Marc Spehr

🚨 We are looking for 2 PhD students! 🧠🐸👃

Join the Manzini Lab @jlugiessen.bsky.social to explore the olfactory system in #aquatic #vertebrates.

We mainly use #amphibians, combining:
🔬 Imaging
👩‍🔬 Cell biology
🐝 Behavior

👉 bit.ly/neurophd
🌍 bit.ly/manzinilab

Please share!

#PhD #neuroscience #job

🌍 Open Call! RWTH Aachen University invites postdocs from outside the EU to apply for the “Port to Europe” Fellowship (24 months funding, all disciplines). Start your research journey at one of Europe’s top universities! 🚀 Deadline: Oct 5, 2025. 👉https://rwth-aachen.de/go/id/botjje/lidx/1

Studie von RWTH-Professorin und ihrem Team in der Fachzeitschrift Nature Communications veröffentlicht 📃💡: Die Forschenden untersuchen die Bedeutung des Enzyms DNMT1 für die Entstehung von Schizophrenie, Autismus und Epilepsie.

➡️ Mehr Infos: www.rwth-aachen.de/go/id/bouvms...

Why We Still Need Animal Research in a World of AI and Organoids The portrayal of uncaring scientists without any thought for the animals being used in their research is far from the truth.

While I’m a big fan of new technologies that help us study human biology…there’s still no replacement for animal research! See my article in Gen News. www.genengnews.com/topics/trans...

Die neue Würzburger Professorin Silke Sachse. (Foto: Nives Kramberger)

Wir begrüßen Professorin @silkesachse.bsky.social‬ als neue Leiterin des Lehrstuhls für #Neurobiologie und #Genetik! Sie kommt aus Jena zu uns (@mpi-ce.bsky.social) und erforscht den Geruchssinn von #Insekten.
➡️ www.uni-wuerzburg.de/aktuelles/ei...

🚨 Preprint alert! 🚨
Can mice estimate the distance to an odour source?
New work led by Cristina Marin and colleagues, jointly supervised by @andreas-t-schaefer.bsky.social at the @crick.ac.uk and myself.

Spoiler alert: Yes, they can!

Read the paper here: bit.ly/43A9tF9
Short 🧵 below

YouTube video by LastWeekTonight RFK Jr. & HHS: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

Highly recommended:

youtu.be/8H34jcpEsFs?...

P.S.: If you cannot get enough of this, stop by at our poster at AChemS 2025 on Thursday morning.

Ca2+-Activated Ion Channels Exert Opposite Effects in Different Signaling Compartments of Vomeronasal Sensory Neurons In most mammals, conspecific chemical cues that drive innate social and sexual behavior are detected by the vomeronasal organ (VNO) and processed in the accessory olfactory bulb (AOB). Chemosensory st...

www.jneurosci.org/content/45/1...

Excited to see this out (now in print).
A fantastic collaboration by former student Rudolf Degen and current PhD student Victoria Switacz, who did an amazing job closing the deal on this one.
Give it a read if you like, but beware - it's nerdy ephys at its best.

Smell studies often use unnaturally high odor concentrations, analysis reveals It’s time to fashion olfactory neuroscience stimuli based on odor concentrations in the wild, say study investigators Elizabeth Hong and Matt Wachowiak.

Olfactory neuroscientists have known for a while that their stimuli stink. A new analysis illuminates the extent of the problem.

By @callimcflurry.bsky.social

#neuroskyence

www.thetransmitter.org/olfaction/sm...

This Week in The Journal The Neural Underpinnings of Waiting Qiang Zheng, Yujing Liu, Yue Huang, Jiaming Cao, Xuanning Wang, and Jianing Yu (see article e1820242025) Waiting is important for action control during motor ta...

This Week in The Journal #JNeurosci | The Neural Underpinnings of Waiting; Behavioral Outcomes from Neurofibromin Deficiency
www.jneurosci.org/content/45/1...

Neue Ansätze zur Behandlung von Schwangerschaftskomplikationen Forschende der RWTH Aachen haben gemeinsam mit einem Team aus St. Louis eine Studie veröffentlicht, die neue Wege für die Behandlung von Schwangerschaftskomplikationen eröffnen könnte.

Vorzeitige #Wehen und #Präeklampsie können bei einer #Schwangerschaft die #Gesundheit von Mutter und Baby gefährden. Forscher um @marcspehr.bsky.social von der @rwth.bsky.social und @physiologyiscool.bsky.social von @washumedicine.bsky.social zeigen einen zentralen Auslöser dieser Komplikationen.

Kir7.1 is the physiological target for hormones and steroids that regulate uteroplacental function Progesterone and progestins activate Kir7.1 to control uterine excitability, offering insights for preterm birth therapy.

A scientific excursion for us, and a fun collaboration with Polina Lishko and her team. In this new study, led on our end by Lina Kenzler and Jerome Schrőer, we address a molecular mechanism that controls uterine contractions in mice and humans.
Enjoy the read.

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

📣 Science matters!

#FENS and its allies unite in solidarity with the U.S. scientific community facing challenges to research, collaboration, and academic freedom. 🔬

🔗 Read the full statement: loom.ly/cn7vJR4

#sciencematters #standupforscience #sciencenotsilence #scienceforall

2024 marked the 10-year anniversary of the FENS-Kavli Network of Excellence. We warmly invite you to explore the 10-Year Report, showcasing its impact on science, mentoring, outreach, advocacy, and personal achievements. @fens.org @kavlifoundation.bsky.social fenskavlinetwork.org/fkne-10-year...

With the huge challenges facing scientists, I call on peer reviewers to reflect on their role as gatekeepers to trainee career development and scientific progress. You can maintain high standards for rigor while being kind and not demanding an extra year of studies for every paper revision.

...and well deserved.
Congrats!!!

I am deeply grateful for this award, which not only recognizes my work but also reflects the invaluable contributions of my team, mentors, and supporters!

It inspires me to continue working with my lab to deepen our understanding of how we perceive and interpret our environment.

⏰ Last chance! Today is the final day to submit your #AChemS2025 abstract!

Submit now: achems.org/2025/abstrac...

We are hiring!

We are looking for two PhD students interested in the regulation of habit formation. Habits are useful to decrease cognitive load, but carry the risk of becoming stereotyped and hard to control - it’s hard to shake a bad habit. The fruit fly Drosophila also forms habits and we […]

🎉✨ Happy New Year ! ✨🎉

Wishing you a year filled with inspiration, discovery, & happiness! Here's to making 2025 remarkable together.

#happynewyear #thanks #community

@wisocologne.bsky.social
@unibonn.bsky.social
@dzne.science
@mpinb.mpg.de
@fz_juelich
@rwth.bsky.social
@UniklinikBonn
@DLR-PT

There's a movement in neuroscience suggesting we should be pursuing bigger bets with larger teams. I think there's a case for doing a bit of this, but I think it's a bad idea to prioritise it for two reasons, and a good case for saying we should be moving in the exact opposite direction. 🧠🧪

I joined 75+ @nobelprize.bsky.social laureates urging US Senators to oppose RFK Jr.'s confirmation as DHHS Secretary. If you’re in a state with GOP senators, PLEASE reach out to them! I’d deeply appreciate it if you amplified this post! 🙏
www.nytimes.com/2024/12/09/h...

On Giving Tuesday, please consider making a donation to a nonprofit like AChemS (@achems.bsky.social) that supports academic scientific research, which is essential for building new knowledge about how our bodies work!

How do mammals convert dynamic odor information into neural maps for landscape navigation? Odors contain complex spatiotemporal information that guide animal behavior, but how this information is processed is not fully understood. This Essay discusses recent advances in mammalian olfactory ...

Check out our new review in PLoS Biology on how dynamic odour information can help mammals to navigate through their environment.
Led by the fantastic Anantu Sunil & Olivia Pedroncini, this also marks my first last author publication from the University of Bonn!
journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...

Single-neuron representations of odours in the human brain - Nature Human piriform and mediotemporal neurons encode odours, and signal how we perceive, rate and identify scents.

🔊Major Breakthrough

Researchers from @UniklinikBonn @unibonn.bsky.social @rwth.bsky.social reveal how single neurons respond to smells, images & words!

This study in @natureportfolio.bsky.social bridges the gap between animal & human olfactory research!👃

📖 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Unlike the primary sensory brain areas that process sights and sounds, the one that decodes scents also responds to other stimuli, such as images and words associated with an odor, according to a study published today in Nature.

By @avaskham.bsky.social

www.thetransmitter.org/sensory-syst...