Dave Root

Excited to share this preprint of my postdoc work, only several years late to the party 🎉

We examined how loss of function in SETD1A, a high confidence schizophrenia risk gene, impacts neural synchrony across circuits supporting working memory in mice.

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Divergent ethanol drinking phenotypes are linked to region-specific dysregulation of serotonin systems in the mouse brain https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.30.702832v1

❤️

Postdoc position in Paris: come help develop new generation human brain computer interfaces ⚡🧠💻

Interested? Contact me if you have experience with machine learning (e.g. simulation-based inference, RL, generative/diffusion models) or dynamical systems.

See below for + details and retweet 🙏

Scientist who helped eradicate smallpox dies at age 89 A leader in the global fight against smallpox and a champion of vaccine science, William Foege died last Saturday

Very few people in the history of our species have saved as many people's lives as William Foege, who designed and lead the global elimination of smallpox, a highly contagious disease that killed 1 out 3 people it infected. ✊ www.scientificamerican.com/article/smal...

Ventral pallidal perineuronal nets regulate opioid relapse https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.21.700926v1

Memory erasure by dopamine-gated retrospective learning https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.17.700100v1

I hate to admit it but exercising does make me feel better

Oxytocin Modulation of Spinal Circuits Drives Therapeutic Benefits of Massage Across social species, social touch enhances well-being and reduces pain - two seemingly distinct benefits that enhance survival. Yet where and how the nervous system integrates these functions, and w...

Exciting new preprint on oxytocin neural circuits for massage led by Manon Bohic in Vicky Abraira’s lab. Sasha and I were glad to contribute imaging experiments to this collaborative effort, spanning mice to humans. Vicky is a master at bringing people together.

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Department Chair, Duke Neurobiology - Duke University, Durham job with Duke University - School of Medicine | 12852576 The Duke University School of Medicine (SOM) seeks a distinguished neuroscientist to serve as the next Chair of the Department of Neurobiology.

My department, Duke Neurobiology, is searching for a new chair. Ad below. Come work with me, @jmgrohneuro.bsky.social @ennatsew.bsky.social @jorggrandl.bsky.social @jnklab.bsky.social @sbilbo.bsky.social @neurocircuits.bsky.social and many other amazing folks! @dukemedschool.bsky.social

Please spread the word🔊My lab is looking to hire two international postdocs. If you want to do comp neuro, combine machine learning and awesome math to understand neural circuit activity, then come work with us! Bonn is such a cool place for neuroscience now, you don't want to miss out.

Yes, mine said not discussed yesterday and today it says competitive not discussed

check back the next day, might be "competitive - not discussed" which is the 30-50% range

send squirrels and gulls

From the bottom of page 9 of my (rather lengthy) course syllabus:

This wheel is to the boy squirrel the way that the football is to Charlie Brown and it still makes me laugh every time he tries to use it only to be immediately spun.

Protip: The *earlier* you fill out your availability, the more plausible it is for you to say later, "Sorry, I'm no longer free then. Go ahead and meet without me."

a group of squirrels standing next to each other with a tumblr.com logo in the background Alt: a group of animated squirrels very excited

People of Bluesky! Are you ready for the Top Squirrels of 2025??????

Postdoctoral fellowship available in structure guided drug discovery in @RothLabUNC
Please RT

Remembering Adam Kampff, neuroscience educator and researcher Kampff’s do-it-yourself approach inspired a generation of neuroscientists.

Adam Kampff prioritized spreading knowledge over publishing flashy papers in prestigious journals, but colleagues say his mark on neuroscience was undeniable. The researcher and educator passed away on 9 December.

By Lauren Schneider

www.thetransmitter.org/systems-neur...

Glutamate indicators with increased sensitivity and tailored deactivation rates - Nature Methods iGluSnFR4f and iGluSnFR4s are the latest generation of genetically encoded glutamate sensors. They are advantageous for detecting rapid dynamics and large population activity, respectively, as demonst...

iGluSnFR4 is now available @natmethods.nature.com

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

Glutamate indicators with increased sensitivity and tailored deactivation rates 🧪

New work from kashlab led by Dr. Jobe Ritchie @jobeneuro.bsky.social .. our old pal serotonin is back.

Thankfully the wind is all good now!

PSA: the super flu is no fun at all

#eNeuro: Doyle et al. created the Alcohol Biobank, a collection of biological samples from over 700 genetically diverse rats tested for addiction-like behaviors, helping researchers explore genetic, molecular, & neurobiological factors in addiction.
https://doi.org/10.1523/ENEURO.0207-25.2025

🚨 Our year-long, post-bacc internship positions are now open for application! 🚨

This new program is designed to provide mentorship and on-the-job experience for recent grads.

Full list of open roles: https://alleninstitute.org/careers/internships-and-postbac/

In mid-November, I agreed to an experiment. Anthropic had tested a vending machine powered by its Claude AI model in its own offices and asked whether we’d like to be the first outsiders to try a newer, supposedly smarter version. Claudius, the customized version of the model, would run the machine: ordering inventory, setting prices and responding to customers—aka my fellow newsroom journalists—via workplace chat app Slack. “Sure!” I said. It sounded fun. If nothing else, snacks! Then came the chaos. Within days, Claudius had given away nearly all its inventory for free—including a PlayStation 5 it had been talked into buying for “marketing purposes.” It ordered a live fish. It offered to buy stun guns, pepper spray, cigarettes and underwear. Profits collapsed. Newsroom morale soared. This was supposed to be the year of the AI agent, when autonomous software would go out into the world and do things for us. But two agents—Claudius and its overseeing “CEO” bot, Seymour Cash—became a case study in how inadequate and easily distracted this software can be. Leave it to business journalists to successfully stage a boardroom coup against an AI chief executive.

Sincerely one of the funniest things the WSJ has ever written or done.

www.wsj.com/tech/ai/anth...

Canada-Impact-Plus - Research - Western University

If you're (1) into nhp neurophysiology and/or biological motor control, (2) a foreign big shot and (3) interested in moving here, please reach out -- this new program looks extremely attractive (min. $8M over 8y)! www.uwo.ca/research/can...

Congrats!

So happy to share this preprint and so proud of @rehg-j.bsky.social and his hard work and determination. Here we showed circuit-specific effect after activation of mPFC-LC projectors to sustained attention during rCPT.

Locus coeruleus norepinephrine neurons facilitate orbitofrontal cortex remapping and behavioral flexibility Ogg et al. use in vivo imaging techniques to record activity in the locus coeruleus (LC) and the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) during a reversal learning task in freely moving rodents. They show that man...

Thrilled this is out, led by former PD Cameron Ogg (now with her own lab at @rhodescollege.bsky.social!). It was a driven by a desire to see, in real-time, how LC activity/NE release influences downstream targets in behaving animals. SO hard to do, but Cameron did it! www.cell.com/cell-reports...