Matt Collie
🧠 neuroscientist. 🪰 fly postdoc in the wilson lab (harvard) studying the neural mechanisms of adaptive feedback control. he/him.
- Reposted by Matt CollieHow does the brain control locomotion? In our new preprint, we uncover a brain circuit in Drosophila that controls forward walking independently of turning. This dedicated locomotor circuit enables flexible motor control and might reflect a shared principle across species. doi.org/10.64898/202...
- Reposted by Matt CollieHow do animals channel sensory information into motor pathways to generate flexible behavioral output? Excited to share a new preprint addressing this question by leveraging the new #maleCNS connectome, behavioral experiments, and in-vivo recordings: doi.org/10.64898/202.... A long🧵...
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- *First preprint from our lab* !!!!! How does the brain learn to anchor its internal sense of direction to the outside world? 🧭 led by Mark Plitt @markplitt.bsky.social & Dan Turner-Evans, w/ Vivek Jayaraman: “Octopamine instructs head direction plasticity” www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... Thread ⬇️
- Always fun designing the most unnecessarily extravagant posters for our department happy hours 😁
- Delighted to share an updated pre-print on how adaptive control in visual pursuit is implemented at the circuit level. New behavior and neuronal data in females (!) shows how two AOTU pathways are key elements in both sexes. Check it out on @biorxiv-neursci.bsky.social : doi.org/10.1101/2025...
- To highlight just a few of the newest features: (1) With the new male connectome, we were able to perform comparative analyses of AOTU cells in males and females. We showed that, in both sexes, AOTU019 and AOTU025 are the key links between visual input (LC10a) and pre-motor outputs (DNs).
- (2) We show that optostimulation of "arousal neurons" in females (i.e., aIPg cells) drives visual pursuit and preferentially depolarizes AOTU019. Previously, we had shown that the same is true in aroused males (i.e., P1 optostimulation).
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View full threadOur findings in females build on the incredible work from @ceschretter.bsky.social on aIPg cells. Also big s/o to the team @hhmijanelia.bsky.social and the Lab of @jefferis.bsky.social for generating the male brain #connectome dataset. Such an amazing resource and it was a pleasure to dig into.
- Reposted by Matt CollieDo flies feel pain? Spooky new preprint from our lab on the cells and circuits that mediate nociceptive behaviors in adult Drosophila, led by graduate student (and newly minted PhD!) @jonesjes.bsky.social. 🪰⚡👻🎃 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
- How it feels pushing a pre-print update (thread coming soon!)
- Reposted by Matt CollieExcited to share our new #biorxivpreprint We discovered that the fruit fly #drosophila erecta requires food odor to mate and arousal is further enhanced by social group motion. Cross-species analysis of brain activity reveals a novel gate evolved from within a conserved circuit shorturl.at/gGYm7
- Reposted by Matt CollieExcited to share our new #biorxivpreprint: “Sexual dimorphism in the complete connectome of the Drosophila male central nervous system” www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... We describe the #connectomics reconstruction and analysis of an entire adult #maleCNS #drosophila central nervous system. 1/10
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- Exciting news for #drosophila #connectomics and #neuroscience enthusiasts: the Drosophila male central nervous system connectome is now live for exploration. Find out more at the landing page hosted by our Janelia FlyEM collaborators www.janelia.org/project-team....
- Reposted by Matt CollieWrote a eulogy for the yellow letters in my office window. www.thecrimson.com/article/2025...
- Reposted by Matt CollieExciting new Ruta lab preprint by @annaryba.bsky.social et al. on the neural underpinnings of intraspecific behavioral variation: Strain variation identifies a neural substrate for behavioral evolution Drosophila www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
- Reposted by Matt CollieNeuronal 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 Matt CollieAnd now for an update on my office window. www.thecrimson.com/article/2025...
- Reposted by Matt CollieFlyBase needs your help! We ask that European labs continue to contribute to Cambridge, UK FlyBase, whereas US and other non-European labs can contribute to US FlyBase. For more information and how to donate: wiki.flybase.org/wiki/FlyBase...
- Reposted by Matt CollieIt’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
- We need more papers that start with Steve Urkel quotes. Thank you @kylethieringer.com and @tuthill.bsky.social for this wonderful and fun review of our recent paper describing limb feedback in the visual system! doi.org/10.1016/j.cu...
- Like c'mon this is both accurate and comedic gold.
- Reposted by Matt CollieThere is so much to learn from this dataset that it's overwhelming. It feels amazing to connect everything, from the "cognitive" regions of the brain all the way down to muscles, internal organs, and endocrine systems. With the analyses in our preprint, we've only just scratched the surface.
- Reposted by Matt CollieOur data support an architecture of distributed, parallelized, and embodied control, reminiscent of “subsumption architectures” from autonomous robotics, where behavior-centric feedback loops are organized s that they can be combined or subsumed to generate complex or resolve competing behaviors.
- Reposted by Matt CollieMoreover, Zaki Ajabi developed a computationally efficient method for quantifying the “influence” any neuron has on any other neuron in the CNS. We applied this method to estimate the pairwise interactions between all cells in the CNS, amounting to more than 20 billion influence scores.
- Reposted by Matt CollieHow 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
- Public access to the first fly connectome that spans the whole CNS - BANC!: codex.flywire.ai?dataset=banc Different from prior connectomes - it is brain + cord (think spinal cord) We use it to ‘embody’ the system and find it resembles ‘subsumption architecture’ doi.org/10.1101/2025...
- Reposted by Matt CollieNew 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! 🌬️🦟
- Reposted by Matt ColliePublic access to the first fly connectome that spans the whole CNS - BANC!: codex.flywire.ai?dataset=banc Different from prior connectomes - it is brain + cord (think spinal cord) We use it to ‘embody’ the system and find it resembles ‘subsumption architecture’ doi.org/10.1101/2025...
- Reposted by Matt CollieWith @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! 🌬️🦟
- Reposted by Matt CollieA massive community effort, centred on @harvardmed.bsky.social @princetonneuro.bsky.social. EM data from @darbly.bsky.social lab, collected by @jasper-tms.bsky.social @mindyisminsu.bsky.social.
- Reposted by Matt CollieOur new preprint: 𝐅𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞-𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐟𝐢𝐜 𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭 𝐜𝐨𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐧 𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐥 𝐬𝐞𝐩𝐭𝐮𝐦 𝐠𝐮𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐬 𝐝𝐞𝐟𝐞𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧. We describe how the LS guides defensive responses by forming critical computations built from functionally and molecularly distinct cells and their afferent inputs. www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-6...
- Reposted by Matt CollieThe first full central nervous system connectome dataset of an adult fly, with the most comprehensive annotation of sensory and motor neurons to date. A heroic effort with contributions from many groups, a product of the collaborative spirit of the Drosophila neuroscience community.
- Happy Friday! The female adult fly brain-and-nerve-cord (BANC) connectome is now LIVE! Explore the data here: codex.flywire.ai?dataset=banc Check out the preprint here: doi.org/10.1101/2025...
- Happy Friday! The female adult fly brain-and-nerve-cord (BANC) connectome is now LIVE! Explore the data here: codex.flywire.ai?dataset=banc Check out the preprint here: doi.org/10.1101/2025...
- I think the "embodiment" of this connectome is going to be such a hit: For instance take the interactive "body part" maps on Codex, where you can simply click on your favorite external or visceral part and it will show you all of the neurons associated it! codex.flywire.ai/app/body_par...
- Reposted by Matt ColliePreprint Alert! Walking mostly feels natural and easy to us - but the neuronal control of walking is actually incredibly complex. We leveraged the fruit fly as a genetically tractable animal model with a compact nervous system to ask how the brain controls walking direction: tinyurl.com/flywalk. 🧵..
- New week, new fun story! In a study led by Melanie Basnak, our lab shows how the Drosophila head direction system flexibly remaps by weighing how informative environment cues (e.g. sun, wind) are—prioritizing more reliable inputs when conflicting. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
- New paper from our lab! This was such a fun project to be a part of - proof that sometimes following a spurious observations down the rabbit hole leads to awesome findings. www.cell.com/current-biol...
- Here, we show a cell type in the fly visual system (LT52) combines visual and non-visual info to encode motion of the front leg across the retina. Upstream of visuomotor circuits, we suggest this neuron may help prevent the fly from steering towards its own gestures (aka a perceived moving obj).
- Reposted by Matt CollieHarvard seemingly caves to Trump, shuts down LGBTQ+ and women's center websites. By Ryan Adamczeski for the Advocate @helloryro.bsky.social @theadvocatebr.bsky.social
- Reposted by Matt Collie(5/5) 🚨 It’s time to flood the zone. NIH scientists just took a huge risk speaking out. Now it’s our turn. 📜 Read the Bethesda Declaration ✍️ Sign the Public Letter of Support 👯♀️Follow NIHers doing the work: @nihvigils.bsky.social Read and sign here 👉 www.standupforscience.net/bethesda-dec...
- Reposted by Matt Collienew preprint, led by @ellenlesser.bsky.social, on proprioceptive sensing of the Drosophila wing. tldr, there are a lot of proprioceptors out in the wing and they are wildly diverse and complex (eg, compared to the fly leg). just one example in this image...(1/4) www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
- Reposted by Matt Collie[This post could not be retrieved]
- Reposted by Matt CollieHappy to announce that our paper examining the function of leg mechanosensory neurons by way of their connectivity is finally officially published! rdcu.be/ekqVt
- Every time I see my own pre-print in the wild 🤩
- Specialized parallel pathways for adaptive control of visual object pursuit biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/202…
- Many animals use "adaptive control" to pursue moving objects, relying on flexible feedback loops to adjust their movement gain over time. But how do neural circuits actually implement this? Here, we show how adaptive control in Drosophila pursuit involves two specialized parallel feedback loops.
- During courtship, an aroused male will pursue a female (the "visual object" of interest), steering to keep her image aligned with a setpoint at his visual midline. This pursuit relies on object detectors in the optic lobe (LC10a cells) and descending neurons (DNs) that drive steering commands.
- The connectome shows that LC10a and steering DNs are linked via two major cell types: AOTU019 and AOTU025. We first show, via single-cell recordings in pursuing males, that AOTU025 detects objects far from the midline, while AOTU019 detects objects near the midline.
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View full threadIn summary, our work shows how neural circuits implement adaptive control: by routing signals through parallel pathways with different gains/control rules, and by using internal state variables to adjust recruitment over time. This allows flexible, state-dependent feedback during pursuit.
- Reposted by Matt CollieAs someone directly affected by this, let me be clear: I'd rather lose my job because Harvard chose to fight than keep my job and see a generation of white supremacists parade its corpse around like a war trophy.
- Reposted by Matt CollieWe're disappointed to see Ben Barres's powerful book "The Autobiography of a Transgender Scientist" among the ~400 titles removed from the Naval Academy Library. Needless to say, we're proud to have published his book and will keep it — and his memory — alive.
- Reposted by Matt Collie
- Harvard Medical School just announced a "temporary pause" on "all hiring, including academic and administrative positions" (via Dean Daley) so bracing for our funding to be pulled by end of week
- via @nytimes.com "Harvard University ...is also on the list. So are George Washington University; Johns Hopkins University; New York University; Northwestern University; UCLA, UC Berkeley; tUniversity of Minnesota; and University of Southern California" www.nytimes.com/2025/03/08/u...
- Boston Commons
- At a Stand Up for Science event? Show us your photos at #standupforscience2025 📣☀️🌎
- 🚨 Academics at #StandUpForScience2025! 🚨 Write to your deans, presidents & admins—demand they defend researchers at risk of losing funding. If they can cut $400M from Columbia, they will absolutely cut it from Harvard, Tufts, OHSU, and beyond.
- I need M*sk to know that my dumb little fruit flies track moving objects better than any over-engineered Tesla.
- Strongly encourage folks to reach out to their university leadership. Now is not the time to stay silent and hope Trump looks somewhere else because clearly all science funding is a target right now. www.thecrimson.com/article/2025...
- My graduate research was partially funded by the NSF GRFP. It’s deeply upsetting to see such crucial federal funding align with the hateful and misguided ideology of the current administration.
- If you work at a research university - take a moment to email your Deans, faculty, admins, etc. The general silence at the institutional level to these catastrophic threats to science funding has been pretty damning.
- Reposted by Matt CollieI talked to @nbedera.bsky.social about her devastating research into Title IX offices & new book On the Wrong Side: “There’s this myth men’s lives are ruined when they’re accused of sexual violence—it isn’t just untrue, it becomes justification for giving them benefits to compensate for that."
- Reposted by Matt Colliemy lab (www.tuthill.casa) at UW is hiring a research assistant/tech. basic scope is to apply machine learning/computer vision tools to measure and model 3D animal behavior and mechanics. we are a diverse, collaborative, curiosity-driven group. Apply: uwhires.admin.washington.edu/ENG/Candidat...
- Reposted by Matt CollieSex or survival—what’s more important? Excited to share our @Nature paper on how flies resolve this conflict. We found a dopamine-based filter that reduces threat perception, helping flies focus on courtship when close to mating. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
- In concert with recent studies, it has been really fascinating to see both the similarities and differences in how social states modulate visual processing in male and female flies. Congrats, Katie!
- Excited to have this paper out (rdcu.be/d0T3Y)! In it, we focused on how flies know what to attend to in a complex environment (like below)? We uncovered neuronal pathways through which social states (like aggression 🥊) modulate visual processing in #Drosophila. #WomenInSTEM #neuroscience 🧪 1/
- Successfully defended my PhD! Feeling so lucky to have had the opportunity to share this work with colleagues, friends, and family.
- My project demonstrates how the network architecture of the pursuit system in flies implements several forms of adaptive control to match performance with task demands. Excited to share the preprint soon 🪰🧠
- Excited to push this project over the finish line tomorrow. If all goes well, both the phd and the preprint should be around the corner!
