Dave Root
@neuronroot.bsky.social
Neuroscientist at CU Boulder. he/him. Mostly amplify other neuroscientists. www.root-lab.org
Pinned
Dave Root
@neuronroot.bsky.social
· Feb 27
New preprint! We untangle glutamatergic and dopaminergic subpopulations in the ventral tegmental area. Long thread incoming, buckle up friends. 1/n
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Untangling dopamine and glutamate in the ventral tegmental area
Ventral tegmental area (VTA) dopamine neurons are of great interest for their central roles in motivation, learning, and psychiatric disorders. While hypotheses of VTA dopamine neuron function posit a...
www.biorxiv.org
New Pre-Print led by @emilyprevost.bsky.social Glutamate-dopamine, nonglu-dopamine, and glu-only neurons and neurotransmitters they use have dissociable contributions to motivated behavior. Important to segregate DA subcell-types to better understand the many motivation-related functions of DA
Reposted by Dave Root
@thetransmitter.bsky.social’s “New Lab Directory” features a list of new neuroscience labs that opened in 2024-2025, and some set to launch in 2026. Check out the list to learn about the work of more than 50 new neuroscience labs. www.thetransmitter.org/community/th...
#StateOfNeuroscience
#StateOfNeuroscience
The Transmitter’s New Lab Directory
Learn about neuroscience labs launched in the past two years, plus a few opening their doors in 2026.
www.thetransmitter.org
November 26, 2025 at 9:28 PM
@thetransmitter.bsky.social’s “New Lab Directory” features a list of new neuroscience labs that opened in 2024-2025, and some set to launch in 2026. Check out the list to learn about the work of more than 50 new neuroscience labs. www.thetransmitter.org/community/th...
#StateOfNeuroscience
#StateOfNeuroscience
Reposted by Dave Root
Our latest profile is here! Dr. Zoe Donaldson (@neurozoe.bsky.social) studies the neural circuits that govern social bonding & social loss, and how variations in these circuits shape emotional outcomes.
Follow the link to listen! #StoriesOfWiN #WomenInNeuroscience
storiesofwin.org/profiles/202...
Follow the link to listen! #StoriesOfWiN #WomenInNeuroscience
storiesofwin.org/profiles/202...
Dr. Zoe Donaldson — Stories of WiN
studies the neural circuits that govern social bonding and social loss, and how variations in these circuits shape emotional outcomes
storiesofwin.org
November 27, 2025 at 12:55 AM
Our latest profile is here! Dr. Zoe Donaldson (@neurozoe.bsky.social) studies the neural circuits that govern social bonding & social loss, and how variations in these circuits shape emotional outcomes.
Follow the link to listen! #StoriesOfWiN #WomenInNeuroscience
storiesofwin.org/profiles/202...
Follow the link to listen! #StoriesOfWiN #WomenInNeuroscience
storiesofwin.org/profiles/202...
Reposted by Dave Root
The brain architecture of punishment learning https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.24.690287v1
November 25, 2025 at 10:16 AM
The brain architecture of punishment learning https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.24.690287v1
Reposted by Dave Root
Applications due December 1st!
Come work with us!
Come work with us!
Two weeks left to apply! MIT's Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences is seeking a tenure-track Assistant Professor, working with nonhuman animals in some way. Application deadline is Dec. 1. Full posting: academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/30586
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Brain & Cognitive Sciences
Job #AJO30586, Assistant Professor level or higher, Department of Brain & Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, US
academicjobsonline.org
November 24, 2025 at 9:41 PM
Applications due December 1st!
Come work with us!
Come work with us!
Reposted by Dave Root
biggest advice is for undergrads ive encountered who think their life will be over if they don’t get accepted into a PhD senior year: You have time! Sometimes time is good. I started my program 3 yrs after graduating. in those years I found a topic I love enough to dedicate at least a half decade to
It's PhD application season. If you are applying for a PhD in neuroscience or biomedical field or are mentoring someone who is applying, please check out our @storiesofwin.bsky.social episode with advice! www.storiesofwin.org/profiles/202...
Neuroscience PhD applications — Stories of WiN
Dr. Nancy Padilla-Coreano chats with Dr. Ben Giasson, the director of the neuroscience PhD program at the University of Florida, to demystify the PhD application process.
www.storiesofwin.org
November 22, 2025 at 12:06 AM
biggest advice is for undergrads ive encountered who think their life will be over if they don’t get accepted into a PhD senior year: You have time! Sometimes time is good. I started my program 3 yrs after graduating. in those years I found a topic I love enough to dedicate at least a half decade to
Reposted by Dave Root
It's PhD application season. If you are applying for a PhD in neuroscience or biomedical field or are mentoring someone who is applying, please check out our @storiesofwin.bsky.social episode with advice! www.storiesofwin.org/profiles/202...
Neuroscience PhD applications — Stories of WiN
Dr. Nancy Padilla-Coreano chats with Dr. Ben Giasson, the director of the neuroscience PhD program at the University of Florida, to demystify the PhD application process.
www.storiesofwin.org
November 21, 2025 at 2:50 PM
It's PhD application season. If you are applying for a PhD in neuroscience or biomedical field or are mentoring someone who is applying, please check out our @storiesofwin.bsky.social episode with advice! www.storiesofwin.org/profiles/202...
Reposted by Dave Root
Ed Kravitz was an extraordinary scientist, educator and activist. I had the privilege of getting to know Ed through his work with SPINES, a professional development course at the MBL. His legacy will carry on, not only through his science, but also in the many students he taught and mentored. 🧪
Remembering GABA pioneer Edward Kravitz
The biochemist, who died last month at age 92, was part of the first neurobiology department in the world and showed that gamma-aminobutyric acid is inhibitory.
www.thetransmitter.org
November 19, 2025 at 9:13 PM
Ed Kravitz was an extraordinary scientist, educator and activist. I had the privilege of getting to know Ed through his work with SPINES, a professional development course at the MBL. His legacy will carry on, not only through his science, but also in the many students he taught and mentored. 🧪
Reposted by Dave Root
Researchers analyzed symptoms from 1,661 long COVID patients and found at least 10 biological subtypes and 3 severity levels.
Machine learning predicted recovery and even linked symptoms to antibody levels.
www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1...
Machine learning predicted recovery and even linked symptoms to antibody levels.
www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1...
Machine Learning Analysis of Post-Acute COVID Symptoms Identifies Distinct Clusters and Severity Groups
Questionnaires that capture patient-reported symptomatology provide low-cost but potentially high-value data for the de novo discovery of disease phenotype, severity, and responsiveness to interventio...
www.medrxiv.org
November 19, 2025 at 4:32 AM
Researchers analyzed symptoms from 1,661 long COVID patients and found at least 10 biological subtypes and 3 severity levels.
Machine learning predicted recovery and even linked symptoms to antibody levels.
www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1...
Machine learning predicted recovery and even linked symptoms to antibody levels.
www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Dave Root
Come do a joint postdoc with me and @tinakim-neuro.bsky.social, splitting your time between Princeton and Columbia. Come design new activity-dependent labeling enzymes and transcriptional reporters optimized for application in the peripheral nervous system.
hhmi.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/Extern...
hhmi.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/Extern...
Postdoctoral Scientist- Kim and Abdus-Saboor Lab
Primary Work Address: Dept of Molecular Biology, Princeton, NJ, 08544 Current HHMI Employees, click here to apply via your Workday account. The Kim Lab at Princeton University and Abdus-Saboor Lab at ...
hhmi.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com
November 17, 2025 at 5:34 PM
Come do a joint postdoc with me and @tinakim-neuro.bsky.social, splitting your time between Princeton and Columbia. Come design new activity-dependent labeling enzymes and transcriptional reporters optimized for application in the peripheral nervous system.
hhmi.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/Extern...
hhmi.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/Extern...
Reposted by Dave Root
Call for junior or mid-career group leaders in neuroscience! Apply by 30 Jan to join the FENS-Kavli Network. We are looking for excellent and engaged future scholars who are committed to exchanging scientific ideas & improve neuroscience in Europe. fenskavlinetwork.org/who-we-are/a...
November 17, 2025 at 11:21 AM
Call for junior or mid-career group leaders in neuroscience! Apply by 30 Jan to join the FENS-Kavli Network. We are looking for excellent and engaged future scholars who are committed to exchanging scientific ideas & improve neuroscience in Europe. fenskavlinetwork.org/who-we-are/a...
Reposted by Dave Root
Thought now was as good a time as ever to join bsky - Excited to share a big part of my PhD work is finally published- 7+ years of experiments from a great team of people. Wishing I could be at #sfn2025 to celebrate with you guys! www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Cocaine seeking and consumption are oppositely regulated by mesolimbic dopamine in male rats - Nature Communications
Here authors demonstrate how opposing trajectories of dopamine transmission underlie changes in drug seeking and taking over chronic drug use. Increased dopamine to drug cues elevates craving, whereas...
www.nature.com
November 13, 2025 at 11:09 PM
Thought now was as good a time as ever to join bsky - Excited to share a big part of my PhD work is finally published- 7+ years of experiments from a great team of people. Wishing I could be at #sfn2025 to celebrate with you guys! www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Dave Root
We are grieving our friend and brilliant colleague Natalia Duque-Wilckens. A creative scientist, artist, caring mentor, and force for change. Words can’t describe the impact she had on lives at UC Davis, MSU, NC State and beyond. I feel lucky to have known her and wish her time didn’t end so soon
November 13, 2025 at 6:58 PM
We are grieving our friend and brilliant colleague Natalia Duque-Wilckens. A creative scientist, artist, caring mentor, and force for change. Words can’t describe the impact she had on lives at UC Davis, MSU, NC State and beyond. I feel lucky to have known her and wish her time didn’t end so soon
Reposted by Dave Root
The Gowrishankar lab will be opening its doors @neuro_MUSC on Dec 1, 2025! We will be hiring at all levels. I will also be at @SfNtweets presenting my lab's vision on Wednesday, Nov 19, 8AM-12PM at poster board GG7. If you're interested, please reach out!
www.raajgowrishankarlab.org
www.raajgowrishankarlab.org
Gowrishankar Lab
www.raajgowrishankarlab.org
November 12, 2025 at 10:23 PM
The Gowrishankar lab will be opening its doors @neuro_MUSC on Dec 1, 2025! We will be hiring at all levels. I will also be at @SfNtweets presenting my lab's vision on Wednesday, Nov 19, 8AM-12PM at poster board GG7. If you're interested, please reach out!
www.raajgowrishankarlab.org
www.raajgowrishankarlab.org
Reposted by Dave Root
Out now: Favila, Capece Marsico et al. 2025, Nature Communications: Using longitudinal deep-brain imaging, we report that amygdala interneurons exhibit complex and heterogeneous plasticity during associative learning, at both the single-cell and population level.
👉 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
👉 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Heterogeneous plasticity of amygdala interneurons in associative learning and extinction - Nature Communications
In this study, the authors uncover how diverse inhibitory interneurons in the amygdala flexibly contribute to fear and safety learning, revealing a key role for inhibition in emotional memory and adap...
www.nature.com
November 12, 2025 at 6:55 PM
Out now: Favila, Capece Marsico et al. 2025, Nature Communications: Using longitudinal deep-brain imaging, we report that amygdala interneurons exhibit complex and heterogeneous plasticity during associative learning, at both the single-cell and population level.
👉 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
👉 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Dave Root
New preprint from the lab! We identified Vipr2-expressing BNST neurons as a distinct subpopulation of the oval nucleus that promotes feeding, is activated by food restriction, is non-overlapping with appetite-suppressing PKC delta neurons, and projects to PSTN & PVN hypothalamic feeding centers.
November 11, 2025 at 4:39 PM
New preprint from the lab! We identified Vipr2-expressing BNST neurons as a distinct subpopulation of the oval nucleus that promotes feeding, is activated by food restriction, is non-overlapping with appetite-suppressing PKC delta neurons, and projects to PSTN & PVN hypothalamic feeding centers.
Reposted by Dave Root
A Distinct Subpopulation of Extended Amygdala Neurons Drives Food Intake https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.07.685941v1
November 10, 2025 at 7:16 PM
A Distinct Subpopulation of Extended Amygdala Neurons Drives Food Intake https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.07.685941v1
Reposted by Dave Root
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.
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
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.
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.
Reposted by Dave Root
I really love this: What does a scientist look like? Children are drawing women more than ever before
#WomenInStem
www.science.org/content/arti...
#WomenInStem
www.science.org/content/arti...
What does a scientist look like? Children are drawing women more than ever before
Study is based on 20,860 sketches drawn by children over 5 decades
www.science.org
November 8, 2025 at 1:34 PM
I really love this: What does a scientist look like? Children are drawing women more than ever before
#WomenInStem
www.science.org/content/arti...
#WomenInStem
www.science.org/content/arti...
Reposted by Dave Root
Excited to share our latest @nature.com: How does naloxone (Narcan) stop an opioid overdose? We determined the first GDP-bound μ-opioid receptor–G protein structures and found naloxone traps a novel "latent” state, preventing GDP release and G protein activation.💊🧪 🧵👇 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
November 5, 2025 at 4:23 PM
Excited to share our latest @nature.com: How does naloxone (Narcan) stop an opioid overdose? We determined the first GDP-bound μ-opioid receptor–G protein structures and found naloxone traps a novel "latent” state, preventing GDP release and G protein activation.💊🧪 🧵👇 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Dave Root
Warning. ⚠️ If you are writing an NSF GRFP, new this year, you need official transcripts to apply. Beware. They will not review applications without official transcripts. ‼️
November 4, 2025 at 8:50 PM
Warning. ⚠️ If you are writing an NSF GRFP, new this year, you need official transcripts to apply. Beware. They will not review applications without official transcripts. ‼️
Reposted by Dave Root
BREAKING: Colorado voters approved a ballot measure that would raise state income taxes on higher-earning households to fund free meals for all public school students.
Follow AP for live updates.
Follow AP for live updates.
Live updates: US voters head to the polls in first general election since Trump's return to power
One year after Donald Trump retook the presidency, 2025 Election Day includes closely watched races for New York City mayor, New Jersey governor and California's Proposition 50.
bit.ly
November 5, 2025 at 3:33 AM
BREAKING: Colorado voters approved a ballot measure that would raise state income taxes on higher-earning households to fund free meals for all public school students.
Follow AP for live updates.
Follow AP for live updates.
Reposted by Dave Root
We’re hiring a technician!!
We’re an inclusive team of behavioral neuroscientists trying to discover the brain circuits of learning, decision making, and habit. More info👇
wassumlab.psych.ucla.edu/join-the-lab/
Job posting:
jobs.ucla.edu/jobs/8968
We’re an inclusive team of behavioral neuroscientists trying to discover the brain circuits of learning, decision making, and habit. More info👇
wassumlab.psych.ucla.edu/join-the-lab/
Job posting:
jobs.ucla.edu/jobs/8968
November 3, 2025 at 3:52 PM
We’re hiring a technician!!
We’re an inclusive team of behavioral neuroscientists trying to discover the brain circuits of learning, decision making, and habit. More info👇
wassumlab.psych.ucla.edu/join-the-lab/
Job posting:
jobs.ucla.edu/jobs/8968
We’re an inclusive team of behavioral neuroscientists trying to discover the brain circuits of learning, decision making, and habit. More info👇
wassumlab.psych.ucla.edu/join-the-lab/
Job posting:
jobs.ucla.edu/jobs/8968
Reposted by Dave Root
After the AI bubble I hope the next bubble is Laser Tag. Laser tag arenas on every street corner. Blacklight lit battlefields propping up every sector of the economy. A one story building by the side of the highway called “Blast Zone: Pizza & Arcade” valued at $2.7 trillion
November 2, 2025 at 3:09 PM
After the AI bubble I hope the next bubble is Laser Tag. Laser tag arenas on every street corner. Blacklight lit battlefields propping up every sector of the economy. A one story building by the side of the highway called “Blast Zone: Pizza & Arcade” valued at $2.7 trillion
Reposted by Dave Root
🚨Applications are now open for 2026 @beckmanillinois.bsky.social Postdoctoral Fellowships! We provide 3 years of support ($63k/year) for candidates conducting interdisciplinary research with two or more Beckman faculty members. Please apply and RT! beckman.illinois.edu/opportunitie...
Postdoctoral Fellows Program
The Beckman Institute at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign offers three postdoctoral fellow programs to support outstanding scientists: Beckman Institute Postdoctoral Fellows Program, Car...
beckman.illinois.edu
November 1, 2025 at 3:46 PM
🚨Applications are now open for 2026 @beckmanillinois.bsky.social Postdoctoral Fellowships! We provide 3 years of support ($63k/year) for candidates conducting interdisciplinary research with two or more Beckman faculty members. Please apply and RT! beckman.illinois.edu/opportunitie...