Simon Sprecher

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We have open PhD positions in the lab to work in the Neuroscience of #Cephalopods #Cnidaria and #Drosophila-
please RT

www.sprecherlab.com

Fabulous! Congratulations Silke!!!

Recently completed your #PhD using #Drosophila in a European lab? Apply for the European Drosophila Society best thesis prize!
🏆🪰
Deadline: 28 Feb 2025.
Prize = €1000 & keynote presentation at the EDRC in Alicante @edrc2025.bsky.social!
Info here: europeandrosophilasociety.org/eds-best-phd...

We definitely should- ok, we will 👍😉

Congratulations Dion et al!

Thanks Eric! Really nice that NPR picked it up…!

Creamy potato chips and slimy apples - at least for humans, that doesn't seem tasty. Also the fruit fly larva is picky and prefers a certain food hardness: enjoy reading more about that in the primer I wrote for the recent paper from the @simon-sprecher.bsky.social lab.

This is a fascinating paper that handled at @plosbiology.org (with thanks to Matthieu Louis as guest ed). The quotation that springs to mind is "Is it nice, my preciousss? Is it juicy? Is it scrumptiously crunchable?" - @simon-sprecher.bsky.social and colleagues titrate agarose to find out...

Thanks Matthias! “Sensing” food is a feast for the senses 😉👍

Top left: Top—cartoon of larval food environment, showing a harder (fresh) fruit and a softer (ripe) fruit. Bottom—larval ingestion can be visualised by blue-dyed agarose present and visible in the digestive system. Top right: Experimental paradigm involving a range of decaying fruit for mechanical analysis. Bottom: Immunofluorescence stainings showing the expression of the transgenic 3xP3-RFP and generated pb/peb-split-GAL4 driving a UAS-myrGFP reporter in the taste organs, but not the DOG (left). With expression in the embryonic phase (right) mirroring that of the larva.

Sensing food is a complex multisensory experience. A study of food hardness preference in #FruitFly larvae by @simon-sprecher.bsky.social &co reveals that gustatory organ sensory neurons can perceive cues of both chemical & mechanical stimulation 🧪 @plosbiology.org plos.io/3CEv5FJ

Tackling sensory discrimination in one acoel, with @simon-sprecher.bsky.social and many more friends: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Beach at Hotel Cormoran in Sardinia.

Hotel Cormoran in Villasimius, Sardinia.

Dear colleagues fascinated by olfaction and taste! 👃🏾👅
We’ll organize the next ESITO (Symposium of Insect Taste and Olfaction) from September 19-24 2025 in Sardinia at the beautiful Hotel Cormoran again. We are currently updating the website and will start the registration soon! Please stay tuned!

We are excited to announce the opening of registrations for the upcoming #EDRC2025 conference (25th-28th September 2025) in Alicante to showcase the latest advances in #Drosophila biology and technology edrc2025alicante.com

Disentangling how the brain is wired Published in Fly (Vol. 19, No. 1, 2025)

To understand how brains do their amazing job, we ultimately need to know how they are wired up. This remains impossible in "large" brains, however FlyWire allows everyone to browse the fruit fly the connectome!
Here my take on what makes this so impacting-
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

And so much science still to do 👍😉

European Drosophila Society logo: a stylised fly on blue background with yellow stars created by MC Diaz de la Loza.

The European Drosophila Society is delighted to join Bluesky! Follow us for the latest European fly news.
#EDRC2025
#Drosophila
#Drosofeed

Very cool work: interfere between classic and operant conditioning!

That’s it! We’re obsolete …. 😉

There is indeed (but it is not filled with melted cheese - 🫕🫕) 😉

Sunrise at the Lake of Gruyère; winter has arrived in Fribourg

eLife Science Digests Cutting jargon and putting research in context, digests showcase some of the latest articles published in eLife.

Some news about one of my favorite critters: Xenoturbella!
A most complete version of its genome provides insight into a surprisingly „complex“ gene repertoire and molecular features- and raises questions on its phylogenetic position-
Congrats to an exciting paper!
elifesciences.org/digests/9494...

😂😂

And this insect genetics starter pack has a lot of Drosophilists, along with other Good Bugs (they're all good bugs). bsky.app/starter-pack...

It's hot off the press

Very cool- one day on Bluesky and the feed is getting busy- the „starterpack“ approach works well 👍👍👍

So let’s do this- trying to get my feed busy 👍