Jan Siemens
@jansiemens.bsky.social
It was great having you all there! Excellent discussions and fun! I hope all of you made it home safely.
Thank you to @jansiemens.bsky.social @uniheidelberg.bsky.social and James Poulet @mdc-berlin.bsky.social for the invitation and bringing together an amazing group of scientist working 🥵 and 🥶 temperature sensing and thermoregulation
October 12, 2025 at 8:17 PM
It was great having you all there! Excellent discussions and fun! I hope all of you made it home safely.
What a great Titisee Conference! “Warm, cold, and life” brought together brilliant minds exploring how temperature shapes the brain, physiology, and behaviour — from mice, wild animals to humans. Thanks to Boehringer Ingelheim Fonds for the support!
October 12, 2025 at 8:13 PM
What a great Titisee Conference! “Warm, cold, and life” brought together brilliant minds exploring how temperature shapes the brain, physiology, and behaviour — from mice, wild animals to humans. Thanks to Boehringer Ingelheim Fonds for the support!
How does temperature interact with the brain? This coming Wednesday Eve Marder, Laura Duvall and I will talk about thermally-induced neural activity, plasticity and the like.
Claim your spot now for the next webinar in partnership with @kavlifoundation.bsky.social!
Join the conversation as experts discuss mechanisms of neural adaptation in changing environments and recent advances in the field.
Register now: bit.ly/4k7h3MX
#NeuroSky
Join the conversation as experts discuss mechanisms of neural adaptation in changing environments and recent advances in the field.
Register now: bit.ly/4k7h3MX
#NeuroSky
May 11, 2025 at 9:10 PM
How does temperature interact with the brain? This coming Wednesday Eve Marder, Laura Duvall and I will talk about thermally-induced neural activity, plasticity and the like.
How do mice decide which ambient temperature they prefer? Our new eLife paper by Muad (@hummuscience.bsky.social) explores how TRPV1 and TRPM2 channels shape temperature preference. A quick breakdown 👇
🔗 pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40215103/
🔗 pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40215103/
Diverging roles of TRPV1 and TRPM2 in warm-temperature detection - PubMed
The perception of innocuous temperatures is crucial for thermoregulation. The TRP ion channels TRPV1 and TRPM2 have been implicated in warmth detection, yet their precise roles remain unclear. A key c...
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
April 20, 2025 at 2:05 PM
How do mice decide which ambient temperature they prefer? Our new eLife paper by Muad (@hummuscience.bsky.social) explores how TRPV1 and TRPM2 channels shape temperature preference. A quick breakdown 👇
🔗 pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40215103/
🔗 pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40215103/
Reposted by Jan Siemens
Amid the Trump admin's dismantling of the US scientific ecosystem, Nobel Prize-winner @ardemp.bskyverified.social writes on @cnn.com: "I’ve already been approached with an offer to relocate my lab to China, complete with a promise of 20 years of stable research funding." www.cnn.com/2025/04/09/h...
Nobel laureate: I owe America my success. Today, its scientific future is in danger | CNN
Dr. Ardem Patapoutian says he watches “with deep sadness as the United States’ remarkable scientific enterprise, which took generations of hard work and national investment to build, faces a concerted...
www.cnn.com
April 9, 2025 at 7:56 PM
Amid the Trump admin's dismantling of the US scientific ecosystem, Nobel Prize-winner @ardemp.bskyverified.social writes on @cnn.com: "I’ve already been approached with an offer to relocate my lab to China, complete with a promise of 20 years of stable research funding." www.cnn.com/2025/04/09/h...
This was a great meeting to mix and mingle with scientists of diverse fields broadly interested in how long-term environmental changes modulate neurobiology - thank you @kavlifoundation.bsky.social and @alleninstitute.bsky.social !
Welcome to the Neurobiology in Changing Environments symposium! We’re thrilled to begin this important gathering exploring how nervous systems respond to our rapidly shifting world. #KavliNeuro #FrontierScience #NiCE
April 19, 2025 at 2:49 AM
This was a great meeting to mix and mingle with scientists of diverse fields broadly interested in how long-term environmental changes modulate neurobiology - thank you @kavlifoundation.bsky.social and @alleninstitute.bsky.social !
Very interesting study by Lin Yuan & Co in the Julius lab, explaining how sensory neurons can adapt to exitotoxicity and calcium challenges e.g. by Trpv1 activation. Spoiler alert: the electron transport chain is involved - we enjoyed discussing it in Journal club.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Metabolic tuning facilitates nociceptor resilience to excitotoxicity
The capsaicin receptor, TRPV1, mediates the detection of harmful chemical and thermal stimuli. Overactivation of TRPV1 can lead to cellular damage or death through excitotoxicity, a phenomenon associa...
www.biorxiv.org
March 12, 2025 at 7:49 PM
Very interesting study by Lin Yuan & Co in the Julius lab, explaining how sensory neurons can adapt to exitotoxicity and calcium challenges e.g. by Trpv1 activation. Spoiler alert: the electron transport chain is involved - we enjoyed discussing it in Journal club.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Jan Siemens
Bodo Ramelow übt sehr nachvollziehbare Kritik auch an der Rolle der Medien beim Wahlerfolg der AfD, weil alle über kein anderes Thema als „kriminelle Ausländer“ mehr gesprochen haben. www.deutschlandfunk.de/interview-mi...
Interview mit Bodo Ramelow, Linke, Ex-Ministerpräsident Thüringen, zur Wahl
www.deutschlandfunk.de
February 24, 2025 at 8:11 AM
Bodo Ramelow übt sehr nachvollziehbare Kritik auch an der Rolle der Medien beim Wahlerfolg der AfD, weil alle über kein anderes Thema als „kriminelle Ausländer“ mehr gesprochen haben. www.deutschlandfunk.de/interview-mi...
Reposted by Jan Siemens
Can we perform genome-wide screens in any cell type in the body?! Excited to share our roadmap for leveraging advances in sgRNA delivery, library design, and phenotypic selection to enable unprecedented genetic dissection of organismal physiology and disease.
www.cell.com/cell-genomic...
www.cell.com/cell-genomic...
A roadmap toward genome-wide CRISPR screening throughout the organism
Genome-wide CRISPR screening in the organism has tremendous potential to answer long-standing
questions of physiology and disease; however, technical limitations have prevented
its broad application. ...
www.cell.com
February 24, 2025 at 4:08 PM
Can we perform genome-wide screens in any cell type in the body?! Excited to share our roadmap for leveraging advances in sgRNA delivery, library design, and phenotypic selection to enable unprecedented genetic dissection of organismal physiology and disease.
www.cell.com/cell-genomic...
www.cell.com/cell-genomic...
On February 12, shortly before “High noon”, scientists at German research campuses, including here in Heidelberg, will stand up for Democracy: “facts, not fake news are needed for democracy”. See aufstehenfuerdemokratie.de/englisch/ – there is also find a Petition related to the cause. Get involved.
February 8, 2025 at 11:14 AM
On February 12, shortly before “High noon”, scientists at German research campuses, including here in Heidelberg, will stand up for Democracy: “facts, not fake news are needed for democracy”. See aufstehenfuerdemokratie.de/englisch/ – there is also find a Petition related to the cause. Get involved.
Reposted by Jan Siemens
This is true. LA County has a population greater than that of 40 individual U.S. states.
Los Angeles County is 4,751 square miles -- almost twice as large as Delaware.
It is home to more than 9.5M people. Larger than Virginia or Arizona; more than twice the population of Louisiana or Kentucky.
It has a larger GDP than Ohio or Georgia.
These fires are a truly national crisis.
It is home to more than 9.5M people. Larger than Virginia or Arizona; more than twice the population of Louisiana or Kentucky.
It has a larger GDP than Ohio or Georgia.
These fires are a truly national crisis.
January 9, 2025 at 6:33 PM
This is true. LA County has a population greater than that of 40 individual U.S. states.
Just finished the book "Transformer" by Nick Lane, great inspiration to evolutionary biologists, bochemists and, yes, also neuroscientists - its all about transformation of organic molecules and energy flow and not (only) about genes. Highly recommended nick-lane.net/books/transf...
Transformer: The Deep Chemistry of Life and Death — Nick Lane
What brings the Earth to life, and our own lives to an end? Nick Lane turns the standard view upside down, focusing on Krebs cycle
nick-lane.net
December 27, 2024 at 11:17 AM
Just finished the book "Transformer" by Nick Lane, great inspiration to evolutionary biologists, bochemists and, yes, also neuroscientists - its all about transformation of organic molecules and energy flow and not (only) about genes. Highly recommended nick-lane.net/books/transf...
A short, personal account how our recent heat acclimation study came to life -- paywall-free version can be found here rdcu.be/d38Xr
Heat acclimation induces hypothalamic temperature sensitivity that promotes heat tolerance
Nature Neuroscience - After long-term heat exposure, a discrete group of hypothalamic neurons in the anterior ventromedial preoptic area become hyperactive and acquire temperature sensitivity. This...
rdcu.be
December 23, 2024 at 2:01 PM
A short, personal account how our recent heat acclimation study came to life -- paywall-free version can be found here rdcu.be/d38Xr
Interesting thoughts on the type of biological problems AI research can help with, the complexity of biology that requires human intellect (and cannot be replaced by AI -- at least not currently, but I think it never will...), and human language that connects it all.
The essential role of natural language in representing biology
--AI-Science community all-in on bio foundation models, will no-doubt be awesome
--However, the representation spaces in those models are too structured for most phenomena
--Language will be essential, currently largely underappreciated
--AI-Science community all-in on bio foundation models, will no-doubt be awesome
--However, the representation spaces in those models are too structured for most phenomena
--Language will be essential, currently largely underappreciated
The essential role of natural language in representing biology
At the time of writing, it is December 2024, and I am at NeurIPS. The word of the day, at least in the AI for Biology community, is foundation models. Everyone wants bigger data on more things to thro...
www.sam-rodriques.com
December 23, 2024 at 1:44 PM
Interesting thoughts on the type of biological problems AI research can help with, the complexity of biology that requires human intellect (and cannot be replaced by AI -- at least not currently, but I think it never will...), and human language that connects it all.
Reposted by Jan Siemens
Many academics point to bioRxiv as “the one thing improving science publishing”.
If so, the one thing you all can do is persuade colleagues to submit and make this a norm. 1/2
If so, the one thing you all can do is persuade colleagues to submit and make this a norm. 1/2
December 21, 2024 at 2:01 PM
Many academics point to bioRxiv as “the one thing improving science publishing”.
If so, the one thing you all can do is persuade colleagues to submit and make this a norm. 1/2
If so, the one thing you all can do is persuade colleagues to submit and make this a norm. 1/2
Pain research: Exciting insight into "silent" (or "sleeping") pain-sensing neurons from the Lampert Lab!
Preprint alert: Using human microneurography protocols in PatchSeq experiments on pig DRGs we identify the molecular identity of human dermal CMi-fibers (sleeping nociceptors). We provide an integrated pig-human-more transcriptomic atlas and identify OSMR and SST as marker, backed by human expts.
Molecular architecture of human dermal sleeping nociceptors https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.12.20.629638v1
December 23, 2024 at 12:42 PM
Pain research: Exciting insight into "silent" (or "sleeping") pain-sensing neurons from the Lampert Lab!
Reposted by Jan Siemens
A strong, long-lasting sensory stimulus—be it visual, auditory, olfactory or tactile—triggers plasticity in the neurons that respond to it. But @jansiemens.bsky.social wondered: Does the same principle apply to prolonged heat?
By @callimcflurry.bsky.social
www.thetransmitter.org/thermoregula...
By @callimcflurry.bsky.social
www.thetransmitter.org/thermoregula...
To beat the heat, hypothalamus neurons in mice ramp up their firing
The uptick may help the rodents acclimate to temperature hikes and keep their cool.
www.thetransmitter.org
December 11, 2024 at 3:55 PM
A strong, long-lasting sensory stimulus—be it visual, auditory, olfactory or tactile—triggers plasticity in the neurons that respond to it. But @jansiemens.bsky.social wondered: Does the same principle apply to prolonged heat?
By @callimcflurry.bsky.social
www.thetransmitter.org/thermoregula...
By @callimcflurry.bsky.social
www.thetransmitter.org/thermoregula...
My inaugural post on Bluesky - quite fittingly, I'm thrilled to share our first study on heat acclimation, which identifies a neuronal mechanism that drives heat tolerance in mice. (www.nature.com/articles/s41... )
Here is the gist 🧵 (1/n):
Here is the gist 🧵 (1/n):
Thermally induced neuronal plasticity in the hypothalamus mediates heat tolerance - Nature Neuroscience
Ambroziak, Nencini, Pohle and colleagues identify a slowly emerging plasticity mechanism in a discrete set of hypothalamic preoptic neurons that is triggered by long-term heat exposure and that drives...
www.nature.com
December 10, 2024 at 9:59 PM
My inaugural post on Bluesky - quite fittingly, I'm thrilled to share our first study on heat acclimation, which identifies a neuronal mechanism that drives heat tolerance in mice. (www.nature.com/articles/s41... )
Here is the gist 🧵 (1/n):
Here is the gist 🧵 (1/n):
Reposted by Jan Siemens
I applaud this initiative to try to break the fascination with journal name prestige.
As long as I remember to do it, I put only the PMID for my papers in the slides for my talks.
If @ardemp.bsky.social can do it, so can you!
As long as I remember to do it, I put only the PMID for my papers in the slides for my talks.
If @ardemp.bsky.social can do it, so can you!
I love my job @hhmi.bsky.social This week we hosted 164 scientists and heard 30 amazing 15-minute talks, dove into 70 posters, ate many fancy meals, and saw zero journal names.
December 6, 2024 at 5:19 AM
I applaud this initiative to try to break the fascination with journal name prestige.
As long as I remember to do it, I put only the PMID for my papers in the slides for my talks.
If @ardemp.bsky.social can do it, so can you!
As long as I remember to do it, I put only the PMID for my papers in the slides for my talks.
If @ardemp.bsky.social can do it, so can you!