Chengjie “Benji” Qiu 邱承杰

Neuroscientist, Dickman lab @ USC | Synapses are cool.

[Chengjie “Benji” Qiu 邱承杰 @ChengjieQ]

Beyond thrilled to share my new paper out now in @PNASNews ! We asked: how do excitatory synapses detect a sudden hit to GluRs and rapidly restore transmission? They don’t just sense “less current” – they monitor the structural changes of GluRs and react. https://t.co/164oNABLNu

[Cell @CellCellPress]

Now online! Multimodal imaging of gene expression, morphology, and activity of the same neuron https://t.co/a9GOwT56jm

[Justin Bosch @jakbosch]

Excited to share that our tissue-secretome work is now PUBLISHED in @NatureComms!

Original preprint tweetorial below 👇

Final paper expands bioinformatic analyses and details improved HDR donor plasmids for Gal4/GFP knock-ins (at @Addgene, @DrosDGRC).

https://t.co/C7xD1fUuzQ

[Ah-Ram Kim @ahramkim1128]

High-resolution nanopore peptide sensing, profiling and sequence assembly https://t.co/DYqQRv6aC2

[Olivier Borkowski @O_Borkowski]

Rapid Affinity Characterization of Cell-Free Expressed Nanobodies Directly in Lysate with Biolayer Interferometry via Antigen-Immobilized Biosensors
https://t.co/NOQSEXfi2C

[Michael Lin, MD PhD 🧬 @michaelzlin]

Today I’m excited to share our new study in Nature Biomedical Engineering @natBME, in which we used protein engineering to create a therapeutic able to completely eradicate metastatic ovarian cancer in mice. 🧵
https://t.co/ehvIp9EqEb

[Chengjie “Benji” Qiu 邱承杰 @ChengjieQ]

Almost burned my entire session limit with one prompt🫢😂

[Suni @suni_code]

DON'T USE FABLE 5 TO BUILD PERSONAL PROJECTS
DON'T USE FABLE 5 TO BUILD PERSONAL PROJECTS
DON'T USE FABLE 5 TO BUILD PERSONAL PROJECTS
DON'T USE FABLE 5 TO BUILD PERSONAL PROJECTS
DON'T USE FABLE 5 TO BUILD PERSONAL PROJECTS
DON'T USE FABLE 5 TO BUILD PERSONAL PROJECTS

I repeat.

DON'T USE FABLE 5 TO BUILD PERSONAL PROJECTS

[ShorterLab @ShorterLab]

A functional map of the human intrinsically disordered proteome | PNAS https://t.co/4q7C5WTfLz

[Chengjie “Benji” Qiu 邱承杰 @ChengjieQ]

This⬇️x100

[Shae McLaughlin @shae_mcl]

It’s estimated that the Protein Data Bank (PDB) cost around $13B to create. Alphafold was only possible because of it. If we want ML to solve biology, we should be funding the creation of databases and the development of new assay technologies. ML is nothing without data.

[Furukawa Lab CSHL @Lab_FURUKAWA]

https://t.co/VcfWx4VutW
Why does Mg²⁺ block NMDARs while Ca²⁺ gets through? Using large #CryoEM datasets, we captured hydrated Mg²⁺ and partially dehydrated Ca²⁺, followed by extensive electrophysiology to probe this long-standing question. Pls take a look!

[Thomas Brody @interactivefly]

Nern, A., Loesche, F., Takemura, S. Y., Burnett, L. E., Dreher, M., ...., Romani, S., Saalfeld, S., Scheffer, L. K., Berg, S., Rubin, G. M., Reiser, M. B. (2025). Connectome-driven neural inventory of a complete visual system. Nature, 641(8065):1225-1237 https://t.co/vXwJVSjvJ5

[Thomas Brody @interactivefly]

Manoim-Wolkovitz, J. E., Camchy, T., Rozenfeld, E., Chang, H. H., Lerner, H., Chou, Y. H., Darshan, R., Parnas, M. (2025). Nonlinear high-activity neuronal excitation enhances odor discrimination. Curr Biol, 35(7):1521-1538. https://t.co/U22aLVBexD

[Nature Methods @naturemethods]

PinkyCaMP: a red genetically encoded calcium indicator with improved brightness and stability. @LabMasseck

https://t.co/qah1ZsCjd1

[Nature Rev Neurosci @NatRevNeurosci]

Large-scale electrophysiology at single-spike resolution — a Review by Joshua H. Siegle & Nicholas A. Steinmetz

https://t.co/LDnMNDCboO

[Nature Methods @naturemethods]

Antigen-stabilizable fluorescent nanobodies that become fluorescent upon binding intracellular targets enable background-free multicolor imaging and biosensing in living systems. @EinsteinMed @salkinstitute @animmerj

https://t.co/SdODbQg5KT

[Kenneth Loi @kenjmloi]

Excited to share our discovery of a new programmable RNA-guided DNA-targeting system hiding inside bacteriophages that predates CRISPR.

We call it VIPR (Viral Interference Programmable Repeat), and it uses an entirely new logic to find its targets.

Thread + link below.

[Deepa Rajan, PhD @DeepaHRajan]

Link to paper in @CurrentBiology. Thank you to co-authors @aralbright93 @Dey_Gautam and more. @UCSF @UCSFGradDiv @UCSFMedicine @UofCalifornia
https://t.co/xaKhhq8osJ 14/n

[TK Kozai (BIONICLab.org) @BIONIC_Lab]

A neuron that fires is not the same as a neuron that communicates. We tracked functional connectivity between neuron pairs near chronically implanted electrodes. They were alive. Spiking. But uncoupled from their neighbors. The local circuit was fragmented.

[Chengjie “Benji” Qiu 邱承杰 @ChengjieQ]

Rethinking about the concept of “virtual fly”: walking behavior can be produced in a simulated fly body with a worm brain as the commander.

Quoting John’s words: Virtual animals are powerful, but ONLY if brain-body interfaces are grounded in biology. A model that walks like a fly might just be a worm in disguise.

The digital sphinx: Can a worm brain control a fly body? https://t.co/xwEGXPRQgR