Lab News
August 6, 2026
The fourth iteration of our Embodied Brain Technology practicum, in its second year held at Brown and complete with a ghost tour, bioluminescence, an empathetic teddy bear, fatigue-sensing glasses, noise-filtering ear buds, and 3D printed statues of dolphins, has come to a bittersweet end. This year’s practicum united students from Ben Gurion University, Brown University, Central Michigan University, and the University of Rochester for 12 intensive days of training in idea generation, product design, measurement and analysis of biological signals, market analysis, and pitch presentation. To learn more about the practicum and to apply for the 2027 iteration, visit theembodiedbrain.org and send us an email!
July 6, 2026
Congratulations to Dr. Eric Teboul, recipient of a prestigious NIH F32 fellowship!
May 11, 2026
BLADe is here! This bioluminescent activity-dependent tool links intracellular state to researcher-defined reporters. Read the paper, A bioluminescent activity dependent platform, BLADe, for converting intracellular activity to photoreceptor activation, in Scientific Reports.
December 2, 2025
CaBLAM! Our new paper in Nature Methods has been published! A truly interdisciplinary, multi-institutional effort, this work is representative of the possibilities of team science. Read the paper, CaBLAM: a high-contrast bioluminescent Ca2+ indicator derived from an engineered Oplophorus gracilirostris luciferase, lead by our colleagues at UCSD, to learn more about using bioluminescence to monitor intracellular calcium.
August 1, 2025
Our Embodied Brain Technology practicum, a neurotech collaboration between Brown University and Ben Gurion University supported by Lewis and Ina Heafitz ‘66, was a great success! Read more about the practicum in News from Brown! To learn more about the practicum and to apply for the 2026 iteration, visit theembodiedbrain.org.
July 1, 2025
We’re proud to announce receipt of a new W. M. Keck Foundation award, “A New Mechanism of Brain-Body Coupling: Rapid, Local Dynamics of the Blood-Brain Barrier.” Read more about the award in News from Brown!
May 1, 2025
Congratulations to graduate student Seneca Scott, recipient of a prestigious NIH F31 fellowship!
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July 1, 2024
Congratulations to Dr. Kevin Turner, recipient of a prestigious NIH F32 fellowship!
June 28, 2024
Take a look at our new paper, led by graduate student Eric Klein, “BioLuminescent OptoGenetics in the choroid plexus: integrated opto- and chemogenetic control in vivo” in Neurophotonics!
June 20, 2024
New paper alert! Check out “Neocortical inhibitory imbalance predicts successful sensory detection” in Cell Reports led by Dr. Christopher Deister.
May 7, 2024
Read our new paper in Neurophotonics, “Toward a brighter constellation: multiorgan neuroimaging of neural and vascular dynamics in the spinal cord and brain” led by Moore Lab alumnus Dr. Dmitrijs Celinskis.
April 8, 2024
Congratulations!! Dr. Sinda Fekir successfully defended her PhD thesis, “Ventral tegmental area regulation of dynamic blood brain barrier permeability.”
March 6, 2024
Read the most recent results of our collaboration with researchers at Central Michigan University and the University of California, San Diego: “Efficient opto- and chemogenetic control in a single molecule driven by FRET-modified bioluminescence,” our new publication in Neurophotonics.
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August 24, 2023
Congratulations to Dr. Meghan Gallo for successfully defending her PhD thesis, “Behavioral opportunism: Neural and behavioral adaptations to adverse early life environments.” Meghan was co-advised by Drs. Kevin Bath and Michael J. Frank.
April 14, 2023
Congratulations to Dr. Alexander Ian More for successfully defending his thesis, “Diverse behavioral representation by neocortical PV interneuron dynamics converges between SI and V1.” Ian will begin postdoctoral research at Boston University with Drs. Chand Chandrasekaran and Jennifer Luebke working on optotagging PV cells in the frontal cortex during decision-making.
February 24, 2023
The Moore Lab held its annual retreat at the RISD Nature Lab. Lab members shared research updates and received feedback on their ideas and plans for experiments. View photos from the retreat on the “Lab Life” page!
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November 16-17, 2022
The Bioluminescence Hub hosted the 4th NeuroNex Investigator Meeting: Beyond Neurons in San Diego, California. The NeuroNex community convened for talks by Dr. Patrick Drew of Penn State University and Dr. Laura Lewis of Boston University, participated in a series of four interactive workshops, and engaged with other researchers in a poster session. Learn more at on the meeting page and view posters from the meeting on neuronex.org.
October 27, 2022
Check out a new paper from our Bioluminescence Hub collaborators at Central Michigan University using BL-OG to recover function after spinal cord injury: “Improved Locomotor Recovery in a Rat Model of Spinal Cord Injury by BioLuminescent-OptoGenetic (BL-OG) Stimulation with an Enhanced Luminopsin” in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences.
July 19, 2022
Congratulations Dr. Celinskis! Co-advised by Prof. Moore and Prof. David Borton, Dmitrijs successfully defended his Biomedical Engineering PhD thesis, “Multi-site and Multi-modal Imaging Methods for Studying Spinal, Brain and Vascular Dynamics.”
July 6, 2022
New publication! Read “A call for more clarity around causality in neuroscience” in Trends in Neuroscience to learn more about the variety of concepts referred to by the term “causality” and how we think they might be better described.
January 11, 2022
Optical synapses are here! Read “Selective control of synaptically-connected circuit elements by all-optical synapses” in Communications Biology and the accompanying news highlights on the NeuroNex and Carney Institute for Brain Science websites. This work was made possible by contributions from all four participating laboratories in our NeuroNex Technology Hub collaboration.
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November 1, 2021
Check out our new manuscript on bioRxiv, “Selective control of synaptically-connected circuit elements by all-optical synapses” led by our colleagues in the Hochgeschwender Lab at Central Michigan University and contributed to by members of all four laboratories comprising our NeuroNex Technology Hub.
October 15, 2021
Congratulations to Sinda Fekir, winner of a 2021 Diversity Specialized Predoctoral to Postdoctoral Advancement in Neuroscience (D-SPAN) Award! Learn more in a press release from the Carney Institute for Brain Science.
September 17, 2021
Congratulations to Emmanuel Crespo, lead author of the new paper STAR Protocols, “Bioluminescent optogenetic (BL-OG) activation of neurons during mouse postnatal brain development” from the Hochgeschwender Lab, our collaborators at Central Michigan University and members of our NeuroNex Technology Hub. Want to try BL-OG? Check out our E-Z Guide and order an LMO3 mouse from Jackson Laboratory.
July 1, 2021
We are hiring a postdoctoral researcher to study behaviorally-relevant information processing in non-neural systems using a combination of multi-photon, bioluminescent, and optical control tools. Apply via Interfolio!
April 15, 2021
Congratulations Arif Hamid, PhD and collaborator Michael Frank, PhD on our new paper in Cell: “Wave-like dopamine dynamics as a mechanism for spatiotemporal credit assignment.”
March 19, 2021
Our new NeuroNex Technology Hub publication, “Selective postnatal excitation of neocortical pyramidal neurons results in distinctive behavioral and circuit deficits in adulthood” in iScience demonstrates the utility of our BioLuminescent-OptoGenetic (BL-OG) constructs in vivo. Want to try BL-OG? Check out our E-Z Guide and order an LMO3 mouse from Jackson Laboratory.
February 16, 2021
Congratulations to Moore Lab alumnus Manuel Gomez-Ramirez, PhD, now at the University of Rochester, who has won a 2021 Sloan Research Fellowship in Neuroscience!
January 26, 2021
We are thrilled and grateful that the Carney Institute for Brain Science has received a $25 million gift to support computational brain science at Brown.
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December 2, 2020
Closing out 2020 with a new publication: “Layer 6 ensembles can selectively regulate the behavioral impact and layer-specific representation of sensory deviants” in eLife led by Moore lab alumnus Jakob Voigts, PhD! Be sure to check out the video about this work on Jakob’s twitter feed (see tweet 7/11).
September 21, 2020
Check out our new publication in Neuron led by Fred Shipley in collaborator Maria Lehtinen, PhD’s group: “Tracking calcium dynamics and immune surveillance at the choroid plexus blood-cerebrospinal fluid interface.”
August 18, 2020
Many thanks to ConvergenceRI for the article about The Bioluminescence Hub, an NSF NeuroNex Technology Hub led by Chris Moore, PhD, Diane Lipscombe, PhD, Ute Hochgeschwender, MD and Nathan Shaner, PhD.
August 11, 2020
Our LMO3 BioLuminescence-OptoGenetics (BL-OG) mouse is now available at Jackson Labs! Start by reading our E-Z Guide to LMO3, then order a mouse and try your own behavior, development, nervous system repair, or other research question. We can help you get started; email bioluminescencehub@gmail.com or use the “Contact Us” form on this site.
July 20-24, 2020
Graduate student Dmitrijs Celinskis is presenting his paper “Miniaturized devices for bioluminescence imaging in freely behaving animals” at the (virtual) 42nd Annual International Conferences of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society in conjunction with the 43rd Annual Conference of the Canadian Medical and Biological Engineering Society. View a video presentation of his work here!
June 30, 2020
Chris Moore, PhD was featured on the podcast Once a Scientist where he discussed identifying heroes, building mental models, engaging students, and the meaning of discovery. Listen here!
May 19, 2020
Congratulations to graduate student Eric Klein, who has won an NRSA predoctoral fellowship!
April 28, 2020 — Ongoing
Carney Conversations, a new series co-moderated by Associate Director Chris Moore, PhD has begun. Tune in as experts discuss a variety of brain science topics. View a list of topics and select an interview to watch now!
March 2, 2020
A new paper co-led by Chris Deister, PhD presents the results of an investigation of the neural basis of hypersensitivity to touch in a mouse model of autism. Read the paper in Nature Neuroscience and the press release from MIT.
January 22, 2020
Human Neocortical Neurosolver (HNN) is now online! Led by Dr. Stephanie Jones’ group at Brown, this open-source software is available to researchers to explore their EEG/MEG data and make hypotheses about human brain circuits in healthy and diseased states. Read the paper in eLife and check out the HNN website.
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December 15, 2019
Chris Moore, PhD and Ken Berglund, PhD (Emory) have published a Commentary in the Journal of Neuroscience Researchentitled, “BL-OG: BioLuminescent-OptoGenetics.” Included in a special issue, this paper provides and overview of BL-OG and describes its advantages as tool for neuroscience research. Read the paper and learn more about BL-OG. Ready to get started? Consider LMO3!
August 2, 2019
Congratulations Dr. Shin! Hyeyoung has successfully defended her PhD and will begin research as a Postdoctoral Associate at the University of California, Berkeley.
July 19, 2019
Graduate student Hyeyoung Shin and Chris Moore, PhD published a paper in Neuron entitled, “Persistent gamma spiking in SI nonsensory fast spiking cells predicts perceptual success.” This work describes the discovery of “time-keeping” neurons that function like a metronome, spiking rhythmically and separately from responses to sensory input. Read a press release in News from Brown.