Kepecs Lab
@KepecsLab
1/ Why do late-stage cancer patients lose motivation & sink into apathy? 🔥Our new Science paper shows cancer activates a cytokine-sensing brain circuit to lower motivation.Great work by Aelita Zhu @sarahstarosta @Pignatelli_Lab @JanowitzTobias &team!🧵 🔗 doi.org/10.1126/scienc…
Why does CAR T-cell therapy cause "brain fog"? In a landmark study @michelle_monje et al. show white-matter inflammation drives cognitive deficits. Blocking these, either resetting microglia or dialing back their chemokine response restored myelin & rescued attention+memory!
CAR T cell therapy can be life-saving, but like many other cancer therapies, can cause long-term “brain fog”. We discovered the cellular dysregulation underpinning this and a strategy to rescue the cellular and cognitive dysfunction in mice.
We need bodyoids with brainoids inside!
Controversial opinion..but organoids are not brains and if you want to understand cognition, you can’t study it in a dish.
We worked so well as a team for the #GRCPsychedelics @VVyazovskiy @MelissaHerman4 @ViditaVaidya and congrats to @TheBorisLab and @MikaelPalner, who will be the future vice-chairs!
Reducing animal use is a worthy goal but mechanistic discovery, the engine of biomedical progress, still requires animal models. Translation is vital and challenging and could be improved with these initiatives. Just don’t conflate the two.
While I’m a big fan of new technologies that help us study human biology…there’s still no replacement for animal research! I wrote an article outlining this in @GENbio genengnews.com/topics/transla…
Can’t believe #GRCPsychedelics is happening in two weeks! We reached capacity attendance – sorry we could not accommodate everyone. We look forward to seeing many of you at the meeting. w/ @VVyazovskiy @ViditaVaidya @MelissaHerman4
This chart made by Peter Gleick shows the proposed cuts to science graphically. This is bad for America. Please ask Congress to save science. #FundingScienceSavesLives
This budget proposes to cut the NIH by nearly half, a 40% reduction. The NIH has been responsible for an extraordinary number of lifesaving cures and has been an economic power engine unitedformedicalresearch.org/nih-in-your-st… Ask Congress to save science. #FundingScienceSavesLives
The most vocal ‘protector of minorities’, sitting on billions of private dollars, is the first to retreat because of the risk of tax on their endowment. Ridiculous and shameful!
As a former @HHMINEWS Gilliam fellow, I’m deeply disappointed to see HHMI cancel the Hanna Gray this year and pause all competitions. @leslievosshall, Erin O’Shea — this was a moment to lead with vision, not retreat.
Meet the Area Postrema!
Cancer muscle wasting-associated apathy is result of tumour-induced inflammation & brain circuitry interaction 📷 Xiaoyue Aelita Zhu & Sarah Starosta et al @KepecsLab @Pignatelli_Lab @JanowitzTobias @WashUMedNeuro in @ScienceMagazine ➡️ bpod.org.uk/archive/2025/5… + @rooph
Cancer muscle wasting-associated apathy is result of tumour-induced inflammation & brain circuitry interaction 📷 Xiaoyue Aelita Zhu & Sarah Starosta et al @KepecsLab @Pignatelli_Lab @JanowitzTobias @WashUMedNeuro in @ScienceMagazine ➡️ bpod.org.uk/archive/2025/5… + @rooph
Beautiful study by my colleagues showing the synaptic mechanisms for ketamine "anti-anhedonic" effects. @FedeLucantonio and @Pignatelli_Lab
Very proud to see this beautiful artwork, highlighting @FedeLucantonio's paper, made by our talented former lab member @qwinkledink on the cover of @NeuroCellPress ! 🤩 Aleesha is now launching her career as a digital illustrator aleeshashi.com please, check her work!
Most people don’t understand how *new* most cancer treatments are. The treatment that cured my lymphoma was developed when I was a teenager. The treatments that will cure our children’s cancers are being put on hold right now.
Tons of talented scientists are losing their funding because a bunch of very rich people want a tax cut. Countless cures and treatments will be postponed or perhaps they will never come to fruition.
Nobel laureate Bill Kaelin on Killing the Science Golden Goose. "This is especially worrisome because becoming a scientist is largely taught by apprenticeship, with each generation teaching the next. We risk losing the next generation, our “seed corn”" amjmed.com/article/S0002-…
Congrats to Hysell Oviedo, PhD, who has been installed as the Roger M. Perlmutter Career Development Assistant Professor of Biomedical Research. Read more about her research journey that started with a lecture on echolocation in barn owls and bats. neuroscience.wustl.edu/hysell-oviedo-…
After 7 years, thrilled to finally share our #MICrONS functional connectomics results! We recorded activity from ~75K neurons in visual cortex in a single mouse, then mapped its wiring using electron microscopy. To systematically characterize neuron function, we built the first…