Funded Projects

A top priority for people with paralysis is reach and grasp ability. Technologies such as robotic arm prostheses or electrically stimulating paralyzed muscles can meet this need. Existing methods rely on the remaining muscles, are unintuitive and require laborious sequences of simple commands. Reading out a patient’s desired movement directly from their brain could overcome these limitations.

Yi Lui's project aims to use deep brain microstimulation (DBMS), which causes even less brain damage and has higher spatial resolution than DBS, for memory recovery.

Dr. Brandon Jay Bhasin will use engineering principles from modern control theory, experimental neuroscience and computational neuroscience to significantly advance understanding of how feedback driven plasticity in a tractable neural circuit is orchestrated across multiple synaptic sites and over various timescales so that circuit dynamics are changed to improve performance.

Creating new tools to help neuroscientists bridge the study of genes and proteins operating in the brain to the study of brain circuits and systems, which could lead to a deeper understanding of brain function and disease.

The goal of the project is to create a transformative sensor technology to measure complex forms of chemical communication in the living brain, in real time.

Dr. Dante Muratore's goal is to design the next generation of neural interfaces that allow single-cell resolution when communicating with the nervous system. To achieve this, he has conceived a new way of reading information from the neural system.

Project's stimulation method may provide a powerful tool to reduce disability after a stroke, and the wearable form factor allows users to receive intensive therapy during their normal daily routine

Developing a protein-engineered nerve implant that mimics the biochemical and mechanical cues of native tissue in order to enhance the potential for neural regeneration following injury.

The project aims to alleviate this bottleneck by developing a weak supervision system that optimally deals with time-series data and takes advantage of multiple data modalities.

We propose to design a lightweight, wearable system for integrated ultrasonic drug uncaging and fUS neuroimaging to noninvasively pharmacologically modulate a brain target and then image the resultant changes in neural activity without significant motion limitations.

We believe our research has the potential of generating transformative results for both neuroscience research and neurological applications, also offering strategies to manipulate key intracellular pathways to prevent gliosis in therapeutic neural implants.

Communication between cells in the nervous system regulates the senses, memory, and information processing. Using electrical and biochemical sensors, such as patch clamps, voltage-sensitive dyes, and calcium-sensitive dyes, scientists have mapped with extraordinary detail the interactions of the nervous system.

Neural circuits can exhibit remarkable stability (e.g., when supporting long-term memory) as well as flexibility (e.g., when supporting rapid learning).

This team is developing wearable stimulation devices to improve limb function after stroke. The technology includes a tactile stimulation method, and the wireless, lightweight, and low-cost wearable computing devices to apply this stimulation.

What are the principles that guide curiosity-based exploration? What is the neural circuitry that implements curiosity? How can insights related to the phenomenon of curiosity improve the education and capabilities of humans and artificially intelligent agents? To address these questions, Isaac Kauvar will take an interdisciplinary approach — positioned at the intersection of computer science, neuroscience, and psychology.

Multicellular organisms consist of numerous cell types with specialized biological functions. To understand such complex biological systems, genetic access to each cell type is needed for functional analysis and manipulations.

Sensorineural hearing loss is an increasingly prevalent condition that causes disability to over a third of US adults aged over 65. We are developing a breakthrough device to restore high-frequency hearing that preserves residual hearing through a reversible and minimally invasive approach.