News
June 2025
We are delighted to have Adrian, Brooke, Erla, Natalia, and Yuval
join us this summer to explore neural networks! They represent Brown,
Dartmouth, Boston College, and Cambridge universities!
May 2025
Many congratulations to our SAND group members who are completing their
undergraduate degrees this May and June! Best wishes on your next adventures!
April 2025
We very much enjoyed working with our collaborator Kasia (Aarhus University)
in person during her two visits to combine electrophysiology recordings with
spatial transcriptomics!
We very much enjoyed working with our collaborator Kasia (Aarhus University)
in person during her two visits to combine electrophysiology recordings with
spatial transcriptomics!
December 2024
Warm wishes from our SAND team in Boston. We had a great time at our holiday party!
Warm wishes from our SAND team in Boston. We had a great time at our holiday party!
November 2024
Our manuscript introducing our microelectrode array network analysis pipeline (MEA-NAP) is
published today at Cell Reports Methods, and our design was selected for the cover!
November 2024
We are so excited about the opportunities he will have next year at the University of
Oxford. MIT press release
November 2024
Check out our new method for detecting state changes in MEA recordings
now available online on arXiv! The Factorial Switching Linear Dynamical Systems
model was created by our collaborators at the University of Texas--Austin,
Yiwei Gong and Sinead Williamson.
November 2024
Our manuscript introducing our microelectrode array network analysis pipeline (MEA-NAP) is
now available online at Cell Reports Methods!
November 2024
We are delighted that Sanjana Potlapelly is joining us as a research assistant at the Brigham
and Women's Hospital to work on combining network function and spatial transcriptomics!
October 2024
Our manuscript introducing our microelectrode array network analysis pipeline (MEA-NAP) has
been peer-reviewed and accepted for publication at Cell Reports Methods! We are excited to share
this computational tool with the wider research community!
this computational tool with the wider research community!
October 2024
We are delighted that Dr. Ziadoon Al-Akashi is joining us as a postdoctoral research associate at the Brigham
and Women's Hospital to work on network function in Rett syndrome brain organoid models!
October 2024
Zoe Shu has started her Part II undergraduate thesis research on bursting behavior in
the MEA recordings from our Rett syndrome (RTT) air-liquid interface cortical organoid (ALI-CO) model.
She is co-supervised by Ole Paulsen and Alex Dunn at the University of Cambridge.
Ella Pegram is starting her MPhil thesis research at Cambridge and will compare the
computational performance of RTT ALI-COs co-supervised by Petra Vertes at the
University of Cambridge.
the MEA recordings from our Rett syndrome (RTT) air-liquid interface cortical organoid (ALI-CO) model.
She is co-supervised by Ole Paulsen and Alex Dunn at the University of Cambridge.
Ella Pegram is starting her MPhil thesis research at Cambridge and will compare the
computational performance of RTT ALI-COs co-supervised by Petra Vertes at the
University of Cambridge.
June 2024
Come see David present our poster "Human IPSC-derived Neurogenin 2 (NGN2) Cortical Neurons Develop Functional
Connectivity and Small-World Network Topology In Vitro" on Thursday, June 27 starting at 9:30am. We are in Poster
Session 03 - Section 103 - PS03-27AM-283.
Connectivity and Small-World Network Topology In Vitro" on Thursday, June 27 starting at 9:30am. We are in Poster
Session 03 - Section 103 - PS03-27AM-283.
June 2024
Anna Conneally (Trinity College Dublin), Aliani Medina (starting at UMass this fall),
Lulu Lourdes Chavez (Emmanuel), Becca Whitaker (Tufts), David Oluigbo (MIT), Frenkli Mitrushi (BU),
Michelle Wu (MIT), and Salma Sharif (starting at BU this fall) will be joining us
at the Brigham and Women's Hospital. Looking forward to a fun summer with both intra-
and intermodular network collaborations!
Anna Conneally (Trinity College Dublin), Aliani Medina (starting at UMass this fall), Lulu Lourdes Chavez (Emmanuel), Becca Whitaker (Tufts), David Oluigbo (MIT), Frenkli Mitrushi (BU),
Michelle Wu (MIT), and Salma Sharif (starting at BU this fall) will be joining us
at the Brigham and Women's Hospital. Looking forward to a fun summer with both intra-
and intermodular network collaborations!
May 2024
Nazanin has completed her postdoctoral research fellowhship in SAND
and will start her neurology residency at the University of Texas
in San Antonio this June!
and will start her neurology residency at the University of Texas
in San Antonio this June!
May 2024
We have exciting plans for characterizing brain network dynamics and computational performance in
human cerebral organoids from ASD patient-derived iPSCs and isogenic controls! A research assistant
with experience in human iPSC-derived neuronal cultures, electrophsyiology, and/or computational
neuroscience should contact Susanna about opportunities in SAND.
human cerebral organoids from ASD patient-derived iPSCs and isogenic controls! A research assistant
with experience in human iPSC-derived neuronal cultures, electrophsyiology, and/or computational
neuroscience should contact Susanna about opportunities in SAND.
March 2024
David guides new users through the graphical user interface (GUI) for our MEA network analysis pipeline (MEA-NAP)!
You can view at YouTube or download the video at the Harvard Dataverse.
You can view at YouTube or download the video at the Harvard Dataverse.
March 2024
Tim successfully defended his PhD at UCL! Congrats! He continues postdoctoral research at UCL.
February 2024
Our manuscript describing our MEA network analysis pipeline (MEA-NAP) is now available
on bioRxiv! Download the manuscript at https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.02.05.578738.
on bioRxiv! Download the manuscript at https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.02.05.578738.
December 2023
Alex successfully defended his PhD! Hurrah! He is now a postdoctoral fellow at the MRC CBU in Cambridge
working with Duncan Astle.
working with Duncan Astle.
September 2023
Elise successfully defended her MPhil thesis on reservoir computing using human cerebral organoids! Hurrah!
She will continue this research with Petra Vertes and our group this year.
She will continue this research with Petra Vertes and our group this year.
June 2023
Victoria Chamberlain (Brown), Hugo Smith (Cambridge), Jeremi Chabros (Cambridge), Ariana Lulu Lourdes Chavez (Emmanuel)
and Tanisha Soto (Brooke High School) will be joining us at the Brigham and Women's Hospital. Xuelin Wang (Cambridge),
Sara Rehman (Cambridge) will be joining us from the University of Cambridge.
It promises to be a fun summer with both intra- and intermodular network collaborations!
May 2023
We have a poster featuring our celllular-scale network analysis of Mecp2-deficient networks in the murine and human-derived
cortical cultures at the International Society for Autism Research (INSAR) Meeting in Stockholm! The poster session starts
at 5:30pm on Thursday, May 4. Come see us at our poster!
April 2023
Alessio is in the final year of his PhD training. We are delighted that he will join our team working on
cellular-scale network development in human-derived neurons for 5-6 months!
January 2023
We are delighted that Dr. Nazanin Ershadinia is joining us as a postdoctoral research associate at the Brigham
and Women's Hospital to work on an exciting collaboration with our Danish and French collaborators!
October 2022
Xuelin Wang has returned to Cambridge to start her Part II Psychology, Neuroscience and Behavior undergraduate
thesis research with us!. Tunyang Xie is joining us for his Part III Systems Biology master's thesis research!
Tunyang will be co-supervised by Bianca Dumitrascu in Computer Science. Both students will join our network
dynamics collaboration.
July 2022
Our MEA network analysis pipeline (MEA-NAP) is ready for its beta release! The code is available
for download on our SAND Github page and the guide for using the pipeline is available on the web or
for download. Susanna will present the pipeline at the MEA Meeting in Tubingen (Germany) on July 7
and Tim, Alex, Yin and Susanna will present the pipeline in the first poster session at the
Federation of European Neuroscience Societies (FENS) Forum in Paris (France) on
Sunday, July 10, 9:30am-1:30pm, Poster S01-128. Come see us at our poster!
June 2022
Xuelin Wang joins us in Boston for the summer. She is an undergraduate in the natural sciences at the
University of Cambridge. Morgan Ellis is an undergraduate at Spelman College in Atlanta studying English
and preparing for a career in medicine. Janani Ganesh will also join us in July. David Oluigbo has joined
an exciting collaboration with the ALFA group at MIT CSAIL this summer working on the calcium imaging network
analysis pipeline.
April 2022
Through a grant funded by the Novo Nordisk Foundation, we will be developing new technology
to combine microelecrode array (MEA) recordings with spatial transcriptomics. This is an
exciting collaborative project with the groups of Vanessa Jane Hall (U of Copenhagen), Martin
Hemberg (BWH), and Yannick Coffinier (U of Lille). This project is based in our group at the Brigham
and Women's Hospital in Boston, MA (USA).
December 2021
Mona is a MPhil student in the Basic and Translational Neuroscience at the University of Cambridge.
She will be joining us in January to work with Yin and Alex on learning to grow, record, and analyse
developing neuronal networks. David is a freshman at MIT in Course 6-9 (computer science and neuroscience)
who will joing our SAND Boston lab in January to learn about growing, recording from and analysing human-derived
developing neuronal networks. He may also join our collaboration with the ALFA group at MIT CSAIL.
October 2021
New FTD-ALS human cerebral organoid model published in Nature Neuroscience! We were very pleased to
contribute to the electrophysiological characterization of the neuronal activity in this new disease model.
See the article at Nature neuroscience or our department's
press release.
July 2021
We want to congratulate all of the Part II students on completing your undergraduate degrees!
Congrats Estiaan, Hugo, Jeremi, Lance, Leo and Lucy! Best wishes in the next stage of your clinical training.