Featured Story:
Excitement Over Dendritic Excitations
March 21, 2025
Neurons receive synaptic inputs all along their dendrites. Dendrites can produce electrical spikes, independent of the cell body. What are these excitations for? Park, Wong-Campos, and Cohen mapped the voltage throughout the dendrites of neurons and found that dendritic excitations were mostly triggered by specific patterns of spiking at the cell body – suggesting that the dendritic excitations play an important role in regulating synaptic plasticity.
Community Stories
March 21, 2025
Have you ever had the sense that the person you’re talking to is just a “robot”? That they’re following some script without thinking about it? New research by Ilona Bass and Tomer Ullman examines the detection of automatic behavior in other people, finding it is a common and robust phenomenon across domains.
Original article in: American Psychologist >
February 21, 2025
Haritosh Patel and colleagues explore how nature’s blueprint for smell can inspire next-generation gas sensors. By applying principles from biological olfaction—such as active sniffing, adaptive sensing, and neural-inspired processing—this work presents a new perspective for more sensitive, selective, and robust electronic noses with applications in healthcare, environmental monitoring, and beyond.
Original article in: Advanced Science >
January 13, 2025
Jakob Hartmann and Kerry Ressler share new work uncovering how SKA2, a protein regulating stress-related signaling, interacts with the glucocorticoid receptor to maintain balance in the brain’s stress response. By highlighting altered SKA2 expression in bipolar disorder, this work offers new insights into the molecular underpinnings of stress-related psychiatric conditions and potential pathways for therapeutic intervention.
Original article in: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences >
January 2, 2025
How do pediatric brain tumors mimic normal brain development, and how can this be leveraged for therapies? Ilon Liu, Mariella Filbin and colleagues find that a specific brain tumor type resembles GABAergic interneuron development, and with this knowledge they identify novel targets against this lethal tumor.
Original article in: Cancer Cell >
In the News
May 1, 2025
“If I were starting my career today, I would focus on human neurobiology.” In an article in The Transmitter opening with this sentiment, Josh Sanes introduces a series of upcoming essays he will be editing, on technological advancements that are revolutionizing human neurobiology in areas ranging from organoids and assembloids to neuroimaging, intracranial recordings, brain stimulation methods, and computational and theoretical neuroscience.
May 1, 2025
A new study from Vijay Kuchroo and colleagues, co-first authors Kimitoshi Kimura and Ayshwarya Subramanian, raises the odds that a strategy already successful against some cancers may be deployed against Alzheimer’s. The research, which highlights the role of an immune system “checkpoint” molecule, showed improved cognition in tests with mice.
Original article in: Nature >
May 1, 2025
Beth Stevens, NIH-supported investigator of Alzheimer’s and other disorders, explains how one discovery can lead to another.
Original article in: Nature >
Awards & Honors
April 17, 2025
Round up of awards and honors earned by the HBI community.
April 1, 2025
Round up of awards and honors earned by the HBI community.
Banner Image:
Spiral ganglion neuron density. Image courtesy of Isle Bastille (Lab of Lisa Goodrich, Harvard Medical School).