Liz Ronan, PhD
@elizabithian.bsky.social
Current Postdoc in the Emrick Lab @Umich 🔬*·˚ ༘˳ֶ̊✩ worm sensory biologist living in a dentistry world 🦷
Views = mine 🎀
Views = mine 🎀
Beautiful new work by @manduh21.bsky.social and our team! Clumsy, a kainate-type glutamate receptor, mediates noxious cold sensation and cold behavioral avoidance in fruit flies. This expands our prior work demonstrating this class of receptors also functions as a cold receptor in worms and mammals.
Cold sensing by a glutamate receptor drives avoidance behavior in Drosophila larvae https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.05.680544v1
October 7, 2025 at 12:01 PM
Beautiful new work by @manduh21.bsky.social and our team! Clumsy, a kainate-type glutamate receptor, mediates noxious cold sensation and cold behavioral avoidance in fruit flies. This expands our prior work demonstrating this class of receptors also functions as a cold receptor in worms and mammals.
Reposted by Liz Ronan, PhD
Ultrasonic signals support a large-scale communication landscape in wild mice. 👇 New paper by the ENES Bioacoustics Research Team in @currentbiology.bsky.social
authors.elsevier.com/a/1llMH3QW8S...
authors.elsevier.com/a/1llMH3QW8S...
authors.elsevier.com
September 13, 2025 at 8:30 AM
Ultrasonic signals support a large-scale communication landscape in wild mice. 👇 New paper by the ENES Bioacoustics Research Team in @currentbiology.bsky.social
authors.elsevier.com/a/1llMH3QW8S...
authors.elsevier.com/a/1llMH3QW8S...
New preprint with @manduh21.bsky.social ! 🎉 We introduce LabGym, an open-source AI platform for analyzing C. elegans behavior.🪱
LabGym makes worm behavior analysis accurate, customizable, and accessible, no coding or costly setup required.
LabGym makes worm behavior analysis accurate, customizable, and accessible, no coding or costly setup required.
Automated analysis of C. elegans behavior by LabGym: an open-source, AI-powered platform https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.08.28.672961v1
September 4, 2025 at 11:31 AM
New preprint with @manduh21.bsky.social ! 🎉 We introduce LabGym, an open-source AI platform for analyzing C. elegans behavior.🪱
LabGym makes worm behavior analysis accurate, customizable, and accessible, no coding or costly setup required.
LabGym makes worm behavior analysis accurate, customizable, and accessible, no coding or costly setup required.
Reposted by Liz Ronan, PhD
LabGym has been used in reseach across many labs. The latest example is this excellent study from
@jjemrick.bsky.social lab. cell.com/cell-reports...
@cp-cellreports.bsky.social @elizabithian.bsky.social
@jjemrick.bsky.social lab. cell.com/cell-reports...
@cp-cellreports.bsky.social @elizabithian.bsky.social
Intradental mechano-nociceptors serve as sentinels that prevent tooth damage
Ronan et al. explore the function of trigeminal sensory neurons innervating the inner
tooth—herein, intradental neurons. They determine these specialized cells respond
to damage of the enamel and init...
cell.com
July 31, 2025 at 11:31 PM
LabGym has been used in reseach across many labs. The latest example is this excellent study from
@jjemrick.bsky.social lab. cell.com/cell-reports...
@cp-cellreports.bsky.social @elizabithian.bsky.social
@jjemrick.bsky.social lab. cell.com/cell-reports...
@cp-cellreports.bsky.social @elizabithian.bsky.social
Register to attend the virtual 2025 LabGym Symposium! LabGym is a powerful and customizable AI-based tool enabling automated quantification of behavior (+ more!)
🧵 I’m excited to announce that the 2025 LabGym Symposium & Tutorial will be held online via Zoom on Friday, August 22, 2025. Don’t miss this opportunity to learn about cutting-edge AI-based behavioral analysis! www.lsi.umich.edu/events/2025-...
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LabGym Symposium
LabGym is a free software suite for automated video analysis and quantification of animal behavior. LabGym has now been downloaded over 55,000 times from GitHub in just about two years. The 2024 LabGy...
www.lsi.umich.edu
August 1, 2025 at 1:26 PM
Register to attend the virtual 2025 LabGym Symposium! LabGym is a powerful and customizable AI-based tool enabling automated quantification of behavior (+ more!)
Reposted by Liz Ronan, PhD
Really interesting (ha ha i can't stand this roller coaster) back and forth on NIH funding. 9 Senate Republicans sent a letter warning Vought not to hold NIH funds. Vought tries to hold NIH funds. He loses. [though still lots of budget shenanigans] www.wsj.com/politics/pol...
Trump Administration Scraps Effort to Pause Health-Research Funding
The administration halted and then restarted billions in new research grants flowing from the National Institutes of Health.
www.wsj.com
July 30, 2025 at 1:25 PM
Really interesting (ha ha i can't stand this roller coaster) back and forth on NIH funding. 9 Senate Republicans sent a letter warning Vought not to hold NIH funds. Vought tries to hold NIH funds. He loses. [though still lots of budget shenanigans] www.wsj.com/politics/pol...
Reposted by Liz Ronan, PhD
This “administration” acts like it’s playing musical chairs with people’s lives.
July 30, 2025 at 10:50 AM
This “administration” acts like it’s playing musical chairs with people’s lives.
Reposted by Liz Ronan, PhD
Well, none of us may ever get funded again but in the meantime, here's some new science!
Led by recent PhD Anjali Pandey w/ex-UG Maya Katz. Here we identify an asymmetric molecular mechanism that underlies symmetric context-dependent sensory plasticity in the AWC olfactory neuron pair in C. elegans
Led by recent PhD Anjali Pandey w/ex-UG Maya Katz. Here we identify an asymmetric molecular mechanism that underlies symmetric context-dependent sensory plasticity in the AWC olfactory neuron pair in C. elegans
A lateralized sensory signaling pathway mediates context-dependent olfactory plasticity in C. elegans https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.07.25.666858v1
July 30, 2025 at 12:51 AM
Well, none of us may ever get funded again but in the meantime, here's some new science!
Led by recent PhD Anjali Pandey w/ex-UG Maya Katz. Here we identify an asymmetric molecular mechanism that underlies symmetric context-dependent sensory plasticity in the AWC olfactory neuron pair in C. elegans
Led by recent PhD Anjali Pandey w/ex-UG Maya Katz. Here we identify an asymmetric molecular mechanism that underlies symmetric context-dependent sensory plasticity in the AWC olfactory neuron pair in C. elegans
Reposted by Liz Ronan, PhD
This is a catastrophe. There is nothing else to be said.
Trump Administration Puts New Chokehold on Billions in Health-Research Funding
The National Institutes of Health can’t award grants to outside researchers under a new White House restriction.
www.wsj.com
July 30, 2025 at 12:54 AM
This is a catastrophe. There is nothing else to be said.
Check out our first research article from the Emrick lab, published in Cell Reports! We define the sensory neurons in the tooth as sentinels: tuned to detect tooth damage and trigger a protective jaw opening reflex. 🦷🔨
I’m officially a mammalian somatosensory biologist (but I still 🩷 worms 🪱)
I’m officially a mammalian somatosensory biologist (but I still 🩷 worms 🪱)
Intradental mechano-nociceptors serve as sentinels that prevent tooth damage
Intradental mechano-nociceptors serve as sentinels that prevent tooth damage
Ronan et al. explore the function of trigeminal sensory neurons innervating the inner tooth—herein, intradental neurons. They determine these specialized cells respond to damage of the enamel and initiate both pain and a jaw-opening reflex. Their work shifts our perspective of tooth innervation from pain producing to protective.
dlvr.it
July 29, 2025 at 9:24 PM
Check out our first research article from the Emrick lab, published in Cell Reports! We define the sensory neurons in the tooth as sentinels: tuned to detect tooth damage and trigger a protective jaw opening reflex. 🦷🔨
I’m officially a mammalian somatosensory biologist (but I still 🩷 worms 🪱)
I’m officially a mammalian somatosensory biologist (but I still 🩷 worms 🪱)
Official paper thread coming soon… this work represents a major career milestone for many of the authors 🥹
I couldn’t be prouder to work with such an inspiring team to bring this project to the finish line! 💙💛
I couldn’t be prouder to work with such an inspiring team to bring this project to the finish line! 💙💛
LSI faculty members @byneuron.bsky.social and Peng Li teamed up with colleagues in the U-M School of Dentistry (including LSI alum @elizabithian.bsky.social) to uncover how neurons inside teeth do more than just sense pain:
news.umich.edu/ouch-tooth-n...
news.umich.edu/ouch-tooth-n...
Ouch! Tooth nerves that serve as pain detectors have another purpose: Tooth protectors
Until now the sensory neurons inside the tooth were primarily thought to send pain signals to the brain, but a new study shows those neurons are multitaskers that also trigger a jaw-opening reflex tha...
news.umich.edu
July 29, 2025 at 9:13 PM
Official paper thread coming soon… this work represents a major career milestone for many of the authors 🥹
I couldn’t be prouder to work with such an inspiring team to bring this project to the finish line! 💙💛
I couldn’t be prouder to work with such an inspiring team to bring this project to the finish line! 💙💛
C elegans can sense sound AND serve as a genetic model for an understudied form of human hearing loss! As the moderator mentioned- what CAN’T worms do?? 🤩 🪱 #worm25
July 2, 2025 at 5:05 PM
C elegans can sense sound AND serve as a genetic model for an understudied form of human hearing loss! As the moderator mentioned- what CAN’T worms do?? 🤩 🪱 #worm25
Worm meeting bucketlist:
✅ Photo with Nobel laureate (and @manduh21.bsky.social)
Thank you Dr. Ambros, for spending time with early stage scientists!
I love this community 🪱 #Worm25
✅ Photo with Nobel laureate (and @manduh21.bsky.social)
Thank you Dr. Ambros, for spending time with early stage scientists!
I love this community 🪱 #Worm25
July 2, 2025 at 3:42 PM
Worm meeting bucketlist:
✅ Photo with Nobel laureate (and @manduh21.bsky.social)
Thank you Dr. Ambros, for spending time with early stage scientists!
I love this community 🪱 #Worm25
✅ Photo with Nobel laureate (and @manduh21.bsky.social)
Thank you Dr. Ambros, for spending time with early stage scientists!
I love this community 🪱 #Worm25
Day 4 of #Worm25: 15k+ steps/daily, sweating through 95°F+ Cali heat, followed by shivering in AC, all while being immersed in the latest C. elegans research.
Is this a genetics conference or a worm-themed detox?
Is this a genetics conference or a worm-themed detox?
July 1, 2025 at 3:59 PM
Day 4 of #Worm25: 15k+ steps/daily, sweating through 95°F+ Cali heat, followed by shivering in AC, all while being immersed in the latest C. elegans research.
Is this a genetics conference or a worm-themed detox?
Is this a genetics conference or a worm-themed detox?
Reposted by Liz Ronan, PhD
“The idea that taking walks, reading things unrelated to your research, and hanging out with strangers in a campus pub should be considered part of the serious process of thinking, but might well meet with skepticism in practice.”
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
The forgotten half of scientific thinking | PNAS
The forgotten half of scientific thinking
www.pnas.org
June 26, 2025 at 1:23 PM
“The idea that taking walks, reading things unrelated to your research, and hanging out with strangers in a campus pub should be considered part of the serious process of thinking, but might well meet with skepticism in practice.”
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Reposted by Liz Ronan, PhD
As it’s my first time joining Worm Meeting, I was excited to participate in Worm Art show as well.
This year’s topic is resilience. In times of scarcity, worms gather holding one another to reach new grounds. Alone - they are fragile, together - they rise. Even the sky yields in unity. #worm25
This year’s topic is resilience. In times of scarcity, worms gather holding one another to reach new grounds. Alone - they are fragile, together - they rise. Even the sky yields in unity. #worm25
June 27, 2025 at 4:20 AM
As it’s my first time joining Worm Meeting, I was excited to participate in Worm Art show as well.
This year’s topic is resilience. In times of scarcity, worms gather holding one another to reach new grounds. Alone - they are fragile, together - they rise. Even the sky yields in unity. #worm25
This year’s topic is resilience. In times of scarcity, worms gather holding one another to reach new grounds. Alone - they are fragile, together - they rise. Even the sky yields in unity. #worm25
Reposted by Liz Ronan, PhD
".....but a key feature of this community became abundantly clear: Worm people tend to help one other. They readily share insights, lab processes, even worms themselves."
So true. The worm community is the best.
So true. The worm community is the best.
Delighted to share this timely article in Boston magazine on our local C. elegans community and the effects of NIH freezes.
"There might be no group more enthusiastic, self-aware, or life-affirming than the worm people."
www.bostonmagazine.com/news/c-elega...
"There might be no group more enthusiastic, self-aware, or life-affirming than the worm people."
www.bostonmagazine.com/news/c-elega...
Boston Has Worms (The Good Kind)
Inside the world of C. elegans worms and the scientists who know them best.
www.bostonmagazine.com
May 17, 2025 at 2:53 PM
".....but a key feature of this community became abundantly clear: Worm people tend to help one other. They readily share insights, lab processes, even worms themselves."
So true. The worm community is the best.
So true. The worm community is the best.
The fast approaching June K99 deadline is getting to me but flowers and NA rose from my husband are helping with the final push 🥹 🌺 💪
June 7, 2025 at 1:49 AM
The fast approaching June K99 deadline is getting to me but flowers and NA rose from my husband are helping with the final push 🥹 🌺 💪
Reposted by Liz Ronan, PhD
The brain drain will be when scientists are forced into other careers/jobs so that they can keep paying the bills. They will never return.
There aren't enough science jobs in other countries to absorb even a fraction of those laid off.
There aren't enough science jobs in other countries to absorb even a fraction of those laid off.
On a basic level- you can't expect US talent to sit on their hands and wait until maybe, hopefully there's a job for them. A handful might be able to do that, but the majority are going to leave. Countries are actively seeking to take advantage of US brain drain.
June 4, 2025 at 12:48 AM
The brain drain will be when scientists are forced into other careers/jobs so that they can keep paying the bills. They will never return.
There aren't enough science jobs in other countries to absorb even a fraction of those laid off.
There aren't enough science jobs in other countries to absorb even a fraction of those laid off.
Reposted by Liz Ronan, PhD
Great News, Michigan!
Lansing #StandUpForScience2025 is happening.
Friday, March 7, 12-4pm, East steps of the Capitol Bldg.
Tell 3 friends! Make a carpool plan! Have a sign-making party! Share with your networks!
#ScienceIsForEveryone
@standupforscience.bsky.social
Lansing #StandUpForScience2025 is happening.
Friday, March 7, 12-4pm, East steps of the Capitol Bldg.
Tell 3 friends! Make a carpool plan! Have a sign-making party! Share with your networks!
#ScienceIsForEveryone
@standupforscience.bsky.social
February 26, 2025 at 1:22 AM
Great News, Michigan!
Lansing #StandUpForScience2025 is happening.
Friday, March 7, 12-4pm, East steps of the Capitol Bldg.
Tell 3 friends! Make a carpool plan! Have a sign-making party! Share with your networks!
#ScienceIsForEveryone
@standupforscience.bsky.social
Lansing #StandUpForScience2025 is happening.
Friday, March 7, 12-4pm, East steps of the Capitol Bldg.
Tell 3 friends! Make a carpool plan! Have a sign-making party! Share with your networks!
#ScienceIsForEveryone
@standupforscience.bsky.social
Reposted by Liz Ronan, PhD
THIS FRIDAY in Lansing, MI, 12-4pm
#StandUpForScience with featured speaker: Dr. Abdul El-Sayed!
Dr. El-Sayed is a physician, epidemiologist, educator, author, and public servant.
@michigan4science.bsky.social
@michigannoah.bsky.social
@mallorymcmorrow.bsky.social
@leahlitman.bsky.social
#StandUpForScience with featured speaker: Dr. Abdul El-Sayed!
Dr. El-Sayed is a physician, epidemiologist, educator, author, and public servant.
@michigan4science.bsky.social
@michigannoah.bsky.social
@mallorymcmorrow.bsky.social
@leahlitman.bsky.social
March 2, 2025 at 12:03 PM
THIS FRIDAY in Lansing, MI, 12-4pm
#StandUpForScience with featured speaker: Dr. Abdul El-Sayed!
Dr. El-Sayed is a physician, epidemiologist, educator, author, and public servant.
@michigan4science.bsky.social
@michigannoah.bsky.social
@mallorymcmorrow.bsky.social
@leahlitman.bsky.social
#StandUpForScience with featured speaker: Dr. Abdul El-Sayed!
Dr. El-Sayed is a physician, epidemiologist, educator, author, and public servant.
@michigan4science.bsky.social
@michigannoah.bsky.social
@mallorymcmorrow.bsky.social
@leahlitman.bsky.social