Davi Bock

Now I can say: last week we received Notice of Award from NSF on a Midscale Research Infrastructure Design proposal for a National Connectomics and Ultrastructure Volume Observatory (NCUVO) www.uvm.edu/uvmnews/news...

The future of biology is not just about collecting more data, but also about uncovering new principles and deriving new understanding. Theory and expts go hand in hand! See www.asimov.press/p/theory-bio... Excited that Theory & Concepts is back for the 3rd edition: come join us at EMBL next July!!

We are hiring an AI@HHMI Program Manager to help run HHMI's $500M AI initiative: projects, budgets, staffing, recruiting, events, outreach. Advanced degree, program management experience, fluent with AI tools and effective without them 😉. Work with me! hhmi.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/Extern...

two new preprints from Wangchu Xiang (@darbly.bsky.social, Ginty labs) about connectomic reconstruction from electron microscopy of somatosensory afferents and projection neurons in the dorsal horn of the mouse spinal cord www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Mix. selectivity is everywhere in cortex: from vis. to PFC This paper relates to Cover's theorem but the typical explainer kind of sucks I'll try to explain how the theory relates to the paper, and the importance of "weird" neurons A🧵with my toy model and notes: #neuroskyence #compneuro #NeuroAI

A planktic melange from the Gulf of Maine featuring juicy diatom chains from 100m depth waters.

If you are interested in serial sectioning for electron microscopy, we have now uploaded a revised version of our paper Shahidi et al: "Volume Electron Microscopy: Tips & Tricks on Micromanipulator-Assisted Serial Sectioning for Array Tomography" […] [Original post on biologists.social]

Our paper on odour categorization in the Drosophila mushroom body is now out in Cell Reports! 🎉 We found that αβ and α′β′ Kenyon cells—but not γ KCs—distinguish food-related from non-food odours at the population level. Very happy to see this work published! 🪰🧠 doi.org/10.1016/j.ce...

Claude has a privacy setting for whether or not your sessions can be used to train their models. I'd like to know what the setting was in this case.

new #preprint: t.co/eE1qqGSflK Ben Hartl explains: In 1917, D'Arcy Thompson drew Cartesian grids around different anatomical shapes & showed that deforming the grid could change one species' shape into that of another. We find that "reusable regulatory handles control phenotypic variation" in NCAs

Protists deserve the spotlight and so do scientists! This was such an honor but mostly, this project reminded me why I have the best job and friends/colleagues in the world! 🔬

Georgios Skiniotis and I are announce a unique St. Jude faculty search: a joint effort between the CoE for Structural Cell Biology an intellectual community advancing structural imaging & the Division of Neuronal Cell Biology. CryoET/vEM + neuron cell biology = 🚀 talent.stjude.org/careers/JobD...

this is interesting in its own right and because Flourish raised $500m to develop new AI architectures based at least in part on neuroanatomy data they plan to acquire. (see flourishlabs.ai/flourish_wir...)

We are hoping that word of this search goes far and that we draw a wide and diverse pool of applicants. Please take a look and share if you're inclined. 5 departments involved! • Organismic & Evol Bio • Mol & Cell Bio • Stem Cells & Regen Bio • Earth & Planetary Sci • Human Evolutionary Bio

For two weeks, our entire lab is dropping everything to focus on one mission: deploying @embl.org's Advanced Mobile Laboratory to cultivate microbial eukaryotes from Alpine ecosystems. Our dream? Isolating new #Ichthyosporeans never cultured before. Let's see what we find. 🔬🏔️

Just a little under 2 weeks until this deadline! Come join my department! 🧪

Applications are now open for the San Juan Winter School 2027 on Connectomics and Brain Simulation! Join us to learn how to analyze and simulate connectomes. sjcabs.com

recommemnd

We're hiring! Join us as a postdoc to study how the brain is optimised for sensory coding and memory Please spread the word! Apply at jobsite.sheffield.ac.uk/job/Research... Deadline: 5 October 2026 Learn more at: www.aclinlab.org

nice job by my former mentee @zhihaozheng.bsky.social :)

That contextual signals are broadly available does not mean that signals everywhere are used, or causally involved in behavior, at every moment. They aren’t. A bit like a radio broadcast, information may be widely available while circuits selectively “tune in” when needed. So where still matter.

great thread

Last week to apply for these posts. This a great time to join this project — every week we’re finding out new and exciting things about the organisation of the mosquito brain — with super collaborators @darbly.bsky.social and @megyounger.bsky.social. Pls share!

Thanks to @bwjones.bsky.social for the polite education... I had no idea that glutaraldehyde-linked small molecules can indeed be detected in this way, by antibodies raised against the same small molecules cross-linked to BSA. bwjoneslab.com/wp-content/u...

👇👇👇

Mosquito Aedes aegypti brain connectome project is super exciting: jobs available Elizabeth Marin & @jefferis.bsky.social recruiting Research Assistant and Postdoctoral Research Associate Deadline: 3 September 2026 Brilliant colleagues & bosses - highly recommend flyconnecto.me/2026/08/01/t...

Do you want to be part of the RCP (www.raynorcerebellumproject.org) effort to usher in the next generation of closed loop neuromodulation? Work with a one of a kind human dataset? Collaborate with top groups all over the world? Apply. cdn.prod.website-files.com/679cf22d773c...

Adding some deep-sea wonder to your scroll💙✨️⁠ ⁠ This siphonophore, Erenna richardi, can be identified by the massive clusters of tentilla (the side branches of the tentacle) at the end of the tail (siphosome). In Monterey Bay, this species has been observed at average depths of about 1,100 meters.

x.com/rclayreid/st...

xcancel.com/rclayreid/st... clayreidlab.org

🚨 Now out in @aaas.org Science Advances 🚨: aDISCO: a protocol for clearing & antibody-staining human formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissue by Anna Maria Reuss! 🧠🔬#lightsheet #Microscopy @mesospim.bsky.social @ptrrupprecht.bsky.social www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

My newsletter turns five years old this month. It's time to take stock of where the climate is, and where the fight is. billmckibben.substack.com/p/take-five-...

Happy to share the CA3 dataset is published. First large-scale dense connectomics from hippocampus. First connectomic dataset imaged in @princetonneuro.bsky.social. A harbinger of many larger datasets to come (for both). doi.org/10.1038/s415... #hippocampus But my personal favorite is (1/2)

#FluorescenceFriday Our lab studies microglia: microscopic 🔬 immune cells in the retina 👁️ We label them with Green Fluorescence and catalog of some impressive types! @flaumeye.bsky.social @urneuroscience.bsky.social @uofrbme.bsky.social @cvsuor.bsky.social @urochestersmd.bsky.social bit.ly/4kMNErh

Come join the @socialfluids.bsky.social lab in Cambridge to study the evolution of Socially Transferred Materials! Fun new HFSP project btwn UK, NL and Costa Rica! Deadline September 7th #Postdoc #JobAlert #Evolution #Bioinformatics #STM #socialfluids www.cam.ac.uk/jobs/researc... leboeuflab.com

New preprint! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... Nearly a decade after starting the project, the first major results from our comparative connectomics work is online! Comparing the head direction circuits of the central complex in bees, ants and flies, recapitulating >300million years of evolution.

Biology is once again full of surprises most if us couldn’t dream up if we tried.

How does the brain know where the body has been touched? In our new eLife paper, we map how touch-sensitive bristles on the fruit fly head connect to circuits that guide precisely aimed grooming, revealing how brain maps turn touch into action. (elifesciences.org/articles/108...)

Do #tintinnids dream of electric sheep? 🤯 Here is a single cell capable of building a lorica and living inside it for protection... it also swims, feeds, hunts Can even detect and habituate to mechanical cues! #celllearning #protistsonsky #cilia Read more in our preprint doi.org/10.64898/202...

The cell that wasn't there grist.org/science/nitr...

This profile of the artist on the Challenger expedition and his contributions to protistology was a very nice Saturday morning read. Though with some irksome bits...