Sha Liu 刘沙

Fluorescent neurons on black background. We're hiring! PhD Student

🚨 We are #hiring a PhD Student to study cerebellum-like circuits in #Drosophila.

Please spread the word!

www.groschner-lab.org/join

#Neuroscience #PhD

Neuroscience has a species problem If neuroscience is serious about building general principles of brain function, cross-species dialogue must become a core organizing principle.

If neuroscience is serious about building general principles of brain function, cross-species dialogue must become a core organizing principle rather than an afterthought, writes @suthanalab.bsky.social.

#neuroskyence

www.thetransmitter.org/animal-model...

"Saw her in the Amazon
With the voltage runnin' through her skin
Standin' there with nothin' on
She gonna teach me how to swim"

for more about the electric (f)eel, check this primer by Ken Catania ⚡ www.cell.com/current-biol...

(and yes, finally some current biology in Current Biology)

YouTube video by VIB-KU Leuven Center for Neuroscience VIB-KU Leuven Center for Neuroscience

🚀 Proudly introducing the VIB-KU Leuven Center For Neuroscience, a merger of the two former VIB research centers VIB-KU Leuven Center for Brain & Disease Research and Neuro-Electronics Research Flanders (NERF)! Our new motto: Bold Science, Real Impact.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhaq...

Oxygen-free metabolism in the bird inner retina supported by the pecten - Nature While the photoreceptor outer segments in the bird outer retina have access to oxygen, the inner retina operates under chronic anoxia, supported by anaerobic glycolysis in the retinal neurons.

Birds have a thick retina devoid of blood vessels - so how do they ensure sufficient oxygen availability?
They don't - neurons rely on glycolysis, metabolizing glucose released from the pecten.

Insane new study that includes comparative data on lizards and crocs.🧪

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

Congrats!

only China is still trying to save the mankind.

Cover image with sleeping baboon

Our paper is published today in Current Biology and is featured on the cover!

We report a neat, and somewhat counter-intuitive, finding: higher-ranking baboons get less and more interrupted night-time rest.

On the left, the image shows a schematic of a fly head, ring neurons and EPG neurons together with some calcium imaging frames. On the right is a photo of a fly on a ball in virtual reality and another schematic of a VR system.

📢 Join us, the Haberkern lab, @uni-wuerzburg.de for a postdoc studying neural circuit mechanisms of navigation. You’ll spearheading neurophysiology experiments on our brand new 2P!

⏳ Apply by 28th February 2026

Details: www.haberkernlab.de/docs/ENPostd...

#neuroscience #academicjobs #postdoc

Honoured to have contributed to a new paper in @currentbiology.bsky.social led by Mario Bronzati and lots of excellent and brainy (yes, pun intended) colleagues, showing that pterosaurs and birds evolved flight-capable brains but in different ways. www.cell.com/current-biol...

Congrat, Tom!

Indeed. And despite all the harshness, it still takes months to get it.🤬

🚨 Postdoc openings!
We’re looking for postdocs excited about sleep, synapses & cellular neurophysiology (fly or mouse).

Yes, we also have mouse projects!

See details: www.flysleeplab.com/positions

Convergent genome evolution shaped the emergence of terrestrial animals - Nature Comparisons of 154 genomes from 21 animal phyla and outgroups have been used to reconstruct ancestral adaptation to life on land across 11 distinct terrestrialization events, revealing strong evidence for convergent genomic evolution across the animal kingdom and recurring periods of terrestrial colonization.

Nature research paper: Convergent genome evolution shaped the emergence of terrestrial animals

go.nature.com/4i0i61w

This is not only starting with Trump. It is bipartism.

Sponges back?

Integrative phylogenomics positions sponges at the root of the animal tree. @science.org

#sponges vs #ctenophores

supper slow🤬

Quanta Contributor Max G. Levy Wins AAAS Kavli Gold Award for Science Journalism | Quanta Magazine Judges from the American Association for the Advancement of Science and The Kavli Foundation recognized Quanta Magazine contributing writer Max G. Levy with a Gold Award in the Magazine category for “...

Quanta contributing writer @maxlevy.bsky.social has received a Kavli Gold Award from @aaas.org and @kavlifoundation.org for “The Hidden World of Electrostatic Ecology,” a detailed account of how small organisms use static electricity to their advantage.

www.quantamagazine.org/quantanews/q...

not in Texas？

eLife Assessment This important study reports the results of efforts to replicate two phenomena of significant interest to early-career scientists and scientific policymakers: the Matthew effect and the early-career setback effect. Several previous studies of these effects have focused on early-career researchers with grant proposals that fell just below or just above a funding threshold. Those just above the threshold were more likely to be successful when they applied for funding later in the career (an example of the well-known Matthew effect), while those just below were more likely to go on to have stronger publication records (the early-career setback effect). In this study the Matthew effect was found to be robust across funders, and to generalize from those close to the funding threshold to the whole population. The early-career setback effect was not robust across funders and did not generalize to the whole population. The evidence reported is convincing.

Evidence from 14 research funding programmes confirms that early winners tend to keep winning (Matthew effect). But the idea that an early setback makes you stronger later doesn’t replicate widely.
buff.ly/UEtcRd4

Strategies of descent on vertical supports of various diameters by species.

Kinematics and morphology reveal how mammals descend trees safely, showing posture and movement strategies that suggest early upright behaviours in ancestral primates.
buff.ly/59o59R8

How neurons go with the blood flow when migrating through the brain.
buff.ly/wIrwf4q

Congrats, Tom!

Argentina’s move to woo Trump has derailed South America’s largest radio telescope U.S.-Chinese tensions have left nearly complete observatory in limbo, jeopardizing research into pulsars and other celestial objects

The China-Argentina Radio Telescope is facing a series of new obstacles. https://scim.ag/49xkgTU

Apply for our International PhD Call! Discover the 11 new projects for this edition and apply until the 20th of November.
🔗More info: cbd.sites.vib.be/en/phdcall2026

Our paper reconstructing hydras endodermis published in @currentbiology urldefense.com/v3/__https:/...

The evolutionary origins of synaptic proteins and their changing roles in different organisms across evolution Nature Reviews Neuroscience - Recent studies have shed further light on the evolutionary origins of chemical synapses, In this Review, Colgren and Burkhardt explore how ancient proteins were...

First neurons didn’t appear overnight. We trace their roots to ancient secretory cells - showing how lifestyle & behavior shaped the evolution of first synapses.🧠🌊 #Evolution #Neuroscience

Our latest in @natrevneuro.nature.com
Link: rdcu.be/eMX3E

@jeffcolgren.bsky.social @msarscentre.bsky.social

New work from Sha Liu's lab connecting a cellular level process to behavior! 🪰💤

Remembering GABA pioneer Edward Kravitz The biochemist, who died last month at age 92, was part of the first neurobiology department in the world and showed that gamma-aminobutyric acid is inhibitory.

Edward Kravitz, a Harvard biochemist who proved GABA's inhibitory power, passed away last month. He will "be remembered for his humanity, for his social conscience and his desire to help those less fortunate than he,” says Ronald Harris-Warrick.

By @claudia-lopez.bsky.social

bit.ly/479Ggmo

Jellyfish helmet!
This larval-stage jack fish (aka trevally) is living inside the #jellyfish for protection against whatever might come his way.

#jackfish #trevalley #jellyfish #🪼 #symbiosis #blackwater #blackwaterdiving #blackwaterphotography #gug #chrisgug #gugunderwater #okinawa #kume #kumejima