Thanks! Another one not far behind I hope. But that just jinxed it I am sure.

P.S. Both Katie and Emily are so fantastic and are thinking about next steps. Anyone would be lucky to have them as postdocs! I am so fortunate to have a lab full of fabulous trainees - they are a real bright light during these difficult times for science.

If you want to know more - as I hope you do, here is the link! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

In studying INS-17 in great detail, Emily made clever use of a new technique we worked on with @jsrinivasanwpi.bsky.social to manipulate neuropeptides by feeding, along with a bunch of other fun genetics to understand why INS-17 was special, and why the worms might need it in the first place.

But Emily and I got to thinking, how would this pathway be regulated in the worms' world to affect behavior? Ligand receptor interactions! So she decided to ask if INS-17 was special. Spoiler alert: it was!

The fact that insulin signaling was important for memory wasn't surprising - beautiful work from the lab of my postdoc mentor Coleen Murphy found that reduced insulin receptor function boosted memory, and described the molecules downstream that are involved in these phenotypes in so many cool ways.

Now time for the food a.k.a. how we accidentally ended up looking at insulin signaling without trying. This work started with another grad student @emilyleptich.bsky.social who was studying neuropeptides that might be important for behavior, and a screen turned up an insulin like peptide, INS-17.

She found something surprising to us - that removal from chronic alcohol, as close as we can get to withdrawal in the worm, was not so great for their ability to remember. She then went on to chase down the genetic why - read her paper here to find out!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

We used to both spend a lot of time thinking about mood, and reward. Katie decided to ask if she could use the worm for these questions, specifically how alcohol disrupts cognition. This was a fearless undertaking, as she had to develop and modify protocols to study this problem.

Since I love a good aperitivo - let's start off with the work of grad student Katie @katiebrandel.bsky.social! Katie and I were distantly scientifically related before she joined the lab, as we both trained in labs from the same scientific lineage (Eric Nestler).

Oh Jason, how heartbreaking. I am so sorry for your loss.

Congrats!

I think Houston area is up to 14 now!

See you in Sydney!

This is awful and infuriating.

Fresh from HEB

I sought out emotional support tacos