Funded Projects

These tools will enable us to dissect how myelin contributes to specific brain circuits and types of neurons, bringing us closer to a holistic understanding of how cells in the brain collaborate to build a functional nervous system.

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.

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.

By performing a molecular and neural network analysis across behaviorally divergent pair bonding species, Dr. Jessica Nowicki will use the power of comparative analysis to reveal core mechanisms that regulate pair bonding.

Dr. Daniel Bear propose to augment state-of-the-art neural networks with two biologically-inspired properties: the ability to represent the physical world as it changes over time and the ability to learn from self-created signals rather than explicit human instruction.

Developing an automated seizure detection and localization system based on deep neural networks, EEG data, and real-time video with the goal to dramatically increase neurologist diagnostic capabilities while improving quality of care.

This proposal brings together faculty with this diverse expertise to develop the first gold standard test of auditory-vocal affect. Once developed, validated, and normed, we will deploy this test in the clinical context of autism to quantify impairments and direct neurobiological investigation.

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

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.

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.

Human movement results from the coordination of muscles, tendons, joints, and other physiological elements.

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. Darian Hadjiabadi aims to identify higher-order features of neuronal circuits responsible for seizure initiation and propagation by quantifying mesoscale-network reorganization in genetic models of zebra sh that faithfully recapitulate seizure dynamics in humans.

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.

Understanding how glia regulate the expression and/or post-translational modification of sodium ion channels may lead to the identification of new pharmaceutical targets for the treatment of pain.

G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) are proteins that exist within the cell membrane and act to transfer the information encoded within neurotransmitters and drugs into cell responses. GPCRs exist throughout the body in several systems including the nervous system.

Investigating how the brain develops from infancy to adulthood across species, focusing on how the interplay between structural development, functional development, experience and affect brain computations and ultimately behavior.

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 NeuroPlant Initiative aims to leverage a botanical armamentarium to manipulate the brain — by building a pipeline to explore chemicals synthesized in plants as potential new treatments for neurological disease and as a window into the chemistry of the brain.

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.