Robert Phillips
@rphillips3.bsky.social
240 followers 200 following 22 posts
Neuroscientist | Postdoc in Martinowich lab at Lieber Institute for Brain Development | PhD with Day Lab at UAB
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rphillips3.bsky.social
Hi! With the neuroscience influx to bluesky, I thought I'd introduce myself. I'm a postdoc with @martinowk.bsky.social using cross-species approaches to study cell types and circuitry important for social behaviors that are often dysregulated in neuropsychiatric disorders.
Reposted by Robert Phillips
andrewhardaway.bsky.social
People who know me know I rarely shill for much, but my experience at UAB as a family member of a patient was amazing. Huge thanks to Neurosurgery and Drs. Kristen Riley, Brad Woodworth, and Harrison Walker (Neurology).
andrewhardaway.bsky.social
Context here. In August, my mom developed a CSF leak and subsequent pneumocephalus. Her initial ENT and neurosurgeon were unable to identify the leak and were suggesting a full and bilateral craniotomy to go in and fix it. I moved her to UAB and she got the care she needed. She is recovering well.
andrewhardaway.bsky.social
Flip side, you can also have n = 1 patient like my mom being treated by a highly trained neurosurgeon who was suggesting a highly risky and invasive surgery that is no longer the standard of care and it was only by me (not an MD) challenging the surgeon that she got the procedure she needed.
Reposted by Robert Phillips
martinowk.bsky.social
For #FluorescenceFriday - simple image, but structure of hippocampus is beautiful with additional fanfare. 🟢 is Fos - labeling cells that get activated in response to disinhibition of inhibitory neuron subpopulation in the prefrontal cortex. Image credit to JHU Neuroscience student Aaron Salisbury.
smFISH for immediate early gene Fos in a section of the mouse hippocampus
Reposted by Robert Phillips
Reposted by Robert Phillips
danis1337.bsky.social
For postdocs interested in spatial transcriptomics, UAB just launched a Spatial PRIME postdoc program which training and increased funds for postdocs in this area. Check it out if interested
POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCH INITIATIVE FOR MULTIDISCIPLINARY EXPLORATION
2 year award
$70,000 starting salary
$5,000 career development funds
Join Heersink School of Medicine lab of choice conducting spatial research
Advanced mentoring and career development training
For applications & eligibility information, visit: go.uab.edu/spatialprime
Or scan QR code
rphillips3.bsky.social
Was awesome to be apart of this project. Congrats and kudos to @jtuscher.bsky.social for taking some interesting findings in rat sequencing data all the way to human astrocytes!
daylab.bsky.social
Excited to share this new work from the lab, in collaboration with @jtuscher.bsky.social & Rob Sorge! Here, we used single cell transcriptional profiling to define molecular adaptations induced by chronic pain and opioid experience, which often occur in conjunction.

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Robert Phillips
mictott.bsky.social
Yes, I am on the academic job market looking to start my own lab at the intersection of molecular, computational, and systems neuroscience! If you think my work may be interest to your department, please don't hesitate to reach out.

Thank you, Keri!
martinowk.bsky.social
Congrats Michael! Really appreciate the brilliance & creativity you brought to the analyses and as always, sincere dedication to open science 🧪 🧠

@mictott.bsky.social is on the job market!! Amazing skillset spanning wet lab/computational at molecular, cellular + systems level - and across species!
mictott.bsky.social
Very excited to share my second postdoc, now out in Science Advances! We used targeted snRNA-seq to profile four major subnuclei of the primate across three species (including humans). 1/13 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Reposted by Robert Phillips
vincentcostaphd.bsky.social
A spatially resolved transcriptomic atlas of the primate amygdala (human, macaque, and baboon) now out in Science Advances (www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...). The amygdala contains 32 types of neurons with many neuron types specific to particular subdivisions.

Lots of updates from the preprint!
Transcriptomic diversity of amygdalar subdivisions across humans and nonhuman primates
Specialized cell types and links to psychiatric disorders are revealed by genetic mapping of primate amygdala neurons.
www.science.org
rphillips3.bsky.social
We could also look at the % of cells co-expressing these genes with a count value >0. I think that is a bit messy, so would probably need to do some FISH or in situ sequencing to nail this down. Stay tuned.....😎
rphillips3.bsky.social
@schreinerdrew.bsky.social There is some expression of DRD1 in D2-MSNs and vice versa. Seems to be a small proportion if any.
Reposted by Robert Phillips
daylab.bsky.social
Excited to be co-chairing this @acnporg.bsky.social panel with chair @kr-maynard.bsky.social on opioid-responsive subpopulations in brain reward circuits. Special thanks to @rphillips3.bsky.social for helping to assemble the panel!
rphillips3.bsky.social
It was awesome to be a part of this project and continue probing molecular heterogeneity in the NAc! Check out Prashanti's thread below
prashanthi-ravi.bsky.social
(1/10) We’re excited to share our new preprint (doi.org/10.1101/2025...), which uncovers the spatiomolecular landscape of the human nucleus accumbens (NAc), by integrating snRNA-seq with Visium spatial transcriptomics across 10 control donors. 🧠 #NAcLIBD #snRNAseq #10xVisium
Reposted by Robert Phillips
neuroscinikolai.bsky.social
Excited to share my main PhD work is finally out! 🥳

We built a phage-assisted evolution platform to evolve allosteric protein switches (POGO-PANCE) and introduce cumulative, targeted mutations/Indels (RAMPhaGE)!

See how we evolved ultra-strong, light-switchable AraC variants 🌚🌞
Reposted by Robert Phillips
martinowk.bsky.social
For #FluorescenceFriday - image credit to JHU Neuro grad student Suhaas Adiraju - parvalbumin 🟢, somatostatin 🔴, vGlut1 (Cyan). 🟣 marks cells activated by amphetamine using the Fos-TRAP activity-dependent tagging system. 🔬🧪🧠
RNA scope for markers of inhibitory and excitatory cells types in a section of the mouse brain as well as label for cells that were activated by amphetamine administration.
Reposted by Robert Phillips
daylab.bsky.social
#FluorescenceFriday image from Olivia Drake in the lab.

Red = Chst9+ neurons in the ventral striatum
Cyan = DAPI, a DNA marker

The red cells are full of the mu opioid receptor, the major target of opioids like morphine, fentanyl, and heroin.
rphillips3.bsky.social
We see cholinergic neurons in NAc and MS. The plots above pick up some cholinergic neurons in MS. As Keri mentioned, capture of these cells varies by platform but we have several different datasets coming that capture these cells at spot/single cell resolution across regions.
rphillips3.bsky.social
Congrats @mictott.bsky.social !! Incredibly well-deserved
rphillips3.bsky.social
Couldn’t agree more with Kenny. Super excited to be apart of the GRC-Amygdala community now.
kenam15.bsky.social
Amygdala GRC fed my soul in a time of doom and gloom. Ready to keep climbing knowing that there’s such a fantastic community with me.
Reposted by Robert Phillips
martinowk.bsky.social
This project started well over a decade ago (I actually did bench work here!) when we noted the presence of these divergent transcripts in the human BDNF locus. Project had a lot of stops and starts, but really excited to finally get to share it 🧠🧪👩‍🔬
rphillips3.bsky.social
Alright, so only people who create the starter pack can add folks. I am happy to add whoever, just message me or comment who to add. Thanks!!
rphillips3.bsky.social
Someone at the power hour brought up peak science twitter. I miss that too. Towards building/maintaining the GRC-Amygdala community, here is a starter pack with attendees. Please add folks who are attending!!
go.bsky.app/13BbBW9
rphillips3.bsky.social
Added! I think you should be able to add folks, but if not let me know. Very new to starter packs.
rphillips3.bsky.social
Just added you! You should be able to go in and add folks now
rphillips3.bsky.social
Someone at the power hour brought up peak science twitter. I miss that too. Towards building/maintaining the GRC-Amygdala community, here is a starter pack with attendees. Please add folks who are attending!!
go.bsky.app/13BbBW9