The Transmitter

3 days ago | thetransmitter.org | Calli McMurray

The scientists behind a major Drosophila genetics database are scrambling to secure new funding to maintain the resource after their nearly $2 million grant was canceled in May by the Trump administration. The repository, FlyBase, contains information about every Drosophila gene, phenotypic data and links to relevant research papers and other public databases, including available tools and genetic stocks.

1 week ago | thetransmitter.org | Ivan Oransky

Gerry Fischbach was one of the first people I met when I joined the editorial advisory board of Spectrum—now The Transmitter—just over a decade ago. I had heard of Gerry’s pioneering work as a neuroscientist and as a dean or director of some of science’s leading institutions: Columbia University, the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) and others. So I was a bit intimidated, to be honest, when he joined a meeting of the board. But any anxiety was quickly put to rest.

1 week ago | thetransmitter.org | Angie Voyles Askham

The Trump administration has canceled two grants—among the slew of U.S. federal grants terminated at Harvard University in recent months—that together provided more than $4 million in funding to map more of the mouse brain than ever before. The grants were awarded by the National Institutes of Health’s BRAIN Initiative Connectivity Across Scales program, which launched in 2023 to scale up connectomic capabilities.

1 week ago | thetransmitter.org | Sydney Wyatt

Donald Hebb famously proposed in 1949 that when neurons fire together, the synaptic connections between them strengthen, forming the basis for long-term memories. That theory—which held up in experiments in rat hippocampal slice cultures—has shaped how researchers understand synaptic plasticity ever since. But a new computational modeling study adds to mounting evidence that Hebbian plasticity does not always explain how changing neuronal connections enable learning.

1 week ago | thetransmitter.org | Calli McMurray

ReporterThe Transmitter Share this article: Tags: Vision, Calcium imaging, Cephalopods, Evolution, History of neuroscience The Niell Lab’s research interests are apparent the moment you enter the team’s space. An eyeball balloon hangs from the ceiling, and a relief sculpture of a bloodshot, veiny eye peers into the lab from above the door.