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Katja Reinhard @katjareinhard.bsky.social · 3h

Very proud of Po-Yu Liao and Cinar Ilhan who beautifully presented their PhD progress reports today! I'm very happy to have you in the lab and about your exciting research!

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Reposted by Katja Reinhard

MPI for Biological Intelligence @mpiforbi.bsky.social · 19d

Apply now to become a speaker at our Institute! We invite excellent postdocs in neuroscience, ecology and other fields related to our research to apply for our Emerging Scientist Talk Series. Apply by October 24: www.bi.mpg.de/ess

@chr-mayer.bsky.social @fleyes.bsky.social @michaelahau.bsky.social

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Katja Reinhard @katjareinhard.bsky.social · 20d

mouse neuro people who use or consider using neuropixels and/or miniscopes: if there was an implant light enough to do both at the same time (+ maybe optic fiber) in a freely moving mouse, would it advance your research? would you use it?
please comment or send me a message!

Katja Reinhard @katjareinhard.bsky.social · 25d

Excellent end to the Italian Congress for Neuroscience (SINS) - our postdoc Lucia Zanetti chairing a fascinating session on the retina & beyond together with @serenariccitelli.bsky.social! Well done & thanks to the speakers Stefano Di Marco, @santiagorompani.bsky.social, Norma Kühn & Max Joesch

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Katja Reinhard @katjareinhard.bsky.social · 29d

who came up with the Europass format? it's one of the worst types of CV to read - feels crowded but at the same time it takes a lot of space. the sections make sense (mostly) but the formatting, fonts, uppercase, bold etc. is terrible. and that's what we suggest/force people to use...

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Katja Reinhard @katjareinhard.bsky.social · Aug 13

Congrats @anbucci.bsky.social and @ffranke.bsky.social - a beautiful and elegant piece of science

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Katja Reinhard @katjareinhard.bsky.social · Jul 24

Stay tuned for diurnal/nocturnal data! :)

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Katja Reinhard @katjareinhard.bsky.social · Jul 23

Also a big thank you to the reviewers, the host institutes (@nerflabs.bsky.social, @harvard.edu, and in the end also SISSA) and our funding sources, among which I was supported by @fwovlaanderen.bsky.social, @erc.europa.eu and #MSCA.

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Katja Reinhard @katjareinhard.bsky.social · Jul 23

Many thanks to the co-authors for all their contributions: Bram Nuttin (ephys and analysis), @arnausd.bsky.social and Chen Liu (chemogenetics), Victoria Tong (behaviour), Julie Murmann (optogenetics) and Keimpe Wierda (patch clamp)! This long journey would have been impossible without you.

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Katja Reinhard @katjareinhard.bsky.social · Jul 23

This was my first time applying my neuroscience background to questions of evolution and it has been fascinating. This collaboration with Felix and Hopi started with a scientific speed-dating event and I'm very happy about this opportunity to expand my horizon and to trigger many new studies!

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Katja Reinhard @katjareinhard.bsky.social · Jul 23

Optogenetic activation and chemogenetic inhibition of the dPAG confirmed a species-specific role of this nucleus in locomotion.
Together, these data suggest that habitat-specific evolution of threat avoidance can at least partially be traced to a central brain area!

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Katja Reinhard @katjareinhard.bsky.social · Jul 23

However, neural activity in the dPAG - an important node for escape behaviour - strongly differed during locomotion: dPAG activity correlated with running in deer mice, but not in oldfield mice.

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Katja Reinhard @katjareinhard.bsky.social · Jul 23

We wanted to know: what's different in these species' brains so that the same visual stimulus is translated into a different motor output? Using c-Fos and Neuropixels recordings in awake animals, we found that visual threat information is encoded similarly in both species. #brain

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Katja Reinhard @katjareinhard.bsky.social · Jul 23

Testing dozens of animals, Felix found that deer mice (blue) who live in densely vegetated areas predominantly escape in response to a visual looming predator stimulus. In contrast, oldfield mice (orange), a sister-species and inhabitant of open fields, mostly pauses.

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Katja Reinhard @katjareinhard.bsky.social · Jul 23

Finally it's out! www.nature.com/articles/s41... How flexible are essential innate behaviours and their underlying neural circuits? @felixbaier.bsky.social & I, with Hopi Hoekstra and @farrowlab.bsky.social, addressed this by studying the #evolution of threat avoidance in Peromyscus mice.

The neural basis of species-specific defensive behaviour in Peromyscus mice - Nature

Visual threat triggers contrasting freeze and escape defensive responses in two species of deer mice as a result of different activation thresholds downstream of the superior colliculus in the do...

www.nature.com

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Reposted by Katja Reinhard

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! 🧵⬇️

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Reposted by Katja Reinhard

Pranav Minasandra @pminasandra.bsky.social · May 16

🚨 Out this week in @pnas.org 🚨
The flagship paper from my PhD @mpi-animalbehav.bsky.social @livingingroups.bsky.social - We show surprising statistical similarities in animal behaviour across states, individuals, and even species.
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
(🧵 1/10)

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Katja Reinhard @katjareinhard.bsky.social · Jul 21

Beyond the Lab Workshop - Naturalistic Approaches in Neuroscience! join us in Montevideo, Uruguay, 20-25 October sites.google.com/view/beyondt...

beyondthelabworkshop

October 20-25th, 2025 Montevideo, Uruguay

sites.google.com

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Katja Reinhard @katjareinhard.bsky.social · Jul 16

Karl @farrowlab.bsky.social and I wrote a little opinion piece on the importance of comparative neuroscience

The Transmitter @thetransmitter.bsky.social · Jul 16

To identify fundamental neuroscientific principles that generalize across species, systems and circuits, neuroscientists must embrace an evolutionary perspective, argue Karl Farrow and @katjareinhard.bsky.social.

#neuroskyence

www.thetransmitter.org/systems-neur...

Systems and circuit neuroscience need an evolutionary perspective

To identify fundamental neuroscientific principles that generalize across species, neuroscientists must frame their research through an evolutionary lens.

www.thetransmitter.org

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Reposted by Katja Reinhard

European Research Council (ERC) @erc.europa.eu · Jun 2

Planning to apply for #research #funding from the ERC?

From the next application rounds, expect changes to the:

• proposal structure
• evaluation process
• extra funding you can request
• eligibility for Starting & Consolidator #Grants (from 2027)

More 👇 europa.eu/!RPHWvv

Changes to the 2026 and 2027 Work Programmes

With the launch of the competitions for grants under ERC Work Programme 2026 in July of this year, several changes to the submission of applications and the evaluation of proposals will apply. The mai...

europa.eu

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Katja Reinhard @katjareinhard.bsky.social · May 30

Now with correct link: Preprint on how to create an equitable and healthy lab environment www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... ! During the SAFE Labs workshop 2024 we came up with concrete action points, summarised in these guidelines for Lab Handbooks github.com/SAFE-Labs-Do...

The SAFE Labs Handbook: community-driven commitments for group leaders to improve lab culture

Creating positive and equitable lab environments has become a growing priority for the scientific community and funders of scientific research. Research institutions typically respond to this need by ...

www.biorxiv.org

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Katja Reinhard @katjareinhard.bsky.social · May 30

Thanks for the heads up!

Katja Reinhard @katjareinhard.bsky.social · May 30

Apparently the link didn't work... www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

The SAFE Labs Handbook: community-driven commitments for group leaders to improve lab culture

Creating positive and equitable lab environments has become a growing priority for the scientific community and funders of scientific research. Research institutions typically respond to this need by ...

www.biorxiv.org

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Katja Reinhard @katjareinhard.bsky.social · May 30

This year's edition is about to start but keep your eyes open for hopefully future workshops
safelabs.info

Home - SAFE Labs

SAFE Labs Starting Aware Fair & Equitable Labs SAFE Labs – a workshop on starting fair, equitable, and successful labs “Starting Aware Fair & Equitable Labs” is a meeting for principal investigators a...

safelabs.info

Katja Reinhard @katjareinhard.bsky.social · May 30

I'm very happy to be part of this great group of young PIs! Special thanks to Federico, Pip, Letizia and Stéphane for organising this workshop and for collecting and analysing community feedback to our ideas!
My lab's Handbook can be found on our website www.reinhardlab.org/philosophy

Flexibility in Circuits & Behaviour - Philosophy

Lab Handbook The importance of a positive work culture for wellbeing and productivity has become increasingly evident in recent years, but academic science still has a negative reputation in this area...

www.reinhardlab.org

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