Casey Schneider-Mizell
@csdashm.com
Assistant Investigator at Allen Institute for Brain Science. Formerly Janelia, Universität Zürich, and U Mich Physics.
Building bottom-up insight into the brain from synaptic resolution connectomics and making computational tools to help you do that too.
Building bottom-up insight into the brain from synaptic resolution connectomics and making computational tools to help you do that too.
Hard to think of a person who brought so many good emotions to so many people as Rob Reiner. What an upsetting end to an upsetting weekend.
December 15, 2025 at 6:59 AM
Hard to think of a person who brought so many good emotions to so many people as Rob Reiner. What an upsetting end to an upsetting weekend.
Reposted by Casey Schneider-Mizell
SKULL OF THOMAS AQUINAS: TAKE A LEFT NOW
PRIEST: No, the GPS says we have to keep going—
SKULL: I KNOW A SHORTCUT
PRIEST: Do you remember the last ti—
SKULL: FOR THOSE WITH FAITH, NO EVIDENCE IS NECESSARY; FOR THOSE WITHOUT IT, NO EVIDENCE WILL SUFFICE
PRIEST: No, the GPS says we have to keep going—
SKULL: I KNOW A SHORTCUT
PRIEST: Do you remember the last ti—
SKULL: FOR THOSE WITH FAITH, NO EVIDENCE IS NECESSARY; FOR THOSE WITHOUT IT, NO EVIDENCE WILL SUFFICE
'Skull of St. Thomas Aquinas being transported to Fossanova Abbey.'
Photograph by Daniel Ibanez
Photograph by Daniel Ibanez
December 10, 2025 at 5:10 PM
SKULL OF THOMAS AQUINAS: TAKE A LEFT NOW
PRIEST: No, the GPS says we have to keep going—
SKULL: I KNOW A SHORTCUT
PRIEST: Do you remember the last ti—
SKULL: FOR THOSE WITH FAITH, NO EVIDENCE IS NECESSARY; FOR THOSE WITHOUT IT, NO EVIDENCE WILL SUFFICE
PRIEST: No, the GPS says we have to keep going—
SKULL: I KNOW A SHORTCUT
PRIEST: Do you remember the last ti—
SKULL: FOR THOSE WITH FAITH, NO EVIDENCE IS NECESSARY; FOR THOSE WITHOUT IT, NO EVIDENCE WILL SUFFICE
Connectomics has a great presence here, with several instructors from our team! Apply if you want hands on training and feedback on working with cortical connectomics (and whatever else we might have available by then...)!
Applications are open for our Summer Workshop on the Dynamic Brain in the San Juan Islands!
🧠💻 Perfect for PhD students and postdocs interested in developing their computational neuroscience skillsets.
More info: https://alleninstitute.org/events/summer-workshop-on-the-dynamic-brain-2026/
🧠💻 Perfect for PhD students and postdocs interested in developing their computational neuroscience skillsets.
More info: https://alleninstitute.org/events/summer-workshop-on-the-dynamic-brain-2026/
Summer Workshop on the Dynamic Brain 2026
The Summer Workshop on the Dynamic Brain is an intensive, project-based residential course with a focus on the neurobiology of sensory processing, coding, and neural population dynamics.
alleninstitute.org
December 12, 2025 at 5:30 PM
Connectomics has a great presence here, with several instructors from our team! Apply if you want hands on training and feedback on working with cortical connectomics (and whatever else we might have available by then...)!
Reposted by Casey Schneider-Mizell
How do neural circuits generate the walking rhythm?
Using connectome simulations, @sarahpugly.bsky.social found a minimal central pattern generator (CPG) that produces oscillations in leg motor neurons. Same circuit motif for each 🪰 leg.
w @bingbrunton.bsky.social
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Using connectome simulations, @sarahpugly.bsky.social found a minimal central pattern generator (CPG) that produces oscillations in leg motor neurons. Same circuit motif for each 🪰 leg.
w @bingbrunton.bsky.social
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
December 9, 2025 at 5:50 PM
How do neural circuits generate the walking rhythm?
Using connectome simulations, @sarahpugly.bsky.social found a minimal central pattern generator (CPG) that produces oscillations in leg motor neurons. Same circuit motif for each 🪰 leg.
w @bingbrunton.bsky.social
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Using connectome simulations, @sarahpugly.bsky.social found a minimal central pattern generator (CPG) that produces oscillations in leg motor neurons. Same circuit motif for each 🪰 leg.
w @bingbrunton.bsky.social
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
I had heard this was coming, but it’s still an amazing indication of how far we’ve come in the last decade or so!
Our Method of the Year 2025 is...drumroll please...EM-based connectomics!!
Our Editorial introduces our choice and highlights six Comments and other related content in this special issue. Please join us in celebrating EM-based connectomics! 🎉🧠🔬
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Our Editorial introduces our choice and highlights six Comments and other related content in this special issue. Please join us in celebrating EM-based connectomics! 🎉🧠🔬
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Method of the Year 2025: electron microscopy-based connectomics - Nature Methods
A large network of interconnected neurons serves as the basis of brain function and of behavior. Methodological advances have enabled the reconstruction of large-scale and even whole-brain connectomes...
www.nature.com
December 8, 2025 at 5:47 PM
I had heard this was coming, but it’s still an amazing indication of how far we’ve come in the last decade or so!
The thing I love about No Kings as a theme and as practice is it cuts to the heart of it: this admin is a nonstop flood of the most unamerican bullshit and to wave the American flag is to protest.
October 18, 2025 at 8:10 PM
The thing I love about No Kings as a theme and as practice is it cuts to the heart of it: this admin is a nonstop flood of the most unamerican bullshit and to wave the American flag is to protest.
Reposted by Casey Schneider-Mizell
I love this piece!
It shows the many ways a connectome can be put to use, AND the many complementary modalities that are needed, beyond the connectome, to answer real questions.
And it makes me feel good about having helped to generate the thing. :)
It shows the many ways a connectome can be put to use, AND the many complementary modalities that are needed, beyond the connectome, to answer real questions.
And it makes me feel good about having helped to generate the thing. :)
To celebrate the first anniversary of the release of FlyWire, we asked nine neuroscientists to share how they are using connectome data in their research and what they hope is in store for the future of fly connectomics.
By @franciscorr25.bsky.social
#neuroskyence
bit.ly/3Wx5nt3
By @franciscorr25.bsky.social
#neuroskyence
bit.ly/3Wx5nt3
How FlyWire is redefining Drosophila research, one year in
Nine Drosophila researchers share how the connectome transformed the field and what additional new tools they would like to see.
bit.ly
October 7, 2025 at 3:53 PM
I love this piece!
It shows the many ways a connectome can be put to use, AND the many complementary modalities that are needed, beyond the connectome, to answer real questions.
And it makes me feel good about having helped to generate the thing. :)
It shows the many ways a connectome can be put to use, AND the many complementary modalities that are needed, beyond the connectome, to answer real questions.
And it makes me feel good about having helped to generate the thing. :)
Reposted by Casey Schneider-Mizell
Calling out political extremists for being hypocritical (“they claim to value free speech, but actually try to censor speech they don’t like!”) is like calling out a football team for playing both offense and defense. They’re not trying to embody fixed standards, they’re just trying to win.
September 14, 2025 at 6:36 PM
Calling out political extremists for being hypocritical (“they claim to value free speech, but actually try to censor speech they don’t like!”) is like calling out a football team for playing both offense and defense. They’re not trying to embody fixed standards, they’re just trying to win.
Here's a question:
With EM, you find a super weird cell type (n=2 animals). They have truly unusual characteristics, but it's structure only so you have no idea what they do, what their transcriptomic/molecular properties are, nor do obviously solve any problem that's been posed.
With EM, you find a super weird cell type (n=2 animals). They have truly unusual characteristics, but it's structure only so you have no idea what they do, what their transcriptomic/molecular properties are, nor do obviously solve any problem that's been posed.
September 11, 2025 at 6:35 PM
Here's a question:
With EM, you find a super weird cell type (n=2 animals). They have truly unusual characteristics, but it's structure only so you have no idea what they do, what their transcriptomic/molecular properties are, nor do obviously solve any problem that's been posed.
With EM, you find a super weird cell type (n=2 animals). They have truly unusual characteristics, but it's structure only so you have no idea what they do, what their transcriptomic/molecular properties are, nor do obviously solve any problem that's been posed.
I'm close to releasing a python library that solves some tech debt (and documentation debt) that has been weighing me down for years now. Super excited to start using it, and amazed at how good Claude Code was for catching edge cases, writing tests, and debugging finicky indexing.
September 7, 2025 at 12:13 AM
I'm close to releasing a python library that solves some tech debt (and documentation debt) that has been weighing me down for years now. Super excited to start using it, and amazed at how good Claude Code was for catching edge cases, writing tests, and debugging finicky indexing.
Reposted by Casey Schneider-Mizell
YO, what's up with all these almost-witchcraft techniques?? In this paper, they develop a way to freeze cells so quickly that it preserves Calcium waves midway!! WHAT??? HELLO??? So now you can do 3D reconstruction of calcium waves with just a normal confocal. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
August 26, 2025 at 9:11 PM
YO, what's up with all these almost-witchcraft techniques?? In this paper, they develop a way to freeze cells so quickly that it preserves Calcium waves midway!! WHAT??? HELLO??? So now you can do 3D reconstruction of calcium waves with just a normal confocal. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
When I was a second year physics PhD, my advisor suggested I go to this "Physics of Cellular Objects" summer school in Corsica. It consisted of a series of 2-3 day long lectures on how biology used physics to accomplish things from virus capsids and bacterial motility...
We are deeply saddened to share that our friend and colleague Jim Hudspeth passed away on Saturday. We will remember and continue to be inspired by Jim’s integrity, his humility, and his unwavering commitment to discovery.
A. James Hudspeth, neuroscientist who unlocked secrets of hearing, has died - News
A. James Hudspeth, a Rockefeller neuroscientist who discovered how sound waves are converted into electrical signals in the ear's cochlea, died Saturday at his home in Manhattan. A pioneering scientist and dedicated mentor, he was the university's F.M. ...
www.rockefeller.edu
August 19, 2025 at 3:35 PM
When I was a second year physics PhD, my advisor suggested I go to this "Physics of Cellular Objects" summer school in Corsica. It consisted of a series of 2-3 day long lectures on how biology used physics to accomplish things from virus capsids and bacterial motility...
Reposted by Casey Schneider-Mizell
It was a good experience to step back and briefly take stock of the amazing progress in connectomics since I started working on this stuff (20 years ago!)
thanks as well to @natrevneuro.nature.com for the constructive editorial interactions.
thanks as well to @natrevneuro.nature.com for the constructive editorial interactions.
August 14, 2025 at 7:40 PM
It was a good experience to step back and briefly take stock of the amazing progress in connectomics since I started working on this stuff (20 years ago!)
thanks as well to @natrevneuro.nature.com for the constructive editorial interactions.
thanks as well to @natrevneuro.nature.com for the constructive editorial interactions.
Reposted by Casey Schneider-Mizell
I cannot emphasize enough that the playbook being used against mRNA vaccines (and vaccines in general) is IDENTICAL to the playbook used to restrict voting rights after the 2020 election: actively sow public distrust, then cite the distrust you sowed as an independent reason for your desired policy
Opinion | Jay Bhattacharya: Why the NIH is pivoting away from mRNA vaccines
As a vaccine for broad public use, mRNA technology has failed to earn the public’s trust.
www.washingtonpost.com
August 12, 2025 at 9:40 PM
I cannot emphasize enough that the playbook being used against mRNA vaccines (and vaccines in general) is IDENTICAL to the playbook used to restrict voting rights after the 2020 election: actively sow public distrust, then cite the distrust you sowed as an independent reason for your desired policy
The interneurons continue to surprise!
August 4, 2025 at 5:20 PM
The interneurons continue to surprise!
Reposted by Casey Schneider-Mizell
A major NIH grant to study ways to restore hearing was terminated by the Trump administration bc it was awarded through a DEI initiative—to a researcher who qualified bc of his own hearing loss www.cnn.com/2025/07/29/h... @manorlaboratory.bsky.social
July 29, 2025 at 12:45 PM
A major NIH grant to study ways to restore hearing was terminated by the Trump administration bc it was awarded through a DEI initiative—to a researcher who qualified bc of his own hearing loss www.cnn.com/2025/07/29/h... @manorlaboratory.bsky.social
This is a great opportunity, and as usual Mo is too humble. Not just one synapse at a time, _all_ the synapses at a time!
🧠 Excited by synapse-level brain mapping? Join us at a world-class institute to build molecular tools based on our new #LICONN work — and push the frontier of #MolecularConnectomics. Let’s decode the brain, one synapse at a time.
hhmi.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/Extern...
hhmi.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/Extern...
Research Specialist - Tavakoli Lab
Primary Work Address: 19700 Helix Drive, Ashburn, VA, 20147 Current HHMI Employees, click here to apply via your Workday account. The Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Janelia Research Campus is a pio...
hhmi.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com
July 17, 2025 at 9:00 PM
This is a great opportunity, and as usual Mo is too humble. Not just one synapse at a time, _all_ the synapses at a time!
Reposted by Casey Schneider-Mizell
Want to use the massive MICrONS dataset for your own research? We understand the challenges and we are here to support you. Submit your proposals for our Proofreading and Annotation program: Virtual Observatory of the Cortex (VORTEX) by August 15. microns-explorer.org/vortex
July 14, 2025 at 4:45 PM
Want to use the massive MICrONS dataset for your own research? We understand the challenges and we are here to support you. Submit your proposals for our Proofreading and Annotation program: Virtual Observatory of the Cortex (VORTEX) by August 15. microns-explorer.org/vortex
Reposted by Casey Schneider-Mizell
🚨 BREAKING: Nearly 4 months the NIH cut its first grants, a judge has ruled that the directives and process that led to cuts are arbitrary and capricious.
"The explanations are bereft of reasoning — virtually in their entirety... unsupported by [facts]."
Each of them are VOID and ILLEGAL, he says.
"The explanations are bereft of reasoning — virtually in their entirety... unsupported by [facts]."
Each of them are VOID and ILLEGAL, he says.
June 16, 2025 at 6:16 PM
🚨 BREAKING: Nearly 4 months the NIH cut its first grants, a judge has ruled that the directives and process that led to cuts are arbitrary and capricious.
"The explanations are bereft of reasoning — virtually in their entirety... unsupported by [facts]."
Each of them are VOID and ILLEGAL, he says.
"The explanations are bereft of reasoning — virtually in their entirety... unsupported by [facts]."
Each of them are VOID and ILLEGAL, he says.
Even good reporting like this somehow still feels like it underplays that the stated goal underlying the intentional destruction of American science seems to be that there needs to be more prejudice in the system at all levels.
After already killing more than 1700 active grants related to politically charged topics, the National Institutes of Health has flagged another roughly 3200 grants for review and possible termination.
Exclusive: NIH documents reveal inconsistencies in grant terminations as agency reviews 3200 more
Evidence of agency’s uneven guidance to employees and role of DOGE could play into legal case against cuts
scim.ag
June 16, 2025 at 2:03 PM
Even good reporting like this somehow still feels like it underplays that the stated goal underlying the intentional destruction of American science seems to be that there needs to be more prejudice in the system at all levels.
Reposted by Casey Schneider-Mizell
they're doing this because the Insurrection Act sounds cool and edgy but they can't actually justify using the Insurrection Act. it's a silly action by an insecure administration desperately to seem manly and powerful. it should be criticized relentlessly, but it should also be laughed at.
Which makes me think that this is an effort to claim the insurrection act’s power without invoking the insurrection act’s authority. None of this is necessary, at all, and the governor should say so.
June 8, 2025 at 2:36 AM
they're doing this because the Insurrection Act sounds cool and edgy but they can't actually justify using the Insurrection Act. it's a silly action by an insecure administration desperately to seem manly and powerful. it should be criticized relentlessly, but it should also be laughed at.
Reposted by Casey Schneider-Mizell
Believe it a not, a third multisite connectomic project also lost funding. The multi-PI R01 led by @darbly.bsky.social with myself and @bassemh.bsky.social as co-PIs.
Two multisite projects aimed at scaling up mouse connectomics lost federal funding in recent cuts to Harvard University grants.
By @avaskham.bsky.social
www.thetransmitter.org/funding/mult...
By @avaskham.bsky.social
www.thetransmitter.org/funding/mult...
Multisite connectome teams lose federal funding as result of Harvard cuts
The teams aim to develop tools to scale up mouse connectomics in preparation for eventually mapping an entire human brain.
www.thetransmitter.org
May 28, 2025 at 10:46 PM
Believe it a not, a third multisite connectomic project also lost funding. The multi-PI R01 led by @darbly.bsky.social with myself and @bassemh.bsky.social as co-PIs.
Reposted by Casey Schneider-Mizell
Three things made the US a rich and powerful nation: the rule of law, its science & innovation system, and openness to foreign talent. Remarkable how Trump has taken a sledgehammer to all three. No enemy of this country could do more.
May 22, 2025 at 11:09 PM
Three things made the US a rich and powerful nation: the rule of law, its science & innovation system, and openness to foreign talent. Remarkable how Trump has taken a sledgehammer to all three. No enemy of this country could do more.
Mo and Hans's work here is truly a landmark in dense structural imaging, but the proof of the pudding is in the eating. Do yourself a favor and check out the Neuroglancer links and get an early glimpse at a technique I'm confident we'll see more and more over the next few years.
Light-microscopy-based connectomic reconstruction of mammalian brain tissue - Nature
A technique called LICONN (light-microscopy-based connectomics) allows mapping of brain tissue at synapse level and simultaneous measurement of molecular information, thus enabling quantification of c...
www.nature.com
May 10, 2025 at 2:26 AM
Mo and Hans's work here is truly a landmark in dense structural imaging, but the proof of the pudding is in the eating. Do yourself a favor and check out the Neuroglancer links and get an early glimpse at a technique I'm confident we'll see more and more over the next few years.
Reposted by Casey Schneider-Mizell
With NIH director Jayanta Bhattacharya dismissing my reporting as "false" and "spreading rumors" hours before releasing a policy that confirmed said "rumors," I feel compelled to respond.
Here's an inside look into how this story was reported. It was a weird one. 🧵
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Here's an inside look into how this story was reported. It was a weird one. 🧵
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
May 6, 2025 at 12:15 PM
With NIH director Jayanta Bhattacharya dismissing my reporting as "false" and "spreading rumors" hours before releasing a policy that confirmed said "rumors," I feel compelled to respond.
Here's an inside look into how this story was reported. It was a weird one. 🧵
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Here's an inside look into how this story was reported. It was a weird one. 🧵
www.nature.com/articles/d41...