John Tuthill
Neuroscientist at UW studying proprioception and motor control. Promoting the people and work in my lab (www.tuthill.casa). Also pursuing a snow fly side habit (www.snowflyproject.org).
- Reposted by John TuthillI can't overrecommend this incredible paper about water skaters (genus Halobates). No one knows how they evolved. No one knows what they eat. They are superhydrophobic, which means water LITERALLY CANNOT WET THEM. Perhaps we should call them anti-water skaters? 🌊🧪 journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...
- Good to hear from Walter and glad that at least someone is optimistic...
- “As long as we can remain optimistic about the future of science and communicate that optimism to young people, we’re going to be fine,” says Walter Koroshetz, former NINDS director. By @avaskham.bsky.social #neuroskyence www.thetransmitter.org/science-and-...
- A chinchemolle (alpine stick insect) living up at 1600 m on Volcán Antillanca, Chile. Learned when I got home that this species (Agathemera elegans) secretes a spray in self defense that causes temporary blindness. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16989322/
- fascinating story of hydra intrigue
- Reposted by John TuthillThe appropriations bill that includes NIH is being finalized. The Senate bill includes a bipartisan amendment from Senators Capito (WV) and Baldwin (WI) limiting multi-year funding of grants. The House version does not and OMB has issued a veto threat if the House includes such language. 1/3
- Reposted by John TuthillExciting new preprint on oxytocin neural circuits for massage led by Manon Bohic in Vicky Abraira’s lab. Sasha and I were glad to contribute imaging experiments to this collaborative effort, spanning mice to humans. Vicky is a master at bringing people together. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
- the convergence (both evolutionarily and socio-scientifically) of the head direction encoding systems in the zebrafish habenula and fly central complex is one of my favorite corners of neuroscience to watch right now 🍿
- My paper on the head direction neurons in the larval zebrafish is now published on Nature! Read it here: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
- yes, my life was changed by a science paper about ants walking on stilts.
- A 2006 Science paper revealed how ants pull off extraordinary feats of navigation. In the latest “This paper changed my life,” @tuthill.bsky.social discusses how this paper inspired him to consider how other insects sense their own bodies. #neuroskyence www.thetransmitter.org/this-paper-c...
- Reposted by John TuthillExcited to share @rbrianroome.bsky.social ‘s beautiful paper on development of the dorsal horn of the mouse spinal cord @science.org This is how the anatomical organization and cell types that process pain, touch, body position and more are laid down. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
- @annmclemens.bsky.social (and her artwork) is about as far you can get from AI slop.
- PhD position(s)🚨deadline 20th Jan 1-development of brain & behaviour in the precocial spiny mouse tinyurl.com/yaxhy5y2 2-social behaviour & neurophysiology in a menstruating rodent using AI tinyurl.com/ykv93cts apply ✍️ @ai4bicdt.bsky.social @sidb-edinburgh.bsky.social @edinunineuro.bsky.social
- Another banger from Peter Bräunig. His papes are always crazy and understated. Same with Hans Joachim Pflüger. There is just something special insect neuroethologists with umlauts. Bässler is another example. link.springer.com/article/10.1...
- Reposted by John TuthillAscona meetings on neural circuits are amazing conferences in a beautiful setting in Switzerland spanning all scales from genetics and micro-circuit cracking to high level cognition. Check asconacircuits.org for the 2026 program and register soon, as it typically reaches capacity very quickly 🧠🧪
- Registration for the Ascona 2026 Meeting is now open. Go to asconacircuits.org to submit your abstract and register for the meeting! We are looking forward to seeing you in Switzerland this September! Ascona Meeting Organizers
- “By switching from firing sodium to calcium spikes, these neurons implement a ∼180° realignment between the vector encoded in the neuronal population and the fly’s internal compass signal, thus inverting the vector.” A beautiful set of experimental results and analyses. Congrats to Itzel et al.!
- www.cell.com/cell/fulltex... We had a lot of fun working on this project (led by Itzel Ishida, not on bluesky). Some interesting highlights from the paper -
- Reposted by John TuthillHow 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...
- a bright spot in this otherwise dismal year was the journalism and commentary provided by @thetransmitter.bsky.social. i am grateful that this publication exists and i hope @simonsfoundation.org continues to support them.
- Reposted by John TuthillMore news (not good) from NIH The renewal request from National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Stroke Director Walter Koroshetz has been denied. I guess the NIH_leadership™ needed another position to fill with their time-tested recruitment process.
- 0.00003 foot tall xmas tree from a Drosophila flight steering muscle 🎄 image by @anne-sustar.bsky.social
- Reposted by John TuthillAdam Kampff prioritized spreading knowledge over publishing flashy papers in prestigious journals, but colleagues say his mark on neuroscience was undeniable. The researcher and educator passed away on 9 December. By Lauren Schneider www.thetransmitter.org/systems-neur...
- no epstein files today but as consolation it seems that they have finally chosen to declassify the infamous "MODIFICATIONS OF THE FLY FOOT FOR HUMAN NEEDS" technical report from the US Army Tank Automotive Command and it's even more salacious than anticipated apps.dtic.mil/sti/html/tr/...
- Reposted by John Tuthill⚡️Mitochondria make ATP, the energy that powers life. But in neurons, with axons up to a meter long, how do these tiny power plants stay functional in the right places? We went looking. 1/n www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
- Reposted by John TuthillHow 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🧵...
- Grateful to @pewtrusts.org for funding our snow fly work, in collaboration with Sebastian Brauchi at Universidad Austral de Chile. We are now looking for post-docs to work on the biophysical mechanisms that allow snow fly neurons and muscles to function below zero. newsroom.uw.edu/news-release...
- Reposted by John TuthillMultiple anthropogenic stressors can negatively impact species but can a single stressor also have multiple, concurrent impacts? Here we show that light pollution creates several simultaneous impacts to the nocturnal movement ecology of a moth and a spider: tinyurl.com/5eku5bff (1/5)
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- Reposted by John Tuthill*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 ⬇️
- the legend Jim Truman; "my heart is that of an accountant in the body of a scientist"
- How do neural circuits generate the walking rhythm? Using connectome simulations, @sarahpugly.bsky.social found a minimal central pattern generator (CPG) that produces oscillations in leg motor neurons. Same circuit motif for each 🪰 leg. w @bingbrunton.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
- Video abstract for our preprint, “Connectome simulations identify a central pattern generator circuit for fly walking”, bit.ly/4pubCuN Animated by T Sloan @quorumetrix.bsky.social, narrated by @sarahpugly.bsky.social, music by J McNamara, collab w @bingbrunton.bsky.social. youtu.be/twAZlL6olS4
- Reposted by John TuthillLast night Adam Kampff, the glue, the light, the catalyst, the builder, the smile, left us. He and his work transformed the lives of many labs, scientists, students. He inspired and was generous to his last transformation, working tirelessly to set up a foundation to continue the work.Thank you!
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- Reposted by John TuthillHave you ever wondered what you would find if you could keep your eyes on a bee for more than a few meters? Us, too! preprint (with videos!) + thread 🧵 Precise, individualized foraging flights in honey #bees 🐝 revealed by multicopter drone-based tracking www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... 1/9
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- Reposted by John TuthillHappy to share the first paper from my journey at @psich.bsky.social towards X-ray connectomics, now out in @natmethods.nature.com: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
- Reposted by John TuthillOur new paper showcasing molecular connectomics with pan-expansion microscopy is out in @natbiotech.nature.com! www.nature.com/articles/s41... This wonderful collaboration with @bewersdorflab.bsky.social was led by Ons M'Saad (now founder/CEO of Panluminate) and @allisonphysics.bsky.social. (1/5)
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- Reposted by John TuthillI will be co-teaching a summer course at Allen Institute on connectomics education please apply. Travel support, new connectomics data sets and learning directly from the scientists who built these datasets. Details here: alleninstitute.org/events/incor...
- Reposted by John TuthillAbout that exclusive, "closed-to-press" MAHA summit last week with RFK and JD Vance: I got in. Here's what I saw. 🧵 🧪 www.nature.com/articles/d41...
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- Reposted by John TuthillTo study how animals understand the physical world (and the rules that govern its dynamics), @jinyao-y.bsky.social trains rats to play fetch with robots 🐀🤖🎾 To learn more, come to our poster Tuesday morning! [Board W11] Rats learn and use intuitive physics knowledge to solve fetch tasks. #SfN2025
- Reposted by John TuthillA bad thing is unfolding at NIH this week: It looks like the Trump administration is trying to replace key civil servant scientific leaders, the Institute Directors, with political hires. These directors control the NIH budget, tens of billions. A bit of a video explainer here: 1/ 🧪
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- Reposted by John TuthillExcited to share my most recent postdoctoral work in the Jeanne lab @yaleneuro.bsky.social ! “Sensory processing reformats odor coding around valence and dynamics” www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... We ask: how is a sensory code transformed across multiple stages of processing to inform behavior?
- Reposted by John Tuthill@runewberg.bsky.social congrats Rune and team! This looks really cool
- Neural manifolds that orchestrate walking and stopping biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/202…
- Reposted by John TuthillMeet our 2025 cohort of Next Generation Leaders! For the next 3 years, they will network with other rising stars, participate in professional development, and share their ideas for future research directions.
- Reposted by John TuthillAfter 13 years in the US, I’ve made the difficult decision to leave. Having packed up everything and rethought about priorities, rather painstakingly, while I’m sad to leave the life I’ve made here, I’m also relieved that I won’t have to plan my life around immigration policies anymore.
- Do 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...
- thanks to NIH (as always 🥹) and @hhmi.org for supporting @jonesjes.bsky.social Gilliam fellowship.
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- Reposted by John TuthillHow does life evolve to adapt to modern cities? Out now in Science, my PhD work with @lindymcbr.bsky.social uncovers the ancient origin of the “London Underground mosquito” – one of the most iconic examples of urban adaptation. 🧵(1/n) @science.org www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.ady4515
- there is a special lounge in pape heaven reserved for authors who take the time to aggregate and plot out how species vary across a physical variable
- “Cellular Olympics” our catalog of freeky ultra fast cellular superhero’s is freely available “Ann Rev of microbiology” www.annualreviews.org/content/jour... This is a compilation of world’s fastest single cell organisms - enjoy this buffet of rare delightful protists with mind bending speeds. 🧪
- Reposted by John Tuthill🦎THREAD: We just published something wild in @asn-amnat.bsky.social - lizards missing entire limbs not only survive, but some appear to actually thrive in the wild?! Let me tell you about the "three-legged pirate" lizards 🏴☠️ [Paper: www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/... ] (1/n)
- Reposted by John TuthillExcited to announce our new pre-print (www.biorxiv.org/cgi/content/...)! This collaborative work (co-led by Adriane Otopalik and Gerry Rubin) examines how neuronal circuits regulate social behaviors, like courtship🫶 and aggression🥊, across sexes. #neuroscience #Drosophila #WomenInSTEM 🧪1/
- Reposted by John TuthillThe NIH institute director firing last Friday is very bad. I made a video explainer about why. Stay for last post, w link to @science.org story from @jocelynkaiser.bsky.social 1/4 🧪
- First snow fly of the season! From our star volunteer collector, Catherine, who was out in the Pasayten this weekend (Mt. Barney). It's rare to find them that far east of the Cascade Crest.
- Reposted by John TuthillNew essay in @currentbiology.bsky.social special brain-body issue! Fly lab meets psychiatrist: how bodily signals shape cognition and mental health. Great collaboration with Albino Oliveira-Maia showing @champalimaudf.bsky.social discovery ↔️ clinic at its best. www.cell.com/current-biol...
- Reposted by John TuthillWow, nature is too cool! Structures on stinkbug hind legs that used to be interpreted as ears are actually chambers with fungi. The bugs coat their eggs in those fungi to protect them against parasitoid wasps. 🧪 Defensive fungal symbiosis on insect hindlegs | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
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- Reposted by John TuthillLab’s 1st preprint! Menstruation is understudied due to societal taboos + a biological challenge: mice (a key system for research + drug discovery) don’t menstruate. @cagricevrim.bsky.social made menstruating mice + used them to discover early events in menstruation. He is on the job market!
- I’m thrilled to share my postdoc work and the first paper from the McKinley Lab! 🎉 @karalmckinley.bsky.social We built the first transgenic model of menstruation in mice. We used it to uncover how the endometrium organizes and sheds during menstruation. 🧪 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... 🧵
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- Reposted by John TuthillToday my @nytimes.com colleagues and I are launching a new series called Lost Science. We interview US scientists who can no longer discover something new about our world, thanks to this year‘s cuts. Here is my first interview with a scientist who studied bees and fires. Gift link: nyti.ms/3IWXbiE
- peak bloobs right now out in the glacier peak wilderness
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- Reposted by John Tuthill🪰 A team of researchers has unveiled the complete connectome of a male fruit fly central nervous system—a seamless map of all the neurons in the brain and nerve cord of a single male fruit fly and the millions of connections between them. 🔗 hhmi.news/4o3EJnk
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- thanks for speaking out @markhisted.org
- Congrats, Sweta! UBC is lucky to have recruited you and we're so happy to have you back in the PNW neighborhood.
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- last week i spoke with the NPR show @onthemedia.bsky.social about what it feels like serving on an NIH grant review panel as the Trump administration works to defund and destroy US universities and biomedical research www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/otm...
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