@Pignatelli_Lab

PI at @WUSTLmed, physician-scientist, synaptic physiologist interested in affective disorders. Personal, unaffiliated, account.

 St Louis, MO
pignatellilab.org/
Joined April 2016
  • Tweets1.7K
  • Following931
  • Followers1.1K
44Media
Why do individuals with late-stage cancer sometimes struggle with motivation and experience profound apathy? In this multi lab effort ⁦@KepecsLab⁩ ⁦@JanowitzTobias⁩ and my lab we are tackling this question 👇🏻 😊 science.org/doi/10.1126/scie…

A neuroimmune circuit mediates cancer cachexia-associated apathy

Cachexia, a severe wasting syndrome associated with inflammatory conditions, often leads to multiorgan failure and death. Patients with cachexia experience extreme fatigue, apathy, and clinical...

science.org
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Marco Pignatelli retweeted
The Nobel Prize
@NobelPrizeOct 5
To understand how the brain forms memories, feelings and behaviours has long been a dream for researchers. Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel have been awarded the 2026 #NobelPrize in Physiology or Medicine for discoveries leading to optogenetics, which makes it possible to switch on, or off, the activity of individual nerve cells in a living brain. This method is now being used in laboratories around the world to reveal the brain’s mysteries.
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Big deal 🥰
NEJM
@NEJMMay 31
Presented at #ASCO26: Among patients with previously treated metastatic pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, the RAS(ON) inhibitor daraxonrasib led to significantly longer overall survival and progression-free survival than chemotherapy. Full phase 3 RASolute 302 trial results: nej.md/4nWaxvM @ASCO
Graph from a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine on daraxonrasib versus chemotherapy for metastatic pancreatic cancer. The x-axis represents months, and the y-axis shows the percentage of patients alive. Two lines indicate survival rates: daraxonrasib (blue) and chemotherapy (gray). The bottom section lists patients at risk over time. Title and journal logo are included.

ALT Graph from a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine on daraxonrasib versus chemotherapy for metastatic pancreatic cancer. The x-axis represents months, and the y-axis shows the percentage of patients alive. Two lines indicate survival rates: daraxonrasib (blue) and chemotherapy (gray). The bottom section lists patients at risk over time. Title and journal logo are included.

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This is pretty neat ! ☺️ Targeting insulo-frontal pathway to reduce stress-evoked cognitive rigidity | Nature Communications nature.com/articles/s41467-0…

Targeting insulo-frontal pathway to reduce stress-evoked cognitive rigidity

Nature Communications - How chronic stress causes cognitive rigidity remains unclear. Here, the authors show that stress disrupts error signals from the anterior insula to the prefrontal cortex...

nature.com
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Today is a sad day. May your soul RIP. In Memory of Howard L. Fields - International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP) iasp-pain.org/publications/i…

In Memory of Howard L. Fields - International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP)

IASP is deeply saddened to hear of the recent death of Honorary IASP Member, Prof Howard Fields, and we offer our condolences to his family, friends and colleagues. We are […]

iasp-pain.org
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A brain reward circuit inhibited by next-generation weight-loss drugs in mice | Nature nature.com/articles/s41586-0…

A brain reward circuit inhibited by next-generation weight-loss drugs in mice

Nature - Humanized glucagon-like peptide 1 receptor (GLP1R) mouse models are used to investigate the neural circuitry through which small-molecule GLP1R agonists modulate feeding, with implications...

nature.com
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Very nice ! ☺️
Cell Reports@CellReportsApr 23
Midbrain endocannabinoids actuate dopamine-based action selection dlvr.it/TSBLQm

Midbrain endocannabinoids actuate dopamine-based action selection

Dopamine signals guide adaptive responses to reward- and threat-predictive cues, yet the mechanisms shaping these rapid dynamics remain unclear. Luján et al. identify midbrain endocannabinoid...

cell.com
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Happy Birthday #rome 2779 years and still going strong ❤️
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🧵 We’re hiring a Staff Scientist at @NIH @NIAAAnews ! Ready to lead research that bridges the senses, the brain, and human health? Read on. 👇
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Nice ! The dynamics of AMPA receptors underlies the efficacy of ketamine in treatment resistant patients with depression | Molecular Psychiatry nature.com/articles/s41380-0…

The dynamics of AMPA receptors underlies the efficacy of ketamine in treatment resistant patients...

Molecular Psychiatry - The dynamics of AMPA receptors underlies the efficacy of ketamine in treatment resistant patients with depression

nature.com
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Great opportunity ! 👇🏻 Staff Scientist | Office of Intramural Training & Education at the National Institutes of Health training.nih.gov/jobs/ss-032…

Job listings

training.nih.gov
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A small polymerase ribozyme that can synthesize itself and its complementary strand | Science Molecular basis for the origin of life?! 😊 science.org/doi/10.1126/scie…

A small polymerase ribozyme that can synthesize itself and its complementary strand

The emergence of a chemical system capable of self-replication and evolution is a critical event in the origin of life. RNA polymerase ribozymes can replicate RNA, but their large size and structural...

science.org
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Super cool ! Can’t wait to try this ☺️
allen institute@AllenInstitute23 Dec 2025
Replying to @AllenInstitute
The new glutamate indicators were announced today in @naturemethods. nature.com/articles/s41592-0…

Glutamate indicators with increased sensitivity and tailored deactivation rates

Nature Methods - iGluSnFR4f and iGluSnFR4s are the latest generation of genetically encoded glutamate sensors. They are advantageous for detecting rapid dynamics and large population activity,...

nature.com
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A global screen for magnetically induced neuronal activity in the pigeon brain | Science Very cool 😍 science.org/doi/10.1126/scie…

A global screen for magnetically induced neuronal activity in the pigeon brain

How animals detect Earth’s magnetic field remains a mystery in sensory biology. Despite extensive behavioral evidence, the neural circuitry and molecular mechanisms responsible for magnetic sensing...

science.org
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😳 pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.25…

Tattoo ink induces inflammation in the draining lymph node and alters the immune response to...

Despite safety concerns regarding the toxicity of tattoo ink, no studies have reported the consequences of tattooing on the immune response. In thi...

pnas.org
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This is very cool 😊
bioRxiv Neuroscience@biorxiv_neursci19 Nov 2025
GABA-glutamate corelease is a mechanism for state-dependent neurotransmission biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/… #biorxiv_neursci

GABA-glutamate corelease is a mechanism for state-dependent neurotransmission

Ventral tegmental area neurons projecting to lateral habenula (LHb) corelease the main inhibitory and excitatory transmitters, GABA and glutamate (VTAGG). Yet the functional role of this synchronous...

biorxiv.org
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👇🏻great opportunity here !
Niko Massaly@MassalyNiko21 Oct 2025
🚨 Please RT! We’re recruiting a motivated postdoc to dissect the neurocircuits of affective pain. Expertise in behavioral models of pain/SUDs, stereotaxy, microscopy, opto/chemogenetics, or fiber photometry encouraged. Apply 👉 recruit.apo.ucla.edu/JPF1064… #Neuroscience #Postdoc
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Great collaborative work with the Monosov lab ☺️
monosov_lab@MonosovLab21 Oct 2025
How do non-neuronal CNS cells called astrocytes contribute to cognition & computation? See our preprint Headed by my students Julia Pai and Fatih Sogukpinar, also working with Hiratani, Pignatelli, Papouin, Frank, and Ching labs. This was a huge effort biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/…

Ventral striatal astrocytes contribute to reinforcement learning

Astrocytes influence synaptic plasticity and neuronal function through astrocytic calcium dynamics (ACD). However, astrocytes’ contribution to cognitive operations like reinforcement learning (RL)...

biorxiv.org
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Marco Pignatelli retweeted
monosov_lab@MonosovLab21 Oct 2025
How do non-neuronal CNS cells called astrocytes contribute to cognition & computation? See our preprint Headed by my students Julia Pai and Fatih Sogukpinar, also working with Hiratani, Pignatelli, Papouin, Frank, and Ching labs. This was a huge effort biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/…

Ventral striatal astrocytes contribute to reinforcement learning

Astrocytes influence synaptic plasticity and neuronal function through astrocytic calcium dynamics (ACD). However, astrocytes’ contribution to cognitive operations like reinforcement learning (RL)...

biorxiv.org
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Some hope out there 🤩 Phase 1/2a clinical trial of hESC-derived dopamine progenitors in Parkinson’s disease: Cell cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092…

Phase 1/2a clinical trial of hESC-derived dopamine progenitors in Parkinson’s disease

High-purity dopaminergic progenitors were generated from human embryonic stem cells, and their safety and exploratory efficacy were evaluated in a single-center, open-label, dose-escalation phase...

cell.com
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A Eulogy for Nolan Ryan Williams, M.D. Big loss. 😭 may his soul rest in peace 🙏 thefrontierpsychiatrists.sub…
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