Postdoctoral researcher at @JohnsHopkinsSPH ; Neuroscientist ; Computational Biology. Person who stutters; Opinions are my own
Baltimore, MD
Joined September 2009
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Incredibly proud to share our newest work where we developed a multiscale spatial transcriptomic atlas of the human amygdala using three complementary technologies! 1/12 🧵 biorxiv.org/content/10.64898…
What’s the lowest level of performative grift these AI tech CEOs will stoop to look impressive?
Last night an AI agent performed brain surgery on a mouse.
We gave it 19 gene therapy vectors in a spreadsheet, a mouse model of epilepsy, access to a motorize surgery rig with cameras and one goal: reduce seizures.
It picked the drug. It picked the brain region. It derived the coordinates from three papers. Then it drove the stereotaxic arms into the brain and injected 250 nanolitres while watching the entry site through the rig camera for bleeding.
A licensed vet gated every irreversible step and held a physical kill switch to stop the AI agent.
Thread on what it decided, what it saw, and the moment it refused to let me override it.
[Writing this on the spot out of excitement, but I've been 18hrs in front of my laptop coding and coordinating this, so keeping it brief and descriptive, more cohesive thoughts on this soon...]
Stimulus-specific recruitment of human amygdala neurons predicts episodic memory encoding success nature.com/articles/s41593-0…
Michael Totty retweeted
The Sahay Lab is seeking a talented postdoctoral scientist to leverage exciting preliminary data and investigate lipid signaling mechanisms regulating cognition and healthspan. Please repost. Thank you.
The Ideal Candidate:
· Possesses a strong track record of peer-reviewed publications.
· Holds a PhD in molecular and cellular neuro/glial biology with a focus on metabolism
How to Apply:
Email your application directly to me.
Arrange for three letters of reference to be sent directly to my attention.
Explore our science at sahaylab.com/publications to learn how it informs our understanding of the neurobiology of cognition in neurodevelopmental disorders, aging, and Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Visit sahaylab.com/the-team to see the success of trainees from the lab (academia, industry, K99s etc).
We look forward to reviewing your application and learning more about your background.
Michael Totty retweeted
Discovery often comes from putting familiar pieces in unexpected ways: but bio space is too vast to do that effectively?
🤖 1000s of AI agents helped connect our whole-brain Perturb-seq atlas w literature. w @OpenAI @joyjiao12: more coming! See preprint biorxiv.org/content/10.64898…
GPT-Rosalind surfaced a new lead for drug discovery: could restoring cholesterol transport protect neurons from degeneration?
DCTN1 is a gene linked to Perry syndrome, a rare neurodegenerative disorder. In mouse-brain data, disrupting it increased expression of genes involved in making cholesterol. GPT-Rosalind suggested a possible explanation: cholesterol may not be reaching where neurons need it.
That gives scientists a specific mechanism to test and, if confirmed, a direction for developing new treatments for neurodegenerative disorders.
With @perturbai_tx and @scrippsresearch, a team of thousands of GPT-Rosalind agents worked in parallel, connecting gene-expression results from millions of mouse brain cells with scientific literature in just 32 minutes. We’re now expanding this collaboration to identify new drug targets.
openai.com/index/scaling-ai-…
Michael Totty retweeted
Congratulations to our first #NobelPrize laureate of 2026 🎉
Early this morning Karl Deisseroth found out he was awarded this year's Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
He seems very happy with the news!
ALT Karl Deisseroth on the phone looking happy
It's a bit of a buzz kill seeing a $500k cancer research donation happen on College Gameday and knowing it's probably going to fund a single 'omic experiment.
Michael Totty retweeted
My department is hiring! Come join a vibrant and thriving neuroscience group. New faculty are exceptionally well supported and we offer a very collaborative/collegial environment. employment.utah.edu/salt-lak…
We also developed web-based apps for exploring each of these datasets freely on your browser! I'm a big fan, so please check them out! You can find them along with the analysis and links to raw data files on the landing page for our github repo. 11/12 github.com/LieberInstitute/s…
