Our kind of fireworks: fruit fly neurons stacked in a rapid succession of rainbow colors. This video shows a small sampling of the more than 135,000 neurons in a typical fruit fly's brain, imaged by researchers at our Janelia Research Campus using multicolor flipout technique 🎆

Proud to celebrate #HHMIInvestigator Rachel Green’s (@JohnsHopkins) election as an Associate Member to EMBO — a lifelong honor recognizing research excellence & outstanding achievements in the life sciences: bit.ly/4aZ3Kfs.

Misfolded tau proteins spread between cells & form toxic clumps that drive Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, ALS & more. #HHMIInvestigator Roy Parker's team found a way to target them in real time, reducing their growth & improving brain function in mouse models: bit.ly/4aklodm.

Over a 32-year career as an #HHMIInvestigator, @harvardmed’s Connie Cepko helped transform how we understand the retina, and how blindness might be treated. Her advice? "If you have a novel idea you believe in, go for it." bit.ly/4gN9Zqp

These stunning single-celled organisms can shape-shift & regenerate. Their trumpet-like shape inspired their name: stentor, after the herald in Greek mythology known for his booming voice. 📸: Confocal microscopy by Igor Siwanowicz, HHMI’s Janelia Research Campus

100 years after “Hechtian structures” were discovered, #HHMIInvestigator José Dinneny & co. have ID'd the purpose of tiny anchors that secure plant cell membranes to their walls — a finding that could help scientists improve crops' drought resistance: bit.ly/3Q7hVbh.

Analyzing large datasets is one of the most complicated parts of lipid research. So #HHMIInvestigator Tobias Walther's lab @MSKCancerCenter built LipidCruncher: a free, open-source, step-by-step platform that makes results easier to reproduce & share: bit.ly/3QWca0o.

Could we reprogram the immune system to fight the effects of aging? #FreemanHrabowski Scholar Corina Amor Vegas & team engineered CAR-T cells to ID & destroy "zombie cells" that accumulate during aging & drive inflammation, frailty, & metabolic decline: bit.ly/4xkeeQh

Northern lights < neurons firing across a mouse brain. Blue & red dots = synapses between neurons; green lines = sections of a pyramidal neuron. Captured by Boaz Mohar at our Janelia Research Campus using Z-stack scanning and lightsheet microscopy.

#HannaGray Fellow Marissa Scavuzzo grew up knowing basic science changes lives — now she studies support cells called glia. Her msg to prospective HGF applicants: "You have nothing to lose & everything to gain" (& sometimes, 2x is the charm). Opens 11/3! bit.ly/HGF26

Extraterrestrial invasion? As otherworldly as this looks, these are real organisms called desmids: microscopic, single-celled green algae found in swamps. Imaged w/ confocal microscopy — cell walls in blue, chloroplasts in red — by Igor Siwanowicz at our Janelia Research Campus

Serving others & caring for community are values #FreemanHrabowski Scholar Lucas Cheadle learned from his father, & they now inspire how he leads his lab @cshl. And the FHS program? "Not just about excellent science ... it's a community." Apps open 11/3! bit.ly/fhs26

Janelia is built for this moment. Starting today, we're taking on 2 big bets: cracking how a vertebrate brain generates behavior & building AI-in-the-Loop — a new way of doing biology. Tiny transparent fish 1 of neuroscience’s biggest questions? Let's go hhmi.news/2BigBets

Celebrating #FreemanHrabowski Scholars Timothy Machado & Kara Marshall, recipients of the 2026 McKnight Scholar Award! The award recognizes exceptional early career scientists whose work is shaping the future of neuroscience: bit.ly/4xzUR5U.

#HHMIInvestigator Eric Betzig & team use a single microscope that does the work of a dozen, capturing life in 5D. But the data it generates is too vast for humans to analyze alone, so they're building an AI to unlock MOSAIC's full potential: bit.ly/3RN2GVj

Wheat, rice & corn feed the world; #HHMIInvestigator Mary Gehring's lab has built a gene expression “map” of seed development in a plant model that could help improve crops' ability to withstand environmental stress: bit.ly/4u1p62y.

Those tiny bumps on your tongue have a name: taste papillae, home to the taste buds behind every flavor you’ve experienced. Confocal microscopy paints a mouse's taste papillae in vivid color: pink taste buds, yellow nerves, & blue-green nuclei. 📸 Dany Gaillard & Linda Barlow