Tom Baden
NeuroProf@Sussex, UK.
Vision, Evolution, Computation
Open Science
www.badenlab.org
- Reposted by Tom BadenWe are hiring for group leaders again — EBI is a great place to start your research group! embl.wd103.myworkdayjobs.com/EMBL/job/Hin...
- Reposted by Tom BadenHow does a predator sense its prey? 🪱The nematode Pristionchus pacificus preys on other nematodes, but how it detects them in its environment? That is what we have been exploring : www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
- Reposted by Tom BadenFor this new year, we are proud to announce the launch of Spikeling v3 ! Spikeling is an Open-Source neuroscience education platform that brings a patch-clamp-style electrophysiology workflow into the classroom. #Neuroscience #OpenScience #OpenHardware #Education
- Reposted by Tom BadenI’ve been using Spikeling in teaching and outreach for the past 4 years, and it’s been a really effective way to make neuroscience concepts more approachable and engaging. Hands-on tools like this really help move neuroscience teaching forward 🧠⚡ Have a look 👇
- For this new year, we are proud to announce the launch of Spikeling v3 ! Spikeling is an Open-Source neuroscience education platform that brings a patch-clamp-style electrophysiology workflow into the classroom. #Neuroscience #OpenScience #OpenHardware #Education
- Reposted by Tom BadenMy collaborator at University of Copenhagen, Anders Garm, is looking for a 3 year postdoc to work on bioluminescence, neurobiology and ecology of ctenophores. More information here: candidate.hr-manager.net/ApplicationI...
- Reposted by Tom Baden1/10 New preprint on bioRxiv Nanodiamonds for spatial resolution benchmarking in two-photon microscopy We introduce nanodiamond-based phantoms as a robust, reusable alternative to bead–agarose samples for PSF calibration. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
- Reposted by Tom BadenDo direction and orientation preferences form maps in the mouse superior colliculus (SC)? We examined how motion and orientation tuning are organized in SC neurons and their retinal inputs—and how the retinal topography is transformed by collicular circuits. tinyurl.com/mr2zt5rm 🧵👇
- Reposted by Tom BadenHad a great visit to @sussexneuro.bsky.social and @neurofishh.bsky.social today. Such a pleasure to chat with a bunch of clever and interesting folks, see a menagerie of interesting creatures and see the sea.
- Reposted by Tom BadenEnding my #FluorescenceFriday with this beautiful avian retina image depicting the beautiful stratification in the avian eyes. This is where complexity meets art. #retina #avian #bird #plexiformlayer
- Now out in Cell! Congratulations to all involved, especially @chiarafornetto.bsky.social For a breakdown, see the bluetorial from when we posted the preprint: bsky.app/profile/neur... Funding: @erc.europa.eu @wellcometrust.bsky.social @ukri.org @leverhulme.ac.uk @thelisterinstitute.bsky.social
- Reposted by Tom BadenThe @crick.ac.uk is recruiting Early Career Group Leaders - Lab set-up, research costs, salaries for up to 5 researchers - Support for up to 12 years - Access to our core facilities - Competitive salary - Fantastic colleagues - All areas of biology Deadline 27 Nov www.crick.ac.uk/careers-stud...
- Reposted by Tom BadenWe are recruiting PhD students! If you are interested in evolutionary neuroscience, consider applying: www.crick.ac.uk/careers-stud...
- Very excited about our new preprint, led by @gkafetzis.bsky.social /w @mikebok.bsky.social & @denilsson.bsky.social. We suggest that the vertebrate 'duplex' retina emerged from interconnecting two ancient median-eye microcircuits. Say goodbye to the 'simplex' retina - it probably never existed!
- 👁️The retina — strikingly conserved across vertebrates, but an oddity among bilaterians! So how did it evolve? With @mikebok.bsky.social, @neurofishh.bsky.social and @denilsson.bsky.social, we argue that retinal complexity may 𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑑𝑎𝑡𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑒𝑦𝑒 𝑖𝑡𝑠𝑒𝑙𝑓. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... 1/n

- feed getting too political? just learnt that you can block some words/names strategically, using settings/moderation… instant improvement
- Reposted by Tom BadenNow recruiting for two positions in my lab: Postdoc in computational analysis of ancient human genomes www.crick.ac.uk/careers-stud... Bioarchaeology staff scientist supporting human aDNA projects www.crick.ac.uk/careers-stud... Background: sites.google.com/view/skoglun... Applications welcome!
- Reposted by Tom BadenThank you @thetransmitter.bsky.social and @martajhill.bsky.social for highlighting our work!
- Reposted by Tom BadenAssistant Director vacancy alert! Apply for this newly created position within the Trust. Responsibilities include leading on specific large grant schemes, representing the Trust externally and managing key areas of policy development. Interested? Learn more: www.leverhulme.ac.uk/news/current...
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- How do brain circuits evolve? We started looking for some answers by using synapse-resolution cross-species comparative connectomics on an entire olfactory circuit 👇 bit.ly/44aVm9E
- Sussex Visions is back! Tune in on June 26th and onwards, see details below
- The Sussex Vision Talk series is back! Join us to hear about all things vision, from retina to brain, from invertebrates to human. www.youtube.com/@badenlab615... Talks will be live-streamed (and stored) on YouTube, hope to see many of you there. Details on each talk coming soon.
- Reposted by Tom BadenCheck out our latest issue! www.cell.com/current-biol... On the cover: The anole lizard by Dario Tommasini and colleagues www.cell.com/current-biol...
- Our proposal for a ‘universal’ nomenclature for rod and cone types based on their evolutionary lineages that will equally apply to all vertebrate species is now out! Have a look and please consider adopting the system :)
- In this #PLOSBiology Consensus View, @neurofishh.bsky.social @corbolab.bsky.social &co propose a new, consolidated, pan-vertebrate naming system for the rod and cone photoreceptors of the eye. 🧪 plos.io/4m4QcTC
- Reposted by Tom Baden🙏 Thanks to @naturemethods.bsky.social, @ritastrack.bsky.social, the reviewers, and the awesome bioimage analysis community. We can't wait to see what you build with BiaPy! 🚀🧠 🔗 www.nature.com/articles/s41... #BiaPy #BioimageAnalysis #DeepLearning
- loving the cheeky 3D printed mask to allow local optogenetic stimulation of different body segments in these teeny maggots :). Also looks very scifi
- Delighted to share a new preprint from the lab exploring the links between morphology and behaviour: using a novel method we map the sensory inputs that trigger an evolutionarily conserved adaptive postural behaviour (self-righting) in the Drosophila larva 👉🏼 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
- Reposted by Tom BadenDelighted to share a new preprint from the lab exploring the links between morphology and behaviour: using a novel method we map the sensory inputs that trigger an evolutionarily conserved adaptive postural behaviour (self-righting) in the Drosophila larva 👉🏼 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
- Reposted by Tom BadenThe International Society for Neuroethology has a grant for disadvantaged scientists investigating the mechanisms of animal behaviour. Apply for funds to help overcome any barriers you face! Membership fees can be included in your application. Details here: www.neuroethology.org/diversity-aw...
- Reposted by Tom BadenVery 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...
- Reposted by Tom BadenI know there's a 𝒍𝒐𝒕 going on right now, but I couldn’t be prouder to share this long-incubated labor of love: the complete connectome of the male 𝐷𝑟𝑜𝑠𝑜𝑝ℎ𝑖𝑙𝑎 optic lobe 🧠🪰 🔗 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
- I just feel the need to emphasise just how hip and happening these worms with big eyes are! They even made it onto TikTok! youtube.com/shorts/t4M4l...
- Super excited to have received a @hfspo.bsky.social grant with with @neurofishh.bsky.social for our proposal: Eyes inside out: Visual coding without a multilayered retina in squid and worms.
- Reposted by Tom BadenSuper excited to have received a @hfspo.bsky.social grant with with @neurofishh.bsky.social for our proposal: Eyes inside out: Visual coding without a multilayered retina in squid and worms.
- Our esteemed neighbours at Sussex managed to sling a snail onto the cover of PNAS! Come for the synchrotron data, stay for the multi-neuron simultaneous intracellular recordings. And watch this space for even mooooore neurons in the perhaps not so distant future (ominous chuckle…)
- Aw, we got the cover for our new paper on X-ray imaging and atlas building in the snail brain. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... Thanks @pnas.org .. and to @sussexneuro.bsky.social @leverhulme.bsky.social @ukri.org for funding support #invertebrate #brain #neuroscience THREAD: bsky.app/profile/kevi...
- Reposted by Tom BadenFirst attempt at 3D re-constructing the #Horizontalcell from my transduced #chick #retina. Cells can be very dramatic. All you need is a GIF and some Pavarotti notes 🎵 Sample by @neurofishh.bsky.social Great time for some #FluorescenceFriday.
- Reposted by Tom BadenRegistration for ECCN 2025 in Alicante is now open. Do not miss!!! eccn2025.umh.es @neuroalc.bsky.social @umh.es @csic.es @eurnetbrainevor.bsky.social
- Reposted by Tom BadenLooking for a new work bestie? We have options 🐧 We're looking for boating officers, divers, chefs, technicians, plant operators and more to work with us at British Antarctic Survey research stations. These are jobs unlike any other, in one of the most beautiful places on Earth. 🧵 1/2
- Reposted by Tom BadenWe’re hiring a new research fellow. Come join us in London to study glial cells in the ageing retina using killifish as a model. www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/...
- Seeking input: A standardized nomenclature for the rods and cones of the vertebrate retina A number of us have been working on a proposal to bring various disconnected naming systems for the vertebrate rods and cones across species into alignment. The basic proposal looks like this:
- We have written the whole thing up as a short preprint, and we are now inviting community feedback, ideally via the comment function of the preprint server www.preprints.org/manuscript/2...
- The hope is to collect input to help us generate a system that reflects the broadest possible community view at the current time. We would thereafter aim to submit a revised version to a journal for formal consideration
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View full thread..., Wei Li, Rob Lucas, Daniel C Osorio, Karthik Shekhar, Dario Tommasini, Takeshi Yoshimatsu
- Reposted by Tom BadenThe beauty of viral transfection in #avianretina 🐔 Here is a transfected #amacrinecell and some #photoreceptors in a cross-section of a #chick #retina. Great image for #FluorescenceFriday Sample from @neurofishh.bsky.social Green: Viral transfected retina; Red: DAPI for stratification
- Reposted by Tom BadenNominations for all of our medals and awards are still open. From the world's oldest scientific prize, the Copley Medal, to our brand new Environment Medal and Lecture, these prizes celebrate excellence across the sciences and across the globe. Find out more: royalsociety.org/medals-and-p...
- here’s to all the parents whose toddler didn’t get the memo that we are sleeping long today… happy 2025
- Reposted by Tom BadenNew paper on spike sorting www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... with Lydia Ellison, Georg Raiser, Alicia Garrido Peña and George Kemenes. TL;DR: SSSort software now handles overlapping spikes in addition to the extreme spike shape changes it was already good at. github.com/grg2rsr/SSSort
- Reposted by Tom BadenPretty cool what you can do with free tools these days. Live tracking of a frog doing prey capture, using to bonsai-rx.org and sleap.ai
- Vertebrate evolution nerds, help please: I seem to recall that I read something recently suggesting that hagfish might need to be moved about the base of the vertebrate tree of life (away from the lampreys??) but I can't find anything now. All recent work seem to confirm the "original" position
- Did I miss anything? Did I dream this?
- come do a phd at sussex neuroscience! 50-ish labs to pick from, doing neuro-stuff from teeny molecules via the obvious sweetspot (zebrafish) to oversized human brainz
- Our Sussex Neuroscience 4-year PhD Programme is open for applications! Deadline Jan 13th, for Sept 2025 entry. Brilliant community of students and supervisors, and a choice of >60 labs for rotations- come and join us by the sea! www.sussex.ac.uk/research/cen...
- Volume 1 of the "Early Vision" pack is now full-up so I started populating Volume II go.bsky.app/5z7mP26 Addition requests, as before, please fill this google form: forms.gle/4ZdNjejitMQu...at://did:plc:qh4d7pibvw2hs6a7xfi5c6it/app.bsky.graph.starterpack/3lczxh6uotj27
- Volume 1 here, in case you missed it: go.bsky.app/BotZr1gat://did:plc:qh4d7pibvw2hs6a7xfi5c6it/app.bsky.graph.starterpack/3lbzirpz7um2j
- Reposted by Tom BadenJoin us in beatiful Barcelona !!!
- Reposted by Tom BadenMore complete announcement to come, but heads-up about a new summer course on Visual Neuroscience at the MBL, Woods Hole! Hands-on training in imaging, EM, bioinformatics, electrophysiology, visual behavior. From octopus to mouse, from retina to brain! Aug. 1-16, 2025 www.mbl.edu/education/ad...
- yayy :)

- Congratulations @thibautbrunet.bsky.social, @gautamdey.bsky.social, @neuroluci.bsky.social and all others for being selected EMBO YIP!!!👏
- who would have thought that a humble domestic backyard chicken could be so pretty :)
- Let us all be in awe of the anatomical beauty of #avianretina 🐔 Here is a cross-section of a domestic chick #retina displaying some beautiful #bipolarcell and #doublecone markers. Lets do some #FluorescenceFriday Sample from @neurofishh.bsky.social
- Michi is upping the game. From tadpoles to frogs... what could possibly come next??
- And for this #FluorescenceFriday, here’s the sequel. Froglet of the same line from the Sweeney lab.
- For today's #fluorescenceFriday, a transgenic Danionella cerebrum, the world's (second) smallest vertebrate (yep, "stout infantfish" are smaller, but no one has made them glow yet!). Picci by our very own @xinwei-wang.bsky.social
- Early vision Neuroscience community, Vol 1 We are talking eyes, retinas, and some of the more ancestral bits of visual brains. No species restrictions. List is close to full, will start building Vol 2 before too long Addition requests, please see link in the below thread go.bsky.app/BotZr1gat://did:plc:qh4d7pibvw2hs6a7xfi5c6it/app.bsky.graph.starterpack/3lbzirpz7um2j
- For addition requests please use this google form so that I can bulk process. I may 'vet' if I am suspicious, no ill will, just trying to keep the list relevant forms.gle/gqiDzNUFrsv4...
- Made a starter pack for our local bunch here at Sussex Neuroscience, UK (www.sussex.ac.uk/research/cen...) go.bsky.app/GdHegcgat://did:plc:qh4d7pibvw2hs6a7xfi5c6it/app.bsky.graph.starterpack/3lbynp7hrly2e
- Reposted by Tom BadenNeuroscientists! A key message from the ALBA Network Please help us spread the word and share this with your network!!! Nominate (self-n allowed) a mid-career neuroscientist (5+ years post-PhD) for the ALBA-Roche Research Prize for Excellence in Neuroscience! 🔎http://loom.ly/_EvQvm4 🗓️20 January 2025
- Reposted by Tom BadenI recently went to a talk by Tom Baden (@neurofishh.bsky.social). One of the best I've ever seen. It's a radical reinterpretation of what color vision was initially for. And during questions it covered the roles of the green cone and the UV cones (yep, plural) in mouse vision. youtu.be/gzfiUZ2_5pc