David A. Markowitz

We're at the threshold of understanding intelligence itself. The convergence of neuroscience and AI has created an unprecedented opportunity — but our research ecosystem isn't built to seize it. We need a new model that matches the scale of our ambition... 🧵

The Thermo Fisher situation keeps getting worse. We've now collected 450+ problematic images presented as verification data in TF's antibody catalog. This includes: 🖌️ Dozens more images with duplications or painting 🖨️ Hundreds of blots that all share the same background (behold slideshow below)

Consumer neurotechnology is coming. We need to talk about it 👇

Super proud to have contributed to this amazing team effort, led by @sreejan.bsky.social and @botoscsabi.bsky.social! We asked: Which AI models learn to play video games like humans, comparing both behavior and internal representations. The answer surprised us! Check out our paper and post below

Out now on @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social, a study from our electron microscopy team exploring the connections between excitatory neurons in layers 2,3, and 5 of the mouse brain. 🔬 Check out the study: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.04.23.720412v1

In 1986, John White published "The Mind of a Worm," the first complete wiring diagram of any animal's brain. 7,000+ synapses in C. elegans, mapped by hand. This year he won the Wiley Prize in Biomedical Sciences. And he's donating his share to OpenWorm.

Important modeling work

1 year ago: "We developed and released tools for automated vulnerability detection. Look how we're using it to secure medical devices!" <everyone shrugs> Today: "Anthropic's new model automates vulnerability detection, but they are not releasing it because it's too dangerous." <everyone freaks out>

Excited to launch a new podcast on the future of neurotech, computing, intelligence, and more. First guest: @maxhodak.bsky.social founder & CEO of @science.xyz building PRIMA, a retinal prosthetic restoring meaningful vision for patients with AMD. www.youtube.com/watch?v=24CM...

What is holding #neurotech back from being one of the greatest breakthroughs of our time? Infrastructure. Getting from approval to access takes years — delaying patient access & company capital. PL Neuro aims to break these bottlenecks. Here's our Roadmap: zenodo.org/records/1924...

PL Neuro is officially live! plneuro.xyz We exist to break bottlenecks, accelerate progress in neurotech & NeuroAI, and to invest in innovations that benefit humanity. PL Neuro will focus on 3 core areas: - Neural augmentation - Biologically-inspired intelligence - Whole brain emulation

1/ Neurotechnology is one of the defining opportunities of this century. We’re already seeing the potential to restore function, treat disease, and eventually expand human capability.

Preprint out arguing that we should build the techology to translate (compile) molecularly annotated connectomes into dynamics. I think this is incredibly important. arxiv.org/abs/2603.25713

Galen Buckwalter, a quadriplegic, received a brain implant in 2024 that is allowing him to create music with his thoughts. "It is so empowering to be able to do entirely unique things," he says. I spoke with Galen about the process and the importance of creativity: www.wired.com/story/meet-t...

Meet the Head of PL Neuro, @seanescola.bsky.social. In his new paper, he introduces the idea of “cognitive dark matter." A thoughtful framing of one of the biggest open questions in neuroscience. 👇

Governor of Texas just ordered a statewide medical cybersecurity review based on my team's work for @arpa-h.bsky.social Fantastic real-world impact for patients! 👇 gov.texas.gov/uploads/file...

"Russian flu," the pandemic that hit in 1977, bears an evolutionary signature of having emerged from a lab, perhaps as part of a failed vaccine effort. Covid, mpox, Ebola, and other influenza pandemics don't. Here's my story on a new way to trace the origins of pandemics. Gift link: nyti.ms/46N0W33

Monitoring gene expression in the brain with a simple blood test? In collaboration with @jerzyszablowski.bsky.social & his lab we figured out how to do it nonhuman primates using noninvasive neuroengineering of synthetic serum markers. nam11.safelinks.protection.outlook.com?url=https%3A...

Connectomics is Method of the Year 2025!! @natmethods.nature.com just released the news nature.com/articles/s41... In my perspective piece, I afford some predictions into the future and compare how we are doing vs. genomics www.nature.com/articles/s41...

1 year later and wow, exciting to see big things in the works!!!

Our new paper showcasing molecular connectomics with pan-expansion microscopy is out in @natbiotech.nature.com! www.nature.com/articles/s41... This wonderful collaboration with @bewersdorflab.bsky.social was led by Ons M'Saad (now founder/CEO of Panluminate) and @allisonphysics.bsky.social. (1/5)

I will be co-teaching a summer course at Allen Institute on connectomics education please apply. Travel support, new connectomics data sets and learning directly from the scientists who built these datasets. Details here: alleninstitute.org/events/incor...

I am super happy to share that our project on training biophysical models with Jaxley is now published in Nature Methods: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

It's increasingly tempting to believe frontier models truly understand concepts and their relationships like humans do. Then I get a figure like this from today's leading model and the illusion is ruined. <sigh>

Is there an academic/industry divide in attitudes about using AI to support discovery? I noticed this post has 3.6k likes on X but only 6 likes on Bluesky. It deserves more attention here!

For a decade, my white whale as a neuroscientist has been working to convince public+private funders to "go big" on post-mortem human tissue analysis, so we can define circuit disruptions in disease and just maybe link them with molecular drivers. This remains as tough a sell today as 10 years ago.

Today, we're announcing Kosmos, our newest AI Scientist, available today. Kosmos makes fully autonomous scientific discoveries at scale by analyzing datasets and literature, and is the most powerful agent for science so far. Beta users estimate that Kosmos does 6 months of work in a single day.

Very excited that the clinical trial results for our PRIMA retinal prosthesis are published today in the New England Journal of Medicine! This is the first time that patients who are blind due to photoreceptor loss have been able to intuitively see again. www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_qT...

Applying new tools to entire brains, starting with C. elegans, offers the opportunity to uncover how molecules work together to generate neural physiology, and how neurons generate behavior, write @kordinglab.bsky.social and @eboyden3.bsky.social. #neuroskyence bit.ly/48EzEO8

Combinatorial protein barcodes enable self-correcting neuron tracing with nanoscale molecular context https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.26.678648v1

Settle a debate for me: If you could hook up a fruit fly brain to a completely new set of end effectors, could it learn to use them for goal-directed behavior? To what extent is an insect brain evolutionarily specialized for controlling its body? #FlyBCI

How to make frontier AI models safer and accelerate drug discovery with the connectome. We are featured in this @ifp.bsky.social article by @adammarblestone.bsky.social & @andrewcpayne.bsky.social ifp.org/mapping-the-...

Amazing work

(1/7) New preprint from Rajan lab! 🧠🤖 @ryanpaulbadman1.bsky.social & Riley Simmons-Edler show–through cog sci, neuro & ethology–how an AI agent with fewer ‘neurons’ than an insect can forage, find safety & dodge predators in a virtual world. Here's what we built Preprint: arxiv.org/pdf/2506.06981

The writing's on the wall that the future of neuroscience is team science. The key question is how to balance support for "top-down" vs "bottom-up" collaborative research efforts. I agree teams of early career researchers deserve greater agency. Thoughtful piece by @neuralreckoning.bsky.social 👇

This 👇 is a major advantage of optical circuit mapping approaches over non-destructive (i.e. non FIB) serial section EM. Fewer failure modes that prevent tracing across distinct imaging volumes.

Gratified by today's news of a $155M seed round for DNA data storage newco Atlas, built on technologies developed under the IARPA MIST program. It validates my "if we de-risk it investors will come" thesis. Also means my public service has now driven >$1B of economic activity 🙂

I've said it publicly before and I'll say it again: science awards that preferentially recognize individuals are an anachronism. This just doesn't reflect how much of today's impactful science gets done. 4/