Meg Younger
Neuroscientist with too many plants.
Assistant professor @bu-biology.
she/her
youngerlaboratory.org
- Reposted by Meg YoungerWendy Valencia-Montoya and team uncover thermal infrared as one of the most ancient pollination signals uniting plants and animals. From the field to single proteins. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
- 🔔 New collaboration with @briandepasquale.bsky.social lab! ML for Olfaction! 👃🦟🪰🐀
- 🔔 NEW PREPRINT FROM THE LAB ‼️ We introduce a new ML model, LoRAX, for predicting olfactory responses from chemical features, a tricky problem that benefits from progress in ML for biochem. We combine LoRA fine-tuning with protein and chemical foundation models, www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
- It was so fun to work on this with @gkocker.bsky.social and @clienkaemper.bsky.social! It is out @pnas.org If you love olfaction and love math, this one is for you! 🦟👃🧮 When noncanonical olfaction is optimal | PNAS www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
- Reposted by Meg YoungerNeuronal diversity is written in transcriptional codes 🧬. But what is the logic of these codes that define cell types and wiring patterns? To find out we built a #scRNAseq developmental atlas of the Drosophila nerve cord and linked it to the #connectome 🪰🧠 #preprint thread ⬇️1/8
- Reposted by Meg YoungerIt’s surreal to think that every neuron and synapse in the fly brain + cord that was dissected almost five years ago (the photo’s still on the lab slack!) is now just a click away on Codex codex.flywire.ai?dataset=banc. This wouldn’t have been possible without the incredible team behind it!
- How is the nervous system organized to coordinate behavior? To approach this massive question, a team led by @asbates.bsky.social, @jasper-tms.bsky.social, @mindyisminsu.bsky.social, & Helen Yang present the BANC: a Brain and Nerve Cord connectome. Preprint: doi.org/10.1101/2025... 🧪#Neuroskyence
- Reposted by Meg YoungerWith @megyounger.bsky.social's lab, et al., we present the first connectomics work in the disease-vector mosquito Aedes aegypti, revealing how its brain is wired to detect host cues. Preprint: doi.org/10.1101/2025... #Neuroscience #Connectomics #vEM #VectorBiology 🧪
- New preprint from @darbly.bsky.social @briandepasquale.bsky.social and my labs! If you love (or hate) mosquitoes, have a look: doi.org/10.1101/2025... We used TEM to describe the circuitry used for CO2 detection by mosquitoes. As usual with mosquitoes, nothing is as expected! 🌬️🦟
- New preprint from @darbly.bsky.social @briandepasquale.bsky.social and my labs! If you love (or hate) mosquitoes, have a look: doi.org/10.1101/2025... We used TEM to describe the circuitry used for CO2 detection by mosquitoes. As usual with mosquitoes, nothing is as expected! 🌬️🦟
- The sensory neuron wiring shows us why they are so crazy sensitive to CO2. 🌬️🦟
- With @davidhildebrand.bsky.social !
- Reposted by Meg Younger🧬🌽 Happy Transposon Day! 🌽🧬 Today we celebrate the birthday of Barbara McClintock - scientist extraordinaire and discoverer of jumping genes. Still the only woman to have an unshared Nobel Prize in the biomedical sciences #TransposonDay2025
- Reposted by Meg YoungerThe Esther A. & Joseph Klingenstein Fund thanks @rswilliamson.bsky.social, @megyounger.bsky.social, and @sungsoo.bsky.social for presenting their research at the recent Klingenstein Fellowship Awards in Neuroscience Conference. 📷 : SimonProPhoto
- So excited for @lforencia.bsky.social and all of the amazing fellows!!
- We are thrilled to announce the 2025 Leading Edge Fellows! 40 outstanding postdoctoral fellows doing pioneering research in a wide range of biological and biomedical disciplines. Learn more about these exceptional scientists: www.leadingedgesymposium.org/fellows
- Excited to share new work with @clienkaemper.bsky.social and @gkocker.bsky.social! 🌬️🦟
- New preprint out with @megyounger.bsky.social and @gkocker.bsky.social: "When non-canonical olfaction is optimal" www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

- Reposted by Meg Younger🎉Congrats to the 126 early-career scientists who have been awarded a Sloan Research Fellowship this year! These exceptional scholars are drawn from 51 institutions across the US and Canada, and represent the next generation of groundbreaking researchers. sloan.org/fellowships/...