Ashley Holloway
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ashleyholloway.bsky.social
Ashley Holloway
@ashleyholloway.bsky.social
Neuroscientist interested in all things glia and dopamine
Reposted by Ashley Holloway
starting fall 2026 i'll be an assistant professor at @upenn.edu 🥳

my lab will develop scalable models/theories of human behavior, focused on memory and perception

currently recruiting PhD students in psychology, neuroscience, & computer science!

reach out if you're interested 😊
November 25, 2025 at 9:36 PM
Reposted by Ashley Holloway
Our paper on the counterintuitive effects of activating dopamine "reward" neurons is out now!

Props to all the trainees, especially Fio Lozada-Perdomo and Yuzhen Chen who did most of the work. Yuzhen is applying for PhD programs now and you'd be lucky to get her!

www.cell.com/iscience/ful...
Dual roles of Drosophila reward-encoding dopamine neurons in regulating innate and learned behaviors
Neuroscience; Behavioral neuroscience
www.cell.com
November 24, 2025 at 5:18 PM
Reposted by Ashley Holloway
So excited to see our latest paper out today in @natcomms.nature.com! Studies led by the amazing @margestelzner.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41.... VTA GABA neurons have a unique role in economic decision making - they integrate reward seeking motivation and the current cost of seeking
Ventral tegmental area GABA neurons integrate positive and negative valence - Nature Communications
The role of ventral tegmental area GABA neurons in behavior is unclear. Here, authors show that VTA GABA but not dopamine neurons integrate positive and negative valence to encode motivational conflic...
www.nature.com
November 24, 2025 at 4:18 PM
Reposted by Ashley Holloway
Re-upping this - Neuropeeps! We have a TT Job in my wonderful department at Brandeis! First consideration to applications received by Dec 15 (but why wait?)

www.nature.com/naturecareer...
Assistant Professor in Biology and Neuroscience Program - Waltham, Massachusetts (US) job with Brandeis University | 12848464
The Department of Biology and the Program in Neuroscience at Brandeis University invite applications for a tenure-track Assistant Professor positio...
www.nature.com
November 20, 2025 at 3:03 PM
Reposted by Ashley Holloway
Methodology
November 18, 2025 at 9:47 AM
Reposted by Ashley Holloway
"The idea of activating a memory? Very 'Total Recall' with a bit of 'Inception' thrown in. We felt like kids again, and our playground was the science lab." Read a full excerpt from "How to Change a Memory: One Neuroscientist's Quest to Alter the Past." 📚
Two Neuroscientists Envision A ‘Repair Shop’ For The Brain
In “How to Change a Memory,” neuroscientist Steve Ramirez embarks on a project to find and reactivate memories in the brains of mice.
buff.ly
November 19, 2025 at 1:24 AM
Reposted by Ashley Holloway
"Untangling the multifaceted VTA responses to stress"
http://dlvr.it/TPKFpf

@dralexharris.bsky.social @ampolter.bsky.social & Urszula Skupio
@cp-trendsneuro.bsky.social
#SfN2025
November 17, 2025 at 11:16 PM
Ok, now I have SfN FOMO 😭
Glow in the dark astrocyte earrings now in stock!
November 16, 2025 at 8:51 PM
Reposted by Ashley Holloway
The Sosa Lab is going to #SfN25 and actively recruiting ✨postdocs✨ with systems neuroscience experience! We study both fundamental memory processes and how memory changes during pregnancy and postpartum.

If you are interested in meeting at SfN, please email me! www.sosaneurolab.com/join/postdoc...
Sosa Lab - Postdoctoral Researchers
We are seeking postdocs to start in 2026!
www.sosaneurolab.com
November 7, 2025 at 10:53 PM
Reposted by Ashley Holloway
NIH grant applicants:

October and November grant application submission *deadlines* will be rescheduled (🤯). Specific dates TBD.

grants.nih.gov/grants/guide...
NOT-OD-26-005: Interim Guidance on Reopening of NIH Extramural Activities
NIH Funding Opportunities and Notices in the NIH Guide for Grants and Contracts: Interim Guidance on Reopening of NIH Extramural Activities NOT-OD-26-005. NIH
grants.nih.gov
November 14, 2025 at 8:45 PM
Reposted by Ashley Holloway
Book launch day is here 🚀

How to Change a Memory, in physical and audio form: www.amazon.com/How-Change-M...

and here's a preview of one of the book's central themes: memories change and, as a result, we change too🧠.

www.statnews.com/2025/11/04/a...
How to Change a Memory: One Neuroscientist’s Quest to Alter the Past
Buy How to Change a Memory: One Neuroscientist’s Quest to Alter the Past on Amazon.com ✓ FREE SHIPPING on qualified orders
www.amazon.com
November 4, 2025 at 2:33 PM
Reposted by Ashley Holloway
Early life adversity increases striatal dopamine D1 receptor density and promotes social alcohol drinking in mice, especially males https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.10.687736v1
November 12, 2025 at 10:16 AM
Reposted by Ashley Holloway
Delighted to see this finally out: rdcu.be/eO9oW
We tested whether brief striatal dopamine release events influence the vigor of skilled movements. Despite popular belief, we did not find any evidence linking rapid dopamine dynamics to motor vigor on a moment-by-moment basis.
Subsecond dopamine fluctuations do not specify the vigor of ongoing actions
Nature Neuroscience - Liu and colleagues show that the vigor (that is, speed and amplitude) of dexterous movements is not controlled by ongoing fluctuations in extracellular dopamine within the...
rdcu.be
November 10, 2025 at 3:43 PM
Reposted by Ashley Holloway
Spoke recently to the great folks at the science foundation on their efforts to fund curiosity-driven science. They have a new RFA out for catalytic awards (up to $10K).
Take a look if you’re itching to expand or try out a new idea.

science-foundation.org
Public Science, Public Good – Public Science, Public Good
science-foundation.org
November 4, 2025 at 12:33 AM
Reposted by Ashley Holloway
BOSTON (AP) — Judges order the federal government to use contingency funds for SNAP food aid payments during the shutdown.
October 31, 2025 at 6:07 PM
Some sparsely-labeled VTA astrocytes for #fluorescenceFriday

Green=GCaMP, red=jRGECO
October 31, 2025 at 2:09 PM
Reposted by Ashley Holloway
We are hiring for a PhD-level Staff Scientist to join our teams in the Translational Neuroscience Division @lieberinstitute.bsky.social. This is an exciting opportunity to work at the intersection of human 🧠 neuroanatomy and molecular neuroscience

recruiting.paylocity.com/recruiting/j...
Lieber Institute For Brain Development - Staff Scientist I, Translational Neuroscience
A little about us:The Lieber Institute for Brain Development (LIBD) was established in 2010 to plot a new course in biomedical research that would change the lives of individuals affected with develop...
recruiting.paylocity.com
October 29, 2025 at 4:03 PM
Did not have 'apex predator rat' on my bingo card. Go little guy, go!!
Talk about an in-flight meal.

For the first time, researchers have captured rats hunting bats by grabbing them from the sky. Learn more: https://scim.ag/3Jqldmn
October 27, 2025 at 11:32 PM
Reposted by Ashley Holloway
The ex-prosecutor also said this:

“I have a lot of close contacts in law enforcement, and almost to a person, none of them support these actions. As a lawyer, someone who adamantly believes in the rule of law, watching it in open sight in front of my house just be completely eroded…it’s upsetting.”
October 26, 2025 at 1:12 AM
Reposted by Ashley Holloway
Finally read the paper and it's worth the buzz.
mRNA vaccines saved 20 million lives in a global pandemic and the technology is opening up new avenues for the treatment of deadly cancers. This is really one of the most impactful scientific developments of our time.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccines sensitize tumours to immune checkpoint blockade - Nature
mRNA vaccines targeting SARS-CoV-2 also sensitize tumours to immune checkpoint inhibitors.
www.nature.com
October 25, 2025 at 1:42 PM
Reposted by Ashley Holloway
WOW: The White House says the president's MAIN PRIORITY is his BALLROOM. SNAP is ending. Subsidies for health care are gong to double and in some instances quadruple plan premiums. The government is shut down. The cost of living is through the roof. And his priority is his ballroom.
October 23, 2025 at 6:46 PM
Reposted by Ashley Holloway
The Cummings Lab is hiring a postdoc to work in the areas of reward and addiction! Please see the ad below:
October 23, 2025 at 6:22 PM
Reposted by Ashley Holloway
mRNA vaccines seem to work synergistically w/ cancer immunotherapy.

In patients, the vaccine acts like a siren that triggers the release of immune signaling proteins, instructing the immune system to attack tumors.

We need to funding for mRNA based therapeutics.
🧪 www.science.org/content/arti...
A surprise bonus from COVID-19 vaccines: bolstering cancer treatment
Patients who got shots of mRNA before starting a type of cancer immunotherapy lived much longer
www.science.org
October 22, 2025 at 3:14 PM
Reposted by Ashley Holloway
Check out this exciting new tool from @ajboender.bsky.social - An aav based CRISPR-Cas9 strategy to knockdown dopamine receptors. Works in mice, voles and hamsters. It was a fun collaboration. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Comparative gene editing reduces dopamine receptor levels across rodent species
Translational challenges in neuroscience originate from species-specific differences that limit the generalizability of experimental findings. Comparative approaches can help distinguish conserved fro...
www.biorxiv.org
October 22, 2025 at 3:59 PM
Great mentorship is mutually beneficial for mentor and mentee!
October 22, 2025 at 11:53 AM