Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Janina Kupke

@janinakupke.bsky.social

110 followers 280 following 25 posts

#Memory #Neuroepigenetic #Engram 👩‍🔬 Postdoc in Molecular Engram & Memory Circuits Teams | Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam 🎓 Former Ph.D in Oliveira Lab | Heidelberg University

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Janina Kupke @janinakupke.bsky.social · Jul 29

Not this fos one but both monoclonal rat (226017) & rabbit (226008) one and I am happy. Also every SySy AB I used was always great (on flow, in ICC, IHC, WB). Totally worth its money

Reposted by Janina Kupke

Bertoglio lab (FMC/UFSC) @bertogliolab.bsky.social · Jul 15

Shaping the synapse through neuronal activity-regulated miRNAs
www.cell.com/trends/neuro...

Shaping the synapse through neuronal activity-regulated miRNAs

The brain’s ability to adapt and support learning relies on experience-dependent synaptic plasticity, where connections between neurons are strengthened or weakened in response to activity. Recent res...

Janina Kupke @janinakupke.bsky.social · Jul 14

Thanks a lot!! :-)

Janina Kupke @janinakupke.bsky.social · Jul 14

@davidvcbrito.bsky.social happy to share this honour with you!

Janina Kupke @janinakupke.bsky.social · Jul 14

Many thanks to all the (bluesky-less) collaborators and institutions @zi-mannheim.bsky.social @uniheidelberg.bsky.social who have made this possible.

Special thanks to my great former supervisor Ana & colleague David!

Janina Kupke @janinakupke.bsky.social · Jul 14

Lastly, we wanted to see what the mechanism behind this is. Given the fact that Npas4 is known to be important for excitation-inhibition balance, we teamed up with electrophysiologists and found that Npas4 second wave increased CCK-specific inhibitory input in CA1.

Janina Kupke @janinakupke.bsky.social · Jul 14

Blocking Npas4 second wave resulted in less context discrimination (and vice versa) and the fear memory was unable to be extinguished.
Thus, Npas4 second wave suppresses maladaptive fear processes.

Janina Kupke @janinakupke.bsky.social · Jul 14

The fear conditioning paradigm we used is a highly salient training that can cause PTDS-like phenotypes.
This led us to speculate whether this second wave of Npas4 expression is crucial to avoid maladaptive associations and to allow cognitive flexibility.

Janina Kupke @janinakupke.bsky.social · Jul 14

Thereby, we showed that the second wave has a different effect on memory consolidation than the first Npas4 peak 🤯

Quite surprising and puzzling 🤔🤔🤔

But Npas4 is known to be a positive memory regulator, how does our data fit into this?

Janina Kupke @janinakupke.bsky.social · Jul 14

On the other hand, inducing the second wave in the weak protocol decreased fear expression.

Janina Kupke @janinakupke.bsky.social · Jul 14

Given Npas4’s property to be Ca2+ &NMDAR dependent, we saw that 2nd wave can be blocked by inhibiting NMDAR signaling using APV infusion.

How does this second wave affect memory consolidation?
Blocking the expression of the second wave by inhibiting NMDAR signaling increased the fear memory.

Janina Kupke @janinakupke.bsky.social · Jul 14

We showed very strong (3x0.7mA shock) fear training results in a biphasic Npas4 expression in CA1: the classical IEGs peak at 15min, and another at 4h after CFC. The second wave is missing in a weak CFC (1x0.2mA shock).
Strong fear = second wave 🌊🌊
weak fear = no second wave 🌊

Janina Kupke @janinakupke.bsky.social · Jul 14

Honoured to be awarded
Young Investigator Neuroscience Award from CHS Foundation together with my dearest David Brito for our paper in Molecular Psychiatry!

Curios about the work
⬇️⬇️⬇️ check out our paper & my 🧵 below
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Reposted by Janina Kupke

Steve Maren @stevemaren.bsky.social · May 24

🚨New paper alert! 🚨 Inactivation of the nucleus reuniens causes relapse of extinguished fear. Here we show this “circuit-induced relapse” depends on hippocampal fear memories and is mediated by hippocampal engrams. Congrats to the team!

Hippocampal ensembles regulate circuit-induced relapse of extinguished fear

Molecular Psychiatry - Hippocampal ensembles regulate circuit-induced relapse of extinguished fear

Janina Kupke @janinakupke.bsky.social · May 16

Love it - such a nice idea! And totally agree that accepted animal applications should be recognised more! :D

Janina Kupke @janinakupke.bsky.social · May 16

@danai-lama.bsky.social I totally agree! Amazing talk and data and @alicia-walker.bsky.social was just great, enthusiastic and cheerful in her presentation.
#engramsandensembles2025 is delivering :-)

Reposted by Janina Kupke

Paul Frankland @franklandlab.bsky.social · May 14

Sharing a new paper from the lab. This paper, led by Sangyoon Ko, represents a merging of two longstanding research themes in the lab-- adult neurogenesis and systems consolidation.

rdcu.be/el18q

A short thread follows for those interested.

1/n

Systems consolidation reorganizes hippocampal engram circuitry

Nature - A study shows that loss of memory precision associated with systems consolidation can be explained by neurogenesis-dependent reorganization of engram circuitry within the hippocampus over...

Reposted by Janina Kupke

Steve Ramirez @okaysteve.bsky.social · Mar 13

in our new lab work, we find that:

natural forgetting & induced amnesia share common impaired neural dynamics

this work was funded by multiple #NIH grants that supported students, postdocs, & the science, all with the goal of healing disorders of memory & the brain

www.cell.com/cell-reports...

Reposted by Janina Kupke

Tomás Ryan @tjryan.bsky.social · Apr 24

Excited to share our new study:

"Cold memories control whole-body thermoregulatory responses"

by @andreamunozz.bsky.social, @aaron-douglas.bsky.social & team at @tcddublin.bsky.social, in collaboration with @lydialynch.bsky.social & @drchristineannd.bsky.social

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

Cold memories control whole-body thermoregulatory responses - Nature

Cold-sensitive engrams contribute to learned thermoregulation in mice that are returned to an environment in which they previously experienced a cold challenge, through a network formed betw...

Reposted by Janina Kupke

Kübra Gülmez Karaca @kubikubicv.bsky.social · May 9

New paper out in Neuropsychopharmacology! 🧠
Post-learning noradrenergic activation preserves episodic-like memory by enhancing hippocampal engram reactivation.
A cellular model for why emotional memories stay vivid.
📖 rdcu.be/elfpB
📩 DM or reach out—happy to discuss.

Posttraining noradrenergic stimulation maintains hippocampal engram reactivation and episodic-like specificity of remote memory

Neuropsychopharmacology - Posttraining noradrenergic stimulation maintains hippocampal engram reactivation and episodic-like specificity of remote memory

Janina Kupke @janinakupke.bsky.social · May 9

Congrats!! Very nice study

Janina Kupke @janinakupke.bsky.social · Apr 22

Check out our latest review on

Molecular and cellular mechanisms that support recent and remote memory

We highlight:
• structural and functional changes at the engram level

• hippocampal-cortical communication required for systems consolidation

doi.org/10.1016/j.nl...

Janina Kupke @janinakupke.bsky.social · Apr 5

Finally in its nice looking journal style 🤩🥳🍾

Check out our paper about DNA methylation, engram maturation and systems consolidation.

You can find a 🧵 on my previous link
bsky.app/profile/jani...

Thanks to all people involved and the journal for awarding it "Priority Communication"

Janina Kupke @janinakupke.bsky.social · Feb 19

Wheeey finally out!

Ever wondered that if the reactivation status of engram cells has an effect on their structure? Yes? Then you should read this nice work!!

Congrats @pantheanemat.bsky.social @moever.bsky.social and all the rest to this nice paper!

Panthea Nemat @pantheanemat.bsky.social · Feb 19

I am excited to announce that my first first-author paper is now published in a special issue on "Deciphering the memory engram” in Neurobiology of Learning and Memory in which we describe “Structural synaptic signatures of contextual memory retrieval-reactivated hippocampal engram cells".

Janina Kupke @janinakupke.bsky.social · Feb 10

Strikingly, all this happens without affecting the engram dynamics in the hippocampus - the region which is manipulated, but solely by affecting hippocampus-cortex-communication and systems consolidation!
6/6