News

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.

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.

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.

New research from Mike Greenberg, Chinfei Chen, and colleagues, first author Bruno Gegenhuber discovers a new way that brain plasticity is controlled in early life, offering insight into the little-understood phenomenon of critical-period closure.

New research from Subhash Kulkarni and colleagues, co-first authors Srinivas N. Puttapaka and Jared Slosberg (Johns Hopkins) shows how stress hormones directly interfere with gut function, slowing digestion through a newly defined pathway. In preclinical models, the findings point toward a potential way to treat stress-associated constipation.

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