The Janak Lab

NIH has announced a cut in the "indirect rate" to 15% across the board, in a move that appears to be retroactive to even existing grants. This is a bloodbath for research institutions throughout the country. Brief explainer for those not in this world: buff.ly/3EtML7D

Last year, $9B of the $35B that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) granted for research was used for administrative overhead, what is known as “indirect costs.” Today, NIH lowered the maximum indirect cost rate research institutions can charge the government to 15%, above what many major foundations allow and much lower than the 60%+ that some institutions charge the government today. This change will save more than $4B a year effective immediately.

We lost a true pioneer in the field of neuroscience and neuropharmacology, Dr. Floyd Bloom. Words can hardly capture the enormity of his contributions. His work was essential to our understanding of how neurotransmission works and how it influences mental disorders. Floyd’s influence extended far beyond his own research. He was a mentor extraordinaire, guiding the careers of numerous leaders in the field. The entire Salk and Scripps’s crew, including myself would not exist without him. I remember vividly how he edited my first paper in the addiction field, I was so intimidated at first but he was so kind, curious, and collegial it changed my mind about what a leader should be like. His former crew, Maury and Elena, were pivotal in the early days of setting up my own lab. Sigh Rest in peace, Floyd.

I continue to think this is one of the most important cartoons of recent years. @marketoonist

check out the music video in the article! 🎛️

Year over year ROI from government investment in research is 30-100 percent. Far more than the stock market and most of the private sector. americanprogress.org/article/the-hi… economicstrategygroup.org/publication/se…

Congratulations to John C. Malone Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering @MuyinatuBell on a $13 million @ARPA_H award, which she and her team will use to develop a transformative diagnostic tool for #lungcancer detection. malonecenter.jhu.edu/muyinatu-bell-…

"What drew me to Alzheimer’s in the first place was the clinical aspect of it, and I liked the theories of computational anatomy in terms of using math to describe the anatomical shapes of the brain and biological data. I also really liked the fact that I work with images or pathology specimens from humans. That was before I started with the mouse, but that drove me into this work. That speaks to the MD/PHD path – even if you’re working with mouse models or something else, what is driving you in the end is reaching back to the patients." - OneNeuro Student Profile: Kaitlin Stouffer, MD-PhD Candidate Profile Link: oneneurojhu.org/2024/11/07/one… @HopkinsMedicine @HopkinsEngineer @JohnsHopkins

🌟 Cai Lab @Nature paper alert! In new work led by @mysteriousjoe_, we find that rest periods after learning not only stabilize new memories BUT ALSO integrate new memories with older ones from days past! (1/9) Read it here: nature.com/articles/s4158…

amazing!!

@andermann_mark beautiful work @andermann_mark and @StephenXZhang !!

We found that in vivo peptide release and signaling gradually enhances the response of satiety-promoting hypothalamic neurons to each bite of food during a meal. These consequences of each bite take minutes to manifest, and could help explain why slow eating enhances satiety.

Happy Halloween!🕸️🎃Andrew Gordus, Assistant Professor of Biology at Johns Hopkins, on all things spidery in the latest OneNeuro Profile. Profile Link: oneneurojhu.org/2024/10/31/one… "Spiders are our friends. There is a paper that came out a couple of years ago in Current Biology about the spread of misinformation, and the topic they investigated was spider myths because those are some of the most common myths out there. There are a lot of sensationalist anecdotes about spiders that are almost all false. Most “spider bites” are insect bites, or bacterial infections. I don’t mind spiders in my house because they eat the insects I don’t want in my house, like ants, termites, and flies." - OneNeuro Profile, Andrew Gordus, PhD @elegansdiversus @JHUArtsSciences @JohnsHopkins

lovely piece from Sheena Josselyn @sjo09

Dopamine, accumbens, and hippocampus!

Also first author @garrface is on the job market 😀

Chronic drug, decision making and habit! new preprint

Stellar @SfNtweets lecture by @ruimcosta : Presenting a clear roadmap for a revolution of neurological treatments grounded in rational circuit analysis. The causal integration of the ultra-large data sets is becoming reality! @AllenInstitute

We are hiring in systems and behavioral neuroscience! Come join us @JohnsHopkins which is investing big time in the mind and brain. PBS department is awesome - wide breadth of topics, amazing colleagues. We are part of broader neuro ecosystem including @OneNeuroJHU @HopkinsKavli

🚨 Johns Hopkins psych & brain sci is hiring! 🚨 TWO open-rank faculty positions: one in cognition, broadly construed, the other in cognitive neuroscience We're excited about lots of research areas & approaches, including development & animal cognition! apply.interfolio.com/155721