Dr. Michelle Bedenbaugh

Congrats Sam!!!

My department is hiring! Come join a cutting-edge and collaborative environment. Details below:

It’s official! Luessen Lab will be opening its doors this Fall in the Department of Pediatrics at @emoryuniversity.bsky.social School of Medicine. Thrilled to be joining a team of awesome researchers as part of the Children’s Center for Neuroscience Research 🧠

Happy to announce that the Nolan Lab will open this fall at Illinois State University! We are looking for motivated undergraduates, graduate students (both MS/PhD options available) as well as technicians to join our group. Please repost and check our website for more info!

nolan-lab.com

FDA-NIH Workshop: Reducing Animal Testing The FDA is hosting a workshop on reducing animal testing. The workshop is open to current FDA and NIH employees.

Public comments have been opened back up!

Research with animals is critical for providing evidence-based knowledge in the pursuit of human health. Broadly reducing research projects with animals threatens public health and will greatly stall the development of new therapeutics for diseases!

U.S. researchers are speaking up for science in local newspapers Through two grassroots efforts, more than 80 op eds have been published in news outlets across the country

Science article about how grad students are writing editorials in hometown papers to celebrate Barbara McClintock, the only lone woman to win a Nobel Prize. We are reminding readers that science is here, quietly saving your life. 🧪🧬🌽🔬
@sciencehomecoming.bsky.social
www.science.org/content/arti...

This program means a lot to me. We selected students that largely didn’t have research experience & they are presenting, publishing & going on to postbac/grad/prof programs. This was what made me realize where I wanted my efforts to be. In supporting & developing programs to train future scientists

The new Rutgers Center for NeuroMetabolism is officially hiring faculty at all levels! Come be my colleague!

jobs.rutgers.edu/postings/248...

A cross-propagating ultrasound wave exposes a thin tissue section that contains blood vessels feeding a tumor. The wave interacts with sound-scattering probes (displayed in orange gold) that are genetically expressed in cancer cells or are injected in the bloodstream to reveal capillary vessels. White contour lines indicate previously scanned tissue sections and the total volume explored by this sound-sheet microscopy technique.

A new method reported in Science allows the generation of 3D ultrasound images of gene expression and 2D ultrasound images of capillary vessels. The approach enables fast, deep, and volumetric imaging of living opaque organs labeled with echogenic reporters.

Learn more this week: scim.ag/4jf4rDa

Congrats!🍾

Cover of issue 5: A 3D reconstruction from a light-sheet fluorescent microscopy image stack depicts parallel networks of vessels (PECAM1+, CD31, magenta) and nerves (PRPH+, yellow) in a human heart at 10.0 post-conceptional weeks. Whole-organ immunofluorescence was used to examine the spatial arrangement of blood vessels and peripheral nerves during human heart development. See Research Article by De Bono et al.

Issue 5 is complete!

On the cover: A 3D reconstruction from a light-sheet fluorescent microscopy image stack depicts parallel networks of vessels (PECAM1+, CD31, magenta) and nerves (PRPH+, yellow) in a human heart at 10.0 post-conceptional weeks. See De Bono et al.
doi.org/10.1242/dev....

UF neuroscience students share brain-research enthusiasm with schoolchildren » McKnight Brain Institute » University of Florida In celebration of Brain Awareness Week, the MBI welcomed 35 teenage homeschool students and 40 more ages 7-12 on Tuesday for lab tours, brain-related crafts and a Q&A with a working scientist.

I joked that answering the kids questions felt like a second qualifying exam, but I had an absolute blast during this event last week! Teaching local communities about science has always filled my cup, but it felt particularly important and gratifying this year.

mbi.ufl.edu/2025/03/12/u...

NIH Grants Fueled $95 Billion In FY 2024 Economic Activity, Finds New Report National Institutes of Health grants generated almost $95 billion in economic activity nationwide in FY 2024 according to a new report by United for Medical Research.

New report shows that NIH grants fueled $95 billion in economic activity and 407,782 jobs in 2024.

That's not to mention the countless lives that biomedical research has saved.

Show me a better investment than that.
www.forbes.com/sites/michae...

The lightsheet is finally here! #fluorescencefriday #newpi

Bergen County Academy’s Vision for the Future of Education with syGlass — syGlass In a classroom at Bergen County Academies, located in northern New Jersey , a group of students slip on VR headsets for the first time. Their faces lighting up as they immerse themselves in a world o...

With syGlass #VR, students aren’t just learning about science: they’re stepping inside it. And in doing so, they’re shaping the future of education itself. #EduSky #VirtualReality #SciComm #HealthScience #Neuroscience #STEM www.syglass.io/blog/bergen-...

Join us! Science Homecoming helps scientists reconnect with communities by writing about the importance of science funding in their hometown newspapers. We’ve mapped every small newspaper in the U.S. and provide resources to get you started. Help science get back home 🧪🔬🧬 🏠

sciencehomecoming.com

Funding cuts by state

Total NIH funding cuts by state. This can be helpful when talking to your representatives

www.datawrapper.de/_/Y0Pnk/

How a Canadian scientist and a venomous lizard helped pave the way for Ozempic - National | Globalnews.ca In 1984, Dr. Daniel Drucker, an endocrinologist from the University of Toronto, discovered a hormone that helped pave the way for popular diabetes drugs such as Ozempic.

This is the most relevant article to NIH and research cuts I’ve seen.

Imagine if this was today , how many people would be saying “Why are we studying Gila Monsters and their impact on diabetes ? That’s wasted money !”

globalnews.ca/news/9793403...

The United States built a publicly funded scientific enterprise that worked miracles. We went to the moon and mars, laid the groundwork for computing revolutions, turned AIDS from a death sentence to a chronic condition, drastically cut cancer deaths. And now we're just going to dismantle it?

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

Want to see the numbers for how NIH funding impacts your state? Remind your Representatives, Senators, and fellow citizens how federally-funded biomedical research advances health, created jobs, and fosters innovation and economic growth.

www.unitedformedicalresearch.org/nih-in-your-...

Adenosine A2A Receptors Link Astrocytic α1-Adrenergic Signaling to Wake-Promoting Dopamine Neurons Sleep and arousal disorders are common, but the underlying physiology of wakefulness is not fully understood. The locus coeruleus promotes arousal via α1-adrenergic receptor (α1AR)–driven recruitment ...

I’m pumped to share that our new paper in Biological Psychiatry is out! We dissected a novel astrocyte-neuron interaction in the ventral periaqueductal gray (vPAG) that maintains wakefulness involving norepinephrine and dopamine neurons🧵: www.biologicalpsychiatryjournal.com/article/S000...

Evidence based hacks:

Hack for strength: lift weights
Hack for speed: run
Hack for smarts: read
Hack for productivity: deep work
Hack for recovery: sleep
Hack for motivation: just start
Hack for happiness: build community

There is no replacing hard and smart effort.

Resolving forebrain developmental organisation by analysis of differential growth patterns The forebrain is the most complex region of the vertebrate CNS, and its developmental organisation is controversial. We fate-mapped the embryonic chick forebrain using lipophilic dyes and Cre-recombin...

We begin the New Year with two preprints on hypothalamic development. The first, part of a long-term collaboration with Marysia Placzek’s group, investigates the organization of the developing forebrain, and show that current models are (mostly) incorrect./1
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Thanks Hannah!

During the Holiday Break, I finally had some time to sit down and make my lab website! Looking forward to watching it grow and evolve with content over the next few years. #neuroskyence #newPI

www.bedenbaughlab.com

More Than a Small Brain: The Importance of Studying Neural Function during Development The nervous system contains complex circuits comprising thousands of cell types and trillions of connections. Here, we discuss how the field of “developmental systems neuroscience” combines the molecu...

This story is another great example of why we can’t just extrapolate what we know about neuroscience in the developed brain to neuroscience in the developing brain.

www.jneurosci.org/content/44/4...

Yes! I actually got mine off eBay haha. I would not be surprised if they bring them back at some point. Leica tried to sell me a cryostat instead 🙄smh.

The burgeoning global food trade is a lifeline for billions. Is it breaking the planet? Stunning photos document the vast, fragile enterprise that feeds us

Thoroughly enjoyed the subject matter and beautiful images in this article. Food for thought.

www.science.org/content/arti...

Ugh I was hoping he was going to turn a corner! Sending you guys lots of love.

I can't believe they stopped making them! Big mistake. Huge.