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mattjwanat.bsky.social
Matt Wanat
@mattjwanat.bsky.social
6.5K followers 370 following 85 posts
Nerding out to neuroscience since 2002. Studying the neurobiology of motivated behavior by day. Running, hiking, eating, and camping by night.
www.wanatlab.org

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mattjwanat.bsky.social
Matt Wanat @mattjwanat.bsky.social · Jul 16
Ever wonder how stress and the estrous cycle affects reward learning? Well we have answers for you in our paper led by @askaneuroscientist.bsky.social published in
@npp-journal.bsky.social

And huge thanks to the NIH and NSF who supported this research.
Estrous cycle stage gates the effect of stress on reward learning
Neuropsychopharmacology - Estrous cycle stage gates the effect of stress on reward learning
nam11.safelinks.protection.outlook.com
Reposted by Matt Wanat
willgiardino.bsky.social
Excited to share new research from my lab in final published form! By deleting hypocretin (orexin) receptors from CRF neurons, we uncovered neuropeptide mechanisms linking alcohol drinking and negative emotional hyperarousal through BNST neuronal excitability.

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
November 3, 2025 at 5:19 PM
Reposted by Matt Wanat
superkash.bsky.social
At no point can you accurately predict what will happen. I love it.
jeradwalker.bsky.social Jerad Walker @jeradwalker.bsky.social · 10d
We live in a tumultuous world. But I take solace in the fact that the 2010 University of Alaska Fairbanks hockey intro video remains the most unhinged thing I’ve ever seen.
November 1, 2025 at 4:07 PM
mattjwanat.bsky.social
Nothing is scarier than Reviewer #2
Man with hockey mask and a sign saying reviewer 2
October 31, 2025 at 9:26 PM
Reposted by Matt Wanat
bensaunders.bsky.social
ATTN: Two faculty positions are available in my department (neuroscience) at the University of Minnesota. This is a general search with no topic focus. November 20th application deadline.

Apply here: hr.umn.edu/jobs/Find-Job
Assistant Prof job code: 364920
Associate/Full Prof job code: 364921
October 30, 2025 at 3:59 PM
Reposted by Matt Wanat
nanopharmnc.bsky.social
Your donation is tax deductible and supports the young scientists who are being lost due to the federal funding crisis. #WCBR2026 nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com?url=https%3A...
Support Young Investigators Each year, the Winter Conference on Brain Research (WCBR) meets to provide a forum for innovative science in carefully curated sessions. Your support of Winter Brain will help us support and foster the next generation of neuroscientists. The generosity of donors like Scott Edwards, PhD, and Paul Letourneau, PhD help us provide Winter Brain Travel Awards to scientists. "I enjoy supporting the WCBR Travel Awards program becuase it promotes the inclusion of next generation researchers into a highly welcoming community of neuroscientists," Dr. Edwards said. "When young scientists can experience such a great conference, it emboldens their confidence in their future careers." Your one-time donation or monthly gift is tax-deductible and will allow young investigators to experience a meeting where they will have mentorship programs, networking opportunites, and career development, as well as learn the latest brain science. Dr. Letourneau has seen first-hand the impact that attending Winter Brain has on young scientists. "I strongly support the WCBR Travel Fellowship," he said. "The WCBR is a great meeting for young investigators to meet peers and accomplished scientists in an informal, enjoyable setting. I made both long-standing friendships and research collaborations at my first WCBRs." Your support is important, and Winter Brain will recognize your generosity by including your name on the website and signage during the conference. If you prefer to donate via check, you may send donations to: WCBR, Attention: Travel Awards, 5034-A Thoroughbred Lane, Brentwood, TN 37027. Help Winter Brain mentor the next generation of neuroscientists with a gift in 2025. We are grateful for your generosity. Sincerely, Susan Ferguson, PhD Conference Chair
October 22, 2025 at 5:29 PM
Reposted by Matt Wanat
nanopharmnc.bsky.social
We've extended the deadline for #WCBR2026 posters! New due date is Oct 16th! www.winterbrain.org please share!
Winter Conference on Brain Research | WCBR
www.winterbrain.org
October 10, 2025 at 1:28 PM
Reposted by Matt Wanat
davidweinshenker.bsky.social
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
Reposted by Matt Wanat
nanopharmnc.bsky.social
October 9th is the deadline for poster submissions for #WCBR2026 please share! www.winterbrain.org
one more day left for poster submissions to Winter Brain 2026
October 8, 2025 at 2:17 PM
Reposted by Matt Wanat
jeremymberg.bsky.social
The fiscal year is over.

So how was the NIH appropriation committed?

A long thread with institute by institute results about where the money went.
a white cat is sitting on a box with the words where written on it .
ALT: a white cat is sitting on a box with the words where written on it .
media.tenor.com
October 1, 2025 at 4:08 PM
Reposted by Matt Wanat
drugmonkey.bsky.social
On the nature of a NSF (or NIH) graduate training fellowship drugmonkey.wordpress.com/2025/09/29/o...
On the nature of a NSF (or NIH) graduate training fellowship
I had a thought about graduate school fellowships and added it to the prior past about the NSF GRFP limitations to first year graduate students. [ETA 09/29/2025: I forgot to mention something impor…
drugmonkey.wordpress.com
September 30, 2025 at 1:28 AM
mattjwanat.bsky.social
Sometimes you hear a bump in the night. Sometimes that bump is your ceiling crashing down due to an AC drain leak. This wasn’t on my bingo card for today
September 24, 2025 at 5:11 PM
Reposted by Matt Wanat
bohaceklab.bsky.social
🔵 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
September 17, 2025 at 5:44 AM
Reposted by Matt Wanat
davidweinshenker.bsky.social
We showed previously that chemogenetic activation of the LC rescues spatial reversal learning in the TgF344-AD rat. New paper follows up and reports that optogenetic stimulation of LC terminals in CA1 also rescues cognitive deficits in 3xTg mouse model of AD. link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Photostimulation of locus coeruleus CA1 catecholaminergic terminals reversed Spatial memory impairment in an alzheimer’s disease mouse model - Psychopharmacology
Rationale One of the earliest changes associated with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the loss of catecholaminergic terminals in the cortex and hippocampus originating from the Locus Coeruleus (LC). This ...
link.springer.com
September 12, 2025 at 6:50 PM
Reposted by Matt Wanat
rachelsmithphd.bsky.social
We're hiring 2 faculty in Behavioral and Cellular Neuroscience at the Assistant Professor level -- come join our amazing department at Texas A&M!
apply.interfolio.com/172286
Apply by Oct 1 for highest priority.
Flyer for Texas A&M hiring of two assistant professors in Behavioral and Cellular Neuroscience, with link for applications.
September 12, 2025 at 6:10 PM
Reposted by Matt Wanat
aniloza.bsky.social
It's been a busy time for NIH grants staff — the agency seems on track to spend its budget this fiscal year

But, because of multi-year funding, fewer projects are being funded than in previous years.

The number of R grants has fallen from 5,633 to 3,758

analysis by @jaspar.bsky.social
Graph titled "value of grants awarded in 2025 has caught up to average of previous years." Graph shows average of 2016-24 spending and how much has been spent so far in FY25 Graph titled "Amount of first-year R01 and R21 grants." Graph compares average of 2016-24 to 2025.
September 12, 2025 at 1:10 PM
Reposted by Matt Wanat
drugmonkey.bsky.social
Adding up the NIH R01s lost to Multi-Year Funding drugmonkey.wordpress.com/2025/09/09/a...
Adding up the NIH R01s lost to Multi-Year Funding
From Berg’s bluesky post Jeremy Berg recently noted that he’s estimating about 2,400 grants that cannot be funded due to multi-year funding of other grants. His focus was on total fundi…
drugmonkey.wordpress.com
September 9, 2025 at 7:27 PM
Reposted by Matt Wanat
bensaunders.bsky.social
Excited to share this update to our paper investigating the role of superior colliculus inputs to the ventral midbrain in learning and movement. Studies led by the amazing Dr. @carlipoisson.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
September 9, 2025 at 3:48 PM
Reposted by Matt Wanat
nanopharmnc.bsky.social
Here ye, here ye!!! #WCBR2026 #WinterConfrenceonBrainResearch will be extending the panel deadline one week for submission (new deadline 9/18/2025)! Official announcement coming soon so check your emails! please reskeet!
a man in a costume holding a scroll that says hear ye hear ye
Alt: a man in a costume holding a scroll that says hear ye hear ye
media.tenor.com
September 9, 2025 at 2:54 PM
mattjwanat.bsky.social
Florida: Come for the beaches and stay for the preventable diseases.

www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/...
Florida moves to end all school vaccine mandates, first in nation to do so
Florida Surgeon General Joseph A. Ladapo criticized school vaccine mandates, which every state has, and likened them to slavery.
www.washingtonpost.com
September 3, 2025 at 4:41 PM
Reposted by Matt Wanat
nanopharmnc.bsky.social
Congratulations to Kristen Harris and Amy Hauck Newman the Pioneer Award Winners for #WCBR2026 ! Registration is now open and panel submissions are due Sept 11, 2025; posters are due October 9, 2025
Kristen Harris has been an active participant in the WCBR since 2002. Her professional career began at Harvard Medical school from 1984-1999 when she was recruited to Boston University, where she worked to establish their graduate program in experimental and computational neuroscience. From BU she was recruited as a Georgia Research Alliance Eminent scholar to the Medical College of Georgia. Since 2006 she is Professor of Neuroscience in the Center for Learning and Memory and Department of Neuroscience at the University of Texas at Austin. She is renowned for her work on synapse structure and function pioneering three-dimensional reconstruction from serial section electron microscopy to advance understanding of the synaptic mechanisms of learning and memory. Her lab had developed novel tools sharing them together with data that are widely used resources (synapseweb.clm.utexas.edu). She is the recipient of Sloan Research Fellowship, Javits Merit Award, Brain Research Foundation Fellowship, Mika Salpeter Lifetime achievement and many other awards. She is known for innovative teaching, service on many prestigious scientific advisory boards, and presentations worldwide. She is a member of the National Academy of Sciences. Dr. Amy Hauck Newman received her doctorate in Medicinal Chemistry from the Medical College of Virginia, Virginia Commonwealth University, under the mentorship of Dr. Richard Glennon. She joined the laboratory of Dr. Kenner Rice at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for her postdoctoral studies where she conducted total opiate synthesis, as a National Research Service Award fellow. After starting her first independent lab at Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, she joined the National Institute on Drug Abuse-Intramural Research Program (NIDA-IRP), NIH, in 1991, where she was tenured and became the Medicinal Chemistry Section Chief. She currently serves as the Scientific Director, Chief of the Molecular Targets and Medications Discovery Branch and Director of the NIDA-IRP Medications Development Program. She has coauthored more than 340 original articles and reviews on the design, synthesis, and evaluation of centrally active agents, with an emphasis on selective ligands for the dopaminergic system, as potential treatment medications for substance use disorders. In particular, she has pioneered the development of highly selective and bitopic dopamine D3 receptor antagonists and partial agonists for treatment of Opioid Use Disorders (OUD). More recently, she has turned her attention to developing medications for the treatment of psychostimulant use disorders that are comorbid with bipolar disorder and/or schizophrenia. In addition, she has developed research tools that include small molecule fluorescent ligands, radioligands and irreversible ligands directed toward the dopamine, serotonin or norepinephrine transporters. She is an inventor on >25 NIH patents and patent applications. Dr. Newman has received numerous awards from both the NIH and NIDA Directors including the NIH Ruth L. Kirschstein Mentoring Award, in 2019. She was the first woman to receive the Philip Portoghese Lectureship Award, awarded by the Division of Medicinal Chemistry (MEDI) and the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, American Chemical Society (ACS) in 2016. Dr. Newman was honored as a “Remarkable Woman in Medicinal Chemistry” by the ACS, in 2018 and was inducted into the ACS MEDI Hall of Fame in 2023.
August 28, 2025 at 1:44 PM
Reposted by Matt Wanat
sfnjournals.bsky.social
#eNeuro: <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:kycdyth6vrvgsxhx7kocf4bd" class="hover:underline text-blue-600 dark:text-sky-400 no-card-link" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-link="bsky-mention">@mattjwanat.bsky.social‬ et al. show that the cue-evoked dopamine response in rats signals the duration of the trace period between cue and reward, and relates to the response latency.
https://doi.org/10.1523/ENEURO.0016-25.2025
August 27, 2025 at 11:32 AM
Reposted by Matt Wanat
npp-journal.bsky.social
A single stress exposure alters reward learning in ♀️ 🐀 depending on estrous cycle: ⬆️ responding in non-estrus, but ⬇️ in estrus. Repeated prior stress, however, ⬆️ cue-driven responding regardless of cycle stage
Estrous cycle stage gates the effect of stress on reward learning
Neuropsychopharmacology - Estrous cycle stage gates the effect of stress on reward learning
www.nature.com
August 26, 2025 at 4:30 PM
Reposted by Matt Wanat
stevevladeck.bsky.social
TL;DR: 5 justices say Trump doesn't have to immediately restore the funding, but 5 *also* signal that the underlying directives are unlawful.

That sends a fairly strong (if mixed) message that Trump will lose these cases *eventually,* but only once they're brought in the Court of Federal Claims.
stevevladeck.bsky.social Steve Vladeck @stevevladeck.bsky.social · Aug 21
Splitting 5-4 (with Chief Justice Roberts joining the three Democratic appointees in dissent), #SCOTUS grants *partial* stay to Trump administration in NIH funding case; holds that challenges to grant terminations (but *not* the underlying guidance) need to be filed in the Court of Federal Claims:
www.supremecourt.gov
August 21, 2025 at 8:49 PM
Reposted by Matt Wanat
thiagokrause.bsky.social
As always, Ted Chiang is great in this interview.
cdh.princeton.edu/blog/2025/08...
August 14, 2025 at 1:24 AM
mattjwanat.bsky.social
My greatest accomplishment this week was coming up with this dad joke

What does a gen alpha Thor call his brother?

Low key Loki
August 9, 2025 at 2:37 PM