Featured Story:
Fruit Flies Can Be Guided to Interact With a Ball
March 19, 2026
Kenichi Iwasaki shares the highlights of two recent studies exploring the use of fruit flies in research probing the neural mechanisms of object interaction. This work includes the development of a behavioral study paradigm where fruit flies are guided to interact with a small plastic ball and found to manipulate it with great dexterity.
Community Stories
February 24, 2026
How do we prepare early-career scientists for today’s wide range of paths in and beyond the lab? Jelena Patrnogić shares a new flexible competency framework she developed with Xiuqi Li and David Van Vactor that makes expectations clearer for trainees, mentors, and programs, and supports growth across both research and professional skills.
Original article in: PLoS Biology >
February 3, 2026
iPSC-derived sensory neurons provide an accessible platform for scientists to study sensory biology and disease; however, these cells are similar to embryonic neurons. Chelsey Derderian-LeBlang and Rosalind Segal present a protocol to accelerate the maturation of iPSC-derived sensory neurons, by providing external signals from satellite glial cells. They show that satellite glia, while previously described as a support cell, play a major role in both sensory neuron development and degeneration.
Original article in: Stem Cell Reports >
January 14, 2026
New experiences trigger rapid changes in gene activity and DNA accessibility in the brain’s memory-center, the hippocampus. Lisa Traunmüller and Erin Duffy describe new research from the Greenberg lab that uses advanced sequencing to map how different hippocampal regions respond at the molecular level to a novel environment — revealing how experiences shape brain circuits that underlie learning and memory.
Original article in: Nature Communications >
October 31, 2025
Rémy Furrer and Amanda Merner share the results of a survey of 1,052 U.S. adults, which found that neurotechnologies targeting motor symptoms were viewed as more acceptable and beneficial than those for mood or memory symptoms. Non-surgical options like transcranial magnetic stimulation were generally preferred over invasive ones such as deep brain stimulation.
Original article in: Device >
In the News
August 5, 2026
New research from Florian Engert, Mark Fishman, and colleagues, first author Roy Harpaz, finds that larval zebrafish rapidly adapt their social preferences based on the density of the groups in which they have recently lived. Those experiences create lasting internal states that continue shaping how the fish interact with others long after their surroundings change, giving scientists a powerful new model for investigating how the brain integrates past experience into future behavior.
Original article in: Nature Communications >
August 5, 2026
While researchers can readily study the effects of gene mutations on individual cells, uncovering how those mutations influence the coordinated movements of thousands of cells that sculpt tissues and organs has been much more difficult. New research from Sharad Ramanathan and colleagues, co-first authors Roya E. Huang and Giridhar M. Anand has developed a rapid, inexpensive method for introducing the same CRISPR gene perturbation into nearly every cell of a developing human organoid.
Original article in: eLife >
August 5, 2026
New research from Jesse Mez, Daniel H. Daneshvara, Charlotte B. Luster and colleagues, finds that National Football League players are four times likelier to die due to neurodegenerative disease than the general population. The cohort study of nearly 20,000 NFL players revealed that while players had lower mortality on average compared to national rates, they were four times more likely to experience neurodegenerative mortality.
Original article in: eClinicalMedicine >
Awards & Honors
August 5, 2026
Round up of awards and honors earned by the HBI community.
July 13, 2026
Round up of awards and honors earned by the HBI community.