Thyroid signaling plays a central role in metabolism. Ralph Lawton and Daniel Hochbaum of the Sabatini Lab share new research revealing it may regulate human behavior and other important components of health as well.

Akiko Terauchi and Hisashi Umemori share new research that identified the pathway-specific signals that establish functionally segregated dopaminergic synaptic connections in the mammalian brain. The findings may provide strategies to treat pathway-specific disease symptoms in diseases like Parkinson's disease, schizophrenia, and depression, by targeting the pathway-specific molecular signals.

HMS News article on new research from Sean Megason, Chenghua Gu, Allon M. Klein, and colleagues, first author Natasha O'Brown, using mice and zebrafish to discover a signal produced by neurons that helps the blood-brain barrier form and maintain its protective properties.

Harvard Dept. of MCB News article on new research from Catherine Dulac and colleagues, first author Jessica Osterhout, showing how neurons in the brain directly read signals from the body’s immune system and how those signals alter neural circuit activity to trigger symptoms of sickness.

HMS News profile on Josefina del Marmol, a newly hired assistant professor of biological chemistry and molecular pharmacology, who studies how animals detect and identify scents.

Harvard Health Publishing article outlining LATE (limbic-predominant age-related TDP-43 encephalopathy), the third most common cause of dementia in older individuals.

Round up of awards and honors earned by the HBI community.

HMS News article on new research from the lab of Chenghua Gu, first author Swathi Ayloo, identifying a new mechanism regulating the permeability of the blood-brain barrier in mice.

Jenny Lu and colleagues in Rachel Wilson’s lab share new work on a neural circuit in the fly that transforms velocity from body-centric to world-centric reference frames. This work reveals how vector computations can be performed in the brain.

Allison E. Hamilos from the lab of John Assad shares new insights into the role of dopaminergic signaling in modulating the moment-to-moment probability of planned movement.

Harvard Gazette article on a recent panel sponsored by the Harvard Mind Brain Behavior Initiative featuring Kirk R. Daffner, Daniel L. Schacter, and Susanna C. Siegel using the plot of the film Memento to discuss memory, amnesia, and personality.

Harvard Gazette article on research probing the molecular basis for the stinging response in sea anemones and jellyfish, and identifying how these organisms detect and filter cues from the environment when making the decision to sting or not sting. From the labs of Nicholas Bellono, Amy Lee and colleagues, first author Keiko Weir. 

BCH Discoveries article on new research from the lab of Zhigang He, joint first authors Yi Li, Xuelian He, and Riki Kawaguchi. They studied recovery from spinal cord injury in neonatal mice and found that microglia cells play a crucial role in the healing process.

MCB News piece on new research from the Bellono lab, first author Lena van Giesen, uncovering the molecular basis of chemotactile sensation in octopuses.

Chris Chen of Wade Regehr's lab shares new research on ephaptic coupling--a unique form of neuronal communication that is not mediated by chemicals or physical connections--in the cerebellum.

Nicole Scott-Hewitt shares new research from the labs of Beth Stevens and colleagues, providing mechanistic insight into how microglia mediate developmental synapse pruning.

Hajnalka “Sunny” Nyitrai shares new research from the lab of Pascal Kaeser addressing how neurons transport material to the synapse and how they ensure delivery to the appropriate destinations.

Michael Do shares new findings from his lab on the question of why humans and other primates see more sharply than other mammals.

Caroline Palavicino-Maggio writes about the Journal of Emerging Investigators Mini PhD Camp, a unique program introducing underserved middle and high school students to the sciences, how to conduct research, and how to write scientific papers.

Liang Liang, Mark Andermann and Chinfei Chen discuss new findings suggesting that the modulation of visual responses to certain stimuli can occur at very early stages of visual processing, when visual signals first enter the brain.

Aditi Banerjee shares new research from the lab of Pascal Kaeser demonstrating that Synaptotagmin-1 acts as the fast calcium sensor to support dopamine release.

A new study from Keiko Weir and colleagues in lab of Nicholas Bellono, addresses the question of how single nematocytes detect and filter diverse cues from their environment to control when (and when not) to sting.

HMS News article on new research from the lab of Stephen Liberles, co-first authors Sara Prescott and Benjamin Umans, identifying rare throat-innervating sensory neurons that guard upper airways against threats.

HMS News article on new research from the labs of Chenghua Gu and Bernardo Sabatini, first authors Brian Chow and Vicente Nunez, revealing how the brain and arteries communicate to increase blood flow for neural activity.

BIDMC News article on new research from the lab of Mark Andermann (first author Yoav Livneh) shedding new light on interoception.

HMS News article on new research from the lab of Zheng Yi-Chen, joint first authors Yilai Shu, Wenyan Li, Mingqian Huang, and Yi-Zhou Quan, introducing a new strategy to reprogram and regenerate inner-ear cells.

HMS News article on new research from the labs of Bernardo Sabatini and colleagues on the development of a new light-based method to capture and pinpoint the epicenter of neural activity in the brain. 

Insulin signaling failures in the brain linked to Alzheimer’s disease.

This paper explores what NK cells do in response to nerve injury and how understanding that could lead to better treatments for pain.

HMS News article, on new research from the team of PierPaolo Peruzzi, E. Antonio Chiocca, and colleagues (first author Vivek Bhaskaran), showing how certain microRNAs can weaken brain cancer cells in advance of standard therapy in preclinical models.

Along with along with Larry Zipursky, Josh Sanes has been awarded the 2018 Perl-UNC Neuroscience Prize for the “discovery of cell-surface proteins that control circuit assembly in the visual system.”

Isaac Chiu and Debora Marks were awarded Ben Barres Early Career Acceleration Awards. David Walt and George Church were awarded a Collaborative Science Award by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.

HMS News article on new research from the lab of Qiufu Ma identifying the nerve pathway that drives sustained pain following injury.

In the glimpse of the past provided by organoids, Paola Arlotta sees a chance to shape the future of how we fight neurological disease

Congratulations to Carl Nist-Lund, Bifeng Pan, Jeffrey Abbott, Tianyang Ye, Swathi Ayloo, Brian Wai Chow, and Kevin Sitek. Each winner will receive $200 and a customized desk plaque with their image.

HMS News article on new research from the labs of Beth Stevens and Steven McCarroll on identifying which microglia in the brain are "good" and which are "bad".

They were recognized for scientifically and socially distinguished work

HMS News article on an announcement by the Bertarelli Foundation and HMS of four new collaborative research grants given to Harvard neuroscientists tackling sensory disorders--from hearing loss, deafness and blindness to acute and chronic pain.

BCH Vector Blog post on new research from the labs of Beth Stevens, Chinfei Chen, Hisashi Umemori and colleagues, identifying a “don’t eat me” signal which prevents microglia from pruning away useful synaptic connections

HMS News article highlighting a new study from the labs of Zhigang He, Clifford Woolf and colleagues identifying neurons in the brain that influence touch sensitivity.

Harvard Gazette story on new work from the labs of Jeffrey Holt, David Corey and colleagues, revealing identity of a sensor protein that helps inner ear hair cells translate sound and head movements into electrical signals that the brain can process

HMS News article on a recent study from the lab of Maxwell Heiman suggesting that neuron length must be actively maintained throughout life.

Ana Pereira and Yun Zhang describe a new project that was recently awarded funding from the Dean's Competitive Fund for Promising Scholarship

An eLife press release on new work from the labs of Yun Zhang and Joshua Kaplan, exploring how C. elegans sense and avoid nitric oxide in their environments