Jason Shepherd

Open access link below..check out our new article on all things retrotransposons in the brain!

Study section done for the day so got outside for a hike in the yard. Not ready for this heat 🥵 70s up here in March is nuts.

Excited to share my postdoc work is out in @NatureNeuro today! We examined how the brain enables social groups to collectively coordinate their behavior in the face of environmental challenge ❄️🐭🐭🐭🐭❄️ : nature.com/articles/s4159…

The Trump administration has many administrative tricks to continue destroying US science for the Christian nationalists, even though congress maintains funding levels. "How NIH went from 756 funding announcements to 14 in two years" By Elizabeth Ginexi elizabethginexi.substack.com/p/i-wrote-rese…

I have been having the same convos offline, but many (most?) scientists don't want to stick their necks out right now...at least publicly. IMO, we are past that point. Glad for folks like Mark who are literally facing govt retaliation but are still informing us!

Proud with @UNSWRNA to have been involved & making the mRNA-LNP for Rosie. There are nuances here that the thread below misses but nevertheless, the intersection of RNA technology, genomic & AI poses an opportunity to change the way do medicine and make access more equitable 1/8

@Dr_Perreault Yes, indeed. This was rhetorical. They are attacking academia under the guise of “woke” policies but it’s also a fascist playbook to curb thought leaders and resistance against their policies.

@JasonSynaptic As an outsider looking in, I don't think you can look at science as independent of everything rise he's doing. I feel he's isolating the US, making his own little kingdom. Restricting knowledge is only a part of that. He doesn't care about humanity, only power. Part of his play.

This is a scenario being echoed around the US academic circles. Funding cuts. Delays in funding. Talented immigrants feeling unwelcome. All in the name of what exactly? nytimes.com/2026/03/13/us/…

My travel to Cosyne was barred by the Trump admin, so I'm here on my personal dime. I care about the @CosyneMeeting community, I committed to co-chairing. And I always learn here. But the worst part about this travel ban is my lab colleagues—students and fellows—couldn't come./1

❤️This highlights how close we are to real precision medicine! But the US govt literally just stopped funding this kind of innovative science!

Thanks Nate! To be clear, a BIPARTISAN congress passed NSF and NIH budgets that were not cut! It’s the Trump admin that continues to illegally delay sending those $$ out..for no good reason.

📢📢My lab at @UUtah is officially open and I'm RECRUITING — especially techs/specialists and postdocs! Our research focuses on the neurobiology of interoception and learning/memory using tools from systems/comp neuro. Please share!🧠🏔️🏜️ Apply/more info: #positions" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">zimmerman-lab.org/#positions

Right - and yet the WH is still trying to prevent NIH from sending out funding! This is the best investment we make with public funds! fiercebiotech.com/research/despi…

@michaelwperry @PattyMurray Yup. More unnecessary BS chaos.

@JasonSynaptic @PattyMurray “An OMB memo dated 4 March gives NIH an additional 15 days of funding only for salaries and other essential spending.” Update at bottom here: science.org/content/articl…

OMB has still not released funds to the NIH as mandated by congress! This is just crazy stupid. What’s their end game?! @PattyMurray what is the senate doing about this?

@sharonlyn7789 @PattyMurray Just need to be patient at this point...that should be funded!

@JasonSynaptic @PattyMurray i have 6th percentile… ugggggg

@sharonlyn7789 @PattyMurray This is what my PO told me today.

@JasonSynaptic @PattyMurray is this true

@brainaddiction @PattyMurray Only for staff salaries.

@JasonSynaptic @PattyMurray The latest news I’ve heard was that IC actually recently received their funds.

@bita137 @PattyMurray Yes. NO. Yes.

@JasonSynaptic @PattyMurray Are we surprised?

@doristsao Let alone all the intercellular signaling and neuromodulation that the connectome will never capture!

My thoughts on connectomics and upload: 1) there is zero question connectomes are invaluable, and we need to get them for mouse, monkey, and human 2) the human, or even monkey, connectome seems a long ways off given costs (roughly $1/neuron). The projectome (map of all the axons) seems eminently reachable and should be a top priority imho 3) but even having the full connectome would only tell you numbers of synapses, not actual synaptic weights, and the two can be hugely divergent (eg only 5% of synapses onto V1 layer 4 neurons come from thalamus, even though this is the major driving input) 4) given #2 & #3, I think we can get to upload in the sense of building a functionally equivalent organism much faster through understanding the algorithms of the primate brain than through blind copying 5) in putting together something as complex as the human brain we would definitely want to check that the various pieces work as we go, which we can only do if we understand these pieces 6) I don't think upload in the sense of blindly creating a digital copy is the path to the abundant transhumanist future--actual understanding of brain structures so we can intelligently interface with them, and emulate their function in code without copying all the details, is. All to say, we need functional understanding to go hand in hand with anatomical mapping!

@pegobry_en @DrunkRepub 🙄

I want to make some sort of joke but actually I’m just sad and angry. New Zealand was a little paradise and she completely destroyed it in a matter of years.