Kylie McPherson, PhD

A sensory-motor-sensory circuit underlies antinociception ignited by primary motor cortex in mice Wang et al. unravel the fundamental reason why activation of the primary motor cortex produces analgesia in mice from the angle of sensory-motor interaction and elucidate it from a descending M1-LH in...

BOOM! I think this paper fills a big gap in understanding how motor cortex stim works for pain... like so many things, it all seems to boil down to the ventral-lateral periaqueductal grey (vlPAG) www.cell.com/neuron/fullt...

One year without my best friend.

Forever spending summers with you in my mind, Dad.

In the sprit of how my Dad lived his life, adventurous and quality time in nature, I got a spring pass and snowboarded a handful of times with my aunt (for the first time since high school).

It was inspiring to see the breadth of research underway at Duke CMER. The rapid progress in understanding #misophonia and improving patient outcomes is exciting!! Their commitment to incorporating the lived experience perspective into the research reflects their dedication to meaningful impact. 🔬🧠✨

Experience reorganizes content-specific memory traces in macaques Memory formation requires neural activity reorganization during experience that persists in sleep. How these processes promote learning while preserving established memories remains unclear. We record...

How does the brain integrate information from new experiences while preserving established memories? Have a look at our latest preprint,
"Experience reorganizes content-specific memory traces in macaques" 🧵
🧪🧠🤖👩‍🔬
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Stellar day touring Duke on our first site visit. It is always energizing to talk to our investigators about their current studies and future goals. Grateful to work with such a great team and dedicated research field!!

It’s still raining but these previews are making me excited for Portland spring.

The thing about scientific research is that it’s one of the few national investments that’s a clear public good even if you entirely discount the actual ostensible point of it.

In leu of NIH cuts at Columbia, many folks are asking why aren't universities using endowment funds to support the research mission of their faculty scientists?

Inspired by @jeremymberg.bsky.social bluetorials here are a few of the reasons that is not a sustainable option

1/n

FDA approves first new type of pain medication in 25 years | CNN A new pain relief drug, suzetrigine, is a prescription pill that’s taken every 12 hours after a larger starter dose. It will be sold under the brand name Journavx.

It is accomplished www.cnn.com/2025/01/30/h...

The NIH overhead cut doesn't just hurt universities.

It's deadly to the US economy.

The US is a world leader in tech due to the ecosystem that NIH and NSF propel. It drives innovation for tech transfer, creates a highly-skilled sci/tech workforce, and fosters academic/industry crossfertilization.

I got a bit of sympathy relief just reading that.

1. Today the NIH director issued a new directive slashing overhead rates to 15%.

I want to provide some context on what that means and why it matters.

grants.nih.gov/grants/guide...

Flyer for GRC psychedelics 2025.

We are continuously accepting applications for the first Gordon conference on the neurobiology of #psychedelics

We are at 160 people now, so expect to reach full capacity. Apply soon!

#GRCPsychedelics

NIH In Your State - United For Medical Research Select a state on the map to see the impact of NIH funding across America.

I just reached out to my senators about the NIH situation. If you need to find out how much impact NIH has in your state in terms of dollars in and their economic impact here's a link: www.unitedformedicalresearch.org/nih-in-your-...

NIH and other federal health agencies have been instructed to cease external communications indefinitely. This means that grant programs—the money that funds life-saving university and hospital research—are currently in limbo. This includes VA research on veterans’ health.

Well that was fast. I’m so confused with what the long term plan is here.

Oh I love it!! Really sparks joy.

This is the best.

I am particularly excited to network with junior scientists looking to apply their research expertise outside of academia. I loved my time in research and I am 8 months into a fun new role supporting scientific expansion.

So many new learned perspectives and key deliverables to share.

I am still wrapping my mind around rebuilding my old Twitter community on here. But it is exciting to think of an app that will return me to the fun scientific debates, commiserations, and #firstgen and #lowincome scientist networking that I once enjoyed on Twitter.

A separate mechanism would be better.

I also wonder if they assessed the diff routes to Ivys/HHMI labs. Academic privilege allows some aspiring scientists to enter HHMI or similarly funded labs earlier in their trajectory, while others get there as a postdoc, when they’d be starting to apply.

Ooh I love to see that you are getting into charms. ✨

Stellar! Congrats!!

Congrats!! Setting the bar for intentional community building!