Happy New Year!
I just realized I’ve been writing one “News” post per year… maybe we should rename this tab from News to Yearly Summary. 🙂
2025 was a lot—in the best way.
1) People: big transitions, new faces
First, our team changed in major ways.
- Kevin accepted a Research Scientist position in the van Breugel Lab at the University of Nevada, Reno in May.
- Michael graduated and started a new job over the summer—congratulations!
- Juntian graduated with a master’s degree this summer—congratulations, Juntian!
- Tarandeep began his PhD journey at Rutgers University in the fall—congratulations, Tarandeep!
While we said goodbye to several labmates and friends, we also welcomed new members.
- Irina joined the lab as our new lab manager and scientist. Her deep expertise in neuroanatomy is already adding tremendous value to our lab’s technical toolbox.
- New undergraduate researchers joined: Noah Strake, Madison Conroy, Molly Finn, and Kristen Vacca (Widener University).
- Sumaya Noor also started volunteering with the lab in December—welcome, Sumaya!
2) Research: our first paper (and more to come!)
We’re thrilled to share our first paper—a story about a pair of neurons in the taste center that helps convert sweet sensation into a positive, real-time value signal, and relays that signal to the brain’s learning center through an ascending pathway.
This matters because sweet is not always “good”—its value can shift with internal state, past experience, and context—so the brain needs a flexible way to assign value in real time.
Check it out!
Christie K*, Dadyala T*, Sinakevitch I, Chung P, Ito M, Shao L.
A pair of interneurons that assign positive real-time valence to sweet sensation in Drosophila.
(2026) Current Biology 36, 1–13.
*Equal contribution
This study is scheduled to be published online on January 29, 2026. It will be highlighted by a Dispatch authored by Dr. Anita Devineni and covered in a UDaily research story the same day.
Wonderful job and congratulations to the FOX TEAM!
3) Presentations, conferences, and awards
In October, the lab attended the Neurobiology of Drosophila meeting together—one of my favorite conferences. Nick, Madison, and Lisha presented, and Madison received a graduate student travel award.
We also ended the year with a strong showing at the Delaware Neuroscience Research Symposium on December 15, 2025:
- Lisha gave an opening talk about the Fox story.
- Madison gave a lightning talk and won 2nd prize.
- Nick’s poster received 1st prize for poster presentation.
In addition, Sarah received an INBRE summer scholarship for undergraduates, the DiAngelo Summer Research Fund, and the Harward Munson Fellowship for winter research. Congratulations!
4) A new home: moving to Building X
Last but not least, we relocated to the brand new Building X over the summer!
Thank you to everyone who helped make the move happen—especially Tarandeep, Madison, Sarah, and Nick. Your dedication and effort made the move smooth and our new space beautifully organized. The relocation would not have been possible without you!!!
