James Catterson

This appears to be due to Tachykin (Tk), specifically modulated by Acetobacter pomorum, acting on the cognate TK rcptr in the CNS. Further this microbiota-gut-neuron relay also appears to compromise gut barrier function in aged flies, indicating its role in determining health- as well as life -span.

Microbiota/gut/neuron axis promotes Drosophila ageing via Acetobacter, Tachykinin, and TkR99D Gut microbiota exert an evolutionarily conserved influence on ageing, from invertebrates to humans. How do microbes that are physically confined to the gut lumen affect the systemic physiological proc...

Excited to share the new preprint from the Dobson Lab -School of Molecular Biosciences University of Glasgow - demonstrating how a flies’ microbiota, compartmentalised to the gut lumen, can act to reduce lifespan, without affecting fertility/fecundity.

Best description of podcasters’ appeal I’ve ever encountered

PARKLIFE!

If you were alive in the 1980s, this is among the most wonderful & truly incredible things you have ever witnessed in your lifetime.

Zotero has changed my life for the better. What a marvelous piece of software.

like sorry to go on about this (and it's obviously anecdotal!) but it feels mad and worrying to me that this mum nearly lost her son and her conclusion wasn't "I should have listened to doctors more" but "it's up to me to do more research" - that's not good! and she's probably not an exception!

Yesterday, Maurene Comey, who prosecuted the Epstein case, was summarily fired from SDNY. Her letter to colleagues pulls no punches. "Fear is the tool of a tyrant, wielded to suppress independent thought."

h/t @msnbc.com

“The connectome shows that LT52 is anatomically positioned to inhibit the neural networks involved in steering toward a visual object in the environment. Thus, we suggest that LT52 functions to prevent the fly from steering toward its own leg.”

nice 😁

Drosophila appear resistant to trans-synaptic tau propagation Catterson et al. report that Drosophila melanogaster does not emulate the trans-synaptic spread of human tau, making it unsuitable for screening anti-tau p

Catterson, J. H., Mouofo, E. N., Lopez De Toledo Soler, I., ...., Schoovaerts, N., Verstreken, P., Spires-Jones, T. L., Durrant, C. S. (2024). Drosophila appear resistant to trans-synaptic tau propagation. Brain communications
academic.oup.com/braincomms/a...

'People think my wife is drunk but she's living with a rare brain disease' Edinburgh couple hope for treatment for rare neurological condition progressive supranuclear palsy.

See a lovely piece on STV highlighting the impacts of this disease on families . While our new findings will not lead to a new treatment today, we aim to bring hope to people living with PSP for the future news.stv.tv/east-central...

Delighted to share our paper examining synaptic tau in PSP. Many thanks to @robertmcgeachan.bsky.social @clairedurrant1.bsky.social and our many collaborators and funders. And extra special thanks to tissue donors who make this work possible.

An important point to add here: science IS self-correcting. Many of the claims that were verified were verified by other researchers because they convincingly built on the original work. Likewise, many of the challenged claims were challenged in the published literature. Science works.

It is spectacular that here in the UK our society has become so miserly that we are genuinely talking about the possible arrival of people who literally saved the lives of tons of our literal brothers and sisters and uncles and aunts, as NATO soldiers in Afghanistan, in terms of it being a problem.

Periodic check what a 22 Grand Job should now be paying.

Giant study finds a research field that’s mostly reproducible Researchers assessed more than 1,000 results from fruit-fly immunity research published between 1959 and 2011. The majority of findings look verifiable.

A huge project has analysed more than 1,000 claims about the immunity of Drosophila fruit flies in scientific papers published over some 50 years

go.nature.com/4lxhwJB

Giant study finds a research field that’s mostly reproducible Researchers assessed more than 1,000 results from fruit-fly immunity research published between 1959 and 2011. The majority of findings look verifiable.

Drosophila for the win! When you can afford more than 3 subjects per experiment, your results get more reliable...

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Amazing to see this out in the world! Congratulations @jennyregan.bsky.social and team! 🥳

Different ways to die: harnessing variation in Drosophila reveals loss of tolerance and resistance over age and sex-specific association between infection susceptibility and lifespan It is widely accepted that susceptibility to infection increases with age. The reason often invoked is the dysregulation of the immune system, which is both cause and consequence of ageing. However, w...

New preprint - varied routes to ⬆️ infection susceptibility over age - via bona fide immunosenescence, but also often via reduced tolerance 🪰🕰️🦠☠️

⬆️ risk to die from infection predicts lifespan in males. Great group effort from the lab!

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

calling all fly folks, keep an eye out for new system coming soon, through which you can help support FlyBase in this time of dire need.

The Mandalorian (TV not film obvs) is the one that comes to mind first. I’d watch the whole credits just to listen to that Star Wars-like release!
As for movies though I’d prob go with a lot of Pixar. Inside Out, Up etc.
PTA’s Phantom Thread OST is also excellent and enhances what’s on screen 👌

If you are a hippocampus fan 🧠, check out our new preprint on Memory and Route planning in navigation! 🍪🐀

A multi-year, multi-person effort with lots of cool stuff: behaviour🧭miniscopes🔬and optogenetics🚨

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

#science #hippocampus #memory #navigation #replay #miniscopes

Tagging 1st author - @franzgbb.bsky.social - for this amazing research:

Fantastic coverage of our recent work using living human brain slices to study Alzheimer’s disease from @itvnews.bsky.social

www.itv.com/news/2025-04...

Fantastic coverage from @theguardian.com on our latest work!

Divergent actions of physiological and pathological amyloid-β on synapses in live human brain slice cultures - Nature Communications Understanding synapse loss in Alzheimer’s disease has been hampered by a lack of human model systems. Here, the authors show that manipulation of physiological or pathological Aβ has differing effects...

Fantastic to see this work from @clairedurrant1.bsky.social group out in print! Important results using living human brain tissue to study Alzheimer’s disease www.nature.com/articles/s41...

So excited to see our work finally out today in Nature Communications! Brilliant summary by co-first author @sorayam.bsky.social below!

YouTube video by TEDx Talks The Neuroscience of Defeating Dementia | Prof Tara Spires-Jones | TEDxUniversityofStAndrews

It was a pleasure to visit St Andrews to deliver a TEDx talk! www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJME...

What a venue!! At the #BNA2025 Gala dinner 😍

@braincomms.bsky.social booth at #BNA2025 is busy come say hi!