Nicole F. Wong

Grad student Rommy Sierra showing off her “lab-o-saurus” comics. First panel: dinosaur dressed in proper PPEs, holding a beaker with mysterious liquids, with a thought bubble that says “gee, I hope this doesn’t cause an explosion that leads us to extinction…” panel 2: dinosaur with short arms at a laptop with a thought bubble that says “I can’t actually reach my computer. Panel 3: dinosaur presenting research on “why we should care about comets” with two dinosaurs in the audience saying “I don’t think this benefits us financially”. Panel 4: dinosaur claws ripped through gloves, following panel shows a dinosaur wearing ripped gloves that says “I hate when this happens… PPE is important”

Our resident artist hard-at-work drawing dinosaurs for @plasmidsaurus.bsky.social

Wait a second, the marathon isn’t till tomorrow! I got up for nothing!

My cousin is about to start the nyc marathon, I guess it’s time to get out of bed…

😳

Title screen “ Homeostatic maintenance of neocortical excitation-inhibition balance by ciliary neuropeptidergic signaling”

Thanks @mpfneuro.bsky.social for inviting me out! Had a blast spending the day talking about neuronal cilia!

👀

Eastern Bumblebee pollenating a lime tree flower.

Mr. Bumblebee doing the hard work so I don’t have to

Broken pipe connector from air table

RIP, you served the culture rig honorable

Successful L2/3 neuron patch recording.

6 months later, just like riding a bike.

Two postdocs building an adjustable 4 post open frame server rack

Legos for adults

I bitterly complained when my cousins made me get up so early, but I get it now. It was so serene to hear the bamboo as the wind blew.

Arashiyama bamboo forest with no people

Totally worth getting up at 5 to avoid the crowds

😮 well jokes on them because im using it to watch the last of us

Apparently there are some countries that like respect their academics and researchers or something

Eduroam at the airport is wild

Teaching microscope at musée d'histoire des sciences in Geneva

I fixed the Koehler illumination of the teaching scope at the musée d'histoire des sciences in Geneva. Nice to know my skills can be applicable outside the lab.

Mountains of les diablerets, Switzerland

This view never gets old!

You best believe a 6 hr time difference wasn’t going to stop me from watching the Knicks punch their ticket to the eastern conference finals! 😱😱😱

Finally, an emoji for academics

🫩🫩🫩

Do y’all remember when Trumps immigration policy was just a wall? Yeah, good times.

I keep getting asked whether I would consider leaving the states and my answer is no. It took four generations of hardship for my family to make it into this country. I can’t just run from the fight now.

Rapid prey capture learning drives a slow resetting of network activity in rodent binocular visual cortex Neocortical neurons possess stable firing rate set points to which they faithfully return when perturbed. These set points are established early and are stable through adulthood, suggesting they are i...

Thrilled to share work from my PhD is now online as a preprint! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

We show prey capture learning requires V1, enhances V1b tuning to behavior, and induces persistent plasticity in firing rates and spines, gated by homeostatic, rather than Hebbian processes. Read more:

Nah, I can’t afford hopes anymore. They’re more expensive than eggs!

Thor Labs snack box that says “I reused this lab snacks box for Nicole’s hopes + dreams”

An empty lab snacks box, absent of any hopes or dreams.

I finally figured out what I should use my Thor labs snack box for!

Yes, and he came with snacks!

Hand wearing blue glove with a giant gash through the back of hand

Hulk’d straight through my gloves

A fish pump attached to a collection canister

I’m not sure why anyone buys an industrial pump when a fish pump does just as well. Just as powerful at a fraction of the price.

Ah! I just got a notification to redo my citi training as it expires in June. So, that’s when I’ll do it.

Two postdocs with our best intimidating looks, and a third just standing there holding a squash racket.

Our lab’s squash team is ready to take on any other lab who dares to challenge us!

If only we could use optogenetics for mind control