👀!

Over 20 years after Julius’s lab and mine cloned TRPM8, it is rewarding to see this science helping patients. The TRPM8 agonist Tryptyr treats dry eye by increasing tear production. A reminder that NIH-funded curiosity-driven research translates to medicines.
tryptyr.myalcon.com?gad_source=1...

codebase here ! zenodo.org/records/1532...

thank you to all the amazing members/alumni of the Uchida lab and people with whom I had the privilege to discuss with @paulmasset.bsky.social @gershbrain.bsky.social @coolscontrol.bsky.social

This is an overlooked mechanism that impacts both the core understanding of dopamine signals in in reinforcement learning but also the study of psychiatric disorders and pharmacological interventions

We also show evidence in humans : indirect measurements of dopamine baseline correlates with asymmetric learning rates and explains the effects of dopamine pharmacological manipulations in a way consistent with the model

We show how only by accounting for this mechanism we could explain the effects of Habenula lesions , where mice showed signals of 'optimistic' biases after re-learning a task.

My first paper with @naoshigeuchida.bsky.social is finally out in @natcomms.nature.com ! rdcu.be/eACGf

TL;DR: asymmetric learning rates can be induced by shifts in tonic dopamine giving rise to pessimistic/optimistic biases in agents or animals undergoing reinforcement learning .

groundbreaking work by the amazingly talented @hannahpayne.bsky.social !

this is awesome groundbreaking work!! congrats to all involved!!!

Out now in @nathumbehav.nature.com: Cuts to NIH funding will impact the economy and employment nationwide. We visualize these losses and advocate for a theory-driven approach to communicating local, self-relevant impact. w/ @joshuasweitz.bsky.social + SCIMaP team:

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

Harvard today, your institution tomorrow.

It's all part of the Project 2025 plan to destroy high education in America.

All leading US universities depend on federal funding and tuition dollars from international students. They severely curtailed the former. Now they're eliminating the latter.

America is in danger of experiencing an academic brain drain 
economist.com/science-and-...

I am where I am now because of OPT. That was my status all throughout my postdoc. It is basically the only way international students are able to transition to employment and contribute their US-trained skills in the United States.

I realize that as a retired professor I have a responsibility to say more on this than I have.

International students are essential to the fiscal bottom line of almost every university. This is an unambiguous attempt to destroy Harvard—permanently.

And he won’t stop with Harvard. This is madness.

They're terminating OPT.

Today the nominee to head USCIS stated directly: he will end Optional Practical Training, the single largest channel for high-skill immigrants to work in the US.

6 weeks ago I warned about this & summarized the research on impacts of this drastic action—> @piie.com

With nearly all of Harvard Chan School’s direct federal grants terminated, we are relying on philanthropy to power our research and support our educational programs. Every gift, regardless of size, advances our vision of health, dignity, and justice for every human. Support our work: hsph.me/whygive

The Trump administration is "willing to not just slash and burn research that challenges their political ideology but to replace it with shoddy studies designed to support their goals, under the guise of scientific legitimacy," Katherine J. Wu writes.

An autism "registry" culled from private medical records could potentially violate federal privacy laws and runs the risk of abuse.

It also harkens back to a time when disabled people were labeled, segregated, and excluded. We won't go back.

1. For the past thirty years I've had the best job in the world.


I've had the opportunity to follow my curiosity; explore the workings of nature and society; mentor students and junior colleagues in the same process; and teach generations of students about it all.

Here are six examples of how foreign visitors to the US with no criminal record are being treated:

1. Mahmoud Khalil, a green card holding student with no criminal record married to an American is abducted by ICE and is still in detention over a week later.
www.nytimes.com/2025/03/19/n...
......