sinan malik
@sinanmalik.bsky.social
RA @juliesemmelhack.bsky.social Lab| systems neuroscience | writes @preLights
Pinned
sinan malik
@sinanmalik.bsky.social
· Oct 6
Social maintenance masks induced aggression in zebrafish - Scientific Reports
Scientific Reports - Social maintenance masks induced aggression in zebrafish
www.nature.com
My first paper is out!
“Social maintenance masks induced aggression in zebrafish” — research from my internship in the Neuronal Plasticity Group on how social context can suppress aggression. #zebrafishrocks 🐟
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
“Social maintenance masks induced aggression in zebrafish” — research from my internship in the Neuronal Plasticity Group on how social context can suppress aggression. #zebrafishrocks 🐟
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by sinan malik
(1/n) We are excited to share our new paper in Nature Communications, by Hagar Lavian (@hlavian.bsky.social) and team, revealing how the zebrafish brain integrates visual navigation signals! www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Visual motion and landmark position align with heading direction in the zebrafish interpeduncular nucleus - Nature Communications
How are various visual signals integrated in the vertebrate brain for navigation? Here authors show that different spatial signals are topographically organized and align to one another in the zebrafi...
www.nature.com
November 24, 2025 at 4:17 PM
(1/n) We are excited to share our new paper in Nature Communications, by Hagar Lavian (@hlavian.bsky.social) and team, revealing how the zebrafish brain integrates visual navigation signals! www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by sinan malik
Like most animals, fish move less at night. Underwater, stable posture requires movement. Find out how fish don't fall down at night in: Lighting and circadian cues shape locomotor strategies for balance and navigation in larval zebrafish from @yunluzhu.bsky.social
doi.org/10.1101/2025...
doi.org/10.1101/2025...
Lighting and circadian cues shape locomotor strategies for balance and navigation in larval zebrafish
Most fish are inherently unstable and must swim to stabilize posture. How diurnal fish reduce activity at night while maintaining postural control remains unclear. We defined distinct locomotor strate...
doi.org
November 19, 2025 at 3:24 AM
Like most animals, fish move less at night. Underwater, stable posture requires movement. Find out how fish don't fall down at night in: Lighting and circadian cues shape locomotor strategies for balance and navigation in larval zebrafish from @yunluzhu.bsky.social
doi.org/10.1101/2025...
doi.org/10.1101/2025...
Reposted by sinan malik
The changes we experience may be the source of our subjective experience of time.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Time, space, memory and brain–body rhythms - Nature Reviews Neuroscience
Understanding how the brain represents experienced time and how representations of space and time are integrated to form episodic memories has been a goal of much neuroscientific research. In this Per...
www.nature.com
November 14, 2025 at 2:32 PM
The changes we experience may be the source of our subjective experience of time.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by sinan malik
Going to the lab during the weekend to do cell culture work and trying to do everything at double speed
November 14, 2025 at 7:26 AM
Going to the lab during the weekend to do cell culture work and trying to do everything at double speed
Reposted by sinan malik
Writing the “Alternative Plans” part of the grant
November 13, 2025 at 3:21 PM
Writing the “Alternative Plans” part of the grant
Reposted by sinan malik
Now published in Molecular Metabolism, improved by the helpful reviewers! We hope to continue to leverage the #zebrafish to understand the neurometabolic and hormonal regulation of appetite and beyond!
Read the full article here: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Read the full article here: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
November 13, 2025 at 6:54 AM
Now published in Molecular Metabolism, improved by the helpful reviewers! We hope to continue to leverage the #zebrafish to understand the neurometabolic and hormonal regulation of appetite and beyond!
Read the full article here: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Read the full article here: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Reposted by sinan malik
✨ New preprint ✨ What if we could watch AND control thousands of individual neurons in behaving mice—with stable access over months? 🧠⚡ Our work introduces transgenic all-optical tools that make this possible - and a resulting surprising discovery! 🔭💡
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... 1/13 🧵
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... 1/13 🧵
Large-scale cellular-resolution read/write of activity enables discovery of cell types defined by complex circuit properties
The complexity of the mammalian brain’s vast population of interconnected neurons poses a formidable challenge to elucidate its underlying mechanisms of coordination and computation. A key step forwar...
www.biorxiv.org
November 13, 2025 at 12:24 AM
✨ New preprint ✨ What if we could watch AND control thousands of individual neurons in behaving mice—with stable access over months? 🧠⚡ Our work introduces transgenic all-optical tools that make this possible - and a resulting surprising discovery! 🔭💡
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... 1/13 🧵
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... 1/13 🧵
Reposted by sinan malik
How does a fish know when to blend in? Scientists identified a key circuit controlling camouflage in zebrafish – from cells in the retina sensing light to nerve cells in the brain controlling the release of a hormone that pales the skin to match bright backgrounds.
www.bi.mpg.de/news/2025-11...
www.bi.mpg.de/news/2025-11...
November 10, 2025 at 3:08 PM
How does a fish know when to blend in? Scientists identified a key circuit controlling camouflage in zebrafish – from cells in the retina sensing light to nerve cells in the brain controlling the release of a hormone that pales the skin to match bright backgrounds.
www.bi.mpg.de/news/2025-11...
www.bi.mpg.de/news/2025-11...
Reposted by sinan malik
Excited to share our paper now published in Cell!
'Zebrafish use spectral information to suppress the visual background'
Huge thanks to @neurofishh.bsky.social & @teuler.bsky.social
@cellpress.bsky.social @cp-cell.bsky.social
👇🏻
www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
'Zebrafish use spectral information to suppress the visual background'
Huge thanks to @neurofishh.bsky.social & @teuler.bsky.social
@cellpress.bsky.social @cp-cell.bsky.social
👇🏻
www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
Zebrafish use spectral information to suppress the visual background
Vertebrate eyes first evolved in water, where spectral content rapidly fades with
distance. Zebrafish exploit this loss by antagonizing cone signals to suppress the
background, pointing to distance es...
www.cell.com
November 4, 2025 at 9:16 AM
Excited to share our paper now published in Cell!
'Zebrafish use spectral information to suppress the visual background'
Huge thanks to @neurofishh.bsky.social & @teuler.bsky.social
@cellpress.bsky.social @cp-cell.bsky.social
👇🏻
www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
'Zebrafish use spectral information to suppress the visual background'
Huge thanks to @neurofishh.bsky.social & @teuler.bsky.social
@cellpress.bsky.social @cp-cell.bsky.social
👇🏻
www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
Reposted by sinan malik
Thank you so much for featuring our study🙏
Found them: the brain's specific "go" neurons for swimming. @fumikubo.bsky.social team discovers the inhibitory pretextal cells essential for optomotor response, dissociating it from eye movements. A stunning map from function to molecular identity. Thrilled to highlight this work! 🐟
Molecular roadmap of functionally defined optic-flow circuits. #neuroscience
As a “blend of careful physiology, elegant genetic access and rigorous behavioral readouts”, @sinanmalik.bsky.social highlights a #preprint @fumikubo.bsky.social & team
#preLight⬇️
prelights.biologists.com/highlights/m...
As a “blend of careful physiology, elegant genetic access and rigorous behavioral readouts”, @sinanmalik.bsky.social highlights a #preprint @fumikubo.bsky.social & team
#preLight⬇️
prelights.biologists.com/highlights/m...
October 31, 2025 at 6:09 AM
Thank you so much for featuring our study🙏
Found them: the brain's specific "go" neurons for swimming. @fumikubo.bsky.social team discovers the inhibitory pretextal cells essential for optomotor response, dissociating it from eye movements. A stunning map from function to molecular identity. Thrilled to highlight this work! 🐟
Molecular roadmap of functionally defined optic-flow circuits. #neuroscience
As a “blend of careful physiology, elegant genetic access and rigorous behavioral readouts”, @sinanmalik.bsky.social highlights a #preprint @fumikubo.bsky.social & team
#preLight⬇️
prelights.biologists.com/highlights/m...
As a “blend of careful physiology, elegant genetic access and rigorous behavioral readouts”, @sinanmalik.bsky.social highlights a #preprint @fumikubo.bsky.social & team
#preLight⬇️
prelights.biologists.com/highlights/m...
Molecular and functional dissection using CaMPARI-seq reveals the neuronal organization for dissociating optic flow-dependent behaviors - preLights
Molecular roadmap of functionally defined optic-flow circuits.
prelights.biologists.com
October 30, 2025 at 5:04 AM
Found them: the brain's specific "go" neurons for swimming. @fumikubo.bsky.social team discovers the inhibitory pretextal cells essential for optomotor response, dissociating it from eye movements. A stunning map from function to molecular identity. Thrilled to highlight this work! 🐟
Reposted by sinan malik
Out now in @currentbiology.bsky.social led by Kaarthik A Balakrishnan: We identify medullary circuits that represent the valence of thermal stimuli and control both long-term strategies of cold-avoidance and short term hot avoidance behaviors to enable thermoregulation. www.cell.com/current-biol...
Behavioral and circuit principles of temperature gradient navigation
Behavioral thermoregulation is critical for survival across animals. Balakrishnan
and Haesemeyer discover that thermoregulatory behavior in larval zebrafish is organized
into longer-term swim modes. T...
www.cell.com
October 24, 2025 at 2:57 PM
Out now in @currentbiology.bsky.social led by Kaarthik A Balakrishnan: We identify medullary circuits that represent the valence of thermal stimuli and control both long-term strategies of cold-avoidance and short term hot avoidance behaviors to enable thermoregulation. www.cell.com/current-biol...
Witnessed an Orchestra for the first time 'Silk Notes From Pipa'. Simply beautiful. Definition of teamwork and synchronicity.
October 22, 2025 at 12:53 PM
Witnessed an Orchestra for the first time 'Silk Notes From Pipa'. Simply beautiful. Definition of teamwork and synchronicity.
Reposted by sinan malik
Naturalistic approaches such as Ulanovsky’s open up “potential opportunities to really reveal why the brain is structured in the way it’s structured,” says Iain Couzin.
By @claudia-lopez.bsky.social
#neuroskyence
www.thetransmitter.org/neuroetholog...
By @claudia-lopez.bsky.social
#neuroskyence
www.thetransmitter.org/neuroetholog...
Diving in with Nachum Ulanovsky
With an eye toward realism, the neuroscientist, who has a new study about bats out today, creates microcosms of the natural world to understand animal behavior.
www.thetransmitter.org
October 20, 2025 at 7:03 PM
Naturalistic approaches such as Ulanovsky’s open up “potential opportunities to really reveal why the brain is structured in the way it’s structured,” says Iain Couzin.
By @claudia-lopez.bsky.social
#neuroskyence
www.thetransmitter.org/neuroetholog...
By @claudia-lopez.bsky.social
#neuroskyence
www.thetransmitter.org/neuroetholog...
Reposted by sinan malik
"Fishman", proposal for a journal cover.
Commissioned by MY Dennis' lab @mydennis.bsky.social for a study focused on identifying human-specific gene duplications and their role in brain evolution using genomics and zebrafish as model. @dcsoto.bsky.social
#art #digitalart #sciart #fish
Commissioned by MY Dennis' lab @mydennis.bsky.social for a study focused on identifying human-specific gene duplications and their role in brain evolution using genomics and zebrafish as model. @dcsoto.bsky.social
#art #digitalart #sciart #fish
September 25, 2025 at 9:33 AM
"Fishman", proposal for a journal cover.
Commissioned by MY Dennis' lab @mydennis.bsky.social for a study focused on identifying human-specific gene duplications and their role in brain evolution using genomics and zebrafish as model. @dcsoto.bsky.social
#art #digitalart #sciart #fish
Commissioned by MY Dennis' lab @mydennis.bsky.social for a study focused on identifying human-specific gene duplications and their role in brain evolution using genomics and zebrafish as model. @dcsoto.bsky.social
#art #digitalart #sciart #fish
Reposted by sinan malik
Just out in Nature! “The astrocytic ensemble acts as a multiday trace to stabilize memory.” We identified astrocytic ensembles that link experiences across days to stabilize memory nature.com/articles/s41.... New astrocyte tools are openly available at Addgene: addgene.org/Jun_Nagai/. 1/8
October 15, 2025 at 4:11 PM
Just out in Nature! “The astrocytic ensemble acts as a multiday trace to stabilize memory.” We identified astrocytic ensembles that link experiences across days to stabilize memory nature.com/articles/s41.... New astrocyte tools are openly available at Addgene: addgene.org/Jun_Nagai/. 1/8
Cool work! from Engert Lab
“Blame your parents if you can’t pay enough attention." At least when you are a zebrafish! Our new study on attentional switching together with Kumaresh Krishnan, @paulapflitsch.bsky.social , @zwitscherarmin.bsky.social and Florian Engert is out in Science Advances:
doi.org/10.1126/scia...
doi.org/10.1126/scia...
October 16, 2025 at 4:34 AM
Cool work! from Engert Lab
My first paper is out!
“Social maintenance masks induced aggression in zebrafish” — research from my internship in the Neuronal Plasticity Group on how social context can suppress aggression. #zebrafishrocks 🐟
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
“Social maintenance masks induced aggression in zebrafish” — research from my internship in the Neuronal Plasticity Group on how social context can suppress aggression. #zebrafishrocks 🐟
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Social maintenance masks induced aggression in zebrafish - Scientific Reports
Scientific Reports - Social maintenance masks induced aggression in zebrafish
www.nature.com
October 6, 2025 at 6:19 AM
My first paper is out!
“Social maintenance masks induced aggression in zebrafish” — research from my internship in the Neuronal Plasticity Group on how social context can suppress aggression. #zebrafishrocks 🐟
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
“Social maintenance masks induced aggression in zebrafish” — research from my internship in the Neuronal Plasticity Group on how social context can suppress aggression. #zebrafishrocks 🐟
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by sinan malik
How is valence computed in the brain? Check out our new preprint about a single cell that integrates excitatory and inhibitory input across modalities according to valence and impacts behavioral decisions. An exciting collaboration across many labs. Enjoy reading!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
A multisensory, bidirectional, valence encoder guides behavioral decisions
A key function of the brain is to categorize sensory cues as repulsive or attractive and respond accordingly. While we have some understanding of how sensory information is processed in the sensory pe...
www.biorxiv.org
September 27, 2025 at 5:46 AM
How is valence computed in the brain? Check out our new preprint about a single cell that integrates excitatory and inhibitory input across modalities according to valence and impacts behavioral decisions. An exciting collaboration across many labs. Enjoy reading!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by sinan malik
1/8
How can the brain create countless unique memories using a single, universal metric of space? We’ve been waiting for the answer to this for two decades!
Read it here:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
How can the brain create countless unique memories using a single, universal metric of space? We’ve been waiting for the answer to this for two decades!
Read it here:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
September 25, 2025 at 4:15 AM
1/8
How can the brain create countless unique memories using a single, universal metric of space? We’ve been waiting for the answer to this for two decades!
Read it here:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
How can the brain create countless unique memories using a single, universal metric of space? We’ve been waiting for the answer to this for two decades!
Read it here:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by sinan malik
(edited repost) Thrilled to see our computational work on adaptive shaping of behavior (we call it outcome-based curriculum learning) in PLoS Comp Biol! @wl-tong.bsky.social, @gautamreddy.bsky.social & I formalize curricula in any RL task that can be framed as sequential simple-to-complex behavior.
Adaptive algorithms for shaping behavior
Author summary Animals are commonly trained by ‘shaping’ their behavior using a sequence of simpler tasks towards a complex behavior. Numerous schools of thought have proposed heuristics for shaping b...
journals.plos.org
September 19, 2025 at 5:30 PM
(edited repost) Thrilled to see our computational work on adaptive shaping of behavior (we call it outcome-based curriculum learning) in PLoS Comp Biol! @wl-tong.bsky.social, @gautamreddy.bsky.social & I formalize curricula in any RL task that can be framed as sequential simple-to-complex behavior.
Reposted by sinan malik
In this month’s “Liftoff,” @matthiasnau.bsky.social talks about the importance of making quick decisions as a PI, and @kmcostalab.com shares how lab members being mad at a PI can sometimes be a good thing.
By @franciscorr25.bsky.social
#neuroskyence
www.thetransmitter.org/liftoff-new-...
By @franciscorr25.bsky.social
#neuroskyence
www.thetransmitter.org/liftoff-new-...
Liftoff: New lab alerts
Learn about early-career scientists starting their own labs.
www.thetransmitter.org
September 17, 2025 at 4:30 PM
In this month’s “Liftoff,” @matthiasnau.bsky.social talks about the importance of making quick decisions as a PI, and @kmcostalab.com shares how lab members being mad at a PI can sometimes be a good thing.
By @franciscorr25.bsky.social
#neuroskyence
www.thetransmitter.org/liftoff-new-...
By @franciscorr25.bsky.social
#neuroskyence
www.thetransmitter.org/liftoff-new-...
Reposted by sinan malik
Hierarchical processing of sensory information across topographically organized thalamocortical-like circuits in the zebrafish brain https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.15.675867v1
September 16, 2025 at 8:15 AM
Hierarchical processing of sensory information across topographically organized thalamocortical-like circuits in the zebrafish brain https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.15.675867v1
Reposted by sinan malik
Check out this exciting study led by Anh-Tuan Trinh from our lab, where we investigated how thalamocortical-like circuits in the zebrafish pallium receive, represent, and integrate sensory information:
🔗 doi.org/10.1101/2025...
🔗 doi.org/10.1101/2025...
Hierarchical processing of sensory information across topographically organized thalamocortical-like circuits in the zebrafish brain
Thalamocortical projections contribute to the spatial organization and functional hierarchies of the mammalian cortex. Primary sensory cortices receive topographically segregated information from firs...
doi.org
September 16, 2025 at 12:54 PM
Check out this exciting study led by Anh-Tuan Trinh from our lab, where we investigated how thalamocortical-like circuits in the zebrafish pallium receive, represent, and integrate sensory information:
🔗 doi.org/10.1101/2025...
🔗 doi.org/10.1101/2025...
Reposted by sinan malik
Beyond Locomotion: How Specialized Motor Rhythms Enable Vertebrate Escape from Capture https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.08.674955v1
September 14, 2025 at 7:15 AM
Beyond Locomotion: How Specialized Motor Rhythms Enable Vertebrate Escape from Capture https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.08.674955v1