iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Yao Chen @yaochen20.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Grateful for two R01s recently: to develop tools for recording and perturbing biochemical dynamics in the brain (with @jinzhanglab.bsky.social), and to uncover what these dynamics do in vivo. Recruiting postdocs, grad students, and engineers to join our exploration: sites.wustl.edu/yaochenlab/p...

sites.wustl.edu

Opportunities

We welcome you to join our scientific adventure to understand the function of neuromodulators and the function of sleep, and become future bridge builders between cellular and systems neuroscience.…

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Yao Chen @yaochen20.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

Interested in biochemical signaling dynamics or sleep? We welcome kind, creative, and thoughtful scientists and engineers to join us as graduate students or postdocs. Please reach out! sites.wustl.edu/yaochenlab/

sites.wustl.edu

Yao Chen Lab

A website by WashU Sites

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Yao Chen @yaochen20.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

This work has been spearheaded by @washumedicine.bsky.social MSTP student Lizzie Tilden, with great collaboration with Woody Shew's lab @uarkansas.bsky.social and valuable contributions from current & former members of our lab. We welcome any feedback! (9/10)

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Yao Chen @yaochen20.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

We're excited because molecular tracking of sleep history at the sleep bout level could bridge fast arousal circuits (seconds) and slow wave activity (hours). It also shows how biochemical kinetics can encode biological time and history. (8/10)

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Yao Chen @yaochen20.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

After sleep deprivation, membrane PKA-SP reaches a lower level by the end of each bout, reflecting greater dissipation of accumulated sleep need. (7/10)

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Yao Chen @yaochen20.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

Importantly, membrane PKA-SP continuously tracks moment-to-moment waking probability. It achieves this by integrating both how long the animal has slept and how much sleep has been interrupted. (6/10)

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Yao Chen @yaochen20.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

These dynamics are specific to the membrane: PKA-SP inside the cell behaves differently. The same molecule in two subcellular compartments displays two distinct dynamics. (5/10)

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Yao Chen @yaochen20.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

Using optical biosensors in freely behaving mice, we found that protein kinase A substrate phosphorylation (PKA-SP) at the neuronal membrane decreases exponentially through each sleep bout, with consistent kinetics. (4/10)

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Yao Chen @yaochen20.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

Sleep homeostasis theory predicts that molecules tracking sleep progress should change slowly, but such dynamics have been hard to pin down. Prior work linked protein kinase A and its cognate phosphatases to sleep regulation, but their sleep-wake dynamics were unclear. (3/10)

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Yao Chen @yaochen20.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

Sleep is regulated across multiple timescales. On the fast end, neuromodulators and neurons drive rapid sleep-wake transitions. On the slow end, slow wave activity tracks sleep need over hours. What encodes history on the intermediate time scale within a single sleep bout? (2/10)

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Yao Chen @yaochen20.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

How does the brain track how much sleep has occurred, and gauge the likelihood of waking at each moment? Check out our new preprint: “A molecular integrator of sleep duration and interruption” www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... (1/10)

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Yao Chen @yaochen20.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

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Yao Chen @yaochen20.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

After sleep deprivation, membrane PKA-SP reaches a lower level by the end of each bout, reflecting greater dissipation of accumulated sleep need. (7/10)

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Yao Chen @yaochen20.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

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Yao Chen @yaochen20.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

These dynamics are specific to the membrane: PKA-SP inside the cell behaves differently. The same molecule in two subcellular compartments displays two distinct dynamics. (5/10)

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Yao Chen @yaochen20.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

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Yao Chen @yaochen20.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

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Yao Chen @yaochen20.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

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Reposted by Yao Chen

Adam Bowman @adam-bowman.bsky.social · 09/06/2026

Excited to share our first lab preprint! We enabled fast wide-field FLIM with low noise and high dynamic range. We built compact resonant modules for EO-FLIM that fit into your hand and developed methods to capture multi-exponential phasor plots at up to 500 Hz. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

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Yao Chen @yaochen20.bsky.social · 28/02/2026

🧠 We're hiring! My department (Wash U Neuroscience) is recruiting a Director of Strategic Initiatives: tinyurl.com/5a3mdr59. Consider joining our scientific family to enable new discoveries, new ideas, and creative ways of doing science.

tinyurl.com

Director of Strategic Initiatives & Communications - Neuroscience

Scheduled Hours 40 Position Summary The Director of Strategic Initiatives serves as a senior executive leader for the Department of Neuroscience and functions as a principal strategic advisor to the D...

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Yao Chen @yaochen20.bsky.social · 18/02/2026

My department @WashUMedNeuro is recruiting Assistant or Associate Professor of neuroscience. Join us for great science and a collegial environment! facultyopportunities.wustl.edu/Posting/Deta... Please repost.

facultyopportunities.wustl.edu

Opportunity Details - Faculty Opportunities

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Yao Chen @yaochen20.bsky.social · 14/02/2026

Glad to be part of this collaboration. These chemigenetic FRET-based sensors have impressive dynamic range in both ratiometric intensity and fluorescence lifetime measurements. The red/far-red sensors enable multiplexed imaging with green sensors, and are functional in brain tissue.

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Yao Chen @yaochen20.bsky.social · 28/08/2025

Big thanks to co-authors Pingchuan Ma, Peter Chen, and Scott Sternson for the adventure together! Grateful to the editors and reviewers for their valuable feedback! If anybody has questions or feedback after using our package, please get in touch.

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Yao Chen @yaochen20.bsky.social · 28/08/2025

Our paper simulating fluorescence lifetime in real-life experiments is now a Version of Record @elife.bsky.social! We hope it helps FLIM users with more rigor and innovation. If you are interested in turning our innovation proposals into reality, we welcome motivated people to join our lab. #FLIM

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Yao Chen @yaochen20.bsky.social · 25/07/2025

Our revised manuscript in @elife.bsky.social: The promise and peril of comparing fluorescence lifetime in biology revealed by simulations doi.org/10.7554/eLif...

doi.org

The promise and peril of comparing fluorescence lifetime in biology revealed by simulations

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Yao Chen @yaochen20.bsky.social · 08/06/2025

We have an updated version of our manuscript "The promise and peril of comparing fluorescence lifetime in biology revealed by simulations": www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1.... We have included a Python version in addition to the original Matlab package. Hope this is helpful to the community.

biorxiv.org

The promise and peril of comparing fluorescence lifetime in biology revealed by simulations

Signaling dynamics are crucial in biological systems, and biosensor-based real-time imaging has revolutionized their analysis. Fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM) excels over the widely us...

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Yao Chen @yaochen20.bsky.social · 04/04/2025

Congratulations and welcome, Trevor! Look forward to interacting with you!

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Reposted by Yao Chen

Trevor GrandPre @myphysicsjourney.bsky.social · 03/04/2025

Excited to join @WashUPhysics as an assistant professor in Fall 2025! My group will develop non-equilibrium statistical physics to study criticality in biology—biomolecular condensates, gene regulation & adaptive immune systems. DM for postdoc/grad openings! #myphysicsjourney

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Yao Chen @yaochen20.bsky.social · 14/03/2025

Beautiful study and beautiful cover. Congratulations!

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Reposted by Yao Chen

Cahir O'Kane @cahirokane.bsky.social · 13/02/2025

Churchill College will appoint up to 16 Postdoc By-Fellows from Cambridge University & associated research institutes, up to 3yrs from 1st Oct 2025. Non-stipendiary, but offer dining rights, access to facilities, participation in academic & social life of the College. A great opportunity.

chu.cam.ac.uk

Academic Vacancies - Churchill College

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Yao Chen @yaochen20.bsky.social · 09/02/2025

🧠Excited about neuromodulator interactions or the mystery of sleep? Join our lab at Wash U! We're seeking passionate individuals to bridge cellular and systems neuroscience by decoding biochemical signaling dynamics in the brain. tinyurl.com/2bmf2py9 Postdoc and RA positions available. Pls repost.

tinyurl.com

Opportunities

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