Zach Pennington
@zachtpennington.bsky.social
Incoming Assistant Professor at the University of British Columbia
Postdoc in the Cai Lab at Mount Sinai
Neural circuits supporting emotion, motivation, and learning.
Postdoc in the Cai Lab at Mount Sinai
Neural circuits supporting emotion, motivation, and learning.
Pinned
Excited to share that I landed my dream job!🎉🎉🎉 The Pennington Lab will be opening at the University of British Columbia in January 2026!
@ubcpsych.bsky.social @dmcbrainhealth.bsky.social
@ubcpsych.bsky.social @dmcbrainhealth.bsky.social
Reposted by Zach Pennington
Applying for faculty jobs this cycle? Check out our latest special episode! @moeneuro.bsky.social and @drnancypadilla.bsky.social discuss when to apply, important considerations when preparing applications, and more! Listen below!
www.storiesofwin.org/profiles/202...
#AcademicBluesky #NeuroJobs
www.storiesofwin.org/profiles/202...
#AcademicBluesky #NeuroJobs
Applying to faculty jobs 101 — Stories of WiN
This episode features Dr. Monique Smith (Assistant Professor, UCSD) discussing faculty job applications with host Dr. Nancy Padilla-Coreano.
www.storiesofwin.org
October 17, 2025 at 2:38 PM
Applying for faculty jobs this cycle? Check out our latest special episode! @moeneuro.bsky.social and @drnancypadilla.bsky.social discuss when to apply, important considerations when preparing applications, and more! Listen below!
www.storiesofwin.org/profiles/202...
#AcademicBluesky #NeuroJobs
www.storiesofwin.org/profiles/202...
#AcademicBluesky #NeuroJobs
21 years sober today. So grateful for the chance to embrace life today and for the people that have loved and guided me along the way. Photo from last week’s trip to Iceland (go!).
October 17, 2025 at 1:14 PM
21 years sober today. So grateful for the chance to embrace life today and for the people that have loved and guided me along the way. Photo from last week’s trip to Iceland (go!).
Always fun talking with @denisejcai.bsky.social & @joezaki.bsky.social. Listen in for our conversation about mentor-mentee relationships, where we discuss choosing a mentor, following your joy, what it's really like to work with Denise, and more!!
It has been an immense honor to learn & grow with two of the greatest scientists I know: @zachtpennington.bsky.social & @joezaki.bsky.social 🧑🔬
Listen in on our conversation about mentorship, building trust and creating a safe space to disagree: neuronline.sfn.org/professional...
Listen in on our conversation about mentorship, building trust and creating a safe space to disagree: neuronline.sfn.org/professional...
October 3, 2025 at 10:34 PM
Always fun talking with @denisejcai.bsky.social & @joezaki.bsky.social. Listen in for our conversation about mentor-mentee relationships, where we discuss choosing a mentor, following your joy, what it's really like to work with Denise, and more!!
Reposted by Zach Pennington
I'm recruiting a PhD student to study how enkephalins affect cognitive processing in the rodent frontal cortex. The project uses pharmacology, multi-electrode recordings, and fiber photometry, and is funded by NIDA. Please share with trainees applying this cycle. Thanks!
October 3, 2025 at 3:43 PM
I'm recruiting a PhD student to study how enkephalins affect cognitive processing in the rodent frontal cortex. The project uses pharmacology, multi-electrode recordings, and fiber photometry, and is funded by NIDA. Please share with trainees applying this cycle. Thanks!
Reposted by Zach Pennington
Excited to announce that I'll be moving to the Univ of California Irvine @ucirvine.bsky.social next Spring!🌴
Happily, this is not goodbye to Japan as I'll continue my lab @RIKEN_CBS for some time.
Help spread the word: the new UCI lab will be hiring, DM or email (johaono@gmail.com) if interested!
Happily, this is not goodbye to Japan as I'll continue my lab @RIKEN_CBS for some time.
Help spread the word: the new UCI lab will be hiring, DM or email (johaono@gmail.com) if interested!
October 2, 2025 at 4:15 AM
Excited to announce that I'll be moving to the Univ of California Irvine @ucirvine.bsky.social next Spring!🌴
Happily, this is not goodbye to Japan as I'll continue my lab @RIKEN_CBS for some time.
Help spread the word: the new UCI lab will be hiring, DM or email (johaono@gmail.com) if interested!
Happily, this is not goodbye to Japan as I'll continue my lab @RIKEN_CBS for some time.
Help spread the word: the new UCI lab will be hiring, DM or email (johaono@gmail.com) if interested!
Excited to share that I landed my dream job!🎉🎉🎉 The Pennington Lab will be opening at the University of British Columbia in January 2026!
@ubcpsych.bsky.social @dmcbrainhealth.bsky.social
@ubcpsych.bsky.social @dmcbrainhealth.bsky.social
September 29, 2025 at 4:31 PM
Excited to share that I landed my dream job!🎉🎉🎉 The Pennington Lab will be opening at the University of British Columbia in January 2026!
@ubcpsych.bsky.social @dmcbrainhealth.bsky.social
@ubcpsych.bsky.social @dmcbrainhealth.bsky.social
Reposted by Zach Pennington
A spatially resolved transcriptomic atlas of the primate amygdala (human, macaque, and baboon) now out in Science Advances (www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...). The amygdala contains 32 types of neurons with many neuron types specific to particular subdivisions.
Lots of updates from the preprint!
Lots of updates from the preprint!
Transcriptomic diversity of amygdalar subdivisions across humans and nonhuman primates
Specialized cell types and links to psychiatric disorders are revealed by genetic mapping of primate amygdala neurons.
www.science.org
September 17, 2025 at 7:31 PM
A spatially resolved transcriptomic atlas of the primate amygdala (human, macaque, and baboon) now out in Science Advances (www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...). The amygdala contains 32 types of neurons with many neuron types specific to particular subdivisions.
Lots of updates from the preprint!
Lots of updates from the preprint!
Incredible work by @zoechristensonwick.bsky.social, @tristanshuman.bsky.social, and crew, using the closed-loop system they developed to realign interneuron firing to hippocampal theta and reduce seizure susceptibility!
🚨New preprint alert🚨
We used closed-loop optogenetics to causally test the importance of inhibitory spike timing in network function and found that manipulating PV+ cell theta phase locking in the dentate gyrus can shift seizure susceptibility (both ways!)
We used closed-loop optogenetics to causally test the importance of inhibitory spike timing in network function and found that manipulating PV+ cell theta phase locking in the dentate gyrus can shift seizure susceptibility (both ways!)
September 12, 2025 at 2:08 AM
Incredible work by @zoechristensonwick.bsky.social, @tristanshuman.bsky.social, and crew, using the closed-loop system they developed to realign interneuron firing to hippocampal theta and reduce seizure susceptibility!
Reposted by Zach Pennington
The study also describes how activating a serotonin receptor in the brain of a mouse model of ASD restored positive emotional value (also known as “valence”), with encouraging implications for the development of future therapies. Learn More @nature.com 👉 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Serotonin and neurotensin inputs in the vCA1 dictate opposing social valence - Nature
Aversive and rewarding social experiences are linked to conspecific identity through converging dorsal raphe 5-HT and paraventricular nucleus of the thalamus neurotensin signals in the vCA1 that instr...
www.nature.com
May 1, 2025 at 4:52 PM
The study also describes how activating a serotonin receptor in the brain of a mouse model of ASD restored positive emotional value (also known as “valence”), with encouraging implications for the development of future therapies. Learn More @nature.com 👉 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
I’ll be eating fortune cookies daily from now on!
September 3, 2025 at 10:06 PM
I’ll be eating fortune cookies daily from now on!
Reposted by Zach Pennington
Applications are open for our Diversity Mentorship Program!
This program is open to undergraduates or recent graduates, anywhere in the world, who are interested in graduate studies in psychology. Apply here by Aug 25: psych.ubc.ca/diversity
This program is open to undergraduates or recent graduates, anywhere in the world, who are interested in graduate studies in psychology. Apply here by Aug 25: psych.ubc.ca/diversity
August 13, 2025 at 5:46 PM
Applications are open for our Diversity Mentorship Program!
This program is open to undergraduates or recent graduates, anywhere in the world, who are interested in graduate studies in psychology. Apply here by Aug 25: psych.ubc.ca/diversity
This program is open to undergraduates or recent graduates, anywhere in the world, who are interested in graduate studies in psychology. Apply here by Aug 25: psych.ubc.ca/diversity
Reposted by Zach Pennington
What’s better than a one-channel #Miniscope? 🥁 A TWO-CHANNEL Miniscope!
Our new Miniscope2C is a dual-channel, open-source Miniscope that lets you record 2 fluorescent signals simultaneously in freely moving animals.
Read the paper here: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
(1/10)
Our new Miniscope2C is a dual-channel, open-source Miniscope that lets you record 2 fluorescent signals simultaneously in freely moving animals.
Read the paper here: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
(1/10)
July 14, 2025 at 4:55 PM
What’s better than a one-channel #Miniscope? 🥁 A TWO-CHANNEL Miniscope!
Our new Miniscope2C is a dual-channel, open-source Miniscope that lets you record 2 fluorescent signals simultaneously in freely moving animals.
Read the paper here: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
(1/10)
Our new Miniscope2C is a dual-channel, open-source Miniscope that lets you record 2 fluorescent signals simultaneously in freely moving animals.
Read the paper here: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
(1/10)
Reposted by Zach Pennington
We are #hiring! The Sweis Lab for Translational Neuroeconomics is looking for talented postbacs interested in basic & translational neuroscience research studying how the #brain makes decisions at Mount Sinai in Manhattan, NY. See job posting below. Please repost! 🧠
www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/41...
www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/41...
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai hiring Research Assistant in New York City Metropolitan Area | LinkedIn
Posted 11:47:22 AM. Company Description The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai is a renowned institution in…See this and similar jobs on LinkedIn.
www.linkedin.com
March 14, 2025 at 12:15 PM
We are #hiring! The Sweis Lab for Translational Neuroeconomics is looking for talented postbacs interested in basic & translational neuroscience research studying how the #brain makes decisions at Mount Sinai in Manhattan, NY. See job posting below. Please repost! 🧠
www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/41...
www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/41...
Reposted by Zach Pennington
🚨Hiring Alert: Postdoctoral Opportunity!🚨 My lab is looking for a passionate postdoc to join our research in systems neuroscience @colorado.edu @ibg.colorado.edu. See details below. Please share!
sites.google.com/view/molaslab
#Postdoc #ResearchOpportunity #SystemsNeuroscience
sites.google.com/view/molaslab
#Postdoc #ResearchOpportunity #SystemsNeuroscience
March 14, 2025 at 4:34 PM
🚨Hiring Alert: Postdoctoral Opportunity!🚨 My lab is looking for a passionate postdoc to join our research in systems neuroscience @colorado.edu @ibg.colorado.edu. See details below. Please share!
sites.google.com/view/molaslab
#Postdoc #ResearchOpportunity #SystemsNeuroscience
sites.google.com/view/molaslab
#Postdoc #ResearchOpportunity #SystemsNeuroscience
Reposted by Zach Pennington
Check out a new lab paper from Mayumi Watanabe's thesis work showing how different subregions of medial prefrontal cortex differentially regulate extinction of aversive memories through projections to the locus-coeruleus-noradrenaline system:
doi.org/10.1038/s413...
doi.org/10.1038/s413...
Bidirectional emotional regulation through prefrontal innervation of the locus coeruleus - Molecular Psychiatry
Molecular Psychiatry - Bidirectional emotional regulation through prefrontal innervation of the locus coeruleus
doi.org
March 8, 2025 at 12:14 AM
Check out a new lab paper from Mayumi Watanabe's thesis work showing how different subregions of medial prefrontal cortex differentially regulate extinction of aversive memories through projections to the locus-coeruleus-noradrenaline system:
doi.org/10.1038/s413...
doi.org/10.1038/s413...
Come through, NYC!!!
NYC! 📣🗽☀️
We’re Standing Up for Science in Washington Square Park on March 7th from 12-3 PM!
Share with someone in NYC who should show up & support Science! ⬇️
#standupforscience2025
We’re Standing Up for Science in Washington Square Park on March 7th from 12-3 PM!
Share with someone in NYC who should show up & support Science! ⬇️
#standupforscience2025
March 2, 2025 at 2:34 AM
Come through, NYC!!!
Reposted by Zach Pennington
🔥 PAVLOVIAN 2025 UPDATE 🔥
Call for Posters, Data Blitz, and Travel Awards for the SYDNEY Pavlovian Society meeting in Aug 7th-10th is open 🧠 🧪
We have 5 x US$1,000 in travel awards to support trainees!
Check out our 🔥 hotel, line up of speakers, and APPLY here: pavlovian.org/upcoming-mee...
Call for Posters, Data Blitz, and Travel Awards for the SYDNEY Pavlovian Society meeting in Aug 7th-10th is open 🧠 🧪
We have 5 x US$1,000 in travel awards to support trainees!
Check out our 🔥 hotel, line up of speakers, and APPLY here: pavlovian.org/upcoming-mee...
Upcoming Meeting — Pavlovian Society
pavlovian.org
February 27, 2025 at 8:50 PM
🔥 PAVLOVIAN 2025 UPDATE 🔥
Call for Posters, Data Blitz, and Travel Awards for the SYDNEY Pavlovian Society meeting in Aug 7th-10th is open 🧠 🧪
We have 5 x US$1,000 in travel awards to support trainees!
Check out our 🔥 hotel, line up of speakers, and APPLY here: pavlovian.org/upcoming-mee...
Call for Posters, Data Blitz, and Travel Awards for the SYDNEY Pavlovian Society meeting in Aug 7th-10th is open 🧠 🧪
We have 5 x US$1,000 in travel awards to support trainees!
Check out our 🔥 hotel, line up of speakers, and APPLY here: pavlovian.org/upcoming-mee...
Reposted by Zach Pennington
A whole generation of early career scientists and physician-scientists, including colleagues and myself, are particularly vulnerable to these funding freezes and cuts, with jobs and careers depending on federal grants.
#IDsky
#Medsky
#Episky
www.science.org/content/arti...
#IDsky
#Medsky
#Episky
www.science.org/content/arti...
U.S. early-career researchers struggling amid chaos
Uncertain funding, government firings, and distressed universities hit vulnerable groups especially hard
www.science.org
February 22, 2025 at 12:08 PM
A whole generation of early career scientists and physician-scientists, including colleagues and myself, are particularly vulnerable to these funding freezes and cuts, with jobs and careers depending on federal grants.
#IDsky
#Medsky
#Episky
www.science.org/content/arti...
#IDsky
#Medsky
#Episky
www.science.org/content/arti...
Reposted by Zach Pennington
🚨📃New Wassum Lab Paper📃🚨
Out today, @jackiegio.bsky.social discovered brain pathways that support agency and habit and how chronic stress disrupts them to rob of us our agency and cause us to form rigid habits 🧵👇
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Free full text: rdcu.be/eaxEv
Out today, @jackiegio.bsky.social discovered brain pathways that support agency and habit and how chronic stress disrupts them to rob of us our agency and cause us to form rigid habits 🧵👇
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Free full text: rdcu.be/eaxEv
A dual-pathway architecture for stress to disrupt agency and promote habit - Nature
Adaptive decision-making often requires an understanding of our agency in a situation; however, chronic stress can disrupt agency and promote inflexible, habitual behaviour by turning off a brain path...
www.nature.com
February 19, 2025 at 11:37 PM
🚨📃New Wassum Lab Paper📃🚨
Out today, @jackiegio.bsky.social discovered brain pathways that support agency and habit and how chronic stress disrupts them to rob of us our agency and cause us to form rigid habits 🧵👇
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Free full text: rdcu.be/eaxEv
Out today, @jackiegio.bsky.social discovered brain pathways that support agency and habit and how chronic stress disrupts them to rob of us our agency and cause us to form rigid habits 🧵👇
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Free full text: rdcu.be/eaxEv
Reposted by Zach Pennington
Our #MINDS post-bacc program is accepting applications til March 1st! ✨
✅ two-years full-time PAID research
✅ $41,000 annual salary +benefits
✅ personalized grad school prep & cohort of peers
✅ $1,500 to relocate + $1,500 in prof dev funds
✅ dedicated mentors
+ more!
z.umn.edu/minds
Please share ✨
✅ two-years full-time PAID research
✅ $41,000 annual salary +benefits
✅ personalized grad school prep & cohort of peers
✅ $1,500 to relocate + $1,500 in prof dev funds
✅ dedicated mentors
+ more!
z.umn.edu/minds
Please share ✨
February 17, 2025 at 7:32 PM
Our #MINDS post-bacc program is accepting applications til March 1st! ✨
✅ two-years full-time PAID research
✅ $41,000 annual salary +benefits
✅ personalized grad school prep & cohort of peers
✅ $1,500 to relocate + $1,500 in prof dev funds
✅ dedicated mentors
+ more!
z.umn.edu/minds
Please share ✨
✅ two-years full-time PAID research
✅ $41,000 annual salary +benefits
✅ personalized grad school prep & cohort of peers
✅ $1,500 to relocate + $1,500 in prof dev funds
✅ dedicated mentors
+ more!
z.umn.edu/minds
Please share ✨
Reposted by Zach Pennington
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 6:38 PM
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...
Labmate shared this super helpful link for contacting representatives about NIH cuts, plus so much more: 5calls.org.
The number of calls they receive matters!
The number of calls they receive matters!
February 8, 2025 at 11:11 PM
Labmate shared this super helpful link for contacting representatives about NIH cuts, plus so much more: 5calls.org.
The number of calls they receive matters!
The number of calls they receive matters!
Reposted by Zach Pennington
New paper out in Cell Reports! Led by @susieyufeng.bsky.social, we found that chronic epilepsy in mice drives distinct synchronization deficits in hippocampus and MEC, with early changes in HPC and late-onset changes in MEC that align with progressive memory impairment.
www.cell.com/cell-reports...
www.cell.com/cell-reports...
January 28, 2025 at 8:17 PM
New paper out in Cell Reports! Led by @susieyufeng.bsky.social, we found that chronic epilepsy in mice drives distinct synchronization deficits in hippocampus and MEC, with early changes in HPC and late-onset changes in MEC that align with progressive memory impairment.
www.cell.com/cell-reports...
www.cell.com/cell-reports...
Reposted by Zach Pennington
Mount Sinai Postdoctoral Fellows benefit from robust scientific support in part thru the generosity of donors. In the #FBINewsletter, LEARN ABOUT the work of Kristen Whitney, @zoechristensonwick.bsky.social & @zachtpennington.bsky.social & their benefactors🔬 reports.mountsinai.org/article/fbif...
January 4, 2025 at 4:46 PM
Mount Sinai Postdoctoral Fellows benefit from robust scientific support in part thru the generosity of donors. In the #FBINewsletter, LEARN ABOUT the work of Kristen Whitney, @zoechristensonwick.bsky.social & @zachtpennington.bsky.social & their benefactors🔬 reports.mountsinai.org/article/fbif...
Reposted by Zach Pennington
Just two hours until THE BEST panel of #ACNP2024 ! See you in Grand Sonoran H-I for a discussion of learned fear in all of its beautiful forms.
December 11, 2024 at 8:12 PM
Just two hours until THE BEST panel of #ACNP2024 ! See you in Grand Sonoran H-I for a discussion of learned fear in all of its beautiful forms.