Institute of Neurobiology - UPR

Apply now!!! 🔥

San Juan Winter School on Connectomics and Brain Simulation Two-week intensive course on connectomics and brain simulation in San Juan, Puerto Rico. December 29, 2025 - January 10, 2026.

Applications are now open for our course on connectomics & brain simulation.
Organizers: Sven Dorkenwald (MIT), Stefanie Hampel (UPR), Andrew Seeds (UPR), Sebastian Seung (Princeton), and Srini Turaga (Janelia).
Interested? Apply here ➜ sjcabs.com

A comprehensive mechanosensory connectome reveals a somatotopically organized neural circuit architecture controlling stimulus-aimed grooming of the Drosophila head Animals respond to tactile stimulations of the body with location appropriate behavior, such as aimed grooming. These responses are mediated by mechanosensory neurons distributed across the body, whos...

Congratulations to the Seeds/Hampel Lab on their new manuscript on BioRxiv! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Today we welcomed 50 students from UPR Ponce to the Institute of Neurobiology in Old San Juan! They explored our research and learned about the building’s unique history. 🧠🏛️ #NeuroBoricuas #ScienceOutreach #UPRPonce #OldSanJuan

Exciting news - Drs. @andrew-seeds.bsky.social, Sebastian Seung, and Stefanie Hampel just received Simons Foundation and NSF awards to launch the San Juan School on Connectomics in 2026. Stay tuned - it's happening!! 🎉🧠🔥

Congratulations to the lab of Dr. Cristina Velazquez for the acceptance of their paper "Comparative mRNA Profile Analysis from NAc of Adolescent Male Mice after Binge-Like Alcohol Exposure Eliciting Deficits in Context Fear Extinction Learning".

Individual variability of neural computations underlying flexible decisions - Nature Behavioural experiments to study decision-making in response to context-dependent accumulation of evidence provide testable models that are consistent with the heterogeneity in neural signatures among...

1/7 Our paper on individual variability in decision-making is finally out in @nature.com! Inspired by the classic work by Mante and Sussillo, we trained many rats to solve context-dependent decision-making, and we found that different brains use different neural mechanisms to solve the same task!

Bird brains help scientists to unveil the secrets of speech Neural underpinnings of vocalization in zebra finches and budgerigars.

Neural recordings from parrots and songbirds reveal the ways in which vocal production is encoded in the brain, highlighting remarkable similarities between how parrots and humans learn to produce sounds.

https://go.nature.com/4bImwai

2025 Study section tracking

Study section tracking sheet update of the day answers your burning question: Is my study section rescheduled? I've rearranged to put sections that didn't meet on the left and added a column noting if it's been rescheduled. Subject to change as FRNs go out! docs.google.com/spreadsheets...

Go behind the scenes at @hhmijanelia.bsky.social, where #scientists built a custom recording studio to study fruit fly courtship songs.

NIH announces some key grant-review meetings will restart in late March Trump policy blocking required notices has frozen reviews of thousands of grants

At least some meetings essential to approving new grants by the National Institutes of Health will be back on track later this month. scim.ag/41FbfEg

Dr. Seeds (Director) gave a presentation about the history of the Institute of Neurobiology and its ongoing research.

Picture of students from UPR Bayamón, Dr. Seeds (Director of the Institute of Neurobiology - front left), and Valeria De La Rosa Reyes (Assistant Professor at UPR Bayamón and member of the NeuroBoriquas - front right).

NeuroBoriquas organized a visit for UPR Bayamón students to the Institute of Neurobiology, where they explored Neuroscience and discussed shared facilities and equipment. 🔬🧠 #NeuroBoriquas #Neuroscience #NeurosciencePuertoRico @neurobio-upr.bsky.social @andrew-seeds.bsky.social

Why do we need to sleep? Humans spend one-third of their life sleeping, yet the purpose and function behind this regular state of unconsciousness remains a biological mystery. Sleep researcher Giorgio Gilestro is trying to un...

Wanna learn what we know about why we need to sleep? Here's a fun podcast I recorded for the excellent @npr.org "Seeking a scientist" show, conducted by Kate the Chemist. Enjoy!

@imperiallifesci.bsky.social @imperialcollegeldn.bsky.social

www.kcur.org/podcast/seek...

A hypothalamic circuit underlying the dynamic control of social homeostasis Nature - New data on brain-wide circuits centred around two interconnected hypothalamic neuron populations provide significant mechanistic insights into the emergence of social need during social...

Our latest findings on social behavior circuits is out: how does the brain responds to social isolation? Terrific work by @dingliu.bsky.social et al. uncovering a circuit with similar neural architecture as physiological needs (hunger, thirst, sleep..). Detailed thread soon.
rdcu.be/ebo63

Hands-on training for students by Dr. Jonathan Crooke on our new Sutter CRISPR instrumentation. Participants in the workshop: Yanilis Velázquez, Yaniushka Fernández, Alexa Negrón, Fabiola Pagán, Arelys Rivas-Jiménez.

NIH is again throttling research funding in defiance of a federal court order A freeze on "new and continuation awards" will "remain in place" pending DEI review, states a new internal memo.

NIH is again throttling research funding in defiance of a federal court order www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

Splitting speech Newborn babies can recognise patterns in how voices alternate, as well as detect word-like motifs even when individual syllables are pronounced by various speakers.

Imagine listening to a language you don't know. When does one word end, and another begin? Human infants face a similar challenge. Scientists have looked at exactly how babies recognise patterns in speech from birth.

Lake Conference - Neural Coding & Dynamics 2025 Join the Allen Institute and Circuit Neuroscience Basel for the Lake Conference in Seattle, Washington this September! This small conference will...

Applications are open for the @lakeconferences.bsky.social on Neural Coding & Dynamics in Seattle – co-hosted with Circuit Neuroscience Basel!

📆 9/28 to 10/2
📍 Seattle, USA
🧠📈 All career stages welcomed.

Apply to attend by May 23: alleninstitute.org/events/lake-...

#LakeConference

@hhmijanelia.bsky.social

🔬 Researchers from the Shroff Lab & collaborators have developed a new method to simultaneously image the 3D orientation & position of biomolecules, giving scientists a new view into how structures are arranged inside cells.
🔗 www.janelia.org/news/new-ima...

Removal of toxic steroidal glycoalkaloids and bitterness in tomato is controlled by a complex epigenetic and genetic network A complex regulatory network controls the removal of toxic steroidal glycoalkaloids during tomato ripening.

Tomatoes lose their bitterness and toxicity as they ripen thanks to DNA demethylation, the hormone ethylene, and key transcription factors, finds a new #ScienceAdvances study. scim.ag/4bfdr8u

Come see Patrick Emery's talk!

Honored to begin as Director @neurobio-upr.bsky.social , UPR Med Sciences. After disasters, pandemic & cuts, we’re rebuilding—expanding into computational neuroscience & ramping up conferences/courses. We’ll seek partners & donors; reach out to join us! Stay tuned for more.

Dr. Yasmín Pedrogo, Dean of Academic Affairs, announced the appointment of Dr. Andrew Seeds as the new Director of the Institute of Neurobiology yesterday! Congratulations, and best wishes for the future to Dr. Seeds! @andrew-seeds.bsky.social