Minel Arinel

Thank you!

Thank you!! By the power of the fish, I shall defend this doctorate 🐟🎓💪

I'm excited (and a little emotional) to be giving my PhD dissertation seminar as I wrap up my time in the Duke Neurobiology program 🧠🐟

📅 Monday, Nov 10 at 12:00 PM Eastern Time
📍 Bryan Research Building, Room 103

If you'd like to attend virtually, please feel free to DM me for the Zoom link! ✨

Just found out I received the @sfn.org #TPDA Trainee Professional Development Award FOR THE SECOND TIME!! 🧠🎉 Grateful for the continued support and excited to connect with the neuroscience community at #SfN25!

Thank youu!!

oh wow 🥹 @hhmijanelia.bsky.social

@natrevneuro.nature.com just published a beautiful cover for the issue that includes the recent review on analogies in the visual system of vertebrates and invertebrates (@ryosuketanaka.bsky.social). Read it here doi.org/10.1038/s415...
Science and Art, what could be better?

Gut stretch evokes rapid neural dynamics in vagal and hindbrain populations of larval zebrafish https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.07.21.665834v1

Hey! I’m also looking for postdoc positions. Can I be added as well?

Collage of AWIS members Minel Arinel, Kiley McLean, Porscha M Whiteside, and Sree Vishmaya V.. framed by a blue background with the text ‘Listening and Leadership’ and AWIS logo.

These AWIS members have learned that listening is a crucial skill for leaders. Read their stories and be inspired to truly hear those around you. buff.ly/zvPhbEX #WomenInSTEM

AWIS Member Spotlight: Minel Arinel Minel Arinel is a sixth-year PhD student in Neurobiology at Duke University, passionate about developing alternative therapeutics for psychiatric disorders.

Grateful to be featured in the @awisnational.bsky.social Member Spotlight and their recent piece on Listening and Leadership. Honored to share space with so many brilliant women in STEM 💙

🔗 Member Spotlight: awis.org/project/awis...
🔗 Listening and Leadership feature: awis.org/resource/lis...

Frontiers | The gut and heart’s role in reward processing Reward processing, which ensures survival, has evolved to also shape emotions, learning, and overall well-being. While traditional models of reward have focu...

✨ New publication! ✨

Our mini-review on the #gut-brain and #heart-brain axes in #reward processing is out in Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience! 🧠

We dig into how body-to-brain signals shape emotion and motivation and why it matters for mental health.

Read it here:
🔗 doi.org/10.3389/fnin...

Whole-brain, all-optical interrogation of neuronal dynamics underlying gut interoception in zebrafish https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.03.26.645305v1

Cortical neurons imaged by immunofluorescence

Research is investigating the medicinal applications of #psilocybin, with studies showing how #psychedelics can promote neuronal plasticity.

This ‘fundamental’ study into the effects of #psilocin on human neurons: buff.ly/f7cNemV

Compound found in common herbs inspires potential anti-inflammatory drug for Alzheimer’s disease

Scripps Research scientists have created a diAcCA, a stabilized form of carnosic acid—an antioxidant in rosemary and sage—potentially improving memory, fortifying neuronal connections & reducing brain inflammation— a promising therapeutic for Alzheimer’s.

Image of a paddy field with mature rice in Bengal. CC BY-SA 4.0

Danio derives from the Bengali word “Dhani,” which translates to “of the rice fields.” #ZebrafishFunFacts 🧪

Dual neuromodulatory dynamics underlie birdsong learning - Nature Dopamine release in the basal ganglia of the zebra finch is driven by neurons associated with reinforcement learning and by cholinergic signalling, and tracks performance quality during long-term lear...

Proud to have contributed to @jiaxuanqi.bsky.social's masterpiece out @nature.com! She shows that dopamine transients track the learned quality of song during juvenile learning and that dopamine release is driven not just by VTA firing, but by a local cholinergic mechanism! (1/x)

Super excited to share that my abstract got selected for a short talk at the @keystonesymposia.bsky.social on Interoception! Can't wait to visit Seattle and the @alleninstitute.bsky.social for the first time! #KSInteroception25

A genome-based phylogeny for Mollusca is concordant with fossils and morphology Extreme morphological disparity within Mollusca has long confounded efforts to reconstruct a stable backbone phylogeny for the phylum. Familiar molluscan groups—gastropods, bivalves, and cephalopods—e...

From octopuses to snails, the complicated molluscan family tree has now been mapped in unprecedented detail, researchers report in Science.

This includes sequences for 13 new complete genomes from across the phylum. scim.ag/3DrGAkg

PRESS RELEASE @ericjnestler.bsky.social @yizhoudonglab.bsky.social et al. have developed a lipid nanoparticle system capable of delivering mRNA to brain via intravenous injection, a challenge that has long been limited by the protective nature of the #BloodBrainBarrier mountsinai.org/about/newsro...

This is figure 1, which gives an overview of Segment Anything for Microscopy.

A paper in Nature Methods presents Segment Anything for Microscopy, a tool for segmentation and tracking in multidimensional microscopy data. https://go.nature.com/3QiRonW

Thalamic opioids from POMC satiety neurons switch on sugar appetite High sugar–containing foods are readily consumed, even after meals and beyond fullness sensation (e.g., as desserts). Although reward-driven processing of palatable foods can promote overeating, the n...

🧠🍽️ Satiety neurons that make you crave sugar? 🍬 New research shows that POMC neurons, typically linked to appetite suppression, release opioids in the thalamus, flipping the switch to increase sugar intake.

#neuroskyence 🧪 #appetite

Loggerhead turtles have an uncontrollable urge to dance whenever they anticipate food—a trait scientists used to test whether the reptiles can memorize their favorite feeding sites based on Earth’s magnetic fields.

Learn more: https://scim.ag/42VqsSz

Dorsal view of a zebrafish larva with blood vessels in magenta. Anterior to the left.

Vasculature in the blood-brain barrier of a zebrafish larva. Credit to @natashaobrown.bsky.social. #ZebrafishZunday 🧪

A zebrafish circuit for behavioral credit assignment https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.02.13.638047v1

Imaging of cellular dynamics from a whole organism to subcellular scale with self-driving, multiscale microscopy Nature Methods - A self-driving multiresolution light-sheet microscope enables the simultaneous observation and quantification of cellular and subcellular dynamics in the context of intact and...

The self-driving multiscale microscope from @daetwylerstephan.bsky.social is out.

It can image an entire zebrafish embryo longitudinally and follow a volume of interest over time with high resolution.

We used it to study cancer-immune cell interactions.

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

Happy International Day of Women and Girls in Science! 🧪 Celebrating the brilliant minds, past and present, who have pushed boundaries and shaped our understanding of the world. Here’s to the next generation of scientists who will take us even further!

Come explore emerging research in brain-body communication
@KeystoneSymp
Interoception: Neural Sensing and Control of Organ Function, this April in Seattle! keysym.us/KSInterocept... #KSInteroception25 pic.x.com/gWsgQgcAJh

March 4 is the early registration deadline for the @keystonesymposia.bsky.social on Interoception: Neural Sensing and Control of Organ Function. If you're interested in attending, don't miss this opportunity to get $200 off!

More at: www.keystonesymposia.org/conferences/...

#KSInteroception25

Image of a mummichog (Fundulus heteroclitus). Image credit to Julia Wood at NCFishes.com

Toughest fish on Earth? Mummichogs are a euryhaline species, which means they can survive a range of salinities from freshwater to water that has 110g salt/L. Heralded as the first fish species in outer space, they even evolved resistance to toxic chemicals that would kill other fish. #TeleostTalk 🧪