NERF

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New work out today by a collaborative team including Pedro Gonçalves! 🙌 Introducing #JAXLEY, a differentiable simulator that brings biophysically detailed neural models into the realm of large‑scale, machine‑learning‑powered optimization. doi.org/10.1038/s41592…

One week left to apply for the NERF/VIB-KU Leuven Center For Brain & Disease Research international PhD Call 2026! Learn more about the projects & teams and apply now: cbd.sites.vib.be/en/phdcall2026

Applications are now open for the NERF/VIB-KU Leuven Center For Brain & Disease Research joint PhD Call 2026! 📅 Application deadline: 20 November 2025 📍 Start date: Autumn 2026 🔗 Learn more about the projects & teams and apply now: cbd.sites.vib.be/en/phdcall2026

Which small, ancient midbrain structure plays a surprisingly central role in how animals see, decide, and act, and has been the star of multiple recent papers from the Farrow and Bonin labs? That's right, the superior colliculus blog.vib.be/meet-the-super…

What if... a brain scan would be as easy as an ultrassound? The Urban lab's work on fUS is covered in EOS (in Dutch)! Read it here 👇 eoswetenschap.eu/technologie/wa…

📢 New paper out in Nature! The Hoekstra lab at Harvard and Farrow lab at NERF reveal how a brain switch is tuned by evolution to control freezing vs fleeing in two sister species of deer mice. 👏 Huge congratulations to the entire team nature.com/articles/s4158…

New from the Urban Lab: PyfUS! An open-source Python toolkit for analyzing whole-brain fUS data—now with single-voxel clustering for fine-scale insights. Just published in Neurocomputing. 🔗 Paper: doi.org/10.1016/j.neuc… 🛠️ Code: github.com/OpenfUS/PyfUS

In a new essay in The Transmitter, Karl Farrow & Katja Reinhard make the case for evolutionary thinking in systems neuroscience. Comparative approaches = deeper insight into brain function. Read the full essay: thetransmitter.org/systems-neuros… ✨ Artwork by Eoin Ryan

New research from the Farrow and Bonin labs at NERF, just published in Current Biology, reveals how the intricate dendritic architecture of midbrain neurons helps detect and compute critical motion cues, like approaching predators or fleeing prey. authors.elsevier.com/sd/article/S09…

Latest paper from the Urban lab shows functional ultrasound (fUS) imaging reliably tracks neuronal activity with good spatial precision! 🎯 Congrats to the team! @OpenfUS 👏 direct.mit.edu/imag/article/d…

📸 Scenes from NERF Retreat 2025! A full day of science, posters, art, and community—capped with dancing 🎉 Big thanks to the @BoninLab for putting it all together. Here's a glimpse 👇

Exciting news: @Boninlab & Pierre Vanderhaeghen, with Franck Polleux (Columbia), receive @SimonsFdn SFARI funding to study how early synaptic development in SYNGAP1 mutants shapes brain circuits & behavior in autism. tinyurl.com/54ywzxm9

Congratulations to Dr. Simone Marcigaglia on defending his PhD today! 👏 🎓 Simone developed a novel microfluidic catheter aimed at bypassing the blood-brain barrier.

🎶 Throwback to Quiz Night two weeks ago! Our NERF delegation may not have made it to the podium, but team spirit (and Disney knowledge!) was strong 💪 Big thanks to the PhD Association for organizing such a fun night. We're already looking forward to the next edition!

A new study co-led by Pedro Gonçalves introduces a powerful approach to analyzing neural and behavioral data using masked VAEs, handling neural encoding, behavioral decoding and dimensionality reduction—all within a single model! cell.com/cell-reports/f…

Last week we celebrated Lies Deceuninck's PhD defense! 🥳 Under the title 'Knowing what to do', Lies presented her work on the neurophysiological basis of short-term memory. Thank you to all jury members and congratulations to Dr. Deceuninck! 👏

Two new studies from the @Boninlab reveal the complexity of the brain’s visual processing network and how it adapts to different states of arousal and behavior. 👁️ 🧠 Congratulations to @XuHan083, @KarolinaZSocha, and the rest of the team. 🙌 nerf.be/en/news#/news/…

Have you ever wondered how your brain processes what you see? Our work in press at Current Biology uncovered rules governing complex wiring of the visual cortex that underpins visual functions. @BoninLab @__NERF

Pls RT. Holiday gift from the lab out in Current Biology. Fantastic work by @xuhan083 on the functional-anatomical organization of "higher-order" visual circuits in the mouse cortex. Funded by @VIBLifeSciences @__NERF @FWOVlaanderen. Click through Xu's posting for the story.