Karl Deisseroth

Our microbial-opsin work (and most of the field ) is basic science, but it was intriguing to review clinical progress–direct & indirect–with a wonderful team of co-authors
t.co/JrJen2WGBV
& adapt a fig. of PMID:28912215 (2017) with my long-time collaborator Peter Hegemann (pic: a memory from 2017).

Amazing collaboration with @alleninstitute.org team—@hongkuizeng.bsky.social, Bosiljka Tasic, Tanya L. Daigle, La'Akea Siverts—to develop new transgenics for all-optical neuroscience.

And deeply grateful to @deisseroth.bsky.social for his support and mentorship. 🙏

12/13

Large-scale cellular-resolution read/write of activity enables discovery of cell types defined by complex circuit properties The complexity of the mammalian brain’s vast population of interconnected neurons poses a formidable challenge to elucidate its underlying mechanisms of coordination and computation. A key step forwar...

✨ New preprint ✨ What if we could watch AND control thousands of individual neurons in behaving mice—with stable access over months? 🧠⚡ Our work introduces transgenic all-optical tools that make this possible - and a resulting surprising discovery! 🔭💡
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... 1/13 🧵

Large-scale cellular-resolution read/write of activity enables discovery of cell types defined by complex circuit properties The complexity of the mammalian brain's vast population of interconnected neurons poses a formidable challenge to elucidate its underlying mechanisms of coordination and computation. A key step forwar...

Big thanks to all the co-authors. Huge shoutout to Tony Drinnenberg, Charu Ramakrishnan and @deisseroth.bsky.social as well as the team at @alleninstitute.org. This would not have been possible without their new mouse lines. Check out this preprint for more information: doi.org/10.1101/2025...

Our new paper "High-capacity associative memory in a quantum-optical spin glass." Achieves 7-fold increased capacity thru a quantum optical analog of short term plasticity from neuroscience. Atoms (neurons) couple to motion and photons (synapses)!
arxiv.org/abs/2509.12202

excellent piece Nicole! really enjoyed seeing it come together...

Celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Scopes trial telling students in central Tennessee about their inner fish.

I’m so grateful to the high school and middle school teachers who brought their students from small schools to the event (some from almost an hr away).

congratulations Neil! NAS is lucky to have you leading the way...

Congrats Xin!!!!

HHMI Tangled Bank Studios brings science to life through powerful, visually stunning storytelling.✨

For over a decade, @tangledbankhhmi.bsky.social‬ has delivered award-winning films that engage audiences with the wonder, complexity, and importance of science.

Sustained in the brain: How lasting emotions arise from brief stimuli, in humans and mice Humans and mice share persistent brain-activity patterns in response to adverse sensory experience, Stanford scientists find, opening a window to our emotions and, perhaps, neuropsychiatric disorders.

Grateful to work with amazing lead authors Isaac Kauvar, Ethan Richman, & Tony Liu, and brilliant faculty of our HNC program: Carolyn Rodriguez (@crodriguezmdphd.bsky.social‬), Paul Nuyujukian, & Vivek Buch, and many others spanning hospital and laboratory. med.stanford.edu/news/all-new...

Congratulations to our Human Neural Circuitry team; bit.ly/4dEyX7Z publishes today in Science! This was the hardest challenge of my career, but one of the most rewarding, after years of rebuilding– & expanding my inpatient neuropsychiatry in the service of basic discovery bsky.app/profile/deis...

📆 Mark your calendars: #OptoGRC2026 is headed back to Tuscany, May 10-15, 2026!

We look forward to reuniting with our amazing community for a week of great science, thoughtful discussions & shared time with colleagues.

More details coming soon👇🏽
tinyurl.com/esvrabsu

fascinating work as always @neilshubin.bsky.social

Teeth first evolved as sensory tissue in the armored exoskeletons of ancient fish, fossil scans find Anyone who has ever squirmed through a dental cleaning can tell you how sensitive teeth can be. This sensitivity gives important feedback about temperature, pressure—and yes, pain—as we bite and chew ...

New paper from the lab: Our teeth arose as sensory organs on the outside of the body of ancient jawless fish.!! Congrats to Yara Haridy and the team!
Background and video: phys.org/news/2025-05...
Open Access Paper: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
News and Views: www.nature.com/articles/d41...

thank you Sung-yon! I was deeply touched, and felt welcomed by the country. Honored be there and to share the moment with the community.

Unforgettable moments honoring @deisseroth.bsky.social, recipient of the Asan Award in Medicine! Watch this great video highlighting his groundbreaking contributions:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOzK...
Proud to celebrate this historic achievement in Seoul. Cheers, Karl! 🎉 #AsanAward #Neuroscience

Congratulations to these two outstanding physician-neuroscientists! Many people now are familiar with the fascinating fundamental research of @michellemonje.bsky.social but most people probably don't know she is a truly great physician. I'm fortunate to be inspired by her every day, in every way.

I am hiring: PhD students, postdocs, admin personnel. Email me if you know somebody that may be interested in joining us in Cologne! 👇👇

Please RT for reach! 🙏🙏

Thanks @ardemp.bskyverified.social ! Great to see you, and everyone…

strongly recommend this book... @neilshubin.bsky.social is a great communicator and scientist. We're coming up on the 10 year anniversary of this special moment from February 2015: Neil showing the Tiktaalik fossil to a few of my entranced kids.

Mapping the cellular etiology of schizophrenia and complex brain phenotypes - Nature Neuroscience Duncan and colleagues link specific human brain cell types to schizophrenia and other complex brain phenotypes, providing mechanistic insights and a cellular taxonomy for psychiatric disorders.

Combined analysis of #GWAS and human brain single-cell transcriptomics data to infer the cell-types involved in the etiology of #schizophrenia and other psychiatric disorders 🧪🧠

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

Thank you Catherine!

Welcome to Bluesky! and thank you @sykneuro.bsky.social‬! Of course, I was the lucky one, honored to have you in my lab... Looking forward to seeing you again in March!

Targeted stimulation of motor cortex neural ensembles drives learned movements During the execution of learned motor skills, the neural population in the layer 2/3 (L2/3) of the primary motor cortex (M1) expresses a reproducible spatiotemporal activity pattern. It is debated whe...

663 days since the senseless tragedy that took An, we present a manuscript that reports some of the discoveries that she left us.

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Eric @erictopol.bsky.social has deep biomedical knowledge and remains a trusted science communicator, loyal to facts while others veer off. Importantly, he finds these interviews fun—I sure enjoyed talking to him about life, science, and what I’ve learned along the way.

Fueling up for the birthday symposium: “currywurst” (left) and avocado toast (right) at Cafe Einstein near the Brandenburg Gate.

Group selfie after our presidential plenary session at @acnporg.bsky.social this morning in Arizona at the invitation of ACNP President Helen Mayberg! With wonderful speakers Michelle Monje, Botond Roska & David McMullen speaking on advances that accelerate translation in neuropsychiatry!

A wonderful opportunity to reflect on the exploratory journey we shared with our teams over the past two decades– discovering how the beautiful light-gated channels from microbes work, finding new channels, and creating new ones too. I'm thankful for my wonderful colleagues, over the many years.

And speaking of the unity of international science…. I’ll be kicking off Peter’s birthday symposium on Dec 13 in Berlin (Peter is turning 70). Recalling my last conversation with Dieter, also in rainy Berlin, on a rattly shuttle bus…