Mel Sharpe
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melissajsharpe.bsky.social
Mel Sharpe
@melissajsharpe.bsky.social
Neuroscience, Prefrontal Cortex, Dopamine, Lateral Hypothalamus, Reinforcement Learning, Wine. Senior Lecturer, USyd. Was an 🇦🇺 in 🇺🇸 (She/Her).
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Hosting the Pavlovian society annual meeting in SYDNEY was the highlight of my career! Thanks to all who came from near and far to present their awesome science. Looking forward to 2026 in Montreal. Come and join us!
Good morning everyone! Suitably following the #dopamine dinner, we have our #dopamine symposium at 9:30am in SDCC room 6B!

‘Beyond Value: Non-canonical roles for dopamine in aversion and reward’

Come join us! 🧠 🧪
November 17, 2025 at 3:32 PM
Pretty special dinner @sfn.org with these glorious women last night 🤩 ❤️

How do I have a job where I travel around the world and hang out with awesome people?

@moriel-z.bsky.social @denisejcai.bsky.social @ladenardo.bsky.social @neurrriot.bsky.social @bjmarlin.bsky.social @debiaselm.bsky.social
November 16, 2025 at 6:29 PM
Full house for @earlkmiller.bsky.social’s Presidential Lecture @sfn.org tonight! I had to sneak in 🤫 inspiring to hear about the amazing work that drove my PhD thesis and so much more beyond 🤩
November 16, 2025 at 1:59 AM
Folks the Sharpe Lab are in the house for @sfn.org! 🎉 Come check out our talks and posters. We’ve been doing some cool stuff down under 🇦🇺 on dopamine, reinforcement learning, and remapping of the fear circuit. 🧠 🧪
November 14, 2025 at 11:25 PM
Is anyone using the IDEAS platform from #inscopix to analyze single-unit calcium data? 🔬🧪🧠
September 23, 2025 at 12:32 AM
Hosting the Pavlovian society annual meeting in SYDNEY was the highlight of my career! Thanks to all who came from near and far to present their awesome science. Looking forward to 2026 in Montreal. Come and join us!
August 10, 2025 at 11:08 PM
My first GRC amygdala in Barcelona hosted by @katewassum.bsky.social did not disappoint! Can’t wait for the next one with @joserodroma.bsky.social and @annabeyerle.bsky.social! ☀️🕶️🌴🌊
July 18, 2025 at 8:16 AM
Reposted by Mel Sharpe
Genetic material shed by tumors can be detected in the bloodstream three years before cancer diagnosis, according to a study led by investigators at Johns Hopkins University.

That study was made possible with federal funding. Now, many studies like this are canceled. hub.jhu.edu/2025/06/04/...
Cancers can be detected in bloodstream three years prior to diagnosis
Detection of cancer before a clinical diagnosis could give patients and caregivers more time for intervention and may lead to better outcomes because tumors are more likely to be curable
hub.jhu.edu
June 11, 2025 at 11:46 PM
Reposted by Mel Sharpe
... neurons in the rodent dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC) [link] sensory stimuli in the environment with aversive events, whether they were directly or *indirectly* associated with that experience....

by the amazing lab of @jojolab.bsky.social

🧠📈

www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Prefrontal encoding of an internal model for emotional inference - Nature
Neurons in the rodent dorsomedial prefrontal cortex encode a flexible internal model of emotion by linking directly experienced and inferred associations with aversive experiences.
www.nature.com
May 15, 2025 at 1:43 AM
Reposted by Mel Sharpe
New from our lab: your brain doesn’t just remember time - it bends it.

We show that the dopamine system responds to natural breakpoints in experience, and this relates to more stretched memories of time. Blinking also increases, signaling encoding of new memories.

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Dopaminergic processes predict temporal distortions in event memory
Our memories do not simply keep time - they warp it, bending the past to fit the structure of our experiences. For example, people tend to remember items as occurring farther apart in time if they spa...
www.biorxiv.org
May 19, 2025 at 9:56 PM
Reposted by Mel Sharpe
One of the most epic trips of my life! Joshua Tree retreat with 11 of the most inspirational neuroscientists I know!

Thx to Moriel Z and Bianca JM for organizing. And featuring Michelin star chef and yoga instructor @denisejcai.bsky.social

Forever grateful for this crew

Until next year ❤️

🧪🧠
May 13, 2025 at 10:12 PM
Reposted by Mel Sharpe
Yes! We need to see more of this. 🧪
May 4, 2025 at 3:30 AM
One of the most epic trips of my life! Joshua Tree retreat with 11 of the most inspirational neuroscientists I know!

Thx to Moriel Z and Bianca JM for organizing. And featuring Michelin star chef and yoga instructor @denisejcai.bsky.social

Forever grateful for this crew

Until next year ❤️

🧪🧠
April 29, 2025 at 9:33 PM
Reposted by Mel Sharpe
Who’s coming to Sydney!?
🚨LAST DAY to submit poster abstracts for the PAVLOVIAN 2025 annual meeting 🚨

Check out our 🔥 program and submit abstracts in the link below, with 5 travel awards available for students and postdocs! 🧠
April 10, 2025 at 11:08 PM
Reposted by Mel Sharpe
It's gonna be epic!
🚨LAST DAY to submit poster abstracts for the PAVLOVIAN 2025 annual meeting 🚨

Check out our 🔥 program and submit abstracts in the link below, with 5 travel awards available for students and postdocs! 🧠
April 10, 2025 at 11:42 PM
🚨LAST DAY to submit poster abstracts for the PAVLOVIAN 2025 annual meeting 🚨

Check out our 🔥 program and submit abstracts in the link below, with 5 travel awards available for students and postdocs! 🧠
April 10, 2025 at 10:23 PM
Reposted by Mel Sharpe
Anyone up for some cross-species discussions at Caltech on Friday afternoon? neuroscience.caltech.edu/programs/wor...
Chen Institute Workshop on Cross-Species Modalities in Cognition and Behavior
neuroscience.caltech.edu
April 10, 2025 at 3:12 AM
Big news from the lab this week! Successfully recorded lateral hypothalamic GABA neurons in freely moving rats using single-unit calcium imaging ! Led by a phenomenal postdoc in the lab, Jess Leake.

And just in time for that grant deadline 🔥 🧠
April 7, 2025 at 9:44 PM
Kill me.

… and of course I’m on a grant deadline 😭
March 31, 2025 at 3:36 AM
WTF?! 👇 Asprin reduces cancer metastasis?! @nature.com
March 25, 2025 at 9:25 AM
Been pinning up my favorite papers from the lab 🧪 that we’ve published since we got to Sydney 🇦🇺 ☀️

Going to have to take down the pics of my kid soon 😉 🧠
March 24, 2025 at 8:42 PM
Reposted by Mel Sharpe
From 2010 to 2016 (latest data I have ), NIH research contributed to EVERY drug approved by the FDA
March 22, 2025 at 10:44 AM
Reposted by Mel Sharpe
Tonight an unbelievable **34,000 people** gathered for our Denver rally to take on billionaires and win our country back.

This was the largest political gathering in Denver since Obama in 2008.

Also bigger than the 2024 DNC.

And the largest ever rally in Bernie’s career (and obviously, mine too).
March 22, 2025 at 1:29 AM
Reposted by Mel Sharpe
Technically effective July 1st, but I need a celebration today. You are looking at Associate Professor with Tenure at UCLA. Tickled pink! 🤓🥳
March 21, 2025 at 4:33 PM