Simon Sprecher

Simon Sprecher

@simon-sprecher.bsky.social

Professor in Neurobiology at University of Fribourg @unifr @unifrBiology bringing #neurogenetics from #Drosophila to #Cephalopods and #Cnidaria -View are my own

831 Followers 563 Following 16 Posts Joined Nov 2024
11 months ago
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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

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1 year ago

Fabulous! Congratulations Silke!!!

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1 year ago
EDS best PhD thesis prize | European Drosophila SocietyHome

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...

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1 year ago

We definitely should- ok, we will 👍😉

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1 year ago

Congratulations Dion et al!

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1 year ago

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

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1 year ago

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.

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1 year ago

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...

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1 year ago

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

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1 year ago
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

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1 year ago

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

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1 year ago
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!

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1 year ago
EDRC 2025 Alicante

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

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1 year ago
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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....

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1 year ago

And so much science still to do 👍😉

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1 year ago
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

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1 year ago

Very cool work: interfere between classic and operant conditioning!

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1 year ago

That’s it! We’re obsolete …. 😉

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1 year ago

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

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

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1 year ago
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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...

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1 year ago

😂😂

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1 year ago

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...

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1 year ago
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It's hot off the press

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1 year ago

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

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1 year ago

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

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