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clarahowcroft.bsky.social
Assistant Professor of Neuroscience at Northumbria University, researching social behaviour in Drosophila. https://ferreira-lab.weebly.com/
18 posts 264 followers 176 following
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The lab's first PhD student, Mirjam Heinemans, co-supervised with the fantastic Marta Moita @moitalab.bsky.social, brilliantly presented and defended her thesis today! Massive congratulations Dr Heinemans!!!

Hey #Drosophila folks ! #FlyCROSS is back and #Mentor surveys are open NOW ! If you're a faculty/postdoc/ equivalent in any scientific career & have #Drosophila research experience - we'd be delighted to have you as mentors to empower early career scientists in the #Dros community !

It was a lovely first Fly North(East) meeting, diverse and supportive. Thank you all for sharing your science and the enthusiasm in strengthening our community. Thank you @gensocuk.bsky.social for the sponsorship that made it possible.

Towards more sustainable research: reducing the environmental impact when working with #Drosophila. Challiner, Saurya., Patel, Raff, Fostier, Prokop, A. (2025) @genetics-gsa.bsky.social‬, in press -- doi.org/10.1093/gene... - Always happy to discuss and hear your ideas and views!

We hosted the first North East Fly Meeting today! It was great to connect with people from all over as well as the local universities. A great learning and networking opportunity for us all! Sometimes it's just great to talk flies with all fly people! @clarahowcroft.bsky.social @dpdoupe.bsky.social

It is already tomorrow, our first Fly North(East) England meeting at Northumbria University Newcastle! Co-organized with @toraks.bsky.social @dpdoupe.bsky.social. Looking forward to a day of bulding bridges and discussing how to nurture our network.

🚨 We’re looking for a PhD student! 🧠🪰 Join the Münch Lab at @jlugiessen.bsky.social to study how neural circuits turn sensory input into behavior. We use #Drosophila, combining: 🔬 Imaging 🧬 Neurogenetics 🐝 Behavior 👉 bit.ly/drosophd 🌍 munchlab.org Feel free to share! #PhD #neuroscience #job

Registration is open for the third #NeuroBioUK!! @dozenoaks.bsky.social @alexfellows1.bsky.social and I are excited to see you again in York!

Apparently we do not have a JEDI starter pack yet. @fly-jedi.bsky.social and everyone else: let me know which other Junior European #Drosophila Investigators are missing! go.bsky.app/PcTGEMc

Proud to work @northumbriauni.bsky.social #pridemonth

Excited to share my PhD paper is out! We studied how motion vision is processed beyond the optic lobes to help flies walk straight. It has been a wonderful collaboration with @michaelreiser.bsky.social, @dddavi.bsky.social and many others not in bluesky! Paper + digest here: bsky.app/profile/cham...

Congratulations to our biomedical sciences researchers Dr @emilyhume.bsky.social and Dr Monika Winter, who are among 62 UK researchers awarded grants to further their innovative work by the @acmedsci.bsky.social Springboard programme. #Springboard25 #MedicalResearch 💡Discover more:

The International Society for Neuroethology has a grant for disadvantaged scientists investigating the mechanisms of animal behaviour. Apply for funds to help overcome any barriers you face! Membership fees can be included in your application. Details here: www.neuroethology.org/diversity-aw...

The first paper from the lab is out on biorxiv - enjoy reading! Social context and interactions influence our behavioral decisions - the same is true for the little fly larva!

Join us for a fully funded, 4-year PhD, a collaboration between Northumbria, Durham and Mainz Universities to study the evolution of the neuronal basis of defence behaviours in Drosophila! Application and full PhD advert: www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

Join us for a great collaboration between Durham and Northumbria Universities to study the social lives of mosquitoes!

Join us for a 4-year PhD in Newcastle at @northumbriauni.bsky.social on a fun project (literally)! Building on our recent publication about Drosophila playing on a carousel (doi.org/10.1016/j.cu...), we will explore:

New preprint from the lab!

Very happy to have contributed with behavioural data analysis and visualization to this creative and insightful work! Looking forward to strengthening our collaboration with the @wolfhuette.bsky.social group @northumbriauni.bsky.social

⚠️REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN ⚠️ Interested in the neurobiology of social behaviors? this is your meeting. Join us in the beautiful #Coimbra, next June 9th-12th, 2025. Plenty of very cool science and moments for discussion. Limited spaces, register soon and save your spot! esc-coimbra2025.cnc.uc.pt

A year in review and a year preview! 2024 highlights: 1. Lab up and running @northumbriauni.bsky.social to study the 'Neural basis of social behaviour in groups', with the support of the Applied Sciences department, a @royalsociety.org grant and the continued support of @moitalab.bsky.social

Are you aware of our #Drosophila #art gallery? droso4public.wordpress.com/fly-art/

1/ How do animals integrate different forms of learning? Our @eyalrozenfeld.bsky.social new study in Science Advances shows that active mechanisms prevent the co-formation of competing memories. Here’s what we found! 🧵👇 science.org/doi/10.1126/...

I intended my first post here to be about my own lab's work, but I can't help but sharing this beautifully detailed trailblazing work on freezing behaviour from @moitalab.bsky.social led by the amazing @annahobbiss.bsky.social