Jake Watson
@jakefwatson.bsky.social
Neurophysiologist @ ISTAustria
Synapses, microcircuits, hippocampus.
Google Scholar: https://bit.ly/jakefwatson
Research summary: www.synapticarrangements.org
Synapses, microcircuits, hippocampus.
Google Scholar: https://bit.ly/jakefwatson
Research summary: www.synapticarrangements.org
Reposted by Jake Watson
🧠🪰 The adult Drosophila brain connectome now gives us a complete wiring diagram of ~140k neurons. But a wiring diagram alone isn’t understanding.
How is this massive network organized?
Our paper tackles that question by mapping community structure across the entire fly brain. 1/
How is this massive network organized?
Our paper tackles that question by mapping community structure across the entire fly brain. 1/
New lab paper - will say more about this in a little while
December 15, 2025 at 3:11 PM
🧠🪰 The adult Drosophila brain connectome now gives us a complete wiring diagram of ~140k neurons. But a wiring diagram alone isn’t understanding.
How is this massive network organized?
Our paper tackles that question by mapping community structure across the entire fly brain. 1/
How is this massive network organized?
Our paper tackles that question by mapping community structure across the entire fly brain. 1/
Reposted by Jake Watson
🥳Excited to share our latest human multipatch paper, now out in @natneuro.nature.com
🧠 We studied the cellular and synaptic physiology of human L2–3 pyramidal neurons and identified subtype-specific local connectivity rules across individuals.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Join us: penglab.de
🧠 We studied the cellular and synaptic physiology of human L2–3 pyramidal neurons and identified subtype-specific local connectivity rules across individuals.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Join us: penglab.de
December 13, 2025 at 7:59 AM
🥳Excited to share our latest human multipatch paper, now out in @natneuro.nature.com
🧠 We studied the cellular and synaptic physiology of human L2–3 pyramidal neurons and identified subtype-specific local connectivity rules across individuals.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Join us: penglab.de
🧠 We studied the cellular and synaptic physiology of human L2–3 pyramidal neurons and identified subtype-specific local connectivity rules across individuals.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Join us: penglab.de
Reposted by Jake Watson
Structure and organization of AMPA receptor-TARP complexes in the mammalian cerebellum | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Structure and organization of AMPA receptor-TARP complexes in the mammalian cerebellum
AMPA receptors (AMPARs) are multimodal transducers of glutamatergic signals throughout the brain. Their diversity is exemplified in the cerebellum; at afferent synapses, AMPARs mediate high-frequency ...
www.science.org
December 12, 2025 at 5:35 AM
Structure and organization of AMPA receptor-TARP complexes in the mammalian cerebellum | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Our paper on 'mini analysis' is now published in @jphysiol.bsky.social
If you are recording mPSCs or sPSCs, I hope this helps with analysis. Interpretation of these datasets is not as easy as it seems..!
Happy to discuss if you are interested
physoc.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1113/...
If you are recording mPSCs or sPSCs, I hope this helps with analysis. Interpretation of these datasets is not as easy as it seems..!
Happy to discuss if you are interested
physoc.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1113/...
‘Mini analysis’ misrepresents changes in synaptic properties due to incomplete event detection
Abstract figure legend Summary of the study where simulated recordings (left) were used to characterise the effect of incomplete detection on mini (mPSC) analysis. Recording noise levels (red) determ...
physoc.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
September 29, 2025 at 11:54 AM
Our paper on 'mini analysis' is now published in @jphysiol.bsky.social
If you are recording mPSCs or sPSCs, I hope this helps with analysis. Interpretation of these datasets is not as easy as it seems..!
Happy to discuss if you are interested
physoc.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1113/...
If you are recording mPSCs or sPSCs, I hope this helps with analysis. Interpretation of these datasets is not as easy as it seems..!
Happy to discuss if you are interested
physoc.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1113/...
Reposted by Jake Watson
Extremely happy to share our lab’s first paper now published in @NatureSMB! We determined the cryo-EM structures of GluA4, both alone and in complex with TARP2, capturing the receptor in different functional states.
New online: GluA4 AMPA receptor gating mechanisms and modulation by auxiliary proteins
GluA4 AMPA receptor gating mechanisms and modulation by auxiliary proteins
Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, Published online: 15 September 2025; doi:10.1038/s41594-025-01666-7Vega-Gutiérrez et al. present cryo-electron microscopy structures of GluA4-containing AMPA receptors, which are key for brain signaling. They show GluA4-specific conformations and explain how subunit composition shapes receptor architecture, dynamics and function.
go.nature.com
September 15, 2025 at 11:03 AM
Extremely happy to share our lab’s first paper now published in @NatureSMB! We determined the cryo-EM structures of GluA4, both alone and in complex with TARP2, capturing the receptor in different functional states.
Reposted by Jake Watson
Finding correlates of the same signal in different brain areas is not evidence against specialisation, it is evidence for interconnection.
When I flush my toilet, the level in the tank and the flow rate in the supply pipe become perfectly correlated. Yet these toilet areas have distinct functions.
When I flush my toilet, the level in the tank and the flow rate in the supply pipe become perfectly correlated. Yet these toilet areas have distinct functions.
Sad day for peope who still believe brain areas are the primary organizational units of function in the brain.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
A brain-wide map of neural activity during complex behaviour - Nature
The International Brain Laboratory presents a brain-wide electrophysiological map obtained from pooling data from 12 laboratories that performed the same standardized perceptual decision-making task i...
www.nature.com
September 4, 2025 at 11:52 AM
Finding correlates of the same signal in different brain areas is not evidence against specialisation, it is evidence for interconnection.
When I flush my toilet, the level in the tank and the flow rate in the supply pipe become perfectly correlated. Yet these toilet areas have distinct functions.
When I flush my toilet, the level in the tank and the flow rate in the supply pipe become perfectly correlated. Yet these toilet areas have distinct functions.
Reposted by Jake Watson
Are you passionate about advancing cutting-edge imaging technologies, and combine expansion microscopy with the power of AI@HHMI to unlock new biological discoveries? If you’re ready for a creative,and impactful journey, we’d love for you to apply!
hhmi.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/Extern...
hhmi.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/Extern...
Research Specialist - Expansion Microscopy
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
August 20, 2025 at 2:59 PM
Are you passionate about advancing cutting-edge imaging technologies, and combine expansion microscopy with the power of AI@HHMI to unlock new biological discoveries? If you’re ready for a creative,and impactful journey, we’d love for you to apply!
hhmi.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/Extern...
hhmi.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/Extern...
Our work looking into heterogeneous pyramidal neurons (PNs) in hippocampal CA3 is now online @cp-cellreports.bsky.social: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... With a pile of multicellular recordings from mouse CA3, we characterised the recurrent network at the single cell level...
Cell-specific wiring routes information flow through hippocampal CA3
The hippocampus, critical for learning and memory, is dogmatically described as a trisynaptic circuit where dentate gyrus granule cells (GCs), CA3 pyr…
www.sciencedirect.com
August 2, 2025 at 2:25 PM
Our work looking into heterogeneous pyramidal neurons (PNs) in hippocampal CA3 is now online @cp-cellreports.bsky.social: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... With a pile of multicellular recordings from mouse CA3, we characterised the recurrent network at the single cell level...
If you are interested in a position working on the coolest new developments in connectomics - take a serious look at this. Incredible technology development opportunity, working with a super nice scientist! Check out the paper here if you haven’t seen it yet: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
July 18, 2025 at 1:06 PM
If you are interested in a position working on the coolest new developments in connectomics - take a serious look at this. Incredible technology development opportunity, working with a super nice scientist! Check out the paper here if you haven’t seen it yet: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Really beautiful hippocampal connectomics from @zhihaozheng.bsky.social et al. Such high quality data shows many interesting circuit wiring surprises - an incredible resource to digest! Great also to see the parallels with our physiology work on neuronal heterogeneity
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Connectomic reconstruction from hippocampal CA3 reveals spatially graded mossy fiber inputs and selective feedforward inhibition to pyramidal cells
The mossy fiber (MF) connections to pyramidal cells in hippocampal CA3 are hypothesized to participate in pattern separation and memory encoding, yet no large–scale neuronal wiring diagram exists for ...
www.biorxiv.org
July 15, 2025 at 11:48 AM
Really beautiful hippocampal connectomics from @zhihaozheng.bsky.social et al. Such high quality data shows many interesting circuit wiring surprises - an incredible resource to digest! Great also to see the parallels with our physiology work on neuronal heterogeneity
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Jake Watson
I'm pleased to share our new work, “Spatio-temporal organization of network activity patterns in the hippocampus”, out in @cp-cellreports.bsky.social !
With Demi Brizee & David Dupret, we track how oscillations and spiking behaviour map onto hippocampal layers using an LFP-based embedding.
(1/13)
With Demi Brizee & David Dupret, we track how oscillations and spiking behaviour map onto hippocampal layers using an LFP-based embedding.
(1/13)
June 5, 2025 at 5:10 PM
I'm pleased to share our new work, “Spatio-temporal organization of network activity patterns in the hippocampus”, out in @cp-cellreports.bsky.social !
With Demi Brizee & David Dupret, we track how oscillations and spiking behaviour map onto hippocampal layers using an LFP-based embedding.
(1/13)
With Demi Brizee & David Dupret, we track how oscillations and spiking behaviour map onto hippocampal layers using an LFP-based embedding.
(1/13)
If you are using IVA Cloning for your plasmid work... there is a cool new tool to make primer design very easy: ivaprime.com
The explanation paper is here: academic.oup.com/nar/advance-...
The explanation paper is here: academic.oup.com/nar/advance-...
IVA Prime: automated primer design for in vivo assembly cloning
Abstract. Molecular cloning through in vivo assembly (IVA) is an efficient homology-based approach that can achieve complex cloning operations in a single
academic.oup.com
May 9, 2025 at 8:40 AM
If you are using IVA Cloning for your plasmid work... there is a cool new tool to make primer design very easy: ivaprime.com
The explanation paper is here: academic.oup.com/nar/advance-...
The explanation paper is here: academic.oup.com/nar/advance-...
Incredibly impressive and powerful new method - connectomics with light microscopy! Congrats @mojtabart.bsky.social, Hans Danzl and team @istaresearch.bsky.social ! It works incredibly well - we will keep using this magic, and recommend you do too!
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 8, 2025 at 3:43 PM
Incredibly impressive and powerful new method - connectomics with light microscopy! Congrats @mojtabart.bsky.social, Hans Danzl and team @istaresearch.bsky.social ! It works incredibly well - we will keep using this magic, and recommend you do too!
Reposted by Jake Watson
Given all that is going on consider this quote from Bertram Russell's 1930 book The conquest of Happiness:
“The man who can be interested in the structure of atoms or the way in which a beetle navigates, is likely to get a joy in life which no amount of success in the pursuit of power can give. ”
“The man who can be interested in the structure of atoms or the way in which a beetle navigates, is likely to get a joy in life which no amount of success in the pursuit of power can give. ”
May 3, 2025 at 9:42 AM
Given all that is going on consider this quote from Bertram Russell's 1930 book The conquest of Happiness:
“The man who can be interested in the structure of atoms or the way in which a beetle navigates, is likely to get a joy in life which no amount of success in the pursuit of power can give. ”
“The man who can be interested in the structure of atoms or the way in which a beetle navigates, is likely to get a joy in life which no amount of success in the pursuit of power can give. ”
The Neural Mechanisms of Cognitive Function meeting in beautiful #Pipa has sadly come to an end, but this meeting has given me new faith that really fascinating and innovative science is fully compatible with a kind, considerate, and supportive atmosphere! #BeNiceAndEnjoyYourScience
April 16, 2025 at 2:22 PM
The Neural Mechanisms of Cognitive Function meeting in beautiful #Pipa has sadly come to an end, but this meeting has given me new faith that really fascinating and innovative science is fully compatible with a kind, considerate, and supportive atmosphere! #BeNiceAndEnjoyYourScience
Striking insights into the information content of hippocampal subpopulations! A really stunning example of how understanding discrete cell types brings coherence and clarity to complex neuronal activity. Congrats to all
New from the lab!! 👉🏼 authors.elsevier.com/a/1kgT43BtfH... 📝 @cellpress.bsky.social We discovered that genetically-defined neuron types in the hippocampus form unique manifolds! Dual color imaging, chemogenetics and topological analysis all at once! With Juan Gallego @juangallego.bsky.social
February 28, 2025 at 3:20 PM
Striking insights into the information content of hippocampal subpopulations! A really stunning example of how understanding discrete cell types brings coherence and clarity to complex neuronal activity. Congrats to all
Beautiful and thorough dissection of neuronal heterogeneity! Individual cells matter.
delighted to share our work revealing a new type of excitatory hippocampal neuron we call the "ovoid cell", which has really exquisite properties relative to adjacent pyramidal cells! superb work of first-author @adriennekinman.bsky.social and many others in the lab
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Atypical hippocampal excitatory neurons express and govern object memory - Nature Communications
Pyramidal cells are classically thought to comprise the excitatory output of the subiculum. Here, the authors show the existence of “ovoid cells”, excitatory subiculum neurons with specialized gene ex...
www.nature.com
February 13, 2025 at 9:57 PM
Beautiful and thorough dissection of neuronal heterogeneity! Individual cells matter.
Reposted by Jake Watson
The new issue is out!! 👉 cell.com/cell/current
Featuring the engineering of source-sink relations to
create climate-smart crops, how ongoing chromothripsis drives tumor evolution across sarcomas and carcinomas, and the intercellular propagation of pyroptosis!
📷: Jake Watson
Featuring the engineering of source-sink relations to
create climate-smart crops, how ongoing chromothripsis drives tumor evolution across sarcomas and carcinomas, and the intercellular propagation of pyroptosis!
📷: Jake Watson
January 23, 2025 at 4:40 PM
The new issue is out!! 👉 cell.com/cell/current
Featuring the engineering of source-sink relations to
create climate-smart crops, how ongoing chromothripsis drives tumor evolution across sarcomas and carcinomas, and the intercellular propagation of pyroptosis!
📷: Jake Watson
Featuring the engineering of source-sink relations to
create climate-smart crops, how ongoing chromothripsis drives tumor evolution across sarcomas and carcinomas, and the intercellular propagation of pyroptosis!
📷: Jake Watson
Possibly as exciting as the science - our view of.. ‘exploring brain function across species’ made the cover of Cell @cellpress.bsky.social
Arranged with local ingredients while walking on Gimsøy, Norway!
www.cell.com/cell/current
(and paper below)
Arranged with local ingredients while walking on Gimsøy, Norway!
www.cell.com/cell/current
(and paper below)
January 23, 2025 at 6:48 PM
Possibly as exciting as the science - our view of.. ‘exploring brain function across species’ made the cover of Cell @cellpress.bsky.social
Arranged with local ingredients while walking on Gimsøy, Norway!
www.cell.com/cell/current
(and paper below)
Arranged with local ingredients while walking on Gimsøy, Norway!
www.cell.com/cell/current
(and paper below)
Reposted by Jake Watson
My new year's resolution was to work through the pile of almost-finished papers so... #PrePrintAlert #NeuroSkyence. This is an update to one we put out late 2021, which got delayed with Lilya (lead author) going on maternity leave (yay, lab baby! 🥰). A brief 🧵 1/
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Hippocampus does not appear to be a major target of thalamic nucleus reuniens
The prefrontal - hippocampal - entorhinal system is perhaps the most widely-studied circuit in cognitive and systems neuroscience, due to its role in supporting cognitive functions such as working mem...
www.biorxiv.org
January 11, 2025 at 7:34 PM
My new year's resolution was to work through the pile of almost-finished papers so... #PrePrintAlert #NeuroSkyence. This is an update to one we put out late 2021, which got delayed with Lilya (lead author) going on maternity leave (yay, lab baby! 🥰). A brief 🧵 1/
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
More human neurophysiology out today from the Geiger Lab. *Analogue* neuronal output modifies synapses for consolidation during sleep states. With such beautiful data and interpretation it’s easy to forget that the recordings are heroically tough. Fantastic research from @fxmittermaier.bsky.social
Membrane potential states gate synaptic consolidation in human neocortical tissue - Nature Communications
Whether and how slow wave activity (SWA) and the underlying membrane potential UP and DOWN states initiate mechanisms that augment memory functions in humans are not fully understood. Here authors use...
www.nature.com
December 12, 2024 at 7:57 PM
More human neurophysiology out today from the Geiger Lab. *Analogue* neuronal output modifies synapses for consolidation during sleep states. With such beautiful data and interpretation it’s easy to forget that the recordings are heroically tough. Fantastic research from @fxmittermaier.bsky.social
Is neuroscience research really working to understand the human brain? Or do we get lost in mouse cognition? I’ve asked myself this a lot since starting to work with human tissue. Our first Jonas Lab foray into untangling human hippocampal circuits is now online! www.cell.com/cell/fulltex... 1/a few
Human hippocampal CA3 uses specific functional connectivity rules for efficient associative memory
Human hippocampal CA3 networks use sparse and broad synaptic connectivity, and their recurrent synapses employ reliability, precision, and long integration times to enhance memory capacity. Thus, the human hippocampus is distinct from both rodent counterparts and human neocortical circuits.
www.cell.com
December 11, 2024 at 7:46 PM
Is neuroscience research really working to understand the human brain? Or do we get lost in mouse cognition? I’ve asked myself this a lot since starting to work with human tissue. Our first Jonas Lab foray into untangling human hippocampal circuits is now online! www.cell.com/cell/fulltex... 1/a few
Reposted by Jake Watson
Find the AAV plasmid you wanted in our repository...but not the viral prep? We heard you, and we're thrilled to announce that our viral vector service is expanding to include a packaged on request option!
Check out our blog post to learn more:
blog.addgene.org/add...
Check out our blog post to learn more:
blog.addgene.org/add...
December 6, 2024 at 3:00 PM
Find the AAV plasmid you wanted in our repository...but not the viral prep? We heard you, and we're thrilled to announce that our viral vector service is expanding to include a packaged on request option!
Check out our blog post to learn more:
blog.addgene.org/add...
Check out our blog post to learn more:
blog.addgene.org/add...
Reposted by Jake Watson
Very interesting technical paper showing that expression of AAVs is particulary strong in CA2 (and also why this is the case): www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
We have also made this observation (off-target effect when targeting CA1), so it's nice to see this confirmed (and explained!).
We have also made this observation (off-target effect when targeting CA1), so it's nice to see this confirmed (and explained!).
Hippocampal CA2 neurons disproportionately express AAV-delivered genetic cargo
Hippocampal area CA2 is unique in many ways, largely based on the complement of genes expressed there. We and others have observed that CA2 neurons exhibit a uniquely robust tropism for adeno-associat...
www.biorxiv.org
December 2, 2024 at 11:23 AM
Very interesting technical paper showing that expression of AAVs is particulary strong in CA2 (and also why this is the case): www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
We have also made this observation (off-target effect when targeting CA1), so it's nice to see this confirmed (and explained!).
We have also made this observation (off-target effect when targeting CA1), so it's nice to see this confirmed (and explained!).
Reposted by Jake Watson
The Nordic #neuroscience societies welcome you all to the FENS Regional Meeting in Oslo next year - the first time ever in a Nordic country!
The CALL FOR SYMPOSIA is still open until 30 November. Submit now!
frm2025oslo.no
#FRM2025 #brain #FENS
@pirtahotulainen.bsky.social @olekiehn.bsky.social
The CALL FOR SYMPOSIA is still open until 30 November. Submit now!
frm2025oslo.no
#FRM2025 #brain #FENS
@pirtahotulainen.bsky.social @olekiehn.bsky.social
November 27, 2024 at 9:47 PM
The Nordic #neuroscience societies welcome you all to the FENS Regional Meeting in Oslo next year - the first time ever in a Nordic country!
The CALL FOR SYMPOSIA is still open until 30 November. Submit now!
frm2025oslo.no
#FRM2025 #brain #FENS
@pirtahotulainen.bsky.social @olekiehn.bsky.social
The CALL FOR SYMPOSIA is still open until 30 November. Submit now!
frm2025oslo.no
#FRM2025 #brain #FENS
@pirtahotulainen.bsky.social @olekiehn.bsky.social