Elke van Rooij
@elkevanrooij.bsky.social
PhD researcher in the Lab of Developmental Neurobiology (Seuntjens Lab) | KU Leuven | Octopus, neuropeptides, evo-devo 🐙
Reposted by Elke van Rooij
Reposted by Elke van Rooij
Do you love quantifying animal behavior as much as we do? We have just the tool for you! Presenting #OCTRON - a pipeline that helps you create rich annotation data and enables training of custom segmentation models. Have a look, particularly if you work with non-model / invertebrate organisms!
December 23, 2025 at 7:52 PM
Do you love quantifying animal behavior as much as we do? We have just the tool for you! Presenting #OCTRON - a pipeline that helps you create rich annotation data and enables training of custom segmentation models. Have a look, particularly if you work with non-model / invertebrate organisms!
Reposted by Elke van Rooij
One of the “golden videos” that I took during my Grass Fellowship @grassfoundation.bsky.social - active sleep in these little guys is so obvious and flamboyant! @mblscience.bsky.social
🐙 This Octopus shifts from deep to active rest while "dreaming" for #MicroscopyMonday. REM‑like sleep (color bursts and twitches) filmed in real time by Horst Obenhaus @octoscience.bsky.social, currently a 2025 Whitman Fellow at @mblscience.bsky.social. #NESM
#Octopus #Neuro #SleepScience #MBL
#Octopus #Neuro #SleepScience #MBL
July 21, 2025 at 1:52 PM
One of the “golden videos” that I took during my Grass Fellowship @grassfoundation.bsky.social - active sleep in these little guys is so obvious and flamboyant! @mblscience.bsky.social
Reposted by Elke van Rooij
You still have one week to apply to this position! Take your chance to do your postdoc on alien critters 🐙🦑 in a vibrant yet cosy - walkable!- town in Europe. Pls RT
We're hiring! Our lab is looking for a postdoc to investigate the #evodevo of #cephalopod brains. Did you recently graduate, and do you want to join our EU #WEAVE project with the Simakov and @simon-sprecher.bsky.social labs? Find the application form👇Thanks for RT 🐙🦑
www.kuleuven.be/personeel/jo...
www.kuleuven.be/personeel/jo...
Postdoctoral researcher in evolutionary developmental neurobiology
Come join our EU cephalopod consortium to discover how octopuses and other coleoids developed their large nervous system. Postdoc position available in the Seuntjens Lab in Leuven, Belgium.
www.kuleuven.be
June 13, 2025 at 8:48 AM
You still have one week to apply to this position! Take your chance to do your postdoc on alien critters 🐙🦑 in a vibrant yet cosy - walkable!- town in Europe. Pls RT
Reposted by Elke van Rooij
Very excited and proud to finally share this story! 🐙
We discovered surprising roles for dopamine and acetylcholine in the Octopus visual system…
doi.org/10.1101/2025...
We discovered surprising roles for dopamine and acetylcholine in the Octopus visual system…
doi.org/10.1101/2025...
Novel dopaminergic neurotransmission in the Octopus visual system
Coleoid cephalopods such as the common octopus have a complex visual system, with a camera-type eye and a large optic lobe, that evolved independently from its counterpart in vertebrates. However, the...
doi.org
April 4, 2025 at 5:04 PM
Very excited and proud to finally share this story! 🐙
We discovered surprising roles for dopamine and acetylcholine in the Octopus visual system…
doi.org/10.1101/2025...
We discovered surprising roles for dopamine and acetylcholine in the Octopus visual system…
doi.org/10.1101/2025...
Reposted by Elke van Rooij
The first Octopus paper from the Schafer lab @mrclmb.bsky.social in collaboration with @eveseuntjens.bsky.social lab.
🐙dop-gated cation channel
🐙Ach-gated anion channel
🐙single-cell resolution Ca2+ imaging in optic lobe slices
and more!
Led by the amazing Amy Courtney
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
🐙dop-gated cation channel
🐙Ach-gated anion channel
🐙single-cell resolution Ca2+ imaging in optic lobe slices
and more!
Led by the amazing Amy Courtney
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Novel dopaminergic neurotransmission in the Octopus visual system
Coleoid cephalopods such as the common octopus have a complex visual system, with a camera-type eye and a large optic lobe, that evolved independently from its counterpart in vertebrates. However, the...
www.biorxiv.org
April 4, 2025 at 6:02 AM
The first Octopus paper from the Schafer lab @mrclmb.bsky.social in collaboration with @eveseuntjens.bsky.social lab.
🐙dop-gated cation channel
🐙Ach-gated anion channel
🐙single-cell resolution Ca2+ imaging in optic lobe slices
and more!
Led by the amazing Amy Courtney
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
🐙dop-gated cation channel
🐙Ach-gated anion channel
🐙single-cell resolution Ca2+ imaging in optic lobe slices
and more!
Led by the amazing Amy Courtney
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Elke van Rooij
Very excited to share that we developed a new non-invasive way to predict spawning time in Octopus vulgaris. Until now, we had no means of knowing when a female was going to spawn, which made planning of our experiments very difficult. But now we solved it! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org
April 3, 2025 at 10:50 AM
Very excited to share that we developed a new non-invasive way to predict spawning time in Octopus vulgaris. Until now, we had no means of knowing when a female was going to spawn, which made planning of our experiments very difficult. But now we solved it! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Elke van Rooij
Happy Holidays！💐
Credit to: Dario Brunetti
Credit to: Dario Brunetti
December 23, 2024 at 5:41 PM
Happy Holidays！💐
Credit to: Dario Brunetti
Credit to: Dario Brunetti
Reposted by Elke van Rooij
Your reminder that many of the muscles, nerves and bones you use to hear and talk with correspond to gill structures in fish. 🧪 #evolution #paleontology
November 24, 2024 at 8:30 PM
Your reminder that many of the muscles, nerves and bones you use to hear and talk with correspond to gill structures in fish. 🧪 #evolution #paleontology
Reposted by Elke van Rooij
Shamelessly taking advantage of the bluesky migration to share again some of my favorite echinoderm pics 😀🤩
🔽 Acetylated tubulin (nerves and cilia) and phalloidin (muscles) stains in a juvenile sea urchin (Paracentrotus lividus) just after metamorphosis ⭐
🔽 Acetylated tubulin (nerves and cilia) and phalloidin (muscles) stains in a juvenile sea urchin (Paracentrotus lividus) just after metamorphosis ⭐
November 17, 2024 at 6:40 PM
Shamelessly taking advantage of the bluesky migration to share again some of my favorite echinoderm pics 😀🤩
🔽 Acetylated tubulin (nerves and cilia) and phalloidin (muscles) stains in a juvenile sea urchin (Paracentrotus lividus) just after metamorphosis ⭐
🔽 Acetylated tubulin (nerves and cilia) and phalloidin (muscles) stains in a juvenile sea urchin (Paracentrotus lividus) just after metamorphosis ⭐
Reposted by Elke van Rooij
In a species with a 30 gigabase genome (30 billion bases of DNA, 10x larger than the human genome!), chromosomes take on a whole new meaning and watching them divide is just spectacular. This spectacular division was captured from a culture of axolotl cells (a salamander)--starting in metaphase!
November 18, 2024 at 12:39 AM
In a species with a 30 gigabase genome (30 billion bases of DNA, 10x larger than the human genome!), chromosomes take on a whole new meaning and watching them divide is just spectacular. This spectacular division was captured from a culture of axolotl cells (a salamander)--starting in metaphase!
Reposted by Elke van Rooij
In our lab we study the evolutionary origin of neurons and nervous systems. For this we use #choanoflagellates & #ctenophores as model organisms. Enjoy this beautiful ctenophore Mnemiopsis leidyi filmed in our facility in Bergen: www.uib.no/en/michaelsa... #evolution #origin #neuron
November 15, 2024 at 3:01 PM
In our lab we study the evolutionary origin of neurons and nervous systems. For this we use #choanoflagellates & #ctenophores as model organisms. Enjoy this beautiful ctenophore Mnemiopsis leidyi filmed in our facility in Bergen: www.uib.no/en/michaelsa... #evolution #origin #neuron