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Sarah Stern 🎗️ @sarahstern.bsky.social · May 23

Shameless plug 1: looking for someone who could make me some intro music for the podcast

Shameless plug 2: looking for more scientists to interview!
I know it’s a really challenging time, but you never know when a little time could have a big impact down the road!

Sarah Stern 🎗️ @sarahstern.bsky.social · May 23

We had a really fun conversation about her unconventional path to science, how her projects are contributing towards improving human health and we demystify the concept of indirect funds.

Enjoy and please share with your friends and colleagues!

Science Amplified with Ya'el Courtney

Sarah Stern 🎗️ @sarahstern.bsky.social · May 23

Heading into the weekend by sharing the second episode of my podcast Science Amplified, where I interview scientists like @ScienceYael whose funding has been cut, either temporarily or permanently.

open.spotify.com/episode/1YZT...

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Reposted by Sarah Stern 🎗️

I-75 Scientist @flscitriguy.bsky.social · May 20

Please double check the expiration date on any NOFO you are applying do. They are updated on the form, (Expiration date) with a link to the notice, but other aspects aren't edited.

Gabi Serrato Marks @gserratomarks.bsky.social · May 20

NIH moved up the expiration date for some funding opportunities, effectively *canceling* the next application date without removing it from the standard table. I can't even imagine how many people are still prepping these grants.

👀 List of impacted opportunities:
grants.nih.gov/grants/guide...

Screenshot of NIMH BRAINS funding opportunity. The expiration date is now before the next application due date.

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Sarah Stern 🎗️ @sarahstern.bsky.social · May 19

Thank you!

Reposted by Sarah Stern 🎗️

Grace Lindsay @neurograce.bsky.social · Apr 9

The number of people who qualify for this is growing everyday. Have your voice, and your science, heard!

Sarah Stern 🎗️ @sarahstern.bsky.social · Apr 9

If you’re a scientist whose funding has recently been cut or impacted, I would love to interview you and amplify your work!

Hoping to release our first two podcast episodes next week.

Please share widely!

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Sarah Stern 🎗️ @sarahstern.bsky.social · May 19

Thank you!

Sarah Stern 🎗️ @sarahstern.bsky.social · May 19

There are lots of other interesting results and tidbits in the full manuscript and we are excited to hear your feedback!

Sarah Stern 🎗️ @sarahstern.bsky.social · May 19

We are very excited about the idea that the insular cortex has direct access to information about internal states, and in the future we hope to understand more about how the insula integrates this internal state information with exteroceptive information to control behavior.

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Sarah Stern 🎗️ @sarahstern.bsky.social · May 19

Lastly, although we find that most LepR connections are local, they make a projection to the BLA, which also controls latency to pellet retrieval in an operant learning task.

Sarah Stern 🎗️ @sarahstern.bsky.social · May 19

Moreover, we found that administering leptin reshapes the transcriptome in the insula, and particularly in neurons that have previously been associated with food intake control. Leptin also reshapes overall insular cortex neural activity in response to feeding.

Sarah Stern 🎗️ @sarahstern.bsky.social · May 19

We also found that this effect is specific to food restriction compared to water restriction, suggesting that LepR neurons receive information specifically about hunger states.

Sarah Stern 🎗️ @sarahstern.bsky.social · May 19

What do these neurons encode? Through a series of calcium imaging experiments we found that LepR neurons encode feeding bouts, but they are particularly responsive to hunger states, and alter their responsivity to food during food restriction.

Sarah Stern 🎗️ @sarahstern.bsky.social · May 19

This is quite consistent with what we know about the insular cortex, where broad inhibition impacts learned feeding behaviors, but not normal food intake. (See Stern et al 2021, Livneh 2017)

Sarah Stern 🎗️ @sarahstern.bsky.social · May 19

Interestingly, activation & inhibition of LepR neurons broadly had little impact on homeostatic food intake. However, it DID decrease 📉 pellets retrieved in an operant learning task and induced place aversion, suggesting that LepR is responsible for regulating learned feeding

Sarah Stern 🎗️ @sarahstern.bsky.social · May 19

Many previous studies assumed that cortical LepR neurons are nonfunctional. We show that these LepR neurons are responsive to leptin and become more excitable. And what about behavior?

Sarah Stern 🎗️ @sarahstern.bsky.social · May 19

We identified a small population of leptin receptor (LepR) neurons in the insula that we hypothesized might receive direct information from the periphery about hunger states.

Sarah Stern 🎗️ @sarahstern.bsky.social · May 19

The insular cortex has long been hypothesized as an interoceptive hub. But how does information about bodily states arrive at the insula? Some studies suggest that there may be direct interoceptive input, but how?

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Sarah Stern 🎗️ @sarahstern.bsky.social · May 19

Thrilled to share our latest preprint and first major project from the lab, where we show a mechanism for direct interoceptive input to the insular cortex. Work by the incredible @zhezhao2017 with help from many others including @stefanoberto83.bsky.social

bioRxiv Neuroscience @biorxiv-neursci.bsky.social · May 17

Direct interoceptive input to the insular cortex shapes learned feeding behavior https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.05.13.653896v1

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Sarah Stern 🎗️ @sarahstern.bsky.social · May 18

Still ironing out some kinks, like getting onto Apple Podcasts, but we have two more episodes coming soon, with Ya’el Courtney and Rachel Marsh. Please share, especially with your non-scientists friends and family. I would love to keep interviewing, so please keep in touch if interested!

Science Amplified with Paul Bieniasz

Sarah Stern 🎗️ @sarahstern.bsky.social · May 18

You can listen to Episode 1 with Dr. Paul Bieniasz here. We discuss a wide range of topics, including his research on SARS-CoV-2, how to restore trust in science, and why basic research is still necessary.

open.spotify.com/episode/2pWn...

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Sarah Stern 🎗️ @sarahstern.bsky.social · May 18

As grants started getting cancelled a few months ago, I felt compelled to give a voice to scientists whose work has been targeted & share with the public what they do and why it’s so vital.

Happy to announce the start of my new podcast, Science Amplified

open.spotify.com/episode/6aUZ...

Science Amplified: Intro