Prof. Michael Lin

Stanford Neurobiology and Bioengineering
Precision molecular design / synbiochem.
Also @michaelzlin

[Prof. Michael Lin @MichaelLinLab]

@TheCancerLetter @kevansf Congrats Kevan!

[Arjun Raj @arjunrajlab]

I am proud of the clear, logically consistent writing we pore over by hand in the lab. AI still can't quite automate that, at least not yet. The problem is… I don't think logical consistency is valued by humans as much anymore anyway.

[Frank Noe @FrankNoeBerlin]

Public preview of BioEmu2! @MSFTResearch AI for Science’s new foundation model for biomolecular structure, dynamics and function. Open weights, MIT license.
https://t.co/wsqcLPh8Sk

Movie: BioEmu2-simulated binding of intrinsically disordered peptide PUMA to MCL-1 receptor. 🧵⬇️

[Prof. Michael Lin @MichaelLinLab]

BTW the definition of disruptive research here is a paper that is cited out of proportion to the papers it cites, i.e. has a high cited/citing ratio. Just working on technology would do that. When you reference a new tech, there’s usually no need to cite what happened before

[Prof. Michael Lin @MichaelLinLab]

The study suggests young researchers make more disruptive discoveries, and older ones fewer but more lasting ones.

Perhaps experience, time, and awareness of long-term bottlenecks might be advantages for older researchers to make the more difficult and lasting breakthroughs.

[nature @Nature]

Experienced scientists produce ‘disruptive’ work less often than early-career researchers, but when they do, their innovations are more likely to have a lasting effect

https://t.co/AEZrRqqO6s

[Prof. Michael Lin @MichaelLinLab]

Another possibility: postdocs and young PIs develop and train on the latest methods (RNAi, CRISPR, now AI), and these provide finding that can overturn earlier conclusions, so we get large bursts of disruptive work by younger researchers, but these aren't grand paradigm shifts

[Prof. Michael Lin @MichaelLinLab]

@ChengHuangThu Thanks for sharing! Always fun to see voltage in vivo. It's literally watching the brain at work!

[Prof. Michael Lin @MichaelLinLab]

Excited to announce a powerful new one-two punch for voltage imaging from our lab and collaborators! In two new preprints, we introduce ASAP6c for high-throughput population spike-recording, and ASAP7yfor deep, subthreshold 2P imaging.
🧵 1/14

[Prof. Michael Lin @MichaelLinLab]

@Sergiu_P_Pasca @theNAMedicine That's so awesome, Sergiu! A big congrats; very well deserved!!! 🪅🍾

[Udhayvir Grewal @UGrewalMD]

I’m so sick of reviewers using ChatGPT to review papers. It’s atrocious having to respond to the same garbage from all 3 reviewers where each comment requests 5 new analyses. Just don’t agree to review papers if it’s too much work 🤷‍♂️

Even if you used AI to review my paper- at least ensure the asks are genuine and then choose the most pertinent/relevant comments to include in your review? Is that too much work?

I’m sure journal editors recognize that this is a real problem but can’t do much to rectify this issue.

[Anshul Kundaje @anshulkundaje]

Interesting. If I understood this correctly, TIME once again turns out to be the critical measurement axis that unlocks this mystery.

[sebastiano curreli @ZebaCurreli]

Want to get clean calcium signals from tons of deep-brain neurons in freely moving animals?
​Check our paper https://t.co/kSxPgGzYmC !
We show how correcting GRIN lens aberrations transforms MINI2P performance, revealing sparse HD coding in sensory thalamus!
@ScienceAdvances

[Julio Martinez @JulioMTNeuro]

Autism cannot be reduced to a simple excitation/inhibition imbalance. Inhibition is not one dial: PV, SST and VIP interneurons regulate different compartments, timescales and network states. A circuit can appear globally “balanced” yet remain computationally disorganized.

[The Carboncopies Foundation @carboncopiesorg]

In 1952, Alan Hodgkin and Andrew Huxley developed a mathematical model describing how neurons generate electrical impulses.

Using the giant axon of a squid, they studied how sodium (Na⁺) and potassium (K⁺) currents influence the electrical activity of nerve cells.

[Prof. Michael Lin @MichaelLinLab]

BTW last time I was in Barcelona, 11 years ago, I took the photo that is now in my profile

[Prof. Michael Lin @MichaelLinLab]

As luck would have it, my PhD advisor Mike Greenberg happened to be in Barcelona at the same time as me.

Like a science-y version of a Whit Stillman movie, we chatted about engrams and enhancers while dining over tapas and strolling through the city.

[Prof. Michael Lin @MichaelLinLab]

I presented ASAP voltage indicators, bioluminescent neurotransmitter reporters, and psCas12f photoswitchable gene editors... not optogenetics as defined by the Nobel committee, but still involving photons and genetic tools.

Many thanks to @IBECBarcelona for the invitation!

[Prof. Michael Lin @MichaelLinLab]

Was fun celebrating the recent Nobel with many of the pioneers in optogenetics at Optogen 2026 in beautiful Barcelona — a great place to reunite with old friends.

The conference brought together wide range of approaches, from optical methods to new indicators to clinical trials

[Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute @StanfordBrain]

Institute Director Kang Shen shares congratulations to Karl Deisseroth for his recent Nobel Prize. Karl shares that he started out with an interest in developmental neuroscience and is excited to see the frontiers of the field today.

[Dr. Yi Zuo @YiZuoUCSC]

Our new paper in @NatureNeuro!
Psilocybin remodels synapses differently in healthy and stressed brains, promoting new connections and limiting stress-induced loss.
We also identify distinct mechanisms for plasticity and hallucination-like behavior. #Zuolab
https://t.co/JNfPKSlMg3

[Takaki Komiyama @takaki_komiyama]

Our paper is out in Nature, congrats to Qiyu, An et al!

By stimulating ~20 motor cortex neurons carefully selected based on their activity, we could induce learned population activity and, sometimes, the movement itself, depending on the brain's state.

https://t.co/sdVjsSrhtw