Datta Lab

@annaryba.bsky.social's paper on the neural underpinnings of intraspecific behavioral variation is now out in @currentbiology.bsky.social

Highly recommend! -> Paper identifies neural substrate for variation in promiscuity among Drosophila melanogaster strains🧪

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Monitoring gene expression in the brain with a simple blood test?

In collaboration with @jerzyszablowski.bsky.social & his lab we figured out how to do it nonhuman primates using noninvasive neuroengineering of synthetic serum markers.

nam11.safelinks.protection.outlook.com?url=https%3A...

Meet the neuroscientist running for Congress Sam Wang, a neuroscientist running for the U.S. House of Representatives, has been interested in “fixing bugs in democracy” for decades.

I spoke with Laura Schenkman at The Transmitter about my candidacy for the House!

Going from the lab to public life is a huge transition. From a lifetime of research to biotech to democracy to running for office, here’s the story of one scientist: www.thetransmitter.org/policy/is-th...

A pilot in a submersible vehicle collecting sediments samples in 30 meters of water looking for Asgards (microbial relatives of eukaryotes)

One of the biggest questions in biology is how complex cells evolved about 2 billion years ago. Here's my new story on how scientists are solving the mystery of eukaryotes like us. Gift link: nyti.ms/4qMbo22

Thrilled to finally share this work! 🧠🔊

Using a new reinforcement-free task we show mice (like humans) extract abstract structure from sound (unsupervised) & dCA1 is causally required by building factorised, orthogonal subspaces of abstract rules.

Led by Dammy Onih!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

New paper alert! 🚨

We found that the brain's compass is remarkably stable at two scales

1️⃣ the system maintains its internal organization for weeks
2️⃣ It "remembers" its orientation for weeks, even after a single visit

This may be key to how the brain aligns its other maps.

Paper: rdcu.be/e3waP

New preprint from our group (collaboration with @sueyeonchung.bsky.social) showing that discriminating odor components within a complex mixture is constrained by neural sensitivity rather than background interference - likely due to sparse representations at the front end.

Thanks for your kind words! We know this interpretation is a bit provocative, but we are excited for the conversation.

Literally in transit at HK airport now and there are tons of water fountains….with cups!

#20Years20Stories Collection
1️⃣9️⃣ Defining moments with @megancarey.bsky.social
Megan Carey’s story tells us about big dreams and big ideas that came true.
📝 Full story: www.fchampalimaud.org/news/intangi...
🔗 Collection: www.fchampalimaud.org/20-years-20-...

🚨Our preprint is online!🚨

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

How do #dopamine neurons perform the key calculations in reinforcement #learning?

Read on to find out more! 🧵

Transcriptional Interference Gates Monogenic Odorant Receptor Expression in Ants Communication is crucial to social life, and in ants, it is mediated primarily through olfaction. Ants have more odorant receptor (OR) genes than any other group of insects, generated through tandem d...

If you’re interested in ants, olfaction, gene regulation, or all of the above, here’s a new preprint from the lab for you. It describes an unorthodox mechanism of transcriptional interference by which ant olfactory sensory neurons produce a single functional receptor.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Derek Guy says this season it should be pants with pleats, but honestly, I just can't quit flat fronts.

More new science from the lab! Led by @nathancsharris.bsky.social (now at GA State) and PD Priya Dutta.

We describe how experience tunes the ratios of functional receptors in a single sensory neuron via coordinating transcriptional and post-transcriptional mechanisms to drive response plasticity.

Very happy about my former mentor Sara Solla having received the Valentin Braitenberg Award for her lifelong contributions to computational neuroscience!

Sara will be giving a lecture at the upcoming @bernsteinneuro.bsky.social meeting which you shouldn't miss.

bernstein-network.de/en/newsroom/...

Cross-species connectome comparison shows uneven olfactory circuit evolution in flies The findings start to reveal evolutionary changes that may have helped two species develop different olfactory preferences and adapt to their particular environments.

Some parts of the Drosophila olfactory circuit have evolved more than others, according to a new comparison of two fruit fly species’ connectomes.

By @martajhill.bsky.social

#neuroskyence

www.thetransmitter.org/connectome/c...

Well, none of us may ever get funded again but in the meantime, here's some new science!

Led by recent PhD Anjali Pandey w/ex-UG Maya Katz. Here we identify an asymmetric molecular mechanism that underlies symmetric context-dependent sensory plasticity in the AWC olfactory neuron pair in C. elegans

Ok, reinforcement learning fans: RL is great, but what do we do when there's no obvious reward from the environment? What about perfecting a golf swing or a foxtrot or a musical performance? We may have an answer. A tale of 🐦 🎶 + 🧠. 🧵1/ #bioacoustics #prattle 💬 #neuroai #compneuro

Brain endothelial gap junction coupling enables rapid vasodilation propagation during neurovascular coupling Vasodilatory signals are rapidly communicated across long distances by endothelial-endothelial gap junctions, enabling coordinated dilation of the arterial network during neurovascular coupling.

Very cool new paper by @thegulab.bsky.social published in Cell, showing that arterial endothelial coupling via gap junctions determines the speed and spread of vasodilation induced by neuronal activity ! #cerebrovascular #bloodflow #endothelium

Barcoded Rabies In Situ Connectomics for high-throughput reconstruction of neural circuits Sequencing of oligonucleotide barcodes holds promise as a high-throughput approach for reconstructing synaptic connectivity at scale. Rabies viruses can act as a vehicle for barcode transmission, than...

1/ Mapping synaptic connectivity between individual neurons is extremely laborious. We developed BRISC, a new method that makes it possible to map inputs onto 100s of neurons in the same animal in a matter of weeks! Led by Alex Becalick and @antblot.bsky.social. 🧵

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

Highly sensitive science — Harvard Gazette Harvard neurobiologist David Ginty probes pleasure and pain to shed light on autism and other conditions.

This research has widespread implications for treatments of chronic pain, autistic hypersensitivity, sexual dysfunction, and other ailments.
@harvardmed.bsky.social

news.harvard.edu/gazette/stor...

What’s in a sniff? Wonderful new work from Kevin Franks revealing the mechanisms for responding to odour molecules at different stages of the respiration cycle. UK Semiochemical Network Workshop in Cambridge

Enhancer adoption by an LTR retrotransposon generates viral-like particles, causing developmental limb phenotypes - Nature Genetics Activation of an LTR retrotransposon inserted upstream of the Fgf8 gene produces viral-like particles in the mouse developing limb, triggering apoptosis and causing limb malformation. This phenotype c...

Finally out! 🥳 Our paper showing how a transposable element (TE) insertion can cause developmental phenotypes is now published @natgenet.nature.com 🧬🦠🐁
Below is a brief description of the major findings. Check the full version of the paper for more details: www.nature.com/articles/s41588-025-02248-5

Franklin W. Stahl, 95, Dies; Helped Create a ‘Beautiful’ DNA Experiment

Franklin W. Stahl, 95, Dies; Helped Create a ‘Beautiful’ DNA Experiment www.nytimes.com/2025/07/07/s...

Solid phase transitions as a solution to the genome folding paradox - Nature In vitro reconstitution and in vivo live-cell imaging of LHX2–EBF1–LDB1 enhancer hubs in olfactory sensory neurons reveals that these transcription factors form condensates with solid, rathe...

Just noticed that Stavros has put out another 'solid' paper last month. 🔥 Impressive given what he has to deal with these days.

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Event structure sculpts neural population dynamics in the lateral entorhinal cortex Our experience of the world is a continuous stream of events that must be segmented and organized at multiple timescales. The neural mechanisms underlying this process remain unknown. In this work, we...

Your brain doesn’t just passively track time ⏳ - it structures it.
In @Science.org we show that activity in 🧠 memory circuits (LEC) drifts constantly, but makes sharp jumps at key moments, segmenting life into meaningful events. (1/2)

👉 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Spatial learning circuitry fluctuates in step with estrous cycle in mice Cyclic shifts in estradiol levels coincide with changes in dendritic spine density and the activity of place cells in the CA1 region of the hippocampus, a new study shows.

Very happy to see a Transmitter (@thetransmitter.bsky.social) piece on our recent work on estrous cycle modulation of hippocampal structure and function. Thanks to Sydney Wyatt (@sydneywyatt.bsky.social) for covering the work and its context:

www.thetransmitter.org/neuroendocri...

my hope is that the uncharted territory part of this helps us - I mean if all that happens is that we get the right to win money in the future, that effectively strips funding for us for 3 years.

what is the ratio at columbia of terminated vs paused? here at HMS the vast majority of grants AFAIK (including my own) were terminated rather than paused, and we are wondering how this will play out eventually....

if you go right when it opens you can walk into Clamato, which is terrific. Le Chateaubriand is always solid. Bistrot Paul Bert for steak. I got norovirus at l'as du falafel - you've been warned!