Establishing a national strategy for shared research resources in biomedical sciences.

Contemporary science has become increasingly multi-disciplinary and team-based, resulting in unprecedented growth in biomedical innovation and technology over the last several decades. Collaborative research efforts have enabled investigators to respond to the demands of an increasingly complex 21st century landscape, including pressing scientific challenges such as the COVID-19 pandemic. A major contributing factor to the success of team science is the mobilization of core facilities and shared research resources (SRRs), the scientific instrumentation and expertise that exist within research organizations that enable widespread access to advanced technologies for trainees, faculty, and staff.

Retinal inputs signal astrocytes to recruit interneurons into visual thalamus.

Inhibitory interneurons comprise a fraction of the total neurons in the visual thalamus but are essential for sharpening receptive field properties and improving contrast-gain of retinogeniculate transmission. During early development, these interneurons undergo long-range migration from germinal zones, a process regulated by the innervation of the visual thalamus by retinal ganglion cells. Here, using transcriptomic approaches, we identified a motogenic cue, fibroblast growth factor 15 (FGF15), whose expression in the visual thalamus is regulated by retinal input.

The Next 50 Years of Neuroscience.

On the 50th anniversary of the Society for Neuroscience, we reflect on the remarkable progress that the field has made in understanding the nervous system, and look forward to the contributions of the next 50 years. We predict a substantial acceleration of our understanding of the nervous system that will drive the development of new therapeutic strategies to treat diseases over the course of the next five decades. We also see neuroscience at the nexus of many societal topics beyond medicine, including education, consumerism, and the justice system.

Developmental Remodeling of Thalamic Interneurons Requires Retinal Signaling.

The dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus (dLGN) of the mouse is a model system to study the development of thalamic circuitry. Most studies focus on relay neurons of dLGN, yet little is known about the development of the other principal cell type, intrinsic interneurons. Here we examined whether the structure and function of interneurons relies on retinal signaling.