Joe Zaki

I’m happy to share my main PhD work now published! 🥳🥳🥳 We found that a salient emotional experience can be linked with a memory from days ago, and this linking occurs through co-activity of the two memory representations during a period of rest.

New paper out in @CellReports! Led by @susie_feng, we found that chronic epilepsy in mice drives distinct synchronization deficits in hippocampus and MEC, with early changes in HPC and late-onset changes in MEC that align with progressive memory deficits. cell.com/cell-reports/f…

Interested in how neural communication breaks down in a model of Alzheimer's pathology? In a new preprint, we found desynchronization in medial entorhinal–hippocampal circuits that coincided w/ the onset of spatial memory deficits in 3xTg mice. (1/6) biorxiv.org/content/10.110…

Astrocyte physiologists and computationalists! Imaging astrocyte structure and function, we discovered and quantified a spatial threshold to astrocyte calcium surge ⭐ doi.org/10.7554/eLife.…

📣 As promised, here is our protocol paper on chemotagging! This new technique combines calcium imaging with chemogenetics to identify cell types in commonly used Miniscope recordings & can be used to tag ANY CELL TYPE! Read about the technique here: biorxiv.org/content/10.110…

Thank you @NIHDirector, Dr. Bertagnolli, for sharing my lab’s recent work! I’m so proud of the team and first author @mysteriousjoe_ for all the hard work they put into these exciting new findings about how memory-linking can shape our future experiences 🧠

THANK YOU Dr. Bertagnolli (@NIHDirector) for highlighting this important research by @mysteriousjoe_, @denisejcai et al.✨

❓ Do you know what the anterior hypothalamic nucleus (AHN) does? No? Neither did we! 🧠 In a new preprint from the Cai Lab, learn how we discovered the AHN’s central role in regulating stress vulnerability. Read the paper here: biorxiv.org/content/10.110…

DON'T MISS @_TheTransmitter's GREAT OVERVIEW of TWO NEW STUDIES that "reveal how, during times of fear & stress, memories can become malleable..." HIGHLIGHTED, @denisejcai, et al.'s "Offline ensemble co-reactivation links memories across days" @Nature thetransmitter.org/memory/stress-…

PRESS RELEASE! @mysteriousjoe_ @denisejcai, et al. uncover mechanism in brain that constantly refreshes memory ➡️ could have important implications for better understanding adaptive memory processes as well as maladaptive processes. @Nature👉tinyurl.com/ycxfmat2

📣 New Cai Lab paper in @CellReports! We show that a stressful experience can produce different types of memories! We also find that the basolateral amygdala (BLA) & ventral hippocampus (vHC) differentially contribute to these memories 🧠 cell.com/cell-reports/f… More ⬇️ (1/6)

Excited to announce our new paper from Anthony Lacagnina (@brainpodcast), @neurotriee, *et al.*, in which we show that extinction of contextual associations, whether aversive or appetitive, is governed by ventral hippocampal SST+ interneurons. cell.com/cell-reports/f…

I'm thrilled to share that I'm joining @bcm_neurosci as an asst prof starting Jan 2025! My group is broadly interested in how biological and artificial neural systems learn and adapt. We're looking for researchers at all levels to join us in this exciting endeavor. Stay tuned!

It's finally out, on Joe's last day in the lab before heading off to postdoc! We asked whether a putative "social" brain area does anything unique with social cues when they're not used for any social reasoning. Turns out it does! nature.com/articles/s4146…

I defended my thesis last week! So grateful for the very generous support and guidance that my advisor @kaymtye gave me over the past 5 years, as well as for my amazing lab mates, my superstar team (Team LoneLee!), postdoc mentors, thesis committee, friends, and family. 🙏😁

It's out ‼️ 📢 Check out my PhD work with @kbath77! We find that early life adversity in mice disrupts central amygdala CRF+ neuron activity, augmenting the startle reflex in response to threat. doi.org/10.1038/s41467…

Today marks 3 big events: finishing residency, launching my lab @MountSinaiPsych @SinaiBrain, & receiving my 1st R01: @NIMHgov $4.2M BRAINS Award! Here’s to kicking off new beginnings + a warm welcome to my lab manager @sam_mbp_, grad student @emma_andraka & the growing team!🧠🐁

wrote up a little something about odor and spatial integration in the rodent brain. 🗺️🐀🌸 written with the twitter-less Nell Klimpert, Jason Ritt, and Alex Fleischmann :) Check it out ✨ frontiersin.org/journals/neura…

New preprint from the lab! 🚨 Replay of procedural experience occurs in the striatum and is independent of the hippocampus. Heroic effort by @EmmettJThompson & the rest of the team @_JasvinKaur, @_GeorginaMills, @dorrell_will, @ClementineDomi6, @TomNotGeorge 🧵👇1/13

It's days like this that make me LOVE my job! Our annual Shuman-Cai summer "bye bye" where we say farewell and congratulations to our team members moving on to their next adventure. Bittersweet memories of a day spent with the BEST people 💜