News

In a paper published last month in the Journal of Neuroscience, Prof. Erik De Schutter and his former postdoc Gabriela Antunes report that by constructing a computational model of many molecules in a part of the neuron that regulates synapse strength, they have gained new and surprising insight into what determines that strength.

By implanting a tiny drug delivery device into the brains of rats, researchers in OIST’s Neural Computation Unit were able to temporarily lower serotonin levels in the part of the brain responsible for patience, and to show that this loss caused the rats to give up before receiving an expected reward.

With much of the equipment moved in and research units steadily populating its labs, cubicles, and offices, Lab 2, which opened late last month, is swiftly coming to life.

As we grow, an intricate choreography of genetic controls begins to differentiate our cells, turning some genes off and others up to full-blast, eventually yielding fully-formed animals. Researchers at OIST are working to learn more about this choreography.

In a paper published yesterday in Science, a team of researchers that includes OIST's Nick Luscombe shows that the long-accepted view of how male fruit flies manipulate their genes’ activity should be revised. Their finding shows how cells use a single, crucial regulator to change the activity of large numbers of genes at the same time.

One of the cornerstones of scientific research at OIST is the removal of boundaries between departments and fields, but art conservator Anya McDavis’ work goes one step further, bridging gaps between art, history and science.

The Biodiversity and Biocomplexity Unit, led by Evan Economo, uses classic tools of taxonomy—as well as genomic sequencing and computer modeling—to study how species evolve, move around, and adapt to their environments.

Professor Alexander Mikheyev of the Ecology and Evolution Unit and his collaborator Professor Steven Aird are studying snake venom to better understand the stories it tells.