Piali Sengupta

Quote for a 63x objective. The objective is $12,784. The tariff is $1,661.92

Zeiss 63x objective

We need a new microscope objective. A $1.6k tariff for something that you can hold in your hand and that is only manufactured in Germany

are we great yet?

Donate if you can!

NPR and PBS. A national tragedy and travesty. Just unimaginable.

all you gotta do is pony up a lot of $$ and give up all your rights. And boom - your grants are back.

Comparative connectomics of two distantly related nematode species reveals patterns of nervous system evolution Understanding the evolution of the bilaterian brain requires a detailed exploration of the precise nature of cellular and subcellular differences between related species. We undertook an electron micr...

Happy to share our publication - Comparative connectomics of two distantly related nematode species reveals patterns of nervous system evolution www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Extra kudos and thanks to all the staff at NIH and NSF and other federal funding agencies for working extra hard in very small windows of opportunity to get grants reviewed and funds released before the attention-addled federal policies change again (on an hourly basis).

🧪BREAKING: NIH has laid out 5 options for funding publications costs on grants (yes, FIVE!). This is hugely impactful.

Make your opinions known by September 15, fellow scientists.
🧪
grants.nih.gov/grants/guide...

A hypothalamic circuit that modulates feeding and parenting behaviours - Nature Single-cell transcriptomic analysis of mouse hypothalamus and behavioural experiments show that specific hypothalamic networks regulate conflicting feeding versus parenting behaviours of female mice.

How do animals decide if they should forage for food or stay home to take care of newborn offspring? Whose needs come first? For my PhD work now out in Nature, we examined how hunger and parenting neurons interact and are reshaped postpartum in mice 🧵⬇️ www.nature.com/articles/s41...

🤦🏽‍♀️

There are just so many of them.

In same boat (1%). We scientists are typically a resilient lot. My coping mechanisms are being sorely tested. Sympathies Moe.

We propose that lateralization of signaling pathways that is revealed under specific external or internal conditions expands the ability of sensory neurons to encode specific experiences and drive adaptive behavior.

TL;DR: Worm sensory neurons remain full of surprises!

Loss of developmental lateralization similarly results in loss of asymmetry in the response plasticity of the rGC mutants. Thus, there appears to be a cryptic left/right asymmetric molecular mechanism that drives symmetric response plasticity.

We've now identified a molecule (a receptor guanylyl cyclase or rGC) that acts only in one of the two AWC neurons to drive the context-dependent response plasticity. The opposing responses (one neuron driving attraction, the other aversion) results in animals being indifferent to this chemical.

Context-dependent reversal of odorant preference is driven by inversion of the response in a single sensory neuron type This study examines how context modulates the valence of individual odorants in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, revealing that context-dependent engagement of distinct intracellular signaling pat...

We previously showed that while worms are typically attracted to a medium-chain alcohol, they avoid it in the context of another attractive alcohol. This behavioral valence switch is mediated by inversion of the chemical-evoked response sign in both the AWC olfactory neurons.
tinyurl.com/5xnyh3jw

Well, none of us may ever get funded again but in the meantime, here's some new science!

Led by recent PhD Anjali Pandey w/ex-UG Maya Katz. Here we identify an asymmetric molecular mechanism that underlies symmetric context-dependent sensory plasticity in the AWC olfactory neuron pair in C. elegans

For the life of me, I cannot fathom the rationale for any of this. Utter wanton destruction of one of the best research ecosystems in the world.

Want to publish a NIH-funded paper in Nature? Well - unless your institution has an agreement with Springer, you'll have to be mega-rich to be compliant with NIH's new no-embargo policy. Springer is insisting on gold OA - that's $12,690 and that's extortion.

Proud to introduce Dr. Anjali Pandey who did a great job at her thesis defense and talk today. She is PhD #20 from the lab. Preprint link and associated bluetorial coming soon!

I have screenshots of conversation ;)

Well - I just did an online chat with Elsevier and that's what they told me to do to comply. No idea about Springer journals yet.

This below is correct. I just got confirmation as well. Key though is to upload the unformatted version - meaning not the journal formatted PDF but the manuscript version that was accepted. And for several journals - you will have to do the submission yourself (make it CC-BY and link your grants!)

How are people dealing with journals that continue to embargo NIH-funded articles for 12 months unless you pay an exorbitant OA fee? Just not submit to them? Or is there a workaround for compliance with the new NIH immediate release policy?

The Anne West lab at Duke is hiring a postdoc to work on nuclear cell biology in neurogenesis. Please help me spread the word! Applications to west@neuro.duke.edu.

C. elegans: An elegant experimental system for the study of cilia biology Caenorhabditis elegans is a genetically tractable organism that has become one of the leading in vivo models for cilia research. Cilia are not require…

My fabulous colleague (and ex-postdoc) @inechipurenko.bsky.social and I (mostly Inna!) wrote a review extolling the many virtues of C. elegans for the study of cilia biology. A really interactive and collaborative community of people working in this field too.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Adopt A Station - Rescue Public Media Help preserve independent journalism and community programming across America by adopting a public media station. Congress has voted to rescind public media's funding.

For those of you interested in supporting public radio, especially particularly vulnerable ones, here's a link for 'adopting a station'.
adoptastation.org

Based on analysis described here:
semipublicco.substack.com/p/heres-how-...

Lab has always been pretty creative with upcoming thesis defense posters. This one's particularly good. And I suspect quite apt 😜

PO just confirmed that our 5th percentile R01 is not getting funded. Past NCI Payline at 4 percent. Cant believe it.

Ah - well then maybe my panic is misplaced. I had no idea. I will try to stay calm and carry on. Thanks Jeremy!