your MOCs about the Federal Register block! I just used @llparker100.bsky.social's resistbot via SMS and there is a little back and forth for it to collect your info but it went through and I got a receipt message from Sen Markey! resist.bot/petitions/PC...
resist.bot
NIH grants still blocked—let NIH staff post meetings in the Federal Register!
Text SIGN PCVPYC to 50409 to send this to your officials.
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TK (Takashi DY) Kozai @bioniclab.bsky.social · 23/01/2025
Here is a draft you can use to reach out to your Elected Reps about the devastating impact on NIH: find them here: www.bioniclab.org/news/nihexec...
bioniclab.org
B.I.O.N.I.C. Lab - NIHExecutiveOrder2025
https://www.senate.gov/senators/senators-contact.htm https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative (use both home and work
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Yale Neuroscience @yaleneuro.bsky.social · 21/01/2025
#TraineeTuesday REWIND ⏪ @sstaszko.bsky.social is a postdoc researcher in the Kaye Lab studying the mechanisms behind fear of heights 🐁 And she was recently awarded the 2025 Kavli Postdoc Award for Academic Diversity 🏆🙌 Rediscover her story 👇[3/3]
medicine.yale.edu
#TraineeTuesday: Stephanie Staszko, PhD
This #TraineeTuesday, meet Stephanie Staszko, PhD, a Postdoctoral Associate in the Kaye Lab! Her lab has recently secured funding from the National Institute of
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Stephanie Staszko @sstaszko.bsky.social · 16/01/2025
Receiving this award is such an honor and will help supercharge the last few years of my postdoc training (and transition to independence 🤞🏼) I’m thankful to the many people who have supported me & strive to provide the same support for others, especially URMs! #fgli #dreamjob
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Ardem Patapoutian @ardemp.bskyverified.social · 09/12/2024
I joined 75+ @nobelprize.bsky.social laureates urging US Senators to oppose RFK Jr.'s confirmation as DHHS Secretary. If you’re in a state with GOP senators, PLEASE reach out to them! I’d deeply appreciate it if you amplified this post! 🙏 www.nytimes.com/2024/12/09/h...
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Stephanie Staszko @sstaszko.bsky.social · 04/12/2024
This is how your email finds me
Screenshot from Spotify Wrapped showing user’s top song was So Long, London by Taylor Swift. User was in the top 0.1% globally for streams of the song.
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bioRxiv Neuroscience @biorxiv-neursci.bsky.social · 01/12/2024
Internal states emerge early during learning of a perceptual decision-making task www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/202…
biorxiv.org
Internal states emerge early during learning of a perceptual decision-making task https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.11.30.626182v1
Recent work has shown that during perceptual decision-making tasks, animals frequently alternate bet
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Stephanie Staszko @sstaszko.bsky.social · 01/12/2024
I have been admiring @flavorflav.bsky.social as a swiftie, for all of the championing he’s done for olympians (and women in general), and this spam bot prayed on my hopes and dreams 😂
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Bilal Haider @haiderlab.bsky.social · 24/11/2024
New ways to target inhibitory neuron subtypes in 🐭,🐵,🧍‍♀️... including the elusive & mysterious "chandelier cells" that directly inhibit *axon spike initiation* in excitatory neurons 🙅‍♂️ Yet another success of NIH BRAIN Initiative collabs 🧠(Armamentarium) PREPRINT 👇
A morphological reconstruction and action potential response of a BiPVe4 positive chandelier cell
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Stephanie Staszko @sstaszko.bsky.social · 08/11/2024
I am a few likes away from an all-cat algorithm, but I promise I’m here for the science 🧠
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