Monika Scholz
@monikakscholz.bsky.social
PI at meep-neep (MPI for neurobiology of behavior) studying worm feeding and foraging behavior. I ❤️ imaging, watching worms wiggle and Friday experiments.
scholz-lab.com
scholz-lab.com
Pinned
Ah sudden influx of followers so:
👋 I study #worm feeding (neurons&behavior) but it's real easy to get me excited about other ideas, so we also dabble in fly larvae, and bitey worms with collaborators.
Privately I enjoy a rotating array of fabric crafts (currently ❤️ crochet), sci-fi and cycling!
👋 I study #worm feeding (neurons&behavior) but it's real easy to get me excited about other ideas, so we also dabble in fly larvae, and bitey worms with collaborators.
Privately I enjoy a rotating array of fabric crafts (currently ❤️ crochet), sci-fi and cycling!
Reposted by Monika Scholz
The FPbase spectra viewer just had it's biggest software refactor in 6 years. It *should* be largely invisible to the end user (hopefully just faster and less buggy). Please let me know if you find any issues as you use it!
www.fpbase.org/spectra/
www.fpbase.org/spectra/
FPbase Fluorescence Spectra Viewer
An interactive fluorescence spectra viewer to evaluate the spectral properties of fluorescent proteins, organic dyes, filters, and detectors.
www.fpbase.org
November 4, 2025 at 3:03 PM
The FPbase spectra viewer just had it's biggest software refactor in 6 years. It *should* be largely invisible to the end user (hopefully just faster and less buggy). Please let me know if you find any issues as you use it!
www.fpbase.org/spectra/
www.fpbase.org/spectra/
Will be so fun to have you around!!
I'm moving to a new scientific home!
I was recruited by the Max Planck institute as a senior scientist at the MPINB (mpinb.mpg.de/en/), starting Dec 1st. Very exciting new and old projects in the best neuroethology hub. I visited there earlier this month, and I really like Bonn so far :)
I was recruited by the Max Planck institute as a senior scientist at the MPINB (mpinb.mpg.de/en/), starting Dec 1st. Very exciting new and old projects in the best neuroethology hub. I visited there earlier this month, and I really like Bonn so far :)
Welcome to the MPINB - MAX PLANCK INSTITUTE FOR NEUROBIOLOGY OF BEHAVIOR — CAESAR
The MPINB is a neuroethology institute that studies how the collective activity of interconnected neurons in the brain gives rise to the plethora of animal behaviors.
mpinb.mpg.de
October 28, 2025 at 4:45 PM
Will be so fun to have you around!!
Proprioception and new function for two pharyngeal neurons!
The DEG/ENaC channel DEGT-1 is a proprioceptor of C. elegans foregut movement
www.cell.com/current-biol...
www.cell.com/current-biol...
The DEG/ENaC channel DEGT-1 is a proprioceptor of C. elegans foregut movement
Bayer et al. show that the DEGT-1 DEG/ENaC channel is specifically expressed in C.
elegans pharyngeal neurons and localizes to the pharyngeal basement membrane. They
found that DEGT-1 is required in I...
www.cell.com
October 27, 2025 at 8:09 AM
Proprioception and new function for two pharyngeal neurons!
Reposted by Monika Scholz
Despite the mess, we are grateful to be funded, have exciting science happening, and have an opening for a postdoc!
If you are interested in sensory biology and esp in cilia, thermosensation, or interoception, and would like to join an interactive & supportive group - please email.
Please RT 🙏
If you are interested in sensory biology and esp in cilia, thermosensation, or interoception, and would like to join an interactive & supportive group - please email.
Please RT 🙏
October 16, 2025 at 5:29 PM
Despite the mess, we are grateful to be funded, have exciting science happening, and have an opening for a postdoc!
If you are interested in sensory biology and esp in cilia, thermosensation, or interoception, and would like to join an interactive & supportive group - please email.
Please RT 🙏
If you are interested in sensory biology and esp in cilia, thermosensation, or interoception, and would like to join an interactive & supportive group - please email.
Please RT 🙏
Reposted by Monika Scholz
Reaffirming the value of model organisms in training scientific minds @ishmailsaboor.bsky.social exactly what we were talking about re your #Celegans background setting you up for creative work in other systems! www.nature.com/articles/s41...
October 11, 2025 at 6:44 PM
Reaffirming the value of model organisms in training scientific minds @ishmailsaboor.bsky.social exactly what we were talking about re your #Celegans background setting you up for creative work in other systems! www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Monika Scholz
Disease prevalence in US states before & after vaccine introduction 🧪
From Edward Tufte & graphics.wsj.com/infectious-d...
From Edward Tufte & graphics.wsj.com/infectious-d...
September 4, 2025 at 6:01 PM
Disease prevalence in US states before & after vaccine introduction 🧪
From Edward Tufte & graphics.wsj.com/infectious-d...
From Edward Tufte & graphics.wsj.com/infectious-d...
...
You can't raid and arrest everyone in an entire apartment building, or even legitimately get a warrant to do that, any more than you could for a whole neighborhood. That would be a general warrant. This is the most specific core the-British-did-it-to-us thing the Fourth Amendment is written to ban.
NEW — An estimated 40 people were taken by federal agents in an overnight raid in South Shore, a predominantly-Black neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side.
A couple who live nearby said they were shocked to see the enormous militarized raid in their community.
thetriibe.com/2025/09/feds...
A couple who live nearby said they were shocked to see the enormous militarized raid in their community.
thetriibe.com/2025/09/feds...
October 2, 2025 at 7:06 PM
...
@leoboeger.bsky.social is our ambassador to this year's #BernsteinConference! He extended our recent work on behavioral states during predatory aggression to explicitly model latents and how they change in diverse neuronodulator mutants! As usual, joint work with the @jameslightfoot.bsky.social lab.
Interested in neuromodulation, predatory worms or hidden Markov models? Or the combination of all three? Then come and see my poster (number 21) today in poster session 1 at the #BernsteinConference.
October 1, 2025 at 3:10 PM
@leoboeger.bsky.social is our ambassador to this year's #BernsteinConference! He extended our recent work on behavioral states during predatory aggression to explicitly model latents and how they change in diverse neuronodulator mutants! As usual, joint work with the @jameslightfoot.bsky.social lab.
Reposted by Monika Scholz
This is why we fund scientists to study things like oyster slobber even if you don’t think it sounds important
⚠️ Chinese researchers have invented bone glue that mimics how oysters stick to surfaces underwater.
The adhesive can reportedly repair orthopedic fractures in 2-3 minutes, even in blood-rich environments, and is bioabsorbable.
interestingengineering.com/science/chin...
The adhesive can reportedly repair orthopedic fractures in 2-3 minutes, even in blood-rich environments, and is bioabsorbable.
interestingengineering.com/science/chin...
China's oyster-inspired 'bone glue' bonds fractures in minutes
A new oyster-inspired Bone-02 adhesive can revolutionize bone repair without metal fasteners.
interestingengineering.com
September 30, 2025 at 10:35 PM
This is why we fund scientists to study things like oyster slobber even if you don’t think it sounds important
Reposted by Monika Scholz
A nice shift in perceived colour between central and peripheral vision. The fixated disc looks purple while the others look blue.
The effect presumably comes from the absence of S-cones in the fovea.
From Hinnerk Schulz-Hildebrandt:
arxiv.org/pdf/2509.115...
The effect presumably comes from the absence of S-cones in the fovea.
From Hinnerk Schulz-Hildebrandt:
arxiv.org/pdf/2509.115...
September 24, 2025 at 12:04 PM
A nice shift in perceived colour between central and peripheral vision. The fixated disc looks purple while the others look blue.
The effect presumably comes from the absence of S-cones in the fovea.
From Hinnerk Schulz-Hildebrandt:
arxiv.org/pdf/2509.115...
The effect presumably comes from the absence of S-cones in the fovea.
From Hinnerk Schulz-Hildebrandt:
arxiv.org/pdf/2509.115...
Busy prep today for the open house @mpinb.mpg.de tomorrow! The 🪱 station is ready!
Discover how a fluorescence microscope works, pick some (gummi) worms, and play with an entire worm brain!
Plus we have a selfie-station to step into the shoes/coat of a scientist! #worms
Discover how a fluorescence microscope works, pick some (gummi) worms, and play with an entire worm brain!
Plus we have a selfie-station to step into the shoes/coat of a scientist! #worms
September 19, 2025 at 5:46 PM
Busy prep today for the open house @mpinb.mpg.de tomorrow! The 🪱 station is ready!
Discover how a fluorescence microscope works, pick some (gummi) worms, and play with an entire worm brain!
Plus we have a selfie-station to step into the shoes/coat of a scientist! #worms
Discover how a fluorescence microscope works, pick some (gummi) worms, and play with an entire worm brain!
Plus we have a selfie-station to step into the shoes/coat of a scientist! #worms
Reposted by Monika Scholz
📢Apply now! Join our IMPRS for Brain&Behavior to pursue a #PhD in #neuroethology. Learn how brain circuits are linked to interesting animal behaviors!
📅 Deadline: October 31, 2025
🔗 imprs-brain-behavior.mpg.de
#neuroscience #Neuroskyence #neurojobs #sciencejobs #PhDsky #PhDOffers #FundedPhD
📅 Deadline: October 31, 2025
🔗 imprs-brain-behavior.mpg.de
#neuroscience #Neuroskyence #neurojobs #sciencejobs #PhDsky #PhDOffers #FundedPhD
August 27, 2025 at 11:17 AM
📢Apply now! Join our IMPRS for Brain&Behavior to pursue a #PhD in #neuroethology. Learn how brain circuits are linked to interesting animal behaviors!
📅 Deadline: October 31, 2025
🔗 imprs-brain-behavior.mpg.de
#neuroscience #Neuroskyence #neurojobs #sciencejobs #PhDsky #PhDOffers #FundedPhD
📅 Deadline: October 31, 2025
🔗 imprs-brain-behavior.mpg.de
#neuroscience #Neuroskyence #neurojobs #sciencejobs #PhDsky #PhDOffers #FundedPhD
Cleaning up I just found an ancient thumbdrive with talks and a guest lecture from 10 years ago. It's like a little time capsule from the 'dark years'.(post physical photos, pre-smart phone the artefacts remaining are minimal.
August 29, 2025 at 8:41 PM
Cleaning up I just found an ancient thumbdrive with talks and a guest lecture from 10 years ago. It's like a little time capsule from the 'dark years'.(post physical photos, pre-smart phone the artefacts remaining are minimal.
Reposted by Monika Scholz
This is good!
The difference between doing a project and presenting it. An observation can lead to many avenues of explorations before focus turns to a specific discovery. Presenting it, in a talk / paper, follows inversely, with broad perspectives coming before & after the specific discovery.
August 18, 2025 at 6:41 AM
This is good!
Reposted by Monika Scholz
Neuroscience students asked us to teach a PRACTICAL course on experimental methods, and it is now on YouTube!
Please like and repost to help us get the word out!
www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...
Lecture 1: Signals and data acquisition
Focusing on hardware, digital/analog I/O, synchronization
🧵
Please like and repost to help us get the word out!
www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...
Lecture 1: Signals and data acquisition
Focusing on hardware, digital/analog I/O, synchronization
🧵
Neuroscience methods - YouTube
Nanocourse: Approaches to Study Neural Circuits This course was taught by Anita Autry, Tiago Gonçalves, and Luke Sjulson at Albert Einstein College of Medici...
www.youtube.com
December 13, 2024 at 11:33 AM
Neuroscience students asked us to teach a PRACTICAL course on experimental methods, and it is now on YouTube!
Please like and repost to help us get the word out!
www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...
Lecture 1: Signals and data acquisition
Focusing on hardware, digital/analog I/O, synchronization
🧵
Please like and repost to help us get the word out!
www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...
Lecture 1: Signals and data acquisition
Focusing on hardware, digital/analog I/O, synchronization
🧵
Laudable trend! But the linked graphic showing the % drop from Walter Benjamin (PD) - Emmy Noether (group leader) - Heisenberg (Prof) highlights the remaining systemic problems in the German academic career path.
Ein Trend? Diese Grafik aus dem Monitoring-Bericht zur #Chancengleichheit in der Wissenschaft lässt es vermuten: In der lfd. Förderung der koord. Programme können kann die DFG einen kontinuierlichen Anstieg der Frauenanteile in leitenden Positionen verzeichnen. Mehr Analysen:
fcld.ly/chancengleic...
fcld.ly/chancengleic...
July 31, 2025 at 8:33 AM
Laudable trend! But the linked graphic showing the % drop from Walter Benjamin (PD) - Emmy Noether (group leader) - Heisenberg (Prof) highlights the remaining systemic problems in the German academic career path.
Reposted by Monika Scholz
Very promising news on the next seven-year EU budget, with a proposed substantial increase for Horizon Europe including the ERC.
We are analysing the other parts of this proposal in more detail.
@Vonderleyen @EZaharievaEU
research-and-innovation.ec.europa.eu/news/all-res...
We are analysing the other parts of this proposal in more detail.
@Vonderleyen @EZaharievaEU
research-and-innovation.ec.europa.eu/news/all-res...
Horizon Europe 2028 - 2034: twice bigger, simpler, faster and more impactful
Research and innovation news alert: As part of the next long-term EU budget 2028-2034, the Commission is proposing to double the budget of the research and innovation framework programme to €175 billi...
research-and-innovation.ec.europa.eu
July 23, 2025 at 7:49 PM
Very promising news on the next seven-year EU budget, with a proposed substantial increase for Horizon Europe including the ERC.
We are analysing the other parts of this proposal in more detail.
@Vonderleyen @EZaharievaEU
research-and-innovation.ec.europa.eu/news/all-res...
We are analysing the other parts of this proposal in more detail.
@Vonderleyen @EZaharievaEU
research-and-innovation.ec.europa.eu/news/all-res...
Reposted by Monika Scholz
🚀 Big news from our @monikakscholz.bsky.social lab! We’re part of DynOrg, a new @dfg.de-funded Research Unit exploring how #GPCR signaling coordinates organ function & animal behavior — from heartbeat to foraging. 🧠💓
#FOR #neurotransmitters
#FOR #neurotransmitters
July 23, 2025 at 9:20 AM
🚀 Big news from our @monikakscholz.bsky.social lab! We’re part of DynOrg, a new @dfg.de-funded Research Unit exploring how #GPCR signaling coordinates organ function & animal behavior — from heartbeat to foraging. 🧠💓
#FOR #neurotransmitters
#FOR #neurotransmitters
Lovely article! If I could I'd add a paragraph about nematodes 🪱!
Mechanistic access, ease of imaging, genetics and comparative connectomics make them a perfect model for evo-neuro. There's a lot of fantastic recent work at many levels of description.
Mechanistic access, ease of imaging, genetics and comparative connectomics make them a perfect model for evo-neuro. There's a lot of fantastic recent work at many levels of description.
To identify fundamental neuroscientific principles that generalize across species, systems and circuits, neuroscientists must embrace an evolutionary perspective, argue Karl Farrow and @katjareinhard.bsky.social.
#neuroskyence
www.thetransmitter.org/systems-neur...
#neuroskyence
www.thetransmitter.org/systems-neur...
Systems and circuit neuroscience need an evolutionary perspective
To identify fundamental neuroscientific principles that generalize across species, neuroscientists must frame their research through an evolutionary lens.
www.thetransmitter.org
July 18, 2025 at 7:34 AM
Lovely article! If I could I'd add a paragraph about nematodes 🪱!
Mechanistic access, ease of imaging, genetics and comparative connectomics make them a perfect model for evo-neuro. There's a lot of fantastic recent work at many levels of description.
Mechanistic access, ease of imaging, genetics and comparative connectomics make them a perfect model for evo-neuro. There's a lot of fantastic recent work at many levels of description.
new contacts after 20 years of not bothering: now I know what a well-aligned microscope feels like!
July 15, 2025 at 1:49 PM
new contacts after 20 years of not bothering: now I know what a well-aligned microscope feels like!
The lab is quiet for the summer so I get to play around without disturbing the smooth machinery of planned experiments.
July 14, 2025 at 11:23 AM
The lab is quiet for the summer so I get to play around without disturbing the smooth machinery of planned experiments.
Agree! This development will result in false claims that will be very hard to undo (as it's buried in lines of code with verbose single line comments...).
How to deal with this distilled from informal chats at the GRC: implement unit tests, sanity checks and do intense code reviews with new folks.
How to deal with this distilled from informal chats at the GRC: implement unit tests, sanity checks and do intense code reviews with new folks.
This summer I'm noticing students embracing vibe coding for data analysis to worrying effect. #Neuroskyence #🧪 1/2
July 8, 2025 at 6:13 AM
Agree! This development will result in false claims that will be very hard to undo (as it's buried in lines of code with verbose single line comments...).
How to deal with this distilled from informal chats at the GRC: implement unit tests, sanity checks and do intense code reviews with new folks.
How to deal with this distilled from informal chats at the GRC: implement unit tests, sanity checks and do intense code reviews with new folks.
Reposted by Monika Scholz
Special thanks to this year's organizer of the Neuroethology GRC, Julie Simpson & @genmig.bsky.social. We had a fantastic week of great science, met colleagues or started collaborations. We are looking forward to the next GRC in 2 years.
2027 Co-Vice chairs: Jessica Fox & @scottjuntti.bsky.social
2027 Co-Vice chairs: Jessica Fox & @scottjuntti.bsky.social
July 4, 2025 at 8:15 AM
Special thanks to this year's organizer of the Neuroethology GRC, Julie Simpson & @genmig.bsky.social. We had a fantastic week of great science, met colleagues or started collaborations. We are looking forward to the next GRC in 2 years.
2027 Co-Vice chairs: Jessica Fox & @scottjuntti.bsky.social
2027 Co-Vice chairs: Jessica Fox & @scottjuntti.bsky.social
Greatest challenge for US scientist at GRC Neuroethology so far is figuring out the European-style attached bottlecaps. :-)
July 2, 2025 at 4:22 PM
Greatest challenge for US scientist at GRC Neuroethology so far is figuring out the European-style attached bottlecaps. :-)
Kids are very excited that I'm flying in a real plane and I ❤️ that I get to share that excitement!
June 29, 2025 at 12:07 PM
Kids are very excited that I'm flying in a real plane and I ❤️ that I get to share that excitement!