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Ivan Alcantara

@ivancalcantara.bsky.social

3.6K followers 600 following 56 posts

Asking how the environment impacts behavior, physiology & brain function 🌎🧠 • CV Starr Postdoctoral Fellow at Princeton Neuroscience Institute • PhD in Neuroscience at NIH & Brown University • MSc in Cell Biology at MPI for Brain Research he/him 🏳️‍🌈🇵🇭

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Ivan Alcantara @ivancalcantara.bsky.social · Jul 30

How do animals decide if they should forage for food or stay home to take care of newborn offspring? Whose needs come first? For my PhD work now out in Nature, we examined how hunger and parenting neurons interact and are reshaped postpartum in mice 🧵⬇️ www.nature.com/articles/s41...

A hypothalamic circuit that modulates feeding and parenting behaviours - Nature

Single-cell transcriptomic analysis of mouse hypothalamus and behavioural experiments show that specific hypothalamic networks regulate conflicting feeding versus parenting behaviours of female mice.

www.nature.com

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Ivan Alcantara @ivancalcantara.bsky.social · Sep 1

No labor today

Reposted by Ivan Alcantara

Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌 @chanda.blacksky.app · Aug 29

It should be said too that in the two-state solution scenario, this would still happen because apartheid with all its anti-miscegenation tendencies would still be baked in

Jonathan Cohn @jonathancohn.bsky.social · Aug 29

Seems from the case that rogue cops arrested him for the "crime" of being married to a Jewish woman and tried to cover up after. Apartheid state behavior. www.haaretz.com/israel-news/...

Palestinian man married to Israeli arrested despite not being suspected of crime

***

www.haaretz.com

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Reposted by Ivan Alcantara

Katharine Hayhoe @katharinehayhoe.com · Aug 29

@nature.com I love this article - but WHY are the only share options to X and Facebook when the whole point of the article is that science-based posts get more shares here?

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Research posts on Bluesky are more original — and get better engagement

Bluesky posts about science garner more likes and reposts than similar ones on X.

www.nature.com

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Reposted by Ivan Alcantara

Drug Monkey @drugmonkey.bsky.social · Aug 16

Underrepresented minority faculty in the USA face a double standard in promotion and tenure decisions

Lydia Jennings, PhD @1nativesoilnerd.bsky.social · Aug 15

The paper highlights actionable steps to help improve these double standards, including more RESEARCH RELATED LANGUAGE in P &T letters for Black, Hispanic and Indigenous women to improve their outcomes.

Underrepresented minority faculty in the USA face a double standard in promotion and tenure decisions - Nature Human Behaviour

Masters-Waage et al. report that underrepresented minority (URM) faculty in the USA face barriers in the promotion and tenure process, receiving more negative votes and fewer unanimous positive decisi...

www.nature.com

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Ivan Alcantara @ivancalcantara.bsky.social · Aug 8

Me not knowing I missed a paper from the 80’s

RedPen/BlackPen @redpenblackpen.bsky.social · Aug 8

Really just had something like this feeling this afternoon. It’s the high that keeps you coming back for more

Cartoon of a scientist peering through a microscope saying "Whoaah!!!". Title says "The best part of Science is knowing, for a moment, something that nobody else in the world knows."

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Reposted by Ivan Alcantara

mady castigan✨ 🏳️‍⚧️ @madycast.com · Jul 30

Brown University is caving to Trump.

They are banning trans women from female bathrooms, dorms, locker rooms, and sports across campus. They're also cracking down on trans care for minors, though that is unlikely to be broadly impactful since it's a university.

president.brown.edu/president/br...

development organizations years following the Effectiv
brown.edu Private
rimination laws, over the ten
10. t h he exception of actions to enforce this Agreement, the United States agrees not to institute any civil action or other adverse agency action against Brown, its officers, Corporation members, directors, agents, and employees (the "Brown Releasees) based on the Released Claims. The United States releases the Brown Releasees from any liability related to the Released Claims. The United States is not releasing Brown or the Brown Releases from any other liability.
11. The University will take the following steps to ensure compliance with Title IX and its implementing regulations, by providing safe and equitable opportunities and spaces for women:
a. Brown Athletics facilities, the University willprovide female student-athletes with intimate facilities such as locker rooms and bathrooms strictly separated on the basis of sex.
b. The University will define "male" and "female, for the purpose of all practices, policies and procedures adopted and implemented by the University for any athletic opportunity, event, competition, category, program, or activity designated for women, consistent with the definitions
3
adopted in Executive Order 14168, Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and estoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government (Jan. 20, 2025), and Executive Order 14201, Keeping Men out of Women's Sports (Feb. 5, 2025).
c. The University will offer women the option of female-only housing, restrooms, and showering facilities, and for these purposes will adopt the abovementioned definitions of "male' and "femalc."
d. The University will ensure students have access to single-sex floors in on-campus housing, using the above-mentioned definition.
12. h University will not perform gender reassignment surgery or prescribe puberty blockers or hormones to any minor child for the purpose of aligning the child's appearance with an identity that differs from hi…

president.brown.edu Private

BROWN

5. Addressing government requirements for "male" and
"female" defnitions for athletics and on-campus housing,
as well as limits on gender-affirming care

As we have for decades, Brown has agreed to abide by Title
IX and NCAA eligibility rules regarding the participation of
transgender athletes in intercollegiate sports. We also
committed that the University will continue to provide
housing and restroom access in a way that allows for gender-
inclusive, women-only and men-only options.

The agreement also states, The University will not perform
gender reassignment surgery or prescribe puberty blockers
or hormones to any minor child for the purpose of aligning
the child's appearance with an identity that differs from his or
her sex."' The University will refer affected students who seek
care from Student Health Services or the University
Pharmacy to area specialists. The agreement does not affect
medical teaching or training, and does not apply to clinical
services provided by health systems that are separate entities
from Brown, such as Brown University Health and Care New
England.

We remain fully commited to serving the health needs of all
Brown students in a manner consistent with our long-
established policy of nondiscrimination, which includes sex,
gender identity and gender expression. The LGBTQ Center,
Student Health and Wellness Services, and other offices in
the Division of Campus Life, as well as the Warren Alpert
Medical School School of Public Health. the College,

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Reposted by Ivan Alcantara

Needhi Bhalla 💅🏽 @needhibhalla.bsky.social · Aug 7

I am honored to be selected as an ASCB fellow! SO much thanks to those who nominated me and provided letters of support!

And congratulations to the other Fellows selected! 🎉🥳🎊

American Society for Cell Biology @ascbiology.bsky.social · Aug 7

Meet the 14 scientists named 2025 ASCB Fellows! Honored for excellence in research, mentorship, and service, they’ll be recognized at Cell Bio 2025 this December in Philadelphia.

Read more: www.ascb.org/society-news...

Fourteen Visionary Scientists Named 2025 ASCB Fellows - ASCB

The American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB) is proud to announce the election of 14 outstanding scientists as 2025 ASCB Fellows—a prestigious honor recognizing their exceptional contributions to cell...

www.ascb.org

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Reposted by Ivan Alcantara

Dr. Cate Peña @cate-cholamine.bsky.social · Aug 6

Review now out in @npp-journal.bsky.social!
Epigenetic regulation of brain development, plasticity, and response to early life stress
rdcu.be/ezzYq

Epigenetic regulation of brain development, plasticity, and response to early-life stress

Neuropsychopharmacology - Epigenetic regulation of brain development, plasticity, and response to early-life stress

rdcu.be

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Reposted by Ivan Alcantara

Nature @nature.com · Aug 5

Nature research paper: A hypothalamic circuit that modulates feeding and parenting behaviours

go.nature.com/4l0XKoB

A hypothalamic circuit that modulates feeding and parenting behaviours - Nature

Single-cell transcriptomic analysis of mouse hypothalamus and behavioural experiments show that specific hypothalamic networks regulate conflicting feeding versus parenting behaviours of female mice.

go.nature.com

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Ivan Alcantara @ivancalcantara.bsky.social · Aug 4

While our analyses only focused on neurons, we also collected and sequenced non-neuronal cell types. If you’re interested in these cell types or if you’d like to analyze the neurons from scratch, feel free to dive into the raw data: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/geo/query/ac...

GEO Accession viewer

NCBI's Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) is a public archive and resource for gene expression data.

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

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Ivan Alcantara @ivancalcantara.bsky.social · Aug 4

Ever wondered how fasting and lactation affect gene expression in the hypothalamus? Looking for a dataset to mine? Look no further! We performed single-cell RNA sequencing of the arcuate nucleus and medial preoptic area in 4 groups of female mice: zenodo.org/records/1531...

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Ivan Alcantara @ivancalcantara.bsky.social · Jul 31

Thanks Giacomo!!!

Ivan Alcantara @ivancalcantara.bsky.social · Jul 31

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

A hypothalamic circuit that modulates feeding and parenting behaviours - Nature

Single-cell transcriptomic analysis of mouse hypothalamus and behavioural experiments show that specific hypothalamic networks regulate conflicting feeding versus parenting behaviours of female mice.

www.nature.com

Ivan Alcantara @ivancalcantara.bsky.social · Jul 31

This is probably my favorite comment from a reviewer. Sometimes, less is more 😉

Read the full transcript of the reviewers’ comments and our responses for our recent @nature.com publication here: static-content.springer.com/esm/art%3A10...

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Ivan Alcantara @ivancalcantara.bsky.social · Jul 31

Thanks Cate! You guys are next! 😄

Ivan Alcantara @ivancalcantara.bsky.social · Jul 30

Thank you! Miss you and the rest of the Correa lab!

Ivan Alcantara @ivancalcantara.bsky.social · Jul 30

Really cool work! I actually presented the preprint at journal club the day before it came out in Nature 😅

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Reposted by Ivan Alcantara

Felix Baier @felixbaier.bsky.social · Jul 23

🚨Very happy that my PhD work is now out in @nature.com!

We discovered that evolution, by acting in the midbrain, shifted the threshold to escape in Peromyscus mice, to fine-tune defensive strategies in different environments

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

This was a truly collaborative effort! 🧵⬇️