@neuroadipo
ktownsendlab.com Neuroscience 🧠 PhD; PI- Neurobiology & Energy Balance Lab ⚖️ & Professor at Ohio State Dept Neurosurgery, formerly faculty UMaine & Joslin Diabetes; @neuroadipo all platforms ; opinions own
Indianapolis is a biotech/biomed research powerhouse. Enjoyed my visit at IU and Lilly this week, the scientific discussions were so uplifting. Thanks to Jon Flak for hosting me! 🧪🧪
Two neurobiologists who helped decipher how the somatosensory system detects touch and pain have won this year’s Brain Prize, the largest award in neuroscience.
By @helenak.bsky.social
#neuroskyence
www.thetransmitter.org/somatosensat...
🚨 REGISTRATION NOW OPEN – CAJAL CONFERENCE 2026
“Novel Insights Into Brain Energy Metabolism in Health and Disease”
📍 April 15–17, 2026 | Cádiz, Spain
🔔 SENC Fellowships available
🔔 20 slots for Oral Communications
👉🏻 Register here:
amconferences.eventsair.com/senc-cajal-c...
👇🏻 SPEAKERS
Translation of scientific discovery in action! Our Keenan iCORPs team - 2 Fisher MBA students (Bria, Chase) + Gargi (postdoc our research group) - did a great job w early customer discovery - our new treatments for metabolic & nervous system (obesity, neuropathy). 🧪
Oh wow! It finally got warm! Outdoor goodbye celebration with the lab for Karierah and Holly tonight.
A bit late for V-day this year, but from our lab to all of you: a flower bouquet (neuromuscular junction) by Magda, and a green heart (dorsal root ganglion) by Gargi 💐💚🧪
A study of millions of life science papers revealed that manuscripts with women in key authorship roles spent longer between submission and acceptance 🧪🧪https://t.co/uhQFaNCW3W
Love this tradition @ohiostatepress.bsky.social. Promoted faculty pick a book and write a dedication. 🧪💚🧪 Here is mine from my promotion to Professor in 2025.
Speech blurs together unless you know the language; scientists found the brain signal that separates the words
Grateful to be at NIH (or the “mothership” as a fellow speaker called it today), to support the next generation of new @dknet.org (NIDDK) investigators. Glad to pay it forward, and remembering how impactful this event was for me after my first R01. Still learning from colleagues!
Sharing our latest paper in Molecular Metabolism, led by Jake Willows w our dental school collaborator Sarah Peters. A semaphorin 7a KO had altered adipose innervation, especially across development, showing Sema acts on the nerves, not just adipocytes. tinyurl.com/3x8x6yy2 🧪🧪
An “extraordinary” brain network discovery shows that Parkinson’s disease may not be a movement disorder after all
💚🧪
Join us for an educational webinar with Peripheral Nerve Society on April 29 (register below) “Metabolic Disease and Peripheral Neuropathy – Mechanistic Insights from Bench to Bedside” with me, Chris Gibbons (Harvard), and Brian Callaghan (UMichigan). 🧪https://tinyurl.com/mvjs5xjc
In a new Science study, researchers introduce DrugCLIP, a contrastive learning framework that virtually screens small molecules and protein pockets, analyzing protein-ligand interactions 10 million times faster than most standard molecular docking approaches. https://scim.ag/45FfSj2
Most beautiful science of 2025, from @nautil.us
🧪🧪
nautil.us/the-most-bea...
#Science2025-6 🧪🧪 Former Pepsico CEO Indra Nooyi:
“Sometimes people say, “Oh, you flip-flop.” No, the environment changed. ... You cannot be dogmatic about your strategic direction. When the environment changes around you, you’ve got to zag a little bit."
From @farnamstreet.bsky.social
Such a well-deserved recognition, and a discovery that continues to have huge impacts on research in the brain. Congrats!!
New forecasted R25 opportunities in research training.
Research Experiences:
simpler.grants.gov/opportunity/...
A line grant showing non-competitive renewal awards made by NIH is fiscal year 2026 compared to 2021-2025. The line for fiscal year 2026 shows a lag due to the government shutdown in October and November and then follows the other curves but the lags due to the delay remains.
Non-competitive renewal awards.
On a more or less normal curve but not catching up from the government shutdown-related delay.
All ICs except for NIAAA and NCCIH have made some awards with NIAID having made the most at 579.
2/2
Second article by Paul Cohen in @science.org reveals beige fat can impact blood pressure www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
First article in @cp-cellmetabolism.bsky.social www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Quoted in New Scientist today, coverage by Linda Geddes, 2 articles reveal nuanced functions of adipose conferring health benefits around the body. Links below @newscientist.com 🧪🧪https://www.newscientist.com/article/2511715-body-fat-supports-your-health-in-surprisingly-complex-ways/
Only well-off AAAS fellows are "ok"; the rest of us aren't.
If the science minibus passes, the decimation remains. Colette notes NIH ECRs are crushed. NCAR is not explicitly protected. Money won't arrive before a 5% grant success rate at NASA planetary forces more ECRs out after the 20% NASA RIF.
*not including NIH
Bar graph showing global ocean heat content change in the upper 2000 m from the late 1950s through 2025. There is a long-term warming in the time series, which is using IAP/CAS data.
2025 was the hottest year on record for ocean heat content. Unfortunately, we now say this every year. 🥹
"In addition to setting a new record in 2025, the global
ocean continues to show sustained and intensified warming."
+ #OpenAccess Study: doi.org/10.1007/s003...
+ Data: www.ocean.iap.ac.cn
For anyone interested in the new Dietary Guidelines, here's a breakdown and my thoughts:
kcklatt.substack.com/p/ambiguous-...
Doing tactile things has been helping my anxiety, and my genius sister-in-law made an app that prompts a daily doodle and I'm LOVING it. She just put out the beta.
Main rule: NO AI.
I'm 2/skwurlhat on there. Come draw with us. It's so nice.
www.doodl.app/join-the-beta
Every. Single. Day.
