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megyounger.bsky.social
Meg Younger
@megyounger.bsky.social
160 followers 210 following 7 posts
Neuroscientist with too many plants. Assistant professor @bu-biology. she/her youngerlaboratory.org
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megyounger.bsky.social
Meg Younger @megyounger.bsky.social · 19h
It was so fun to work on this with @gkocker.bsky.social and @clienkaemper.bsky.social! It is out @pnas.org
If you love olfaction and love math, this one is for you!
🦟👃🧮

When noncanonical olfaction is optimal | PNAS www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
When noncanonical olfaction is optimal | PNAS
The early olfactory system is canonically described by a “one-receptor-to-one-neuron” model: each olfactory sensory neuron (OSN) expresses a single...
www.pnas.org
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Reposted by Meg Younger
jefferis.bsky.social
Greg Jefferis @jefferis.bsky.social · Aug 21
Neuronal diversity is written in transcriptional codes 🧬. But what is the logic of these codes that define cell types and wiring patterns?
To find out we built a #scRNAseq developmental atlas of the Drosophila nerve cord and linked it to the #connectome 🪰🧠
#preprint thread ⬇️1/8
ALT text: A UMAP representation of a single cell RNAseq dataset from the Drosophila ventral nerve cord as well as images of the Drosophila nerve cord connectome and different stages of fly development.
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Reposted by Meg Younger
mindyisminsu.bsky.social
Minsu Kim @mindyisminsu.bsky.social · Aug 5
It’s surreal to think that every neuron and synapse in the fly brain + cord that was dissected almost five years ago (the photo’s still on the lab slack!) is now just a click away on Codex codex.flywire.ai?dataset=banc. This wouldn’t have been possible without the incredible team behind it!
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Reposted by Meg Younger
darbly.bsky.social
Wei-Chung Allen Lee @darbly.bsky.social · Aug 3
With @megyounger.bsky.social's lab, et al., we present the first connectomics work in the disease-vector mosquito Aedes aegypti, revealing how its brain is wired to detect host cues.

Preprint: doi.org/10.1101/2025...

#Neuroscience #Connectomics #vEM #VectorBiology 🧪
Diagrams (top-left) of an adult female Ae. aegypti head and (bottom) a basiconic sensillum on maxillary palp (gray) which contain dendritic processes of olfactory sensory neurons (OSNs), including CO2-sensitive Gr3-expressing OSNs. OSN axons project centrally to the antennal lobes in the brain. On the right is a volumetric rendering of the mosquito brain neuropils including the antennal lobes (light blue) (Heinze et al., 2021; Matthews et al., 2019). Scale bar 100 μm.
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megyounger.bsky.social
Meg Younger @megyounger.bsky.social · Jul 31
With @davidhildebrand.bsky.social !
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megyounger.bsky.social
Meg Younger @megyounger.bsky.social · Jul 31
The sensory neuron wiring shows us why they are so crazy sensitive to CO2. 🌬️🦟
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megyounger.bsky.social
Meg Younger @megyounger.bsky.social · Jul 31
New preprint from @darbly.bsky.social‬ @briandepasquale.bsky.social‬ and my labs! If you love (or hate) mosquitoes, have a look:

doi.org/10.1101/2025...

We used TEM to describe the circuitry used for CO2 detection by mosquitoes. As usual with mosquitoes, nothing is as expected! 🌬️🦟
Recurrent connectivity supports carbon dioxide sensitivity in Aedes aegypti mosquitoes
The mosquito Aedes aegypti′s human host-seeking behavior depends on the integration of multiple sensory cues. One of these cues, carbon dioxide (CO2), gates odorant and heat pathways and activates hos...
doi.org
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Reposted by Meg Younger
mollygale.bsky.social
Molly Gale (Gale-Hammell Lab) @mollygale.bsky.social · Jun 16
🧬🌽 Happy Transposon Day! 🌽🧬

Today we celebrate the birthday of Barbara McClintock - scientist extraordinaire and discoverer of jumping genes. Still the only woman to have an unshared Nobel Prize in the biomedical sciences #TransposonDay2025
Barbara McClintock portrait
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Reposted by Meg Younger
klingensteinorg.bsky.social
Klingenstein Philanthropies @klingensteinorg.bsky.social · Jun 12
The Esther A. & Joseph Klingenstein Fund thanks @rswilliamson.bsky.social, ‪‪@megyounger.bsky.social‬, and @sungsoo.bsky.social for presenting their research at the recent Klingenstein Fellowship Awards in Neuroscience Conference.

📷 : SimonProPhoto
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megyounger.bsky.social
Meg Younger @megyounger.bsky.social · May 27
So excited for @lforencia.bsky.social and all of the amazing fellows!!
leadingedgeprogram.bsky.social
Leading Edge Fellows Program @leadingedgeprogram.bsky.social · May 27
We are thrilled to announce the 2025 Leading Edge Fellows! 40 outstanding postdoctoral fellows doing pioneering research in a wide range of biological and biomedical disciplines.

Learn more about these exceptional scientists:

www.leadingedgesymposium.org/fellows
Text reads "Congratulations to the 2025 Leading Edge Fellows" followed by the Leading Edge logo and www.leadingedgesymposium.org. Below are the headshots and names of the 40 new Leading Edge Fellows. They are Cel Welch Lianna Wat Maria Toro Moreno Sarah Talley Xulu Sun Ines Sturmlechner Virginia Savy Amelie Raz Kali Pruss Caterina Profaci Sarah Pierce Melissa Pamula Kehinde Odufowora Patricia Nano Ariana Musa de Aquino Nour El Houda Mimouni Kathleen Martin Brea Manuel Mable Lam Miri Krupkin Elaine Kouame Megan Kirchgessner Sumin Kim Shubhangini Kataruka Geraldine Jowett Andrea Jones Leanne Iannucci Emily Heckman Allison Girasole Florencia Fernandez Chiappe Tonie Farris Hannah Elam Erin Doherty Xiaoyun Ding Maria Bustillo Julia Brunner Debadrita Bhattacharya Lorena Benedetti Ashley Anderson Krisha Aghi
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megyounger.bsky.social
Meg Younger @megyounger.bsky.social · Mar 5
Excited to share new work with @clienkaemper.bsky.social and @gkocker.bsky.social!
🌬️🦟
clienkaemper.bsky.social
Caitlin Lienkaemper @clienkaemper.bsky.social · Mar 5
New preprint out with @megyounger.bsky.social and @gkocker.bsky.social: "When non-canonical olfaction is optimal"

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
a cartoon of a mosquito with a website named ayamurata.com
Alt: a cartoon of a mosquito with a website named ayamurata.com
media.tenor.com
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Reposted by Meg Younger
sloanfoundation.bsky.social
Alfred P. Sloan Foundation @sloanfoundation.bsky.social · Feb 18
🎉Congrats to the 126 early-career scientists who have been awarded a Sloan Research Fellowship this year! These exceptional scholars are drawn from 51 institutions across the US and Canada, and represent the next generation of groundbreaking researchers. sloan.org/fellowships/...
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megyounger.bsky.social
Meg Younger @megyounger.bsky.social · Feb 7
Finally setting this up
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