Well well well, they said it was impossible but we did it Joe! The Castro Lab is officially a pancreas lab! Our recent collaboration with @washumedicine David Piston, Chen Kong, and @Jeongmini_L showing that mu opioid receptors on pancreatic alpha cells regulate glucagon! Link 👇

Thrilled to share our paper online @Nature (on my birthday)! We've identified a new population of LepR neurons (BNC2) in the hypothalamus ARC that acutely suppresses appetite by directly inhibiting AGRP neurons, decoding the missing LepR GABAergic neurons. nature.com/articles/s41586-0…

My second manuscript from graduate school is now on bioRxiv! We generated a comprehensive scRNA-seq dataset of mouse OPCs from young adult to aged animals with the hope of providing a reference dataset for everyone to dig into! tinyurl.com/aging-opcs

Very happy to share this work in final form. This was such an exciting, and challenging, project with our long-time collaborator @ProfJohnARogers. Great work by the team & many thanks to collaborators in the @jomoronc lab, and others. What a team. science.org/doi/10.1126/scia…

New Powerful Psychedelic-Deliriant Potion from Southern Africa... Firstly, this just-published study reported the identification of two new Psilocybe mushroom species, P. ingeli and P. maluti, from Southern Africa together with reports of traditional use... "This appears to be the only recorded firsthand report of hallucinogenic mushrooms being used traditionally in Africa and the first mention of hallucinogenic mushroom use in Sub-Saharan Africa." However, it isn't the use of the mushrooms themselves that's most interesting to me, but what they're combined with. I like studies that not only refer to traditional usage, but also give a recipe: "A brew is made by collecting large quantities of P. maluti and steeping the mushrooms in warm water, along with Boophone disticha." The combining of Boophone disticha (Century Plant) (below) with Psilocybe mushrooms is most intriguing... B. disticha contains a number of toxic alkaloids, including buphanamine, which acts similarly to the deliriant scopolamine found in Datura, Mandrake, etc. See this thread for a discussion of how they work in the brain: x.com/alieninsect/status/148… Concoctions of B. disticha bulbs alone when taken orally cause sedation, visual hallucinations, irrational behaviour and, at high doses, coma or death. From a case report: "A man ingested 150 ml of a concoction to see who placed a spell on him. He started to hallucinate, thinking that somebody was attacking him. He pulled his gun and fired shots randomly, killing one person and injuring others." "The Psilocybe and Boophone extract,referred to as seipone sa koae-ea-lekhoaba, is consumed by the patient, who is then placed in front of a reflective surface and relays the hallucinations/visions seen in the reflection to the healers who interpret these as answers to the patient’s spiritual questions... A decoction containing both buphanamine and psilocybin sounds like an extremely powerful visionary potion, but is certainly not one I'd recommend to anyone... Full paper: tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.…

🧠 New insights into migraine mechanisms! The study reveals that KATP channels in the meninges are crucial in triggering migraine-related hypersensitivity in mice! ⁦@IASPpain⁩ ⁦⁦@hmru_cph⁩ ⁦@ihs_official⁩ ⁦@EHF_Official⁩ journals.lww.com/pain/fullte…

Why are some neurons more selective than others? We report now in @Nature how calcium permeable-AMPA receptors in PV neurons make them less selective to sensory features nature.com/articles/s41586-0… Long live the geniuses behind this🧠🔍juhyun.kim @thainmueller @rhuganir

Folks, My lab is hiring a Res Associate with experience in mouse model for cancer biology or neuroscience to investigate cancer and pain. My team is very supportive, friendly, and flexible. Please apply here. #researchjobs #pain #CancerResearch fa-eomf-saasfaprod1.fa.ocs.o…