Dweck's lab (https://www.dwecklab.com/)studies the neurobiology of ecological niche adaptations using Drosophila suzukii as a a model. We also study chemoreception in spotted lanternflies and other harmful insects. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7017-5020
Postdoc opening in my lab! Looking for someone excited about genomes, symbionts and plant–insect interactions to join our team at @thesainsburylab.bsky.social. 🧬🍄🌿🦟
Applications reviewed from 16 Nov.
buff.ly/WZtMcGs
VACANCY: Postdoctoral Researcher in the Berasategui Lab at TSL, Norwich, UK
@berasymbionts.bsky.social
Work at the interface of evolutionary genomics, plant pathology and insect symbiosis, within a world-class research environment.
Application review starts 16 Nov 2026
buff.ly/WZtMcGs
After four wonderful years at the CAES, our lab is moving to TAMU Entomology (@tamuentomology). I am very excited about this new chapter. We will be hiring three postdocs to start early next year. Please contact me if you are interested.
Right. Let’s give this another try….
My laboratory is looking for a motivated postdoc in the field of Neurobiology. We have multiple exciting projects, NIH funding. Experience using the Drosophila model is preferable.
Please share
Job ID: 60378
erecruit.umsystem.edu/psc/tamext/K...
On Thursday, students checked the results of their 24-hour SLF behavioral experiment and began the volatile extraction process for the Tree of Heaven! Students are becoming experts at pipetting!
Today was definitely fun. We not only welcomed our 2026 summer cohort of high school students, but they also worked in the lab and the field on a very warm day.
BIZARE! Bombardier beetles defend themselves mixing hydroquinone and hydrogen peroxide in an internal chamber, triggering an explosive chemical reaction, producing a 100C/212F scalding toxic liquid that they pulse at predators!
Here is a banger! Our new paper in @currentbiology.bsky.social is out! We have used museomics to sequence a 45yr old specimen of Drosophila enhydrobia, a rare and most unusual fly whose larvae are aquatic(!) and predatory(!). Very cool, big success.
authors.elsevier.com/sd/article/S...
Soleil, a high school student and a UConn's NRCA Conservation Ambassador, represented our lab at the 2026 Environmental Changemakers Showcase. Way to go Soleil!
Please repost! This comes from the good people at ChimeraX, who produce powerful up-to-date software to study protein (etc) structures, which are FREE to the community. 🙏
To stay viable and serve us, they need an experienced structural biologist to assume the leadership role on a funded project.
Delighted to share our new editorial in @FrontPlantSci 🌱
As Guest Editor, I helped shape this collection exploring the multifunctional roles of plant VOCs in plant defense, sustainable pest management, advancing plant–insect ecology and agroecology.
🔗 www.frontiersin.org/journals/pla...
nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com?url=https%3A...
I’m thrilled to share my journey from the kitchen to the lab, which has ultimately led me to publish in Cell Journals. I hope you enjoy reading my latest paper:
New @currentbiology.bsky.social paper from Dr. Leila Elabbady on neural circuits that transform a touch stimulus into spatially targeted grooming.
Leila discovered a leg somatotopic map and used it to infer tactile receptive fields in the fly VNC connectome.
authors.elsevier.com/a/1mvu83QW8S...
The NASA live stream is terrific but low on visuals for the mo (nearly 600k ppl watching and the audio is fab). So great to see this brief image of an iphone picture of the moon taken by one of the astronauts.
Excited to share our work exploring how fly larvae flexibly adjust their foraging decisions based on resource quality and valence, shaped by prior experience 🪰🥳! Check it out: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Along with @katrinvogt.bsky.social , @akhila1498.bsky.social and Klára Tučková we combine long timescale (3 hr) behavioral tracking of Drosophila larvae in patchy environments with varying statistics, along with quantitative analysis and computational modeling, to dissect foraging strategies. 1/n
Why is Spotted Wing Drosophila attracted to fruit at its prime, instead of overripe fruit like other flies? Xue and Dweck found the neuron receptor shifts responsible for this $500M agricultural problem, in this impressive 2-author work out of the CT Ag Experiment Station!
I am very happy to share that the latest work from the lab, led by Dr. Qi Xue, has been published in PNAS and is now online: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
I am very happy to share that the latest work from the lab, led by Dr. Qi Xue, has been published in PNAS and is now online: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Just a friendly reminder as we go into the holidays:
Folks don't have to explain to you why they don't drink.
If you offer them a drink and they decline, don't ask them why. It's not your business.
Just offer them something without alcohol to drink instead. And move on.
#microsky#mevosky@spp2389.bsky.social
A PhD position is available in my lab to work on:
Emergence and self-organisation of bacterial metabolism in consortia of cross-feeding bacteria.
Please RT
Deadline: 12.11.25
More infos 👇
shorturl.at/rAKAT
A revised version of our preprint now includes results from D. biarmipes Or67a paralogs, data from a second D. suzukii Or67a4 mutant, and a model describing how Or67a paralogs are expressed in two distinct neuronal types in D. suzukii. Stay
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Exciting to share our great story on the evolution of Drsophila suzukii preference shifting from rotten fruits to ripe fruits. Thanks to Dr. Hany Dweck!!!
Our first big preprint, led by the great Dr. Qi Xue
@Qi_Xue_94
. We discovered three mechanisms for olfactory adaptation in the fruit pest Drosophila suzukii, two of which are novel .Well Done Qi; you will be a great professor. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
🎈Our latest 🪅
We know that in addition to exteroceptive mechanisms, interoceptive chemosensation is also critical for regulating physiology/behavior.
We find that an enteric neuron in worms senses ingested salts via a variant ionotropic receptor (IR like the fly IRs) to regulate salt stress. 1/n
An enteric neuron-expressed variant ionotropic receptor detects ingested salts to regulate salt stress resistance https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.04.11.648259v1
spotted lanternfly peeps, check out this new paper from my labmate Katherine's masters work! super cool application of community science in NYC ~ doi.org/10.3954/JAUE...
Neural circuits that link genetic variation to #behavior: This study of mate choice behavior in Heliconius cydno #butterflies shows that alterations to the peripheral nervous system, driven by genetic & gene expression differences, can alter essential behaviors 🧪 @plosbiology.orgplos.io/4iHQDRd