Meg Younger
@megyounger.bsky.social
Neuroscientist with too many plants.
Assistant professor @bu-biology.
she/her
youngerlaboratory.org
Assistant professor @bu-biology.
she/her
youngerlaboratory.org
🔔 New collaboration with @briandepasquale.bsky.social lab! ML for Olfaction! 👃🦟🪰🐀
🔔 NEW PREPRINT FROM THE LAB ‼️
We introduce a new ML model, LoRAX, for predicting olfactory responses from chemical features, a tricky problem that benefits from progress in ML for biochem. We combine LoRA fine-tuning with protein and chemical foundation models, www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
We introduce a new ML model, LoRAX, for predicting olfactory responses from chemical features, a tricky problem that benefits from progress in ML for biochem. We combine LoRA fine-tuning with protein and chemical foundation models, www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Low rank adaptation of chemical foundation models generate effective odorant representations
Featurizing odorants to enable robust prediction of their properties is difficult due to the complex activation patterns that odorants evoke in the olfactory system. Structurally similar odorants can ...
www.biorxiv.org
November 20, 2025 at 2:23 PM
🔔 New collaboration with @briandepasquale.bsky.social lab! ML for Olfaction! 👃🦟🪰🐀
It was so fun to work on this with @gkocker.bsky.social and @clienkaemper.bsky.social! It is out @pnas.org
If you love olfaction and love math, this one is for you!
🦟👃🧮
When noncanonical olfaction is optimal | PNAS www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
If you love olfaction and love math, this one is for you!
🦟👃🧮
When noncanonical olfaction is optimal | PNAS www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
When noncanonical olfaction is optimal | PNAS
The early olfactory system is canonically described by a “one-receptor-to-one-neuron”
model: each olfactory sensory neuron (OSN) expresses a single...
www.pnas.org
October 8, 2025 at 12:42 PM
It was so fun to work on this with @gkocker.bsky.social and @clienkaemper.bsky.social! It is out @pnas.org
If you love olfaction and love math, this one is for you!
🦟👃🧮
When noncanonical olfaction is optimal | PNAS www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
If you love olfaction and love math, this one is for you!
🦟👃🧮
When noncanonical olfaction is optimal | PNAS www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Reposted by Meg Younger
Neuronal diversity is written in transcriptional codes 🧬. But what is the logic of these codes that define cell types and wiring patterns?
To find out we built a #scRNAseq developmental atlas of the Drosophila nerve cord and linked it to the #connectome 🪰🧠
#preprint thread ⬇️1/8
To find out we built a #scRNAseq developmental atlas of the Drosophila nerve cord and linked it to the #connectome 🪰🧠
#preprint thread ⬇️1/8
August 21, 2025 at 4:04 PM
Neuronal diversity is written in transcriptional codes 🧬. But what is the logic of these codes that define cell types and wiring patterns?
To find out we built a #scRNAseq developmental atlas of the Drosophila nerve cord and linked it to the #connectome 🪰🧠
#preprint thread ⬇️1/8
To find out we built a #scRNAseq developmental atlas of the Drosophila nerve cord and linked it to the #connectome 🪰🧠
#preprint thread ⬇️1/8
Reposted by Meg Younger
It’s surreal to think that every neuron and synapse in the fly brain + cord that was dissected almost five years ago (the photo’s still on the lab slack!) is now just a click away on Codex codex.flywire.ai?dataset=banc. This wouldn’t have been possible without the incredible team behind it!
August 5, 2025 at 6:38 PM
It’s surreal to think that every neuron and synapse in the fly brain + cord that was dissected almost five years ago (the photo’s still on the lab slack!) is now just a click away on Codex codex.flywire.ai?dataset=banc. This wouldn’t have been possible without the incredible team behind it!
Reposted by Meg Younger
With @megyounger.bsky.social's lab, et al., we present the first connectomics work in the disease-vector mosquito Aedes aegypti, revealing how its brain is wired to detect host cues.
Preprint: doi.org/10.1101/2025...
#Neuroscience #Connectomics #vEM #VectorBiology 🧪
Preprint: doi.org/10.1101/2025...
#Neuroscience #Connectomics #vEM #VectorBiology 🧪
August 3, 2025 at 3:51 AM
With @megyounger.bsky.social's lab, et al., we present the first connectomics work in the disease-vector mosquito Aedes aegypti, revealing how its brain is wired to detect host cues.
Preprint: doi.org/10.1101/2025...
#Neuroscience #Connectomics #vEM #VectorBiology 🧪
Preprint: doi.org/10.1101/2025...
#Neuroscience #Connectomics #vEM #VectorBiology 🧪
New preprint from @darbly.bsky.social @briandepasquale.bsky.social and my labs! If you love (or hate) mosquitoes, have a look:
doi.org/10.1101/2025...
We used TEM to describe the circuitry used for CO2 detection by mosquitoes. As usual with mosquitoes, nothing is as expected! 🌬️🦟
doi.org/10.1101/2025...
We used TEM to describe the circuitry used for CO2 detection by mosquitoes. As usual with mosquitoes, nothing is as expected! 🌬️🦟
Recurrent connectivity supports carbon dioxide sensitivity in Aedes aegypti mosquitoes
The mosquito Aedes aegypti′s human host-seeking behavior depends on the integration of multiple sensory cues. One of these cues, carbon dioxide (CO2), gates odorant and heat pathways and activates hos...
doi.org
July 31, 2025 at 12:28 PM
New preprint from @darbly.bsky.social @briandepasquale.bsky.social and my labs! If you love (or hate) mosquitoes, have a look:
doi.org/10.1101/2025...
We used TEM to describe the circuitry used for CO2 detection by mosquitoes. As usual with mosquitoes, nothing is as expected! 🌬️🦟
doi.org/10.1101/2025...
We used TEM to describe the circuitry used for CO2 detection by mosquitoes. As usual with mosquitoes, nothing is as expected! 🌬️🦟
Reposted by Meg Younger
🧬🌽 Happy Transposon Day! 🌽🧬
Today we celebrate the birthday of Barbara McClintock - scientist extraordinaire and discoverer of jumping genes. Still the only woman to have an unshared Nobel Prize in the biomedical sciences #TransposonDay2025
Today we celebrate the birthday of Barbara McClintock - scientist extraordinaire and discoverer of jumping genes. Still the only woman to have an unshared Nobel Prize in the biomedical sciences #TransposonDay2025
June 16, 2025 at 3:14 PM
🧬🌽 Happy Transposon Day! 🌽🧬
Today we celebrate the birthday of Barbara McClintock - scientist extraordinaire and discoverer of jumping genes. Still the only woman to have an unshared Nobel Prize in the biomedical sciences #TransposonDay2025
Today we celebrate the birthday of Barbara McClintock - scientist extraordinaire and discoverer of jumping genes. Still the only woman to have an unshared Nobel Prize in the biomedical sciences #TransposonDay2025
Reposted by Meg Younger
The Esther A. & Joseph Klingenstein Fund thanks @rswilliamson.bsky.social, @megyounger.bsky.social, and @sungsoo.bsky.social for presenting their research at the recent Klingenstein Fellowship Awards in Neuroscience Conference.
📷 : SimonProPhoto
📷 : SimonProPhoto
June 12, 2025 at 7:42 PM
The Esther A. & Joseph Klingenstein Fund thanks @rswilliamson.bsky.social, @megyounger.bsky.social, and @sungsoo.bsky.social for presenting their research at the recent Klingenstein Fellowship Awards in Neuroscience Conference.
📷 : SimonProPhoto
📷 : SimonProPhoto
So excited for @lforencia.bsky.social and all of the amazing fellows!!
We are thrilled to announce the 2025 Leading Edge Fellows! 40 outstanding postdoctoral fellows doing pioneering research in a wide range of biological and biomedical disciplines.
Learn more about these exceptional scientists:
www.leadingedgesymposium.org/fellows
Learn more about these exceptional scientists:
www.leadingedgesymposium.org/fellows
May 27, 2025 at 5:39 PM
So excited for @lforencia.bsky.social and all of the amazing fellows!!
New preprint out with @megyounger.bsky.social and @gkocker.bsky.social: "When non-canonical olfaction is optimal"
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
a cartoon of a mosquito with a website named ayamurata.com
Alt: a cartoon of a mosquito with a website named ayamurata.com
media.tenor.com
March 5, 2025 at 11:48 PM
Reposted by Meg Younger
🎉Congrats to the 126 early-career scientists who have been awarded a Sloan Research Fellowship this year! These exceptional scholars are drawn from 51 institutions across the US and Canada, and represent the next generation of groundbreaking researchers. sloan.org/fellowships/...
February 18, 2025 at 3:14 PM
🎉Congrats to the 126 early-career scientists who have been awarded a Sloan Research Fellowship this year! These exceptional scholars are drawn from 51 institutions across the US and Canada, and represent the next generation of groundbreaking researchers. sloan.org/fellowships/...
Finally setting this up
February 7, 2025 at 1:07 PM
Finally setting this up