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Reposted by Ariel K. Frame

Greg Jefferis @jefferis.bsky.social · 3d

Exciting news for #drosophila #connectomics and #neuroscience enthusiasts: the Drosophila male central nervous system connectome is now live for exploration. Find out more at the landing page hosted by our Janelia FlyEM collaborators www.janelia.org/project-team....

Male CNS Connectome

A team of researchers has unveiled the complete connectome of a male fruit fly central nervous system —a seamless map of all the neurons in the brain and nerve cord of a single male fruit fly and the ...

www.janelia.org

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Ariel K. Frame @arielframe.bsky.social · 4d

This November, I am raising money for prostate #cancer research in Canada @ccsresearch.bsky.social by getting people to pay me to have a goofy looking face. Join in on the Movember fun and support a good cause, join the team or make a donation. Any amount makes a difference!
tiny.cc/MapleMovember

Ariel K. Frame @arielframe.bsky.social · 6d

Fantastic little read! Time to dust off my system 2 thinking and engage in some realistic time budgeting! Educational and informative for #drosophila researchers and actually any experimentalists!

the Node @the-node.bsky.social · 8d

The Kahneman Chronicles: Lessons from a Fly Lab

Entertaining post from @sameerthukral.bsky.social kicking of a series imagining what would transpire if Daniel Kahneman—the “grandfather of behavioural economics”—took a sabbatical and worked in a fly lab. 🪰

thenode.biologists.com/the-kahneman...

The Kahneman Chronicles: Lessons from a Fly Lab - the Node

The Kahneman Chronicles #1: When a Nobel Laureate Fixed Our Lab's Scheduling Disasters Daniel Kahneman (1934-2024) was a legendary psychologist who

thenode.biologists.com

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Ariel K. Frame @arielframe.bsky.social · 6d

“Even if you don’t think precautionary measures are warranted, it’s still really important for scientists to report what they have and haven’t done to insects in the course of their experiments..-..If you kill an animal in a certain way, that may affect the expression of certain genes.”- Craig Perl

Science Magazine @science.org · 6d

Insects used in research are often excluded from legal and ethical guidelines designed to protect other laboratory animals.

Science chats with an entomologist and an expert in animal ethics who are monitoring how researchers report on the ethical treatment of insects. ⬇️ https://scim.ag/484NNUt

Insects aren’t ‘little robots’—so scientists are rethinking their welfare

Science chats with an entomologist and an expert in animal ethics who are monitoring how researchers report on the ethical treatment of insects

www.science.org

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Ariel K. Frame @arielframe.bsky.social · Sep 4

First episode is out! I spoke with Professor James Marshall @sheffielduni.bsky.social @opteran.bsky.social about his research on modelling the #brain of #bees and implications for #ai . Take a listen! #neuroscience #sciencecommunication

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Reposted by Ariel K. Frame

Andrew Lin @andrewclin.bsky.social · Sep 1

Excited to share our latest work - expressing the bacterial sodium channel in fly Kenyon cells surprisingly *decreases* their excitability, thanks partly to decreased endogenous sodium channels. This prevents learning and decreases odor-evoked calcium influx doi.org/10.1113/JP28...

Ectopic sodium channel expression decreases excitability of Drosophila Kenyon cells

Abstract figure legend: We tested the effects of expressing the bacterial voltage-gated sodium channel NaChBac in the Kenyon cells of the Drosophila memory centre, the mushroom body. NaChBac expressi...

doi.org

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Reposted by Ariel K. Frame

Mark Peifer (He, him) @peiferlabunc.bsky.social · Aug 23

The community of Drosophila researchers is amazing, mutually supportive and collaborative. Right now a key resource for our community, @flybase.bsky.social , is threatened by the cancellation of its NIH grant and is seeking community help in raising short term funds 1/n 🧪 please share

Dear Fly Community,

In May 2025, the NIH terminated all grant funding to Harvard University, including the NHGRI grant that supported FlyBase. This grant also funded FlyBase teams at Indiana University (IU) and the University of Cambridge (UK), and as a result, their subawards were also canceled.

The Cambridge team has secured support for one to two years through generous donations from the European fly community, emergency funding from the Wellcome Trust, and support from the University of Cambridge. At IU, funding has been secured for one year thanks to reserve funds from Thom Kaufman and a supplement from ORIP/NIH to the Bloomington Drosophila Stock Center (BDSC).

Unfortunately, the situation at Harvard is far more critical. Harvard University had supported FlyBase staff since May but recently denied a request for extended bridge funding. As a result, all eight employees (four full-time and four part-time) were abruptly laid off, with termination dates ranging from August to mid-October depending on their positions. In addition, our curator at the University of New Mexico will leave her position at the end of August. This decision came as a shock, and we are urgently pursuing all possible funding options.

To put the need into perspective: although FlyBase is free to use, it is not free to make. It takes large teams of people and millions of dollars a year to create FlyBase to support fly research (the last NHGRI grant supported us with more than 2 million USD per annum).

To help sustain FlyBase operations, we have been reaching out to you to ask for your support. We have set up a donation site in Cambridge, UK, to which European labs have and can continue to contribute, and a new donation site at IU to which labs in the US and the rest of the world can contribute. We urge researchers to work with their grant administrators to contribute to FlyBase via these sites if at all possible, as more of the money will go to FlyBase. However, we appreciate that some fu…

https://wiki.flybase.org/wiki/FlyBase:Contribute_to_FlyBase

Our immediate goals are:

1. To maintain core curation activities and keep the FlyBase website online

2. To complete integration with the Alliance of Genome Resources (The Alliance).

Integration with the Alliance is essential for FlyBase’s long-term sustainability. For nearly a decade, NHGRI/NIH has supported the unification of Model Organism Databases (MODs) into the Alliance, which we aim to achieve by 2028. Therefore, securing bridge funding to sustain FlyBase over the next three years is crucial for successful integration and the long-term access to FlyBase data.

At present, our remaining funds will allow us to keep the FlyBase website online for approximately one more year. Beyond that, its future is uncertain unless new funding is secured. We will, of course, continue pursuing additional grant opportunities as they arise.

Given the uncertainty of future NIH or alternative funding sources, we are relying on the Fly community for support. Your contributions will directly help us retain the staff needed to complete this transition and to secure ongoing fly data curation into the Alliance beyond 2028.

We at FlyBase are incredibly grateful for the outpouring of support from the community during this challenging time. Your encouragement has strengthened our resolve and underscores how vital this resource remains to Drosophila research worldwide.

Sincerely,
The FlyBase Team

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Ariel K. Frame @arielframe.bsky.social · Aug 22

Hear me out: Could FlyBase relocate somewhere with a more secure relationship with funding? Could they relocate to #Canada?

Ariel K. Frame @arielframe.bsky.social · Aug 22

Everybody working with #drosophila will tell you how essential FlyBase.org
@flybase.bsky.social is for their research. @flybehaviour.bsky.social is absolutely correct in saying major cuts at FlyBase are "utterly devastating"
tiny.cc/utir001
@thetransmitter.bsky.social
This NEEDS to be rectified!

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Ariel K. Frame @arielframe.bsky.social · Jul 25

Music by freebeats.io produced by White Hot

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Ariel K. Frame @arielframe.bsky.social · Jul 25

Watch this pharate podcast eclose from its concept pupal case and emerge free on any #podcast player. First episode coming soon! Listen for fun #sciencecommunication #brain #science #biology #neuroscience #drosophila #aging and more! linktr.ee/quitecurious

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Reposted by Ariel K. Frame

Anne Simon @simonsocial.bsky.social · Jul 11

Hi, if you are looking to come to Canada for a post-doc or a PhD, consider my lab to study the genetic basis of social interactions, using the fruit fly! My university (Western University) has a new program to welcome you! See below! #drosophila #postdoc #canada #PhD #social #behaviouralneurogenetic

Western University @westernu.ca · Jul 8

To attract top global talent, #WesternU is doubling the number of Postdoctoral Fellowship Program awards and launching the new US-CAN Doctoral Excellence Awards. #CdnPSE #HigherEd

Western expands PhD and postdoc funding - Western News

Western is boosting funding for postdoctoral fellows and PhD candidates from the U.S. and other countries with expanded and new award programs.

news.westernu.ca

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Ariel K. Frame @arielframe.bsky.social · Jul 13

Why use animals when we have AI and organoids? Among other reasons, “We also do not know enough about biology to know where real breakthroughs will come.” Says @jasonsynaptic.bsky.social in this excellent article.

Jason Shepherd @jasonsynaptic.bsky.social · Jul 12

While I’m a big fan of new technologies that help us study human biology…there’s still no replacement for animal research! See my article in Gen News. www.genengnews.com/topics/trans...

Why We Still Need Animal Research in a World of AI and Organoids

The portrayal of uncaring scientists without any thought for the animals being used in their research is far from the truth.

www.genengnews.com

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Reposted by Ariel K. Frame

Randall Munroe @xkcd.com · Jun 12

Good Science

xkcd.com/3101/

5-panel comic. (1) [teacher with long hair next to whiteboard] TEACHER: I’m supposed to give you the tools to do good science. (2) [teacher addressing students] But what *are* those tools? Methodology is hard and there are so many ways to get incorrect results. What is the magic ingredient that makes for good science? (3) TEACHER: To figure it out, I ran a regression with all the factors people say are important: [embedded list in sub-panel, cut off at end] Outcome variable: correct scientific results. Predictors: collaboration; skepticism of others’ claims; questioning your own beliefs; trying to falsify hypotheses; checking citations; statistical rigor; blinded analysis; financial disclosure; open data (4) TEACHER: The regression says two ingredients are the most crucial: 1) genuine curiosity about the answer to a question, and 2) ammonium hydroxide. (5) STUDENT: Wait, why did *ammonia* score so high? How did it even get on the list? LONG HAIR: ...And now you’re doing good science!

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Ariel K. Frame @arielframe.bsky.social · Jun 21

I had a great time at #CANfly2025 @mcgill.ca! Thanks to Vincent Archambault, @emery-lab.bsky.social, David Hipfner, Nam-Sung Moon, Laura Nilson, Frieder Schöck, @biologists.bsky.social @ircm.bsky.social @genomejournal.bsky.social @genetics-gsa.bsky.social @healthcare.nikon.com et al. #drosophila

Drosophila flies with little name tags and coffee conversing at a poster session at a conference

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Reposted by Ariel K. Frame

Andreas Prokop @poppi62.bsky.social · Jun 13

Towards more sustainable research: reducing the environmental impact when working with #Drosophila. Challiner, Saurya., Patel, Raff, Fostier, Prokop, A. (2025) @genetics-gsa.bsky.social‬, in press -- doi.org/10.1093/gene... - Always happy to discuss and hear your ideas and views!

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Reposted by Ariel K. Frame

Stephen F. Goodwin @stephenfgoodwin.bsky.social · Jun 9

New preprint from lab: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... Sexual dimorphism arises not through wholesale transcriptional reprogramming, but via selective sex-specific survival of neurons defined by birth order and shared developmental programs.

A Role for Exaptation in Sculpting Sexually Dimorphic Brains from Shared Neural Lineages

Sex differences in behaviours arise from variations in female and male nervous systems, yet the cellular and molecular bases of these differences remain poorly defined. Here, we take an unbiased, sing...

www.biorxiv.org

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Ariel K. Frame @arielframe.bsky.social · Jun 16

Nice work! Really cool to see how powerful this method is for detecting subtle differences in behaviour!

sandy cheeks from spongebob is flexing his muscles in a doorway

Alt: sandy cheeks from spongebob is flexing his muscles in a doorway metaphor for the strength of the method and cartoon rodent connects with rodents used in the study discussed

media.tenor.com

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Reposted by Ariel K. Frame

Marco Festa-Bianchet 🇨🇦 @marcofesta.bsky.social · Jun 15

Marchand: compared to those born to a bighorn ewe when she's young, lambs born when she's old have shorter lives, wean fewer lambs. At any age, ewes that live longer have lambs that live longer and have higher reproductive success. url:https://academic.oup.com/beheco/article/36/4/araf046/8126721

Offspring longevity for bighorn sheep at Ram Mountain, Alberta, Canada (1971-2013). Solid lines represent model predictions for female
offspring under average female density conditions (results for male offspring are reported in Table 1). Shaded bands represent 95% confidence
intervals while gray lines are modeled trends for individual mothers. (A) Offspring longevity as a function of maternal age at birth. (B) Offspring
longevity as a function of maternal longevity, estimated by the age at last sighting

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Reposted by Ariel K. Frame

Andreas Prokop @poppi62.bsky.social · Jun 4

SUSTAINABILITY & #DROSOPHILA - If you keep flies & have tried to re-use containers but then given up on it, please could you let us know & tell us the reasons? We urgently need statements for a publication about sustainability in fly labs. Please, contact [email protected]

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Reposted by Ariel K. Frame

Calli McMurray @callimcflurry.bsky.social · Jun 4

FlyBase, a crucial resource for drosophila research, has lost its funding because its grant is awarded to Harvard. The team is scrambling to find other sources of funds, including donations from labs. Read more: www.thetransmitter.org/community/fl... @flybase.bsky.social

FlyBase funding squashed amid Harvard grant terminations

The team behind the Drosophila genetics database is now requesting donations from labs to keep the resource afloat.

www.thetransmitter.org

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Reposted by Ariel K. Frame

Anne Simon @simonsocial.bsky.social · May 20

"The Drosophila adult brain: short overview of structure, function, and resources Graphical Review Paper": www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
@arielframe.bsky.social
@ibangs.bsky.social
@brentsinclair.bsky.social
‪@westernu.bsky.social‬

The Drosophila adult brain: short overview of structure, function, and resources Graphical Review Paper

This short review is targeted at researchers new to the Drosophila model (thereafter: a Drosophilist) in the field of neuroscience. We aim to provide …

www.sciencedirect.com

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Ariel K. Frame @arielframe.bsky.social · May 20

Do you work in a #Drosophila lab studying #neuroscience? This is for you. We made this overview extra digestible for new people to the field. This #openaccess paper will help all new Drosophilists understand the field and find helpful resources and reviews needed for their burgeoning #brain studies.

Anne Simon @simonsocial.bsky.social · May 20

"The Drosophila adult brain: short overview of structure, function, and resources Graphical Review Paper": www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
@arielframe.bsky.social
@ibangs.bsky.social
@brentsinclair.bsky.social
‪@westernu.bsky.social‬

The Drosophila adult brain: short overview of structure, function, and resources Graphical Review Paper

This short review is targeted at researchers new to the Drosophila model (thereafter: a Drosophilist) in the field of neuroscience. We aim to provide …

www.sciencedirect.com

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Reposted by Ariel K. Frame

Dementia Researcher @dementiaresearcher.bsky.social · May 8

PhD at University of Exeter using iPSC models and bioinformatics to study rare APOE variants and extracellular vesicles in Alzheimer’s resilience. Closing date: 27th May

www.dementiaresearcher.nihr.ac.uk/job/phd-usin...

PhD: Using APOE-associated AD resilience to identify potential biomarkers

PhD at University of Exeter using iPSC models and bioinformatics to study rare APOE variants and extracellular vesicles in Alzheimer’s resilience.

www.dementiaresearcher.nihr.ac.uk

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Reposted by Ariel K. Frame

Daniel Promislow @dpromislow.bsky.social · May 8

The Dog Aging Institute is looking to hire an Executive Director to help grow this non-profit, whose mission is to support research on improving healthy #aging in #dogs. Interested? You can apply here: www.idealist.org/en/nonprofit...
@dogaginginst.bsky.social

www.idealist.org

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