Danai Riga
@danai-lama.bsky.social
Assistant Professor | Locus Coeruleus enthusiast | Ephys, (stressed) Synapses & Neuromodulators
Center for Neurogenomics & Cognitive Research | Amsterdam UMC
Stressing out, one day at a time | she/her
https://tinyurl.com/RigaLab-NoC
Center for Neurogenomics & Cognitive Research | Amsterdam UMC
Stressing out, one day at a time | she/her
https://tinyurl.com/RigaLab-NoC
Pinned
Danai Riga
@danai-lama.bsky.social
· Jul 23
Neuropeptide Y neurons surrounding the locus coeruleus inhibit noradrenergic system activity to reduce anxiety
Endogenous neuropeptide Y signaling modulates locus coeruleus activity, promoting adaptive responses to stress.
www.science.org
Beyond happy & proud to have our paper on peptidergic neuromodulation of the #LC out!
This is a project that started with naive intentions & silly curiosity, withstood 1 pandemic & 2 lab moves & made us fall in ❤️ with the most beautiful brain regions of all!! 🔵
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
This is a project that started with naive intentions & silly curiosity, withstood 1 pandemic & 2 lab moves & made us fall in ❤️ with the most beautiful brain regions of all!! 🔵
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Reposted by Danai Riga
Finally dropped! fantastic collaboration with @ladenardo.bsky.social, whole-brain analyses of our novel CRH/GABA BLA-NAc projection shows impact of earlylife stress that are sex dependent & reflect reward behaviors www.jneurosci.org/content/earl... @thebalelab.bsky.social @kundakoviclab.bsky.social
November 21, 2025 at 5:49 PM
Finally dropped! fantastic collaboration with @ladenardo.bsky.social, whole-brain analyses of our novel CRH/GABA BLA-NAc projection shows impact of earlylife stress that are sex dependent & reflect reward behaviors www.jneurosci.org/content/earl... @thebalelab.bsky.social @kundakoviclab.bsky.social
Reposted by Danai Riga
New from @stellatecomms.bsky.social ✨❄️ An icy website design for @nelsontotah.bsky.social's group at Helsinki Institute of Life Science!
Go check out the *STUNNING* research illustrations. You won't be disappointed... totahlab.org/research
Go check out the *STUNNING* research illustrations. You won't be disappointed... totahlab.org/research
Totah Lab | Research
The Totah Lab investigates neural control of cognition, actions, and emotions through locus coeruleus research, behavioral studies, and brain-body connections.
totahlab.org
November 20, 2025 at 2:59 PM
New from @stellatecomms.bsky.social ✨❄️ An icy website design for @nelsontotah.bsky.social's group at Helsinki Institute of Life Science!
Go check out the *STUNNING* research illustrations. You won't be disappointed... totahlab.org/research
Go check out the *STUNNING* research illustrations. You won't be disappointed... totahlab.org/research
Reposted by Danai Riga
New pre-print led by the talented undergrad Alexia with @davidweinshenker.bsky.social
We used chronic DSP-4 treatment to lesion the LC-NE system in young TgF344-AD rats to see whether early degeneration led to accelerated onset of pathology and behavioral deficits.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
We used chronic DSP-4 treatment to lesion the LC-NE system in young TgF344-AD rats to see whether early degeneration led to accelerated onset of pathology and behavioral deficits.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Impact of early locus coeruleus lesions in the TgF344 Alzheimer’s disease rat model
INTRODUCTION In murine models of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), lesioning the locus coeruleus-norepinephrine (LC-NE) system with DSP-4 exacerbates AD-like neuropathology and cognitive impairment. However, ...
www.biorxiv.org
November 15, 2025 at 7:04 PM
New pre-print led by the talented undergrad Alexia with @davidweinshenker.bsky.social
We used chronic DSP-4 treatment to lesion the LC-NE system in young TgF344-AD rats to see whether early degeneration led to accelerated onset of pathology and behavioral deficits.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
We used chronic DSP-4 treatment to lesion the LC-NE system in young TgF344-AD rats to see whether early degeneration led to accelerated onset of pathology and behavioral deficits.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Danai Riga
At #SFN2025 and interersted in the 🔵? Check out posters from Leslie Hassanein (D52; neuromelanin in the mouse locus coeruleus) and Maggie Tish (C59; human 3D locus coeruleus organoids) today from 1:00-5:00!
November 15, 2025 at 12:47 PM
At #SFN2025 and interersted in the 🔵? Check out posters from Leslie Hassanein (D52; neuromelanin in the mouse locus coeruleus) and Maggie Tish (C59; human 3D locus coeruleus organoids) today from 1:00-5:00!
My postdoc (mainly) and I have just completed a 2-month long behavioral experiment (60+ mice, 3 time-points); collected our first #ephys data for a collaborative project (on a NEW rig 👀👀); and finished drafting the lab's first big grant (to-be-submitted soon🤞)
We.need.holidays.
We.need.holidays.
November 12, 2025 at 7:58 PM
My postdoc (mainly) and I have just completed a 2-month long behavioral experiment (60+ mice, 3 time-points); collected our first #ephys data for a collaborative project (on a NEW rig 👀👀); and finished drafting the lab's first big grant (to-be-submitted soon🤞)
We.need.holidays.
We.need.holidays.
Reposted by Danai Riga
Cool paper from Sora Shin’s lab mapping a neural circuit for aggression and self-harm. Awesome to see another group using our pain assessment platform in their studies.
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Thalamo-hippocampal pathway determines aggression and self-harm
Thalamo-hippocampal calcium channel hyperactivity drives aggression and self-harm after early adversity.
www.science.org
November 10, 2025 at 11:35 PM
Cool paper from Sora Shin’s lab mapping a neural circuit for aggression and self-harm. Awesome to see another group using our pain assessment platform in their studies.
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Reposted by Danai Riga
Excited to share our newest project using spatial transcriptomics with novel image analysis approaches to investigate the impact of biological risk factors for Alzheimer's disease (AD) - APOE haplotype, sex, and genomic ancestry - on molecular states in the locus coeruleus (LC 🔵) of the human 🧠.
Got with the times + made a BSky to share our new, large-scale spatial RNAseq study of adult human #locuscoeruleus! Co-1st auth and cryostat wizard @heenadivecha.bsky.social squeezed 85 tissue sections into 43 Visium arrays. (1/8)
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Impact of Alzheimer's disease risk factors and local neuromelanin content on the transcriptomic landscape of the human locus coeruleus
The locus coeruleus (LC) is a small noradrenergic nucleus in the dorsal pons that sends projections across the brain regulating sleep, arousal, attention, stress responses, and some forms of cognition...
www.biorxiv.org
October 31, 2025 at 5:24 PM
Excited to share our newest project using spatial transcriptomics with novel image analysis approaches to investigate the impact of biological risk factors for Alzheimer's disease (AD) - APOE haplotype, sex, and genomic ancestry - on molecular states in the locus coeruleus (LC 🔵) of the human 🧠.
Reposted by Danai Riga
For #FluorescenceFriday - projection neurons from the mouse prefrontal cortex to the locus coeruleus 🔴 with Fos labeling activated cells 🟢. Image credit to the Circuits team in the Translational Neuroscience Division @lieberinstitute.bsky.social 🧠🔬🧪
October 24, 2025 at 11:45 AM
For #FluorescenceFriday - projection neurons from the mouse prefrontal cortex to the locus coeruleus 🔴 with Fos labeling activated cells 🟢. Image credit to the Circuits team in the Translational Neuroscience Division @lieberinstitute.bsky.social 🧠🔬🧪
Reposted by Danai Riga
Advances in chemogenetics: a review of DREADDs and its application in psychiatric disorders
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Advances in chemogenetics: a review of DREADDs and its application in psychiatric disorders - Molecular Psychiatry
Molecular Psychiatry - Advances in chemogenetics: a review of DREADDs and its application in psychiatric disorders
www.nature.com
October 20, 2025 at 6:00 PM
Advances in chemogenetics: a review of DREADDs and its application in psychiatric disorders
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Danai Riga
Just out in Nature! “The astrocytic ensemble acts as a multiday trace to stabilize memory.” We identified astrocytic ensembles that link experiences across days to stabilize memory nature.com/articles/s41.... New astrocyte tools are openly available at Addgene: addgene.org/Jun_Nagai/. 1/8
October 15, 2025 at 4:11 PM
Just out in Nature! “The astrocytic ensemble acts as a multiday trace to stabilize memory.” We identified astrocytic ensembles that link experiences across days to stabilize memory nature.com/articles/s41.... New astrocyte tools are openly available at Addgene: addgene.org/Jun_Nagai/. 1/8
Reposted by Danai Riga
Really excited to have this paper accepted for publication now in @natcomms.nature.com - stay tuned for the final version and huge congrats to @margestelzner.bsky.social!!!!
Very excited to share this major update to our paper delineating VTA GABA neuron encoding of valence and decision conflict. Studies led by the amazing @margestelzner.bsky.social. We leaned in here, taking the opportunity to add a lot of cool new data. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
October 13, 2025 at 5:00 PM
Really excited to have this paper accepted for publication now in @natcomms.nature.com - stay tuned for the final version and huge congrats to @margestelzner.bsky.social!!!!
Reposted by Danai Riga
Super excited about this ongoing spatial transcriptomics study in locus coeruleus of human 🧠. Expression of norepinephrine neurons - TH🔴, DBH🟢 and SLC6A2🟡 overlaid on post-Xenium H&E stain, allowing correlation of neuromelanin content (brown pigment) w/ gene expression #FluorescenceFriday 🔬🧪
October 10, 2025 at 3:33 PM
Super excited about this ongoing spatial transcriptomics study in locus coeruleus of human 🧠. Expression of norepinephrine neurons - TH🔴, DBH🟢 and SLC6A2🟡 overlaid on post-Xenium H&E stain, allowing correlation of neuromelanin content (brown pigment) w/ gene expression #FluorescenceFriday 🔬🧪
Reposted by Danai Riga
Excited to share the Special Issue on "Stress and Addiction" in Addiction Neuroscience is now available. Huge kudos to guest editors Karl Schmidt and Anushree Karkhanis and all the authors who contributed. www.sciencedirect.com/special-issu...
Addiction Neuroscience | Stress <-> Addiction | ScienceDirect.com by Elsevier
Stress and drugs of abuse have a bidirectional relationship, such that stress is often seen as a driver of drug use, while at the same time drug use/abuse alters stress responses. Acute exposure to a ...
www.sciencedirect.com
October 9, 2025 at 1:22 PM
Excited to share the Special Issue on "Stress and Addiction" in Addiction Neuroscience is now available. Huge kudos to guest editors Karl Schmidt and Anushree Karkhanis and all the authors who contributed. www.sciencedirect.com/special-issu...
Reposted by Danai Riga
First lab paper out today! Student authors: Mikayla Cutler and Abhi Thati 🎉🤩
Hippocampus | Neuroscience Journal | Wiley Online Library onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
Hippocampus | Neuroscience Journal | Wiley Online Library onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
Drug‐Related Engrams and Their Role in the Persistence and Recurrence of Drug‐Related Behaviors
Memory is a cornerstone of human behavior, and addiction offers a compelling model of its persistence and plasticity. The scope of engram research has rapidly expanded to include addiction-related ph....
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
October 6, 2025 at 3:38 PM
First lab paper out today! Student authors: Mikayla Cutler and Abhi Thati 🎉🤩
Hippocampus | Neuroscience Journal | Wiley Online Library onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
Hippocampus | Neuroscience Journal | Wiley Online Library onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
Reposted by Danai Riga
How prediction error drives memory updating: role of locus coeruleus–hippocampal interactions: Trends in Neurosciences www.cell.com/trends/neuro...
How prediction error drives memory updating: role of locus coeruleus–hippocampal interactions
The brain constantly generates predictions based on one’s knowledge of the world,
as captured in memory. When these predictions are in error, our knowledge base must
be revised to remain relevant. Her...
www.cell.com
October 4, 2025 at 3:17 PM
How prediction error drives memory updating: role of locus coeruleus–hippocampal interactions: Trends in Neurosciences www.cell.com/trends/neuro...
Reposted by Danai Riga
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!
Fantastic opportunity, APPLY! ⬇️
With 2 postdocs moving on to faculty positions🥳, we're looking to hire someone new. If you're interested in norepinephrine and neural circuits, please apply! tinyurl.com/42bfe24k
Postdoctoral Research Associate - Developmental Neurobiology
A postdoctoral research associate position is available in the laboratory of Dr. Lindsay Schwarz in the Department of Developmental Neurobiology at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. The Schwarz l...
tinyurl.com
September 24, 2025 at 4:01 PM
Fantastic opportunity, APPLY! ⬇️
Reposted by Danai Riga
At #ICON? – Join us tomorrow to hear about novel measurement & manipulation approaches for neuromodulatory systems!
🗓️Sept 19,
🕚11:45 am
🏫Room Sé
#ICON2025 #CogNeuro #AcademicSky #LocusCoeruleus #neuroskyence
🗓️Sept 19,
🕚11:45 am
🏫Room Sé
#ICON2025 #CogNeuro #AcademicSky #LocusCoeruleus #neuroskyence
September 18, 2025 at 7:56 PM
At #ICON? – Join us tomorrow to hear about novel measurement & manipulation approaches for neuromodulatory systems!
🗓️Sept 19,
🕚11:45 am
🏫Room Sé
#ICON2025 #CogNeuro #AcademicSky #LocusCoeruleus #neuroskyence
🗓️Sept 19,
🕚11:45 am
🏫Room Sé
#ICON2025 #CogNeuro #AcademicSky #LocusCoeruleus #neuroskyence
Reposted by Danai Riga
My group at Science has been running a big campaign to engineer new channelrhodopsins.
Excited to share the first results from it today: a suite of highly sensitive new opsins.
We call them "WAChRs".
Everyday indoor office lighting is enough to activate them pretty strongly.
Excited to share the first results from it today: a suite of highly sensitive new opsins.
We call them "WAChRs".
Everyday indoor office lighting is enough to activate them pretty strongly.
September 18, 2025 at 2:06 PM
My group at Science has been running a big campaign to engineer new channelrhodopsins.
Excited to share the first results from it today: a suite of highly sensitive new opsins.
We call them "WAChRs".
Everyday indoor office lighting is enough to activate them pretty strongly.
Excited to share the first results from it today: a suite of highly sensitive new opsins.
We call them "WAChRs".
Everyday indoor office lighting is enough to activate them pretty strongly.
Reposted by Danai Riga
William James saw the brain as a filter of bodily signals shaping thought, memory and emotion. That psychological processes require bodily input, brain processing and then action. A century later, science has come full circle to this same mind–body insight! #mindbodyconnection
September 18, 2025 at 3:54 PM
William James saw the brain as a filter of bodily signals shaping thought, memory and emotion. That psychological processes require bodily input, brain processing and then action. A century later, science has come full circle to this same mind–body insight! #mindbodyconnection
Reposted by Danai Riga
🔵 I'm interrupting my social media hiatus to flag this important preprint from the Bruchas lab (is he not on Bluesky!?) together with @davidweinshenker.bsky.social. Very difficult experiments to show that dopamine release from LC terminals is independent of VTA 🔥
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org
September 17, 2025 at 5:44 AM
🔵 I'm interrupting my social media hiatus to flag this important preprint from the Bruchas lab (is he not on Bluesky!?) together with @davidweinshenker.bsky.social. Very difficult experiments to show that dopamine release from LC terminals is independent of VTA 🔥
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Danai Riga
🚨 New paper alert! 🚨(1/6)
Excited to share our work, out now in Science Advances
We show that a rapid norepinephrine surge along a brainstem pathway (LC→PRN) is a key driver of sound-evoked awakenings
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Excited to share our work, out now in Science Advances
We show that a rapid norepinephrine surge along a brainstem pathway (LC→PRN) is a key driver of sound-evoked awakenings
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
An early surge of norepinephrine along brainstem pathways drives sensory-evoked awakening
The locus coeruleus has a specialized pathway to the brainstem that controls sound-evoked awakening from sleep.
www.science.org
September 10, 2025 at 6:30 PM
🚨 New paper alert! 🚨(1/6)
Excited to share our work, out now in Science Advances
We show that a rapid norepinephrine surge along a brainstem pathway (LC→PRN) is a key driver of sound-evoked awakenings
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Excited to share our work, out now in Science Advances
We show that a rapid norepinephrine surge along a brainstem pathway (LC→PRN) is a key driver of sound-evoked awakenings
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Reposted by Danai Riga
Happy to share our recent work attempting to better understand the impact of early life maternal separation on locus coeruleus function. Super proud of first author (the now Dr.) Chayla Vazquez. She brought this idea when she joined in… March 2020… and she carried it through these rough few years!
#ThisWeekInNPP
Early life stress profoundly impacts the 🧠 & can result in negative affective behaviors well into adulthood
Here, maternal separation stress produced dysregulated noradrenergic activity in the locus coeruleus (LC) across the lifespan, disrupting LC regulation of coping strategies
Early life stress profoundly impacts the 🧠 & can result in negative affective behaviors well into adulthood
Here, maternal separation stress produced dysregulated noradrenergic activity in the locus coeruleus (LC) across the lifespan, disrupting LC regulation of coping strategies
Maternal separation disrupts noradrenergic control of adult coping behaviors - Neuropsychopharmacology
Neuropsychopharmacology - Maternal separation disrupts noradrenergic control of adult coping behaviors
www.nature.com
September 12, 2025 at 7:56 PM
Happy to share our recent work attempting to better understand the impact of early life maternal separation on locus coeruleus function. Super proud of first author (the now Dr.) Chayla Vazquez. She brought this idea when she joined in… March 2020… and she carried it through these rough few years!
Reposted by Danai Riga
Bird’s eye view, literally. 🐦👁️ Glowing quail embryo eye for #FluorescenceFriday, #DevBio 🧪🔬
August 29, 2025 at 6:04 AM
Bird’s eye view, literally. 🐦👁️ Glowing quail embryo eye for #FluorescenceFriday, #DevBio 🧪🔬
Reposted by Danai Riga
Liberty depends on an accurate understanding of reality.
September 5, 2025 at 5:30 PM
Liberty depends on an accurate understanding of reality.