Kristen Maynard

Thrilled to share that I was selected for a Mexican government program aimed at strengthening collaborations between research institutions in Mexico and Mexican scientists abroad, receiving the distinction of Investigator Level 1! 🇲🇽🔬 What a great way to start Hispanic Heritage Month!

Incredibly proud to share our newest work where we developed a multiscale spatial transcriptomic atlas of the human amygdala using three complementary technologies! 1/12 🧵 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Very excited to share a new review with Dr. Ian Maze born out of my PhD work! 🧠🧬 We dive into how early life experiences shape the epigenetic landscape of the developing brain—and how these lasting changes may contribute to risk for affective disorders.

Excited to share our new study characterizing spatial gene expression in the human NAc led by @prashanthi-ravi.bsky.social @svitlanabach.bsky.social @rphillips3.bsky.social in collaboration with @martinowk.bsky.social @stephaniehicks.bsky.social @alexisbattle.bsky.social @lcolladotor.bsky.social.

New paper out online today!! We identify two previously unrecognized transcripts at the BDNF locus, BDNF-DT and BDNF-AS-DT, that are developmentally regulated, coordinated with BDNF expression, and associated with schizophrenia risk. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Thrilled to share that our latest paper investigating how mPFC-LC projectors contribute to sustained #attention is now out in @npp-journal.bsky.social This is so meaningful to me and the team, Its @rehg-j.bsky.social first first-author paper and my first corresponding one. rdcu.be/fqBJp

Congrats to Jiseok Lee and others in @hyejungwon.bsky.social lab on this set of exciting findings that begin to explain how common variants in schizophrenia mediate functional effects. Honored for our teams to have played a role and to see our new SCZ data get integrated into a study so quickly!!

Excited to see this preprint from @drjennkim.bsky.social @kr-maynard.bsky.social, Annie Ciernia and colleagues. I've highlighted this approach and toolset in several recent talks: spatial transcriptomics isn't just about the gene expression - www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Huge congratulations to newest PhD from our group @shkwon-bcmbneuro.bsky.social after thesis defense, "Spatial gene expression landscape of the human cortex in health and disease". Really grateful for the hard work, dedication and commitment to many, many projects, and the team science spirit.

My main PhD work was just published in Nature! We studied the developmental risk factors for a pediatric brain tumor called ependymoma. The subtype we study is driven by the ZFTA-RELA fusion oncoprotein, a potent but ependymoma-specific cancer driver. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

FIRST post here on Bluesky - we’re excited to share that our large spatial transcriptomics study of the human dlPFC in schizophrenia is now available on bioRxiv📄: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... (1/9)

New postdoctoral opportunity @lieberinstitute.bsky.social working w/ @tsawada1.bsky.social and our Molecular Neurogenetics team using human induced pluripotent stem cells to investigate molecular, cellular and neuroendocrine mechanisms by which impaired placental function impacts brain development

Now online! @lieberinstitute.bsky.social & @jhubiostat.bsky.social collaboration generating important resource (Visium & Xenium) on molecular organization of human hypothalamus w/ cool findings associating sex differential expression to neuropsychiatric disorders 🧠🔬🧪 www.cell.com/cell-reports...

Honored to be appointed Chief Scientific Officer @lieberinstitute.bsky.social. LIBD is a uniquely collaborative place with extraordinary biological resources and a commitment to translation 🧠🔬🧪. Grateful to my colleagues and excited to help guide our next chapter! www.libd.org/keri-martino...

Excited to be headed to my first @acnporg.bsky.social meeting! Stop by my talk to hear about D1-islands in the human NAc or my poster to hear about our efforts to use spatial transcriptomics to profile lateral septum neurons in the human brain.

Finally on Bluesky and I’m really excited to share this latest preprint with @jorge-miranda.bsky.social in which we functionally examined the role of a medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC)- Locus Coeruleus (LC) circuit in regulating sustained attention. 1/7 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

This dataset is paired with a spatial transcriptomic analysis of the locus coeruleus from the same donors. This work led by @berniejmulvey.bsky.social is also now in pre-print! bsky.app/profile/berniejmulvey.bsky.social/post/3m4isvuqabm2v www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Excited to share our latest preprint from @lieberinstitute.bsky.social spatial + single-cell RNA-seq map the ERC & explore how AD risk shapes gene expression doi.org/10.1101/2025... Our major finding: “APOE E4 Alzheimer’s Risk Converges on an Oligodendrocyte Subtype in the Human Entorhinal Cortex”

Excited to share that our article on accurate sample deconvolution of pooled snRNA-seq data using sex-dependent gene expression patterns is live on NAR Genomics and Bioinformatics! 🎉 Check it out here: doi.org/10.1093/narg... #NARGenomicsandBioinformatics #snRNAseq #Genomics #Bioinformatics

Congratulations to Michael Gandal, M.D., Ph.D. on being awarded the 2025 Eva King Killam Research Award! 👏 #ACNP2026 Please click here ➡️ tinyurl.com/52447muh to watch the acceptance video by Michael Gandal, M.D., Ph.D.

Congratulations to Ian Maze, Ph.D. and Erin Calipari, Ph.D. for being awarded the Daniel H. Efron Research Award. 🎉#ACNP2026

Many people hours, calls and messages later: OSTA is now “in (pre)print”, though the real thing lives at bioconductor.org/books/OSTA. Check it out, get in touch. We welcome any feedback, suggestions, wishes (& contributions). It’s been a joy working with you @estellayixingdong.bsky.social!

Our lateral septum (LS) team is representing for #SfN25! We have two posters on Wed afternoon from RA Madeline Abramson (PSTR463.16) and undergraduate Yufeng Du (PSTR463.17) showcasing newest molecular profiling results across mouse, non-human primate and human 🧠 I'm there too - get in touch!

Proud to announce our paper ‘Transcriptomic Analysis of the Human Habenula in Schizophrenia’ from @lieberinstitute.bsky.social is the cover article for the November issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry! 🧠 #HabenulaLIBD #snRNAseq #Habenula doi.org/10.1176/appi...

Our paper using endoscopic in vivo calcium imaging to uncover how neuronal population dynamics in the prelimbic cortex track attention and task engagement during the rodent continuous performance test (rCPT) is now online www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Happy to share that our paper characterizing PrL dynamics during sustained attention is finally out. This work was a collaboration between the @martinowk.bsky.social and Greg Carr groups at @lieberinstitute.bsky.social . www.nature.com/articles/s41... #Calicumimaging #miniscopes #rCPT #PrL

Congratulations to our habenula team! We've learned a lot about working in this tiny brain region. Here we characterize the molecular signatures of human habenula cell types and transcriptomic changes associated with schizophrenia. Stay tuned 👀 for more exciting habenula findings in the near future.

We are hiring for a PhD-level Staff Scientist to join our teams in the Translational Neuroscience Division @lieberinstitute.bsky.social. This is an exciting opportunity to work at the intersection of human 🧠 neuroanatomy and molecular neuroscience recruiting.paylocity.com/recruiting/j...

New Hot Topics piece from @rphillips3.bsky.social and Stephanie Page in @npp-journal.bsky.social describing emerging insights on roles of molecularly-defined cell types in the lateral septum, which serves as a hub for coordinating diverse social behaviors. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

For #FluorescenceFriday✨ Exploring the beauty of the locus Coeruleus using IF staining: neurons🔵 surrounded by glowing astrocytes🟢 embracing delicate blood vessels🔴, alongside striking pTau signals💗. A vivid reminder of the cellular complexity shaping brain health and disease. #LC #Neuroscience

Excited to share this new work from the lab, in collaboration with @jtuscher.bsky.social & Rob Sorge! Here, we used single cell transcriptional profiling to define molecular adaptations induced by chronic pain and opioid experience, which often occur in conjunction. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

A spatially resolved transcriptomic atlas of the primate amygdala (human, macaque, and baboon) now out in Science Advances (www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...). The amygdala contains 32 types of neurons with many neuron types specific to particular subdivisions. Lots of updates from the preprint!

Excited to be co-chairing this @acnporg.bsky.social panel with chair @kr-maynard.bsky.social on opioid-responsive subpopulations in brain reward circuits. Special thanks to @rphillips3.bsky.social for helping to assemble the panel!

Super excited to share this work & accompanying data resources in collab with @martinowk.bsky.social @stephaniehicks.bsky.social @alexisbattle.bsky.social! Congrats to all coauthors and big shout out to @svitlana-bach.bsky.social @prashanthi-ravi.bsky.social for leading this NIDA-funded project.

For #FluorescenceFriday - image from Research Associate Kelsey Montgomery in @kr-maynard.bsky.social lab @lieberinstitute.bsky.social - RNAscope at 3 levels of the habenula in human 🧠. 🟢 is MBP, 🟣 is GPR151 (lateral habenula), 🔴 is POU4F1 (general habenula), and 🟡 is TAC3 (medial habenula) 🔬🧪👩‍🔬

These understudied neuronal populations will be the topic of a panel at the upcoming @acnporg.bsky.social meeting, which I am co-chairing with @kr-maynard.bsky.social!

We are thrilled to announce that OneNeuro Co-Director Patricia Janak, Ph.D., has been elected as the 2026-2027 President of the Society for Neuroscience (SfN). @janaklab.bsky.social View the official announcement: www.sfn.org/publications...

We are very excited to welcome @drjennkim.bsky.social as the newest addition to the Translational Neuroscience Division @lieberinstitute.bsky.social where she will be working as a postodoc with @kr-maynard.bsky.social group.

Excited to share this huge team effort collaboration supervised by Stephanie Page in Translational Neuroscience @lieberinstitute.bsky.social and @stephaniehicks.bsky.social @jhubiostat.bsky.social to generate a spatio-molecular resource of the hippocampus in human 🧠 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

1/ I am beyond thrilled to share our new paper in @CellCellPress! We explored the regulatory principles underlying pleiotropy in psychiatric disorders. www.cell.com/cell/abstrac...

🚨 New paper published in @natmethods.nature.com! We introduce SpotSweeper, the first spatially-aware QC methods for spatial transcriptomics. 📰 Paper : nature.com/articles/s41... 💻 Code: github.com/MicTott/Spot... 📈 Website: mictott.github.io/SpotSweeper/ 🧵👇

Updated from the preprint, our paper, "Spatiotemporal analysis of gene expression in the human dentate gyrus reveals age-associated changes in cellular maturation and neuroinflammation" is now published. www.cell.com/cell-reports...

Also, Bernie will be presenting this work on Wednesday night in the poster session #ACNP2024 W189 A Two-Resolution Spatial-Molecular Atlas of the Human Ventromedial and Arcuate Hypothalamus and Its Sex Differences