Joseph D. Zak
@josephdzak.bsky.social
Neurobiologist and Assistant Professor at the University of Illinois Chicago studying sensory cells and neural circuits. #Neuroscience and #Olfaction.
https://www.zak-lab.org
https://www.zak-lab.org
Reposted by Joseph D. Zak
First paper from the lab!
We propose a model that separates estimation of odor concentration and presence and map it on olfactory bulb circuits
Led by @chenjiang01.bsky.social and @mattyizhenghe.bsky.social joint work with @jzv.bsky.social and with @neurovenki.bsky.social @cpehlevan.bsky.social
We propose a model that separates estimation of odor concentration and presence and map it on olfactory bulb circuits
Led by @chenjiang01.bsky.social and @mattyizhenghe.bsky.social joint work with @jzv.bsky.social and with @neurovenki.bsky.social @cpehlevan.bsky.social
Simultaneous detection and estimation in olfactory sensing https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.01.686013v1
November 4, 2025 at 3:40 PM
First paper from the lab!
We propose a model that separates estimation of odor concentration and presence and map it on olfactory bulb circuits
Led by @chenjiang01.bsky.social and @mattyizhenghe.bsky.social joint work with @jzv.bsky.social and with @neurovenki.bsky.social @cpehlevan.bsky.social
We propose a model that separates estimation of odor concentration and presence and map it on olfactory bulb circuits
Led by @chenjiang01.bsky.social and @mattyizhenghe.bsky.social joint work with @jzv.bsky.social and with @neurovenki.bsky.social @cpehlevan.bsky.social
Chicago is definitely burning. Just not in the way the news wants to portray.
October 7, 2025 at 11:23 PM
Chicago is definitely burning. Just not in the way the news wants to portray.
Reposted by Joseph D. Zak
#Wolbachia has puzzled scientists with its power to rewire insect reproduction. What if I tell you that we found one of the keys Wolbachia use to rewire its host AND a small molecule inhibitor uses this key to mimic what this microbe has mastered for millions of years.
www.cell.com/cell-reports...
www.cell.com/cell-reports...
Beyond Wolbachia—Can a small molecule control insect reproduction?
Kaur et al. demonstrate reduced histone acetylation as a key mechanism underpinning
Wolbachia’s paternal-effect embryonic lethality trait in Drosophila melanogaster.
Recapitulation of this trait by in...
www.cell.com
October 3, 2025 at 12:58 PM
#Wolbachia has puzzled scientists with its power to rewire insect reproduction. What if I tell you that we found one of the keys Wolbachia use to rewire its host AND a small molecule inhibitor uses this key to mimic what this microbe has mastered for millions of years.
www.cell.com/cell-reports...
www.cell.com/cell-reports...
Reposted by Joseph D. Zak
Very excited to see this out in the world. It was fun to play a (small) part in it.
This was a truly collaborative effort and will open new avenues to probe social cognition and collective behavior. Huge thanks to the amazing team who made this cooperation😁 possible! @esschaffer.bsky.social @nuttidanuttida.bsky.social @talmo.bsky.social @nan-mssm.bsky.social (5/5)
September 5, 2025 at 3:54 PM
Very excited to see this out in the world. It was fun to play a (small) part in it.
Reposted by Joseph D. Zak
Octopuses sense environmental microbiomes to drive predatory and parental behaviors. Artwork by Lily Soucy. #evolution #sensation #microbiome @cellpress.bsky.social
September 4, 2025 at 2:56 PM
Octopuses sense environmental microbiomes to drive predatory and parental behaviors. Artwork by Lily Soucy. #evolution #sensation #microbiome @cellpress.bsky.social
Reposted by Joseph D. Zak
Excited to share our latest!! Thanks to everyone involved especially @neurovenki.bsky.social!
Thrilled to share this work, long time in the making! Carried through creatively by @siddjakes.bsky.social after initial design & piloting by @trackingskills.bsky.social, with help from @trackingactions.bsky.social. Modeling in collaboration with Massimo Vergassola & Nicola Rigolli.
Mice navigate scent trails using predictive policies
Animals actively sense their environment to extract features of interest to guide behaviors. For mammals, odors are prominent environmental features which are sampled by active modulation of sniffing ...
www.biorxiv.org
September 2, 2025 at 3:38 PM
Excited to share our latest!! Thanks to everyone involved especially @neurovenki.bsky.social!
Reposted by Joseph D. Zak
Thrilled to share this work, long time in the making! Carried through creatively by @siddjakes.bsky.social after initial design & piloting by @trackingskills.bsky.social, with help from @trackingactions.bsky.social. Modeling in collaboration with Massimo Vergassola & Nicola Rigolli.
Mice navigate scent trails using predictive policies
Animals actively sense their environment to extract features of interest to guide behaviors. For mammals, odors are prominent environmental features which are sampled by active modulation of sniffing ...
www.biorxiv.org
September 1, 2025 at 7:06 PM
Thrilled to share this work, long time in the making! Carried through creatively by @siddjakes.bsky.social after initial design & piloting by @trackingskills.bsky.social, with help from @trackingactions.bsky.social. Modeling in collaboration with Massimo Vergassola & Nicola Rigolli.
Proud to share Kai Clane Belonio’s latest work in our lab. Kai showed that induced-depression decreases behavioral tolerance of aversive odorants as well as increases in neuroinflammation in sensory affective areas. Also contributing are @nervenkidd.bsky.social and Eyerusalem Haile.
Neuroinflammation in Olfactory Circuits Underlies Odor Hypersensitivity in a Rodent Model of Depression https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.08.14.670114v1
August 20, 2025 at 1:14 PM
Proud to share Kai Clane Belonio’s latest work in our lab. Kai showed that induced-depression decreases behavioral tolerance of aversive odorants as well as increases in neuroinflammation in sensory affective areas. Also contributing are @nervenkidd.bsky.social and Eyerusalem Haile.
Reposted by Joseph D. Zak
🚨Very happy that my PhD work is now out in @nature.com!
We discovered that evolution, by acting in the midbrain, shifted the threshold to escape in Peromyscus mice, to fine-tune defensive strategies in different environments
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
This was a truly collaborative effort! 🧵⬇️
We discovered that evolution, by acting in the midbrain, shifted the threshold to escape in Peromyscus mice, to fine-tune defensive strategies in different environments
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
This was a truly collaborative effort! 🧵⬇️
July 23, 2025 at 3:06 PM
🚨Very happy that my PhD work is now out in @nature.com!
We discovered that evolution, by acting in the midbrain, shifted the threshold to escape in Peromyscus mice, to fine-tune defensive strategies in different environments
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
This was a truly collaborative effort! 🧵⬇️
We discovered that evolution, by acting in the midbrain, shifted the threshold to escape in Peromyscus mice, to fine-tune defensive strategies in different environments
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
This was a truly collaborative effort! 🧵⬇️
Some campus brutalism to accompany this brutal heatwave.
July 2, 2025 at 7:44 PM
Some campus brutalism to accompany this brutal heatwave.
Reposted by Joseph D. Zak
@shawn-anthony.bsky.social helped ~20 undergrads learn transcriptomics in this budget friendly investigation into the dogbane family. A fun way to investigate the molecular evolution of the group. Also, a chance to collaborate with @phylonatworks.bsky.social and Jarrad! doi.org/10.1101/2025...
Going green: Recycling transcriptomes to infer evolutionary relationships, gene duplication, gene tree conflict, and patterns of molecular evolution in the Apocynaceae
Background and Aims: The flowering plant family Apocynaceae exhibits diverse adaptations with biological and pharmaceutical significance, many of which have been studied with RNA-seq. However, despite...
doi.org
June 26, 2025 at 3:43 PM
@shawn-anthony.bsky.social helped ~20 undergrads learn transcriptomics in this budget friendly investigation into the dogbane family. A fun way to investigate the molecular evolution of the group. Also, a chance to collaborate with @phylonatworks.bsky.social and Jarrad! doi.org/10.1101/2025...
Reposted by Joseph D. Zak
Animals’ sniffing drives rhythmic input to the olfactory system.
How does this timing contribute to perception, especially beyond first steps of olfactory processing?
We tested this using simple closed-loop optogenetics in our new paper: www.cell.com/iscience/ful...
How does this timing contribute to perception, especially beyond first steps of olfactory processing?
We tested this using simple closed-loop optogenetics in our new paper: www.cell.com/iscience/ful...
Decoding olfactory bulb output: A behavioral assessment of rate, synchrony, and respiratory phase coding
Neurogenetics; Behavioral neuroscience; Sensory neuroscience
www.cell.com
June 13, 2025 at 3:55 AM
Animals’ sniffing drives rhythmic input to the olfactory system.
How does this timing contribute to perception, especially beyond first steps of olfactory processing?
We tested this using simple closed-loop optogenetics in our new paper: www.cell.com/iscience/ful...
How does this timing contribute to perception, especially beyond first steps of olfactory processing?
We tested this using simple closed-loop optogenetics in our new paper: www.cell.com/iscience/ful...
What a special place. So grateful for all the friendships, learning, and science that fullfilled my time @harvard.edu.
June 3, 2025 at 9:10 PM
What a special place. So grateful for all the friendships, learning, and science that fullfilled my time @harvard.edu.
Proud of @nervenkidd.bsky.social (Zach Fyke), a graduate student in our group, for being recognized by @uicbios.bsky.social for both his research AND teaching over the past academic year.
Here are links to some of his recent work:
tinyurl.com/37vw5s5f
tinyurl.com/23zu458t
tinyurl.com/3mmjvw83
Here are links to some of his recent work:
tinyurl.com/37vw5s5f
tinyurl.com/23zu458t
tinyurl.com/3mmjvw83
May 14, 2025 at 8:24 PM
Proud of @nervenkidd.bsky.social (Zach Fyke), a graduate student in our group, for being recognized by @uicbios.bsky.social for both his research AND teaching over the past academic year.
Here are links to some of his recent work:
tinyurl.com/37vw5s5f
tinyurl.com/23zu458t
tinyurl.com/3mmjvw83
Here are links to some of his recent work:
tinyurl.com/37vw5s5f
tinyurl.com/23zu458t
tinyurl.com/3mmjvw83
Reposted by Joseph D. Zak
Maps are everywhere in the brain...and finally we've discovered one in the nose! Led by @davidhbrann.bsky.social, we uncovered the logic that specifies the positions of each of the 1,000 sensory neuron subtypes in the nose and aligns their projections to the brain.👇👃see more details below👃👇
A spatial code governs olfactory receptor choice and aligns sensory maps in the nose and brain
Although topographical maps organize many peripheral sensory systems, it remains unclear whether olfactory sensory neurons (OSNs) choose which of the ~1100 odor receptors (ORs) to express based upon t...
www.biorxiv.org
May 9, 2025 at 8:44 PM
Maps are everywhere in the brain...and finally we've discovered one in the nose! Led by @davidhbrann.bsky.social, we uncovered the logic that specifies the positions of each of the 1,000 sensory neuron subtypes in the nose and aligns their projections to the brain.👇👃see more details below👃👇
One of our new favorite images for #fluoresencefriday. Graduate student, Lindsay Vivona, labeled fibers from each anterior olfactory nucleus hemisphere as they bidirectionally pass through the anterior commissure. #neuroskyence #olfaction
May 9, 2025 at 5:46 PM
One of our new favorite images for #fluoresencefriday. Graduate student, Lindsay Vivona, labeled fibers from each anterior olfactory nucleus hemisphere as they bidirectionally pass through the anterior commissure. #neuroskyence #olfaction
Reposted by Joseph D. Zak
#preprint:
We mapped the structure and function of olfactory bulb circuits with in vivo 2-photon microscopy and synchrotron #Xray holographic nanotomography.
doi.org/10.1101/2025...
@yuxinzhang.bsky.social @andreas-t-schaefer.bsky.social @apacureanu.bsky.social
@crick.ac.uk @esrf.fr
We mapped the structure and function of olfactory bulb circuits with in vivo 2-photon microscopy and synchrotron #Xray holographic nanotomography.
doi.org/10.1101/2025...
@yuxinzhang.bsky.social @andreas-t-schaefer.bsky.social @apacureanu.bsky.social
@crick.ac.uk @esrf.fr
May 1, 2025 at 1:39 PM
#preprint:
We mapped the structure and function of olfactory bulb circuits with in vivo 2-photon microscopy and synchrotron #Xray holographic nanotomography.
doi.org/10.1101/2025...
@yuxinzhang.bsky.social @andreas-t-schaefer.bsky.social @apacureanu.bsky.social
@crick.ac.uk @esrf.fr
We mapped the structure and function of olfactory bulb circuits with in vivo 2-photon microscopy and synchrotron #Xray holographic nanotomography.
doi.org/10.1101/2025...
@yuxinzhang.bsky.social @andreas-t-schaefer.bsky.social @apacureanu.bsky.social
@crick.ac.uk @esrf.fr
Now in its final form, our recent work on how olfactory transduction currents help ensure sparse sensory coding. Led by a post-bac Kai Clane Belonio and a graduate student, Eyerusalem Haile, this was a group effort by the entire laboratory.
www.jneurosci.org/content/45/1...
www.jneurosci.org/content/45/1...
Amplification of Olfactory Transduction Currents Implements Sparse Stimulus Encoding
Sensory systems must perform the dual and opposing tasks of being sensitive to weak stimuli while also maintaining information content in dense and variable sensory landscapes. This occurs in the olfa...
www.jneurosci.org
April 30, 2025 at 5:14 PM
Now in its final form, our recent work on how olfactory transduction currents help ensure sparse sensory coding. Led by a post-bac Kai Clane Belonio and a graduate student, Eyerusalem Haile, this was a group effort by the entire laboratory.
www.jneurosci.org/content/45/1...
www.jneurosci.org/content/45/1...
Reposted by Joseph D. Zak
My lab has several postdoctoral fellow and software engineering positions available. Please email me if you’re interested.
April 22, 2025 at 4:58 PM
My lab has several postdoctoral fellow and software engineering positions available. Please email me if you’re interested.
Reposted by Joseph D. Zak
Olfactory neuroscientists have known for a while that their stimuli stink. A new analysis illuminates the extent of the problem.
By @callimcflurry.bsky.social
#neuroskyence
www.thetransmitter.org/olfaction/sm...
By @callimcflurry.bsky.social
#neuroskyence
www.thetransmitter.org/olfaction/sm...
Smell studies often use unnaturally high odor concentrations, analysis reveals
It’s time to fashion olfactory neuroscience stimuli based on odor concentrations in the wild, say study investigators Elizabeth Hong and Matt Wachowiak.
www.thetransmitter.org
April 16, 2025 at 2:26 PM
Olfactory neuroscientists have known for a while that their stimuli stink. A new analysis illuminates the extent of the problem.
By @callimcflurry.bsky.social
#neuroskyence
www.thetransmitter.org/olfaction/sm...
By @callimcflurry.bsky.social
#neuroskyence
www.thetransmitter.org/olfaction/sm...
Reposted by Joseph D. Zak
Now out in @sfnjournals.bsky.socialjournals.bsky.social : bit.ly/3YzVjRv. In VSNs, Ca²⁺ doesn’t tell a 'simple' story. Ca²⁺ at the knob excites, while at the soma it can activate K⁺ channels, dampening excitability. This channel diversity and compartmentalization refine vomeronasal sensory output-
Ca2+-Activated Ion Channels Exert Opposite Effects in Different Signaling Compartments of Vomeronasal Sensory Neurons
In most mammals, conspecific chemical cues that drive innate social and sexual behavior are detected by the vomeronasal organ (VNO) and processed in the accessory olfactory bulb (AOB). Chemosensory st...
bit.ly
April 16, 2025 at 7:30 PM
Now out in @sfnjournals.bsky.socialjournals.bsky.social : bit.ly/3YzVjRv. In VSNs, Ca²⁺ doesn’t tell a 'simple' story. Ca²⁺ at the knob excites, while at the soma it can activate K⁺ channels, dampening excitability. This channel diversity and compartmentalization refine vomeronasal sensory output-
Reposted by Joseph D. Zak
Excited to share my latest work just out in @pnas.org! This NIH MOSAIC K99-funded project identifies a top-down cortical circuit—from cingulate to auditory cortex—that supports auditory perceptual performance in challenging listening conditions: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
The cingulate cortex facilitates auditory perception under challenging listening conditions | PNAS
We often exert greater cognitive resources (i.e., listening effort) to understand
speech under challenging acoustic conditions. This mechanism can ...
www.pnas.org
April 4, 2025 at 7:00 PM
Excited to share my latest work just out in @pnas.org! This NIH MOSAIC K99-funded project identifies a top-down cortical circuit—from cingulate to auditory cortex—that supports auditory perceptual performance in challenging listening conditions: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Reposted by Joseph D. Zak
🚨 Job alert! 🚨
The Chung Lab @ Yale seeks a motivated, creative postdoc to examine tissue remodeling in health and disease. We study ovarian aging and cardiovascular disease in human samples and animal models. Passionate about single-cell, spatial genomics, machine learning & therapeutics? Join us!
The Chung Lab @ Yale seeks a motivated, creative postdoc to examine tissue remodeling in health and disease. We study ovarian aging and cardiovascular disease in human samples and animal models. Passionate about single-cell, spatial genomics, machine learning & therapeutics? Join us!
April 2, 2025 at 1:27 PM
🚨 Job alert! 🚨
The Chung Lab @ Yale seeks a motivated, creative postdoc to examine tissue remodeling in health and disease. We study ovarian aging and cardiovascular disease in human samples and animal models. Passionate about single-cell, spatial genomics, machine learning & therapeutics? Join us!
The Chung Lab @ Yale seeks a motivated, creative postdoc to examine tissue remodeling in health and disease. We study ovarian aging and cardiovascular disease in human samples and animal models. Passionate about single-cell, spatial genomics, machine learning & therapeutics? Join us!
Reposted by Joseph D. Zak
Reminder: apply for our research assistant position!
The Sorrells Lab is hiring a recent college graduate interested in neurobiology of mosquitoes! The position is ideal for someone interested in gaining skills for graduate school. Apply here: apply.interfolio.com/164849
March 20, 2025 at 1:46 PM
Reminder: apply for our research assistant position!