Our RH7 preprint was featured today in eLife’s Magazine Insight by @soeren-haefker.bsky.social.
"Non-Visual Light Perception: Ancient photoreceptor shapes behavioural responses" doi.org/10.7554/eLif...
@flyneuro.bsky.social @nils-reinhard.bsky.social @flyingclocks.bsky.social @v-kirsch.bsky.social
After 5 years of developing, a new preprint from the lab - introducing our workflow for comparative insect connectomics, aimed at democratizing connectomics. @erc.europa.eu @lundvision.bsky.social @biologylu.bsky.social Read it here: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Close-up image of a Aedes aegypti mosquito, piercing human skin with its proboscis to feed on blood. Credit: wikimedia/James Gathany
In PNAS Science Sessions, Laura Duvall of Columbia University explains how a circadian peptide helps control when Aedes aegypti mosquitoes hunt and why understanding this timing could inform new disease prevention strategies. Listen now: https://ow.ly/scgm50Yl8F7.
Have you ever asked yourself, how insect brains represent places? And whether insects do have place cells? Then move to Germany this summer and start your PhD in my lab. We conduct tetrode recordings from bumblebees that freely forage laboratory mazes. 🧠🐝#BeeSpace @erc.europa.eu @neuroethology.org
Our reviewed preprint in eLife is out now! We show that RH7, an ancient opsin in non-retinal structures, shapes how Drosophila responds to light-dark changes. Working on the revision :-).
@flyneuro.bsky.social @v-kirsch.bsky.social @flyingclocks.bsky.social @nils-reinhard.bsky.social #Drosophila
The registration for the NeuroDoWo 2026 will open on February 15th🧠
While you wait, you can check out our program on the website🔍
👉🏼Link in bio
We hope to see you soon!
Stay tuned for more details👀
Suported by @biologists.bsky.social, @neurowissg.bsky.social and @dzg-neurobiology.bsky.social
On the left, the image shows a schematic of a fly head, ring neurons and EPG neurons together with some calcium imaging frames. On the right is a photo of a fly on a ball in virtual reality and another schematic of a VR system.
📢 Join us, the Haberkern lab, @uni-wuerzburg.de for a postdoc studying neural circuit mechanisms of navigation. You’ll spearheading neurophysiology experiments on our brand new 2P!
⏳ Apply by 28th February 2026
Details: www.haberkernlab.de/docs/ENPostd...
#neuroscience #academicjobs #postdoc
🧠The NeuroDoWo is coming to Würzburg
The NeuroDoWo is a conference where neuroscience and phd students are brought together!
📍Würzrburg, Germany
🗓️ 8th to 12th June 2026
Stay tuned for speaker announcements, workshops, and registration info
#phdlife #neuroscience #wuerzburg #conference #neurodowo
SO HAPPY to share our new paper in @currentbiology.bsky.social! Using volumetric EM, we found daily shifts in synapses, vesicles, and mitochondria that accompany neuronal remodeling, linking structural plasticity to changes in how s-LNv neurons influence their targets
www.cell.com/current-biol...
The clock network of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster (gray). The clock neurons of the core clock, which form the minimal circuit of the internal clock, are highlighted in color. The four dorsal clock neurons examined in the study are marked in magenta, while the remaining neurons of the core clock are marked in blue. (Photo: Nils Reinhard)
A tiny neural network is sufficient to control the daily rhythm of the fruit fly: New paper out in @pnas.org s.org by @nils-reinhard.bsky.social and @flyingclocks.bsky.social ingclocks.bsky.social. Only four specialized nerve cells drive the animals' endogenous clock.
go.uniwue.de/circadianclock
If you do not have access to the article please drop me a message, I am happy to share a link!
On my last day at @flyneuro.bsky.social I am happy to share my latest paper about the DN1a clock neurons and their central role within the clock network. :)
I am grateful for the nice time I had here in Würzburg and looking forward to new adventures in Okayama and Münster in the next years!
Hello #Neuroscience mastodon,
we have a BBSRC funded #Phd position open!
A cool project utilise #Drosophila transcriptome and connectome to map out the novel #sleep controlling visual pathway!
see details here:
https://www.kofanchenlab.net/come-join-us
please boost and spread the words!
The connectome of the entire male Drosophila central nervous system is out!! Acquired using FIB-SEM @ 8x8x8nm, we aligned 7.5 mio 2D images aligned into one seamless 3D volume, which was used to segment & proofread neurons and synapses. @hhmijanelia.bsky.social
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
WE ARE HIRING!
Please spread widely!
#Postdoc in #Evolutionary #Genomics
-> www.mpg.de/25524526/
#Postdoc in #Molecular #Biology & #Cell #Signalling
-> www.mpg.de/25524509/
@mpi-evolbio.bsky.social @maxplanck.de
#ScienceJobs #EvoBio #MolBio #Ecology #Chronobiology #Marine #EntoSky #Biodiversity
A man and a woman are seen silhouetted against the full moon. Their foreheads and noses are touching.
The female menstrual cycle was probably originally synchronized with the lunar cycle. This has changed significantly due to artificial light and smartphones, as a new study now published in the Journal Science Advances shows. go.uniwue.de/moon
🎉🏅We congratulate 🌟Nils Reinhard 🌟 (University of Würzburg, Germany), winner of a FEBS Letters #PosterPrize at the European Biological Rhythms Society meeting #EBRS2025 in Lübeck, Germany! 🎉👏👏👏
@nils-reinhard.bsky.social
FlyBase needs your help! We ask that European labs continue to contribute to Cambridge, UK FlyBase, whereas US and other non-European labs can contribute to US FlyBase. For more information and how to donate: wiki.flybase.org/wiki/FlyBase...
Our new paper is out now!
We show the non-image forming role of #Rhodopsin7 in #Drosophila, expanding our understanding of #opsins beyond classical vision.
This work highlights how #Rh7 contributes to extra-retinal light sensing and plays a role in behavioral light responses.
@flyneuro.bsky.social
I was wondering first if it is autofluorescent, but grains that incubated longer had brighter signal which made me think that they were actually stained. But I would not exclude it completely.
When you work with insects that play a role in pollination, you sometimes get some nice surprises, like this dandelion (Taraxacum) pollen grain. Interestingly, it was stained by Hoechst, although it contains no DNA in the exine. #didn'tMakeItIntoThePaper-TooPrettyNotToBeShown #FluorescenceFriday
Two days left....
Abstract submission is opened until Sunday 15th June 2025
Clocks for Life - a life's journey in chronobiology
Farewell symposium Prof. Charlotte Helfrich-Förster
#GermanClockClub #Drosophila #CircadianClock @uni-wuerzburg.de @biologie-uniwue.bsky.social @flyneuro.bsky.social
As a member of the #Helfrich-Förster Lab, a staining against PDF cannot be missed :D
Enjoy another picture from the category #didn'tMakeItIntoThePaper-TooPrettyNotToBeShown #FluorescenceFriday 2/2
Today's pictures are closely related to last week's picture of the onion leaf miner. I was quite surprised when, instead of flies, this pretty parasitic wasp eclosed from the pupa. Unfortunately, I was unable to identify the species. If you know the species, please let me know. 1/2
As a member of the Helfrich-Förster Lab, a staining against Pigment Dispersing Factor cannot be missed :D Enjoy another picture from the category #didn'tMakeItIntoThePaper-TooPrettyNotToBeShown #FluorescenceFriday 2/2
In this time-lapse video you can follow the first moments of an eclosing P. gymnostoma.
The cells near the accessory medulla resemble the PDF-positive LNv of D. melanogaster. This fly also shows PDH-ir cells in the last abdominal segment. Interestingly, P. gymnostoma has no fully condensed ganglia. The last abdominal ganglion is located much further in the abdomen than in Drosophila.
PDH-ir cells in the brain and the VNC of Phytomyza gymnostoma
The second picture is of the onion leaf miner Phytomyza gymnostoma. Thanks to the infested leek plants of #CharlotteHelfrich-Förster, we had the opportunity to look at the nervous system and the PDH-ir cells of this pest fly. #didn’tMakeItIntoThePaper-TooPrettyNotToBeShown #FluorescenceFriday
Starting off with this Drosophila brain expressing MultiColorFlipOut (Nern et al. 2015) in combination with Timeless-Gal4, which was created during the work for my last publication (doi.org/10.1038/s414...).
Picture was taken with the Sp8 @leicamicrosystems.bsky.social Confocal.
