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tomtom-auer.bsky.social

@tomtom-auer.bsky.social
571 followers 323 following 24 posts

Assistant Professor @UniFr studying evolution of circuits and behaviors in drosophilids. Co-Director @TReNDinAfrica - strengthening education capacity.

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Andres Bendesky @bendeskylab.com · 11/09/2026
We have a tenure-track faculty position in Evolutionary Biology in Columbia's E3B Department. Application deadline is October 15. Come be our colleague. Please RT! apply.interfolio.com/193016
apply.interfolio.com
Apply - Interfolio {{$ctrl.$state.data.pageTitle}} - Apply - Interfolio
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PLOS Biology @plosbiology.org · 26/08/2026
What are the genetic mechanisms for the #evolution of novel traits? This study by @brhopkins92.bsky.social &co links #Drosophila sex comb teeth to expression changes within ancestral cells, leading to diverged metabolic/developmental rates, and a novel structure. 🧪 #AcademicSky plos.io/4gQOnZK
Graphical abstract on the gain of a novel trait in Drosophila. The teeth of the recently evolved, male-specific Drosophila sex comb evolved from a more ancient organ, the mechanosensory bristle. We show that changes in the expression of genes that are shared between mechanosensory bristle and sex comb teeth cells lead to changes in a variety of fundamental cellular processes that together enable the morphological transformation.

The photo, phylogeny, general design are those of the corresponding author(s). They made the bristle schematics in biorender and the fly silhouette is their modified drawing of D. melanogaster from SciDraw (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3925939).
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tomtom-auer.bsky.social @tomtom-auer.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
Thrilled to be co-organising the EMBO Workshop Comparative (neuro)science in insects, 13–16 April 2027, Engelberg 🇨🇭 with @megyounger.bsky.social, @nkonst4.bsky.social, and Yun Ding@UPENN Abstracts due 11 Dec 2026 🔗 meetings.embo.org/event/27-ins... Register and join us! #EMBOneuroInsects
meetings.embo.org
Comparative (neuro)science in insects
Comparative studies are essential for uncovering shared and divergent biological principles. Insects, with their extraordinary diversity, rich natural histories, and increasing experimental tractabil…
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Dafni Hadjieconomou @drosostalis.bsky.social · 09/08/2026
Excited to announce "The Body in Dialogue" workshop @institutducerveau.bsky.social! 4 sessions on how the brain talks to the body across the animal kingdom: My session features Ana Domingos, @karalmarshall.bsky.social, Denis Burdakov & Michael Krashes. More announcements coming soon, stay tuned!
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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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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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Tomas Kay @tomaskay.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
In an article published today, we show that ancient feeding-related neuropeptides have been repurposed to control brood care in clonal raider ants. Photo: Bart Zijlstra, UNIL /1
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tomtom-auer.bsky.social @tomtom-auer.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
Very honoured to present #UniFr and #Switzerland in the 2026 FKNE cohort ! Looking forward to be part of a network with so many bright minds, to promote (neuro)science research and education not only in Europe but also #LMICs, and to bring our comparative, cross-species approach to FKNE.
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tomtom-auer.bsky.social @tomtom-auer.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
How do duplicated receptor genes "find a home" in olfactory circuits? Great study by the Arguello lab shows the re-coding of olfactory channels across species. Neat combination of phylogenetic reconstruction, sc-transcriptomics and more. Check out the pre-print: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
biorxiv.org
Evolutionary Recoding of Olfactory Sensory Neurons
Odorant receptors ( Or s) are the interface between an animal’s nervous system and its olfactory environment. In insect genomes, the Or s are often the largest gene family, and their rapid duplication...
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Junior European Drosophila Investigators @fly-jedi.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
The amazing JEDI crowd 2026! Hurray for an inspiring #Drosophila meeting at a gorgeous location. Thank you to everyone who attended!
The JEDI crowd of 2026
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Amanda Moehring @flybehaviour.bsky.social · 28/05/2026
SUPERMAGNETIC MICROPHAGES 🤯
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gs2747.bsky.social @gs2747.bsky.social · 28/05/2026
Happy to have the chance to share this commentary by @will-milligan.bsky.social & me: rdcu.be/fldBs.
rdcu.be
Adaptation: by giant leaps or many tiny steps?
Nature Reviews Genetics - In this Comment, the authors argue that understanding the genetic basis of adaptation requires considering the genetic architecture and ecological properties of traits...
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Junior European Drosophila Investigators @fly-jedi.bsky.social · 04/05/2026
Extended registration deadline for our conference (June 1st - 3rd in Palmela, Portugal) to May 15th! Join if you are a Junior #Drosophila PI or senior #postdoc about to transition to independence. Spread the word! 🎬Venue: www.youtube.com/watch?v=_P1n... 🔗Registration: fly-jedi.org/meetings/202...
youtube.com
Pousada de Palmela
YouTube video by Pestana Hotel Group
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Marcus Stensmyr @marcusstensmyr.bsky.social · 05/05/2026
Here is a banger! Our new paper in @currentbiology.bsky.social is out! We have used museomics to sequence a 45yr old specimen of Drosophila enhydrobia, a rare and most unusual fly whose larvae are aquatic(!) and predatory(!). Very cool, big success. authors.elsevier.com/sd/article/S...
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Stéphane Dissel @sdissel.bsky.social · 21/03/2026
My laboratory is looking for a motivated postdoc in the field of Neurobiology. We have multiple exciting projects, NIH funding. Experience using the Drosophila model is preferable. Please share erecruit.umsystem.edu/psc/tamext/K...
erecruit.umsystem.edu
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Carolina Rezaval @crezaval.bsky.social · 09/03/2026
The School of Biosciences @unibirmingham.bsky.social is recruiting five Assistant/Associate Professors working across a range of areas, including neuroscience. Join a vibrant interdisciplinary research environment. Deadline: 14 April 2026 edzz.fa.em3.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid...
edzz.fa.em3.oraclecloud.com
Assistant or Associate Professor (Research and Education) - School of Biosciences - 107106 - Grade 8 or 9
Evidence of a developing track record in publishing work of high academic quality and impact is essential, as is an emerging portfolio (or clear potential) of external research funding. Applicants mus...
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PLOS Biology @plosbiology.org · 19/02/2026
The #fly community aims to achieve a comprehensive genomic study of the Drosophilidae family. @pankajd.bsky.social @bernardkim.bsky.social @petrovadmitri.bsky.social @darrenobbard.bsky.social present a comparative gene annotation for 301 #Drosophilidae species @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/4c3pyrI
Time-calibrated phylogeny of the family Drosophilidae showing major species groups, surrounded by representative adult flies that highlight the remarkable morphological diversity of this model insect group. The composite image was created using Microsoft PowerPoint. Fly photographs were taken by Darren J. Obbard and are published under the Creative Commons Attribution License with permission.
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Vincent Croset @vincentcroset.bsky.social · 12/02/2026
🚨 Postdoc opportunity to study memory or nutrition in #Drosophila 🪰 I am looking for a candidate to support for a 3 year Addison Wheeler Fellowship application lnkd.in/e2rvNf5x Interested? Please send a CV & cover letter with brief research outline by 20th February to vincent.croset@durham.ac.uk
dur.ac.uk
addison-wheeler-fellowship - Durham University
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Nikos Konstantinides @nkonst4.bsky.social · 06/01/2026
Very happy for this @ejneuroscience.bsky.social editorial on the importance of diverse research animals in neuroscience. We make the case that embracing a plurality of model organisms enriches the field and accelerates both basic and translational research. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
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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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Stephen F. Goodwin @stephenfgoodwin.bsky.social · 20/12/2025
A high-resolution atlas of the brain predicts lineage and birth order underlying neuronal identity: Cell Genomics www.cell.com/cell-genomic... Follow-up paper on sex, online in the New year
cell.com
A high-resolution atlas of the brain predicts lineage and birth order underlying neuronal identity
Using an integrated single-cell transcriptomic atlas of the adult Drosophila central brain, Allen et al. uncover over 4,000 transcriptionally distinct neuronal subtypes. The authors show that adult ne...
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Richard Benton @bentonlab.bsky.social · 15/12/2025
You could read my Dispatch, but only as a teaser for two brilliant papers from Bogdan Sieriebriennikov (Desplan lab) and Giacomo Glotzer (Kronauer lab), which you *must* read. Olfactory receptors: Making sense (and antisense) of monogenic expression: Current Biology www.cell.com/current-biol...
cell.com
Olfactory receptors: Making sense (and antisense) of monogenic expression
Monogenic expression of odorant receptors (ORs) in individual sensory neurons is a hallmark of olfactory systems in insects and vertebrates. New studies highlight how transcriptional interference and ...
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Nature @nature.com · 02/12/2025
Nature research paper: Evolution of taste processing shifts dietary preference go.nature.com/3XRWaMD
go.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 peripheral receptor changes.
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Giorgio Gilestro @giorgio.gilest.ro · 05/12/2025
Want to carry a PhD in London, in one of the best Universities in the world? We have two calls for PhD students to join our lab at Imperial College. Deadline January 12th. More details for applications in the link below. Feel free to keep in touch!
lab.gilest.ro
Available Jobs – gilestro laboratory
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tomtom-auer.bsky.social @tomtom-auer.bsky.social · 27/11/2025
Excited to share the latest work from the lab: rdcu.be/eRWuD Great team effort, led by @enriberti.bsky.social first at @unil.bsky.social and now @unifr.bsky.social; with fantastic collaborators @ribeirocarlitos.bsky.social and @dahaniel.muench.bio.
rdcu.be
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...
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brunolemaitre.bsky.social @brunolemaitre.bsky.social · 24/11/2025
An open webinar on our reproducibility project 'WHAT 400 DROSOPHILA PAPERS Teach Us about Doing Better Science' on December 9th 2PM EEST time (1PM Swiss time). Registration below
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Stephen Montgomery @ebablab.bsky.social · 21/11/2025
🚨RA/PhD position available in evolutionary neurobiology 🚨 Working on a deep dive into circuit changes during mushroom body expansion in Heliconius butterflies @camzoology.bsky.social - employment benefits - 4 years funding - 1000% fun Deadline: 14/1/2026 Details: www.cam.ac.uk/jobs/researc...
Shades of blue and red in a slice through an immuno stained brain showing some deliciously lovely looking mushroom body lobes - ripe for investigation during a funded PhD - and the central complex. Image credit: Dr Max Farnworth
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Junior European Drosophila Investigators @fly-jedi.bsky.social · 28/10/2025
Preparations for the next JEDI meeting are underway! The upcoming Junior European #Drosophila Investigator / #NewPI meeting is planned for Portugal in June. Final dates and additional details will be announced soon - stay tuned for updates!​
AI-generated image of a lightsaber-wielding figure conquering Portugal.
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Richard Benton @bentonlab.bsky.social · 16/10/2025
I'm looking to recruit a post-doc to help push forward our growing interests in insect ecotoxicology. Apply here by Nov 30th! (thanks for reposting) career5.successfactors.eu/sfcareer/job...
career5.successfactors.eu
Career Opportunities: Posdoctoral researcher in toxin susceptibility and evolution of resistance in insects (22517)
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Karla Kaun @karlakaun.bsky.social · 17/10/2025
The lab is hiring Research Assistants to look at how changes in gene regulation impact motivation for addictive stimulants. www.kaunlab.com/post/researc...
kaunlab.com
Research Assistant opening
The Kaun Lab is hiring new full-time Research Assistants!The position is ideal for someone interested in investigating how changes in gene regulation impact individual variation in addictive substance...
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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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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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The Francis Crick Institute @crick.ac.uk · 09/10/2025
We're now recruiting early career group leaders at the Crick to lead ambitious research programmes and explore bold scientific questions. Hear our Director, Edith Heard, explain why the Crick is a unique place for curiosity-driven research. Apply now ➡️ www.crick.ac.uk/careers-stud...
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Ana Marija Jakšić @merianelion.bsky.social · 30/09/2025
🚨Preprint🚨 What started as an attempt to compare CT scans of diverse fly brains, ended up a new concept for analysis & segmentation of difficult tomographic data. No ground truths, no training, just maths. This is TopoTome, topological data analysis of 3D images www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Figure showing 3 panels. Panel A: workflow of a classical deep learning model vs TopoTome workflow, with marked differences between the methods, including manual segmentation of images, design and optimization of neural network and data post processing that is needed in deep learning workflow but not in TopoTome. Panel B: core concepts behind TopoTome shown connected by arrows. From left to right, there is a microCT scan of a fly brain (3D reconstruction), a persistence barcode of H2 homologies, an image of how persistent barcodes map to the original CT brain scan, and a segmentation of a CT scan. Panel C shows the concept of cubical complex filtration of 2D and 3D image data.
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Greg Jefferis @jefferis.bsky.social · 06/10/2025
And here's the official announcement from our Janelia collaborators with a fantastic visualisation from @philiphubbard.bsky.social. See more at male-cns.janelia.org/media. Downloads are humming and we have solved the first data access queries. Happy exploring! #drosophila #connectomics #malecns.
male-cns.janelia.org
Media - MaleCNS connectome
Project website for the MaleCNS connectome
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Richard Benton @bentonlab.bsky.social · 06/10/2025
Having personally sworn for years that insects don’t use GPCRs for odour detection, Suguru Takagi (@sugurutakagi.bsky.social) discovers that, in fact, they sometimes do … www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
biorxiv.org
A GPCR signaling pathway in insect odor detection
Odor detection differs fundamentally in vertebrates, which use G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), and insects, which employ ion channels. Here, we report the first evidence for a GPCR defining tunin...
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Anita Devineni @anitadevineni.bsky.social · 30/09/2025
My department at Emory is a hiring a tenure-track neuroscientist! Anyone who's talked to me in the last 4 years knows I cannot say enough good things about my dept and the neuroscience community here. My colleagues are so wonderfully supportive. Postdocs, please apply! apply.interfolio.com/174371
apply.interfolio.com
Apply - Interfolio {{$ctrl.$state.data.pageTitle}} - Apply - Interfolio
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Junior European Drosophila Investigators @fly-jedi.bsky.social · 26/09/2025
Dear JEDIs, as we are self-organizing using the #EDRC as a nucleator we decided it is time for a JEDI database to boost our network! If you identify as a JEDI, please contact us here or send a mail to katja.rust@uni-marburg.de to be added to our database. #Drosophila @fly-eds.bsky.social
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The Integrative Biology of Brain Evolution (TIBBE)- Network @tibbe-evolneuro.bsky.social · 04/09/2025
🤩 Join us for the next TIBBE seminar: Evolution of brain cell types. September 10, 2–3pm UTC This event brings together 2 outstanding evolutionary and developmental neuroscientists who will present their work, followed by an interactive discussion with the audience: www.crowdcast.io/c/evolution-...
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tomtom-auer.bsky.social @tomtom-auer.bsky.social · 16/07/2025
A great collaborative effort of many labs across continents: @vbcscitraining.bsky.social, WACCBIP, TReND in Africa and more. Now a first paper on #open-source RT-LAMP #diagnostics is out: urldefense.com/v3/__https:/... Congrats to the whole team. We hope this pushes affordable diagnostics in #LMICs
urldefense.com
A lyophilized open-source RT-LAMP assay for molecular diagnostics in resource-limited settings
A critical bottleneck for equitable access to population-scale molecular diagnostics is the limited availability of rapid, inexpensive point-of-care tests, especially in low- and middle-income countri...
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Claire Wyart @clairewyart.bsky.social · 12/06/2025
🧿 Excited about molecular biology & genetics 🧬🧬🧬? Wanna live in Paris? Join our team as a lab manager under the supervision of @kevinfidelin.bsky.social & myself! Personal development in professional environment is our mission. Inclusive space where proactive and playing collective people flourish 🧿
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tomtom-auer.bsky.social @tomtom-auer.bsky.social · 07/05/2025
We are #hiring! Interested in comparative neuroscience? Check details here (www.unifr.ch/bio/en/depar...). We look for a motivated #PhD student or #PostDoc to combine genetics, physiology, neural circuit tracing, and behaviour to study taste processing evolution in #Drosophila. Please repost.
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Mike Gordon @flytaste.bsky.social · 06/05/2025
I'm thrilled to see the latest work from the lab published today @currentbiology.bsky.social. This project was carried by PhD student Jinfang Li, who combined the Flywire connectome with functional experiments to examine the principles of taste circuits in the fly brain. (Image by Jacelyn Shu)
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Richard Merrill @dickmerrill.bsky.social · 06/05/2025
Interested in a PhD connecting sensory ecology and evolutionary genetics? Applications are now open for a project on the Speciation Genomics of Eye Size Variation in Heliconius Butterflies in our lab at LMU Munich: www.evol.bio.lmu.de/research/mer... Please repost!
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tomtom-auer.bsky.social @tomtom-auer.bsky.social · 30/04/2025
And more from our favorite species trio: journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...
journals.plos.org
Comparative single-cell transcriptomic atlases of drosophilid brains suggest glial evolution during ecological adaptation
How do diverse brain cells change over evolution? By comparing single-cell transcriptomic atlases from ecologically-distinct drosophilid species, this work identifies changes in the composition and ge...
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tomtom-auer.bsky.social @tomtom-auer.bsky.social · 28/04/2025
Happy to see this out now: Olfactory projection neuron rewiring in the brain of an ecological specialist: Cell Reports www.cell.com/cell-reports... In a team effort with @bentonlab.bsky.social 's lab we establish new genetic tools in #drosophila sechellia and compare single central brain neurons.
cell.com
Olfactory projection neuron rewiring in the brain of an ecological specialist
Dürr et al. develop advanced genetic tools in the host specialist D. sechellia to study its olfactory system neuroanatomy. They show via single-cell labeling, tracing, and quantitative comparison of o...
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Carlotta Martelli @crltt.bsky.social · 16/01/2025
Our paper is out! www.science.org/doi/full/10....
science.org
Impact of developmental temperature on neural growth, connectivity, and function
Developmental temperature tunes brain wiring with consequences for circuit function and animal behavior.
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Kasia Siudeja @ksiudeja.bsky.social · 13/01/2025
Calling all Junior(-ish) Drosophila Investigators 📣📣📣 Join us in June for the JEDIs Resurection : flies-jedi.github.io/projects/202... ✅presentations from participants, ✅panel on publishing (with fantastic guests) ✅plenty of time for socializing Register asap to help us with the first headcount
flies-jedi.github.io
Junior European Drosophila Investigators | JEDI meeting 2025
first post COVID19 meeting --REGISTER before Feb.28
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