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Reposted by Kepecs Lab @ WashU

Aaron Milstein @neurosutras.bsky.social · Aug 20

Be my neighbor! @rwjms.bsky.social Neuroscience is hiring!
jobs.rutgers.edu/postings/258...

Assistant or Associate Professor (Tenured or Tenure-Track)

The Department of Neuroscience and Cell Biology at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School (RWJMS), the Rutgers Child Health Institute (CHI), and the Rutgers Brain Health Institute (BHI) seek appli...

jobs.rutgers.edu

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Kepecs Lab @ WashU @kepecslab.bsky.social · Jul 21

Important topic, high potency THC is a different game.

Yasmin Hurd, PhD @neurovoice.bsky.social · Jul 21

The #cannabis landscape has changed. High THC concentrations in today's products have profound effects on the brain 🧠

I spoke with Doug Bopst on The Adversity Advantage about the risks of cannabis consumption. #Neuroskyence

🎧 Listen here: podcasts.apple.com/bb/podcast/c...

Screenshot of the podcast episode, showing the podcast artwork & the episode title.

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Kepecs Lab @ WashU @kepecslab.bsky.social · Jul 17

Interesting proposal. How about editors using LLMs not to generate reviews, but to flag those that look generic and light on insight? And also use LLMs to cross-check reviews for factual errors, since some reviews can be confidently wrong.

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Reposted by Kepecs Lab @ WashU

Alex Kwan @alexkwan.bsky.social · Jul 17

We worked so well as a team for the #GRCPsychedelics @vyazovskiy.bsky.social @viditavaidya.bsky.social @melissaherman.bsky.social

and congrats to @theborislab.bsky.social and @mikaelpalner.bsky.social, who will be the future vice-chairs!

Chairs and vice chairs for the Psychedelics GRC

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Kepecs Lab @ WashU @kepecslab.bsky.social · May 12

Meet Area Postrema!

Biomedical Picture of the Day BPoD @bpodaily.bsky.social · May 12

Cancer muscle wasting-associated apathy is result of tumour-induced inflammation & brain circuitry interaction

📷 Xiaoyue Aelita Zhu & Sarah Starosta et al
@kepecslab.bsky.social Pignatelli lab, Janowitz lab
Washington Uni St L, in @science.org

➡️ bpod.org.uk/archive/2025... +
@rooph.bsky.social

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Reposted by Kepecs Lab @ WashU

Gord Fishell @gordfishell.bsky.social · May 4

I will fly to anywhere in the United States on my own dime to talk to people about basic science! I encourage all of you, particularly senior scientists to make this commitment. If you are looking for material ask @karalmarshall.bsky.social She has put together an amazing basic talk!

Gord Fishell @gordfishell.bsky.social · May 4

OK inspired by @karalmarshall.bsky.social I am reaching out to the public where ever I can. Traditionally Republicans have been incredibly supportive of science. We as scientists need to reach out to people across the spectrum to rally their support for basic science!

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Kepecs Lab @ WashU @kepecslab.bsky.social · May 5

We'll miss you here Ilya! Exciting opportunity, congrats! Wishing you all the best for this next chapter!

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Reposted by Kepecs Lab @ WashU

Gord Fishell @gordfishell.bsky.social · May 3

Given all that is going on consider this quote from Bertram Russell's 1930 book The conquest of Happiness:
“The man who can be interested in the structure of atoms or the way in which a beetle navigates, is likely to get a joy in life which no amount of success in the pursuit of power can give. ”

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Kepecs Lab @ WashU @kepecslab.bsky.social · Apr 11

💔 that’s really tough, so sorry

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Kepecs Lab @ WashU @kepecslab.bsky.social · Apr 11

Thanks CJ!

Kepecs Lab @ WashU @kepecslab.bsky.social · Apr 11

14/ Finally, this work wouldn’t have been possible without generous support from many funders. Special thanks to the NIH, especially NIMH, NIDA, and the NIH Pioneer Award—for making long-term, high-risk neuroscience like this possible.
🧵🔚

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Kepecs Lab @ WashU @kepecslab.bsky.social · Apr 11

13/ This builds on decades of work linking inflammation to fatigue, depression, and motivation loss. We’re picking up that thread, now with a defined brain circuit in play, a step toward circuit neuro-immunology.
#Inflammation #Depression #IL6 #Cancer #Cachexia #NeuroImmunology

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Kepecs Lab @ WashU @kepecslab.bsky.social · Apr 11

12/ This project took a *huge* team, spanning neuroscience, immunology, and cancer. Grateful to co–first authors Aelita Zhu, Sarah Starosta, co–senior authors Marco Pignatelli & Tobias Janowitz & ours labs & all our amazing collaborators including @kravitzlab.com & Pavel Osten.

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Kepecs Lab @ WashU @kepecslab.bsky.social · Apr 11

11/ We’re also excited about our effort-based tasks to measure motivation. Grounded in behavioral economics, they’re designed for cross-species computational psychiatry. We’re now adapting them for humans to bridge physical disease and psychiatric symptoms.

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Kepecs Lab @ WashU @kepecslab.bsky.social · Apr 11

10/ Our work reframes cachexia: it’s not just body wasting, it inherently involves the brain. Chronic inflammation activates a neural circuit that suppresses motivation—likely
adaptive in acute illness but harmful when chronic, showing how physical disease directly causes psychiatric symptoms.

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Kepecs Lab @ WashU @kepecslab.bsky.social · Apr 11

9/ We also used an IL-6–blocking antibody in mice—similar to FDA-approved drugs for rheumatoid arthritis. Given early, it improved survival. Given late, it still rescued apathy-like behavior. This points to a promising, translatable way to treat apathy in advanced disease.

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Kepecs Lab @ WashU @kepecslab.bsky.social · Apr 11

8/ The circuit insights let us reverse apathy without stopping cancer:
— Knockdown of IL-6 receptors in area postrema
— Ablation of ArP→PBN neurons
— Boosting dopamine via optogenetics or dopamine agonist cocktail injected in nucleus accumbens.
Motivation was rescued even in late-stage disease.

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Kepecs Lab @ WashU @kepecslab.bsky.social · Apr 11

7/ We used a patch foraging task with depleting rewards designed to measure effort sensitivity—grounded in behavioral economics. As cachexia progressed and IL-6 rose, dopamine in the nucleus accumbens fell. Mice gave up faster, even when rewards were still available.

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Kepecs Lab @ WashU @kepecslab.bsky.social · Apr 11

6/ We mapped fill the circuit: IL-6 activates the area postrema neurons that project parabrachial nucleus and then to substanta nigra pr, which inhibits dopamine release in the nucleus accumbens. Optogenetic activation of ArP→PBN mimicked inflammation, rapidly suppressing motivation.

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Kepecs Lab @ WashU @kepecslab.bsky.social · Apr 11

5/ To find the cause, we ran a cytokine screen and brainwide cFos mapping. The cytokine IL6 increased with cachexia. Most brain regions were suppressed, but a few lit up—most notably the area postrema, a circumventricular organ outside the BBB that could sense circulating IL-6.

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Kepecs Lab @ WashU @kepecslab.bsky.social · Apr 11

4/ We tested in mice with cancer (C26 colon adenocarcinoma) and saw a striking loss of motivation.
As cachexia set in, effort sensitivity increased in two tasks—but mice still liked sweet rewards, showed no despair, and retained capacity to move. Apathy-like behavior.

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Kepecs Lab @ WashU @kepecslab.bsky.social · Apr 11

3/ Apathy in cancer cachexia is often dismissed as a psychological reaction to physical decline. But what if it’s part of the disease process itself—driven by inflammation acting on the brain?

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Kepecs Lab @ WashU @kepecslab.bsky.social · Apr 11

2/ Cachexia affects ~80% of late-stage cancer patients. It’s a wasting syndrome with severe weight/muscle loss despite eating. But it also drains the mind—patients lose motivation, withdraw from loved ones, and struggle with treatment. Apathy and fatigue take over.

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Kepecs Lab @ WashU @kepecslab.bsky.social · Apr 11

1/ Why do patients with late-stage cancer lose motivation & sink into apathy?
🔥 Our new Science paper shows chronic inflammation activates a cytokine-sensing brain circuit that lowers motivation. Huge team effort: Aelita Zhu, Sarah Starosta, Pignatelli & Janowitz labs! 🧵
🔗 doi.org/10.1126/scie...

A neuroimmune circuit mediates cancer cachexia-associated apathy

Cachexia, a severe wasting syndrome associated with inflammatory conditions, often leads to multiorgan failure and death. Patients with cachexia experience extreme fatigue, apathy, and clinical depres...

doi.org

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Kepecs Lab @ WashU @kepecslab.bsky.social · Apr 10

convergence!

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