Our research is at the interface of Biomedical Engineering and Neuroscience. We apply engineering knowledge from various fields including microscopy (optics, hardware and software), image and signal processing, and statistical modeling to facilitate addressing scientific questions in circuit neuroscience, epilepsy and gene expression regulation.
What I find most exciting about interdisciplinary research is that it evolves in unexpected directions and forces the researchers to dive into many different areas of knowledge. It’s an exciting journey of learning and discovery!
Current research projects
- Development of super-resolution microscopy technology, in particular based on Expansion Microscopy
- Development of novel methods for simultaneous imaging of neural activity and behavior
- Development of novel analysis methodologies for making sense of large biological datasets, in particular in the context of neuroscience and developmental biology
- Establishing and utilizing the larval zebrafish as an epilepsy model
Completed research projects (a partial list)
at MIT
- Adaptation and application of Expansion Microscopy (ExM), a super-resolution fluorescent nanoscopy technology, in larval zebrafish brains and zebrafish embryos. In this project we demonstrated the utility of ExM in the context of a diversity of neuroscience and devleopmental biology applications.
at Stanford
- Two-Photon in vivo calcium imaging of visual processing neurons in fruit flies. In this project we inferred how temporal and spatial features of visual stimuli are encoded in the activity of these neurons.
- Statistical modeling and analysis of walking fruit fly behavior. The goal of this project was to gain insight into the neural mechanisms that give rise to behavior by capturing its structure and stochastic characteristics; and enable quantifying how behavior is modulated in response to visual stimuli and as a result of genetic manipulations.
- Using tools from coding theory, bioinformatics and molecular biology to efficiently extract DNA sequence information.
- Developing hardware and software for a massively parallel two-photon microscopy system for imaging neural activity in fruit flies.