Franck Polleux
@franckp.bsky.social
Neuroscientist and cell biologist. Investigator of the Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute (ZMBBI) in New York
Pinned
Franck Polleux
@franckp.bsky.social
· Dec 18
Synaptic basis of feature selectivity in hippocampal neurons - Nature
A temporally asymmetric synaptic plasticity kernel results from bidirectional modifications of synaptic weights around the induction of a place field.
www.nature.com
Delighted to highlight our new paper in
@natureportfolio.bsky.social entitled 'Synaptic basis of feature selectivity in hippocampal neurons' (thread below 👇): www.nature.com/articles/s41...
@natureportfolio.bsky.social entitled 'Synaptic basis of feature selectivity in hippocampal neurons' (thread below 👇): www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Franck Polleux
This NYT story about how Mamdani dealt with the opposition by the city's elites fails to mention one particular elite institution: The NYT editorial page, which last June railed against him as "uniquely unsuited to the city’s challenges... lacks political savvy"
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/04/n...
1/
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/04/n...
1/
How Zohran Mamdani Beat Back New York’s Elite and Was Elected Mayor
www.nytimes.com
November 5, 2025 at 12:16 PM
This NYT story about how Mamdani dealt with the opposition by the city's elites fails to mention one particular elite institution: The NYT editorial page, which last June railed against him as "uniquely unsuited to the city’s challenges... lacks political savvy"
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/04/n...
1/
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/04/n...
1/
Reposted by Franck Polleux
Inbox— next cover of the New Yorker: “Mayor Mamdani,” by Edel Rodriguez
November 5, 2025 at 3:19 AM
Inbox— next cover of the New Yorker: “Mayor Mamdani,” by Edel Rodriguez
Reposted by Franck Polleux
AOC: We have a future to fight for, and we're either going to do that together or you're going to be left behind. It's not about Progressive. It's not moderate, it's not liberal. This is about do you understand the assignment of fighting fascism right now? And the assignment is you come together…
November 5, 2025 at 3:24 AM
AOC: We have a future to fight for, and we're either going to do that together or you're going to be left behind. It's not about Progressive. It's not moderate, it's not liberal. This is about do you understand the assignment of fighting fascism right now? And the assignment is you come together…
i really enjoyed talking to Holly Barker @thetransmitter.bsky.social about our collaborative work with @vanderhaeghenp2.bsky.social studying the role of human-specific genes SRGAP2B/C in implementing synaptic neoteny in human cortical neurons 👇
Why do human synapses take so much longer to form than those in other mammals? Chimeric mice transplanted with human neurons are beginning to provide some answers.
By Holly Barker
www.thetransmitter.org/spectrum/pro...
By Holly Barker
www.thetransmitter.org/spectrum/pro...
Protein tug-of-war controls pace of synaptic development, sets human brains apart
Human-specific duplicates of SRGAP2 prolong cortical development by manipulating SYNGAP, an autism-linked protein that slows synaptic growth.
www.thetransmitter.org
October 27, 2025 at 11:40 AM
i really enjoyed talking to Holly Barker @thetransmitter.bsky.social about our collaborative work with @vanderhaeghenp2.bsky.social studying the role of human-specific genes SRGAP2B/C in implementing synaptic neoteny in human cortical neurons 👇
a great piece by @vanderhaeghenp2.bsky.social in @thetransmitter.bsky.social 👇
Transplanted cells offer insight into human-specific properties, such as lengthy cortical development and sensitivity to neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative disease, writes @vanderhaeghenp2.bsky.social in our “Frontiers in human neurotechnology” series.
www.thetransmitter.org/human-neurot...
www.thetransmitter.org/human-neurot...
In vivo veritas: Xenotransplantation can help us study the development and function of human neurons in a living brain
Transplanted cells offer insight into human-specific properties, such as a lengthy cortical development and sensitivity to neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative disease.
www.thetransmitter.org
October 27, 2025 at 11:20 AM
a great piece by @vanderhaeghenp2.bsky.social in @thetransmitter.bsky.social 👇
Reposted by Franck Polleux
🧠🌟🐭 Excited to share some of my postdoc work on the evolution of dexterity!
We compared deer mice evolved in forest vs prairie habitats. We found that forest mice have:
(1) more corticospinal neurons (CSNs)
(2) better hand dexterity
(3) more dexterous climbing, which is linked to CSN number🧵
We compared deer mice evolved in forest vs prairie habitats. We found that forest mice have:
(1) more corticospinal neurons (CSNs)
(2) better hand dexterity
(3) more dexterous climbing, which is linked to CSN number🧵
October 22, 2025 at 8:41 PM
🧠🌟🐭 Excited to share some of my postdoc work on the evolution of dexterity!
We compared deer mice evolved in forest vs prairie habitats. We found that forest mice have:
(1) more corticospinal neurons (CSNs)
(2) better hand dexterity
(3) more dexterous climbing, which is linked to CSN number🧵
We compared deer mice evolved in forest vs prairie habitats. We found that forest mice have:
(1) more corticospinal neurons (CSNs)
(2) better hand dexterity
(3) more dexterous climbing, which is linked to CSN number🧵
Reposted by Franck Polleux
If you normally have an incoming class of 15 students (like in my PhD program), what's the point of admitting just one or two students? How are you going to teach classes or have any sense of camaraderie?
US PhD admissions shrink as fears over Trump’s cuts take hold
Some doctoral programmes are admitting no students at all amid uncertainty about federal science funding.
go.nature.com
October 22, 2025 at 11:04 AM
If you normally have an incoming class of 15 students (like in my PhD program), what's the point of admitting just one or two students? How are you going to teach classes or have any sense of camaraderie?
Reposted by Franck Polleux
Hasan: The great irony is of course that Donald Trump is the son of an immigrant. The grandson of an immigrant and married to an immigrant. In fact two of his three wives were immigrants, proving yet again that immigrants will do the jobs that even Americans are not willing to do.
October 18, 2025 at 4:35 PM
Hasan: The great irony is of course that Donald Trump is the son of an immigrant. The grandson of an immigrant and married to an immigrant. In fact two of his three wives were immigrants, proving yet again that immigrants will do the jobs that even Americans are not willing to do.
Reposted by Franck Polleux
This is Trump's hometown, New York City. It's hard to comprehend just how many patriotic Americans turned out for the No Kings protest against Trump and his fascist authoritarian regime — but this arial video gives y'all an idea. 🙌💪👏✊️🇺🇸👇
October 18, 2025 at 9:39 PM
This is Trump's hometown, New York City. It's hard to comprehend just how many patriotic Americans turned out for the No Kings protest against Trump and his fascist authoritarian regime — but this arial video gives y'all an idea. 🙌💪👏✊️🇺🇸👇
This is what leadership looks like👇
orgchart.mit.edu/letters/rega...
orgchart.mit.edu/letters/rega...
Regarding the Compact | MIT Organization Chart
orgchart.mit.edu
October 11, 2025 at 4:31 PM
This is what leadership looks like👇
orgchart.mit.edu/letters/rega...
orgchart.mit.edu/letters/rega...
Reposted by Franck Polleux
Reposted by Franck Polleux
The intellectual purge continues.
Last month Marrazzo said she had been silenced when she and her colleagues pushed back against NIH officials who questioned the importance of childhood flu vaccines and canceled long-running clinical trials.
www.cbsnews.com/news/rfk-jr-...
Last month Marrazzo said she had been silenced when she and her colleagues pushed back against NIH officials who questioned the importance of childhood flu vaccines and canceled long-running clinical trials.
www.cbsnews.com/news/rfk-jr-...
RFK Jr. fires NIH vaccine whistleblower Dr. Jeanne Marrazzo
RFK Jr. fired infectious disease specialist Dr. Jeanne Marrazzo, who told CBS News she was put on leave after questioning actions taken by Trump appointees.
www.cbsnews.com
October 3, 2025 at 9:58 PM
The intellectual purge continues.
Last month Marrazzo said she had been silenced when she and her colleagues pushed back against NIH officials who questioned the importance of childhood flu vaccines and canceled long-running clinical trials.
www.cbsnews.com/news/rfk-jr-...
Last month Marrazzo said she had been silenced when she and her colleagues pushed back against NIH officials who questioned the importance of childhood flu vaccines and canceled long-running clinical trials.
www.cbsnews.com/news/rfk-jr-...
😔
Compelling and quite disturbing...
Land of the free. Home of the brave.
September 30, 2025 at 2:46 PM
😔
Reposted by Franck Polleux
Paris celebrated the opening of its 300th “school street”: landscaped & pedestrianized or semi-pedestrianized blocks situated in front of schools. Most have been completed since 2020.
Paris passe le cap des 300 rues piétonnes près des écoles pour être « plus accueillante aux enfants »
La municipalité, qui a organisé samedi une fête dédiée, tire un bilan positif de ces espaces piétonnisés aux abords des établissements scola
leparisien.fr
September 29, 2025 at 12:31 PM
Paris celebrated the opening of its 300th “school street”: landscaped & pedestrianized or semi-pedestrianized blocks situated in front of schools. Most have been completed since 2020.
Reposted by Franck Polleux
I was back at 26 Federal Plaza today, where an ICE agent violently threw this bereft woman to the ground in front of her kids. She had not touched him. She did not pose any threat. She had to be taken to the hospital. (🎥: Elias Eliahu)
September 25, 2025 at 6:03 PM
I was back at 26 Federal Plaza today, where an ICE agent violently threw this bereft woman to the ground in front of her kids. She had not touched him. She did not pose any threat. She had to be taken to the hospital. (🎥: Elias Eliahu)
Excited to highlight a new paper from my graduate student Sergio Bernal Garcia who, together withLuke Hammond, developed RESPAN, a new deep-learning pipeline automating the segmentation of neuronal morphology and dendritic spines from fluorescent microscopy images:
www.cell.com/cell-reports...
www.cell.com/cell-reports...
A deep learning pipeline for accurate and automated restoration, segmentation, and quantification of dendritic spines
Garcia et al. present RESPAN, a pipeline that enables automated dendritic spine analysis
through seamless integration of deep learning image restoration and segmentation capabilities
with comprehensiv...
www.cell.com
September 21, 2025 at 1:01 PM
Excited to highlight a new paper from my graduate student Sergio Bernal Garcia who, together withLuke Hammond, developed RESPAN, a new deep-learning pipeline automating the segmentation of neuronal morphology and dendritic spines from fluorescent microscopy images:
www.cell.com/cell-reports...
www.cell.com/cell-reports...
Reposted by Franck Polleux
✨ Post-doc opportunity in axon biology, funded by #ATIP-Avenir!
👀 We are looking for an enthusiastic post-doc to join our team at @ibdm.bsky.social to explore translation dynamics in axon regrowth, using live imaging approaches.
Apply at: emploi.cnrs.fr/Offres/CDD/U...
Thank you for sharing! 👋 🙏
👀 We are looking for an enthusiastic post-doc to join our team at @ibdm.bsky.social to explore translation dynamics in axon regrowth, using live imaging approaches.
Apply at: emploi.cnrs.fr/Offres/CDD/U...
Thank you for sharing! 👋 🙏
Portail Emploi CNRS - Offre d'emploi - Post-doctoral researcher in axon biology (M/F)
emploi.cnrs.fr
September 11, 2025 at 12:24 PM
✨ Post-doc opportunity in axon biology, funded by #ATIP-Avenir!
👀 We are looking for an enthusiastic post-doc to join our team at @ibdm.bsky.social to explore translation dynamics in axon regrowth, using live imaging approaches.
Apply at: emploi.cnrs.fr/Offres/CDD/U...
Thank you for sharing! 👋 🙏
👀 We are looking for an enthusiastic post-doc to join our team at @ibdm.bsky.social to explore translation dynamics in axon regrowth, using live imaging approaches.
Apply at: emploi.cnrs.fr/Offres/CDD/U...
Thank you for sharing! 👋 🙏
Reposted by Franck Polleux
Simpering cowards one and all.
This is almost unbearable to watch.
This is almost unbearable to watch.
Incredible clip of tech CEOs fawning over Donald Trump. Someone store this clip in the underground archive vault
September 6, 2025 at 10:18 PM
Simpering cowards one and all.
This is almost unbearable to watch.
This is almost unbearable to watch.
fascinating results👇
Excited to share our latest work on brain evolution, where we dive into the evolution of Cajal-Retzius cells! If you are interested in cell type evolution and cerebral cortex evo-devo, please read on… www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... 🧵 1/7
Evolution of Cajal-Retzius Cells in Vertebrates from an Ancient Class of Tp73+ Neurons
In the developing cerebral cortex, Cajal Retzius (CR) cells are early-born neurons that orchestrate the development of mammalian-specific cortical features. However, this cell type has not been conclu...
www.biorxiv.org
September 5, 2025 at 12:55 PM
fascinating results👇
Reposted by Franck Polleux
I enjoyed this. And what an infectious laugh. ❤️
"Reporter left speechless after witnessing Japan's new $70 million Maglev train in action at 310 mph"
"Reporter left speechless after witnessing Japan's new $70 million Maglev train in action at 310 mph"
September 2, 2025 at 8:29 PM
I enjoyed this. And what an infectious laugh. ❤️
"Reporter left speechless after witnessing Japan's new $70 million Maglev train in action at 310 mph"
"Reporter left speechless after witnessing Japan's new $70 million Maglev train in action at 310 mph"
Reposted by Franck Polleux
Modern-Day Oracles or Bullshit Machines?
Jevin West (@jevinwest.bsky.social) and I have spent the last eight months developing the course on large language models (LLMs) that we think every college freshman needs to take.
thebullshitmachines.com
Jevin West (@jevinwest.bsky.social) and I have spent the last eight months developing the course on large language models (LLMs) that we think every college freshman needs to take.
thebullshitmachines.com
INTRODUCTION
thebullshitmachines.com
February 4, 2025 at 4:12 PM
Modern-Day Oracles or Bullshit Machines?
Jevin West (@jevinwest.bsky.social) and I have spent the last eight months developing the course on large language models (LLMs) that we think every college freshman needs to take.
thebullshitmachines.com
Jevin West (@jevinwest.bsky.social) and I have spent the last eight months developing the course on large language models (LLMs) that we think every college freshman needs to take.
thebullshitmachines.com
Reposted by Franck Polleux
In 25 years, every business school in the country will be doing case studies about how a long defunct company known as “Google” once had an unbeatable lock on online information retrieval and then started doing shit like this.
August 23, 2025 at 6:16 PM
In 25 years, every business school in the country will be doing case studies about how a long defunct company known as “Google” once had an unbeatable lock on online information retrieval and then started doing shit like this.
Watch this video about the new Vera Rubin telescope. Truly remarkable scientific and engineering achievement, so much to learn about our universe! I In these troubled times, it's so refreshing and stimulating to realize how transformative science and human ingenuity can be 👇
What is the Rubin Observatory and why are astronomers so excited about it? My colleague @danclery.bsky.social has been to the telescope and spoken to some of the scientists who will use it. This video is well worth 10mins of your time. 🔭🧪
m.youtube.com/watch?v=2C77...
m.youtube.com/watch?v=2C77...
A new eye on the universe is about to open
YouTube video by Science Magazine
m.youtube.com
July 8, 2025 at 4:23 PM
Watch this video about the new Vera Rubin telescope. Truly remarkable scientific and engineering achievement, so much to learn about our universe! I In these troubled times, it's so refreshing and stimulating to realize how transformative science and human ingenuity can be 👇
Reposted by Franck Polleux
New, from me:
The Times published a piece accusing a man born in Africa as claiming to be African-American in a failed college admission.
They viewed this story to be newsworthy enough to grant anonymity to a eugenicist working with hacked personal data.
donmoynihan.substack.com/p/whos-afrai...
The Times published a piece accusing a man born in Africa as claiming to be African-American in a failed college admission.
They viewed this story to be newsworthy enough to grant anonymity to a eugenicist working with hacked personal data.
donmoynihan.substack.com/p/whos-afrai...
Who's Afraid of Zohran Mamdani?
And what it means to be an immigrant on July 4th
donmoynihan.substack.com
July 4, 2025 at 7:30 AM
New, from me:
The Times published a piece accusing a man born in Africa as claiming to be African-American in a failed college admission.
They viewed this story to be newsworthy enough to grant anonymity to a eugenicist working with hacked personal data.
donmoynihan.substack.com/p/whos-afrai...
The Times published a piece accusing a man born in Africa as claiming to be African-American in a failed college admission.
They viewed this story to be newsworthy enough to grant anonymity to a eugenicist working with hacked personal data.
donmoynihan.substack.com/p/whos-afrai...
Reposted by Franck Polleux
Elon Musk casually, and illegally, dismantled USAID. According to a new study in the Lancet, that action will lead to *14 million* premature deaths between 2025 and 2030.
Again: Elon Musk is directly responsible for 14 million coming deaths. 4.5 million will be children.
Again: Elon Musk is directly responsible for 14 million coming deaths. 4.5 million will be children.
Evaluating the impact of two decades of USAID interventions and projecting the effects of defunding on mortality up to 2030: a retrospective impact evaluation and forecasting analysis
USAID funding has significantly contributed to the reduction in adult and child mortality
across low-income and middle-income countries over the past two decades. Our estimates
show that, unless the a...
www.thelancet.com
July 2, 2025 at 8:00 PM
Elon Musk casually, and illegally, dismantled USAID. According to a new study in the Lancet, that action will lead to *14 million* premature deaths between 2025 and 2030.
Again: Elon Musk is directly responsible for 14 million coming deaths. 4.5 million will be children.
Again: Elon Musk is directly responsible for 14 million coming deaths. 4.5 million will be children.