Bertarelli Program in Translational Neuroscience and Neuroengineering | Bertarelli Program in Translational Neuroscience and Neuroengineering

About

The Bertarelli Program is based at Harvard Medical School. Our goal is to begin to bridge the existing gap between basic and translational neuroscience, by supporting basic and clinical research oriented towards translational opportunities, and by training the next generation of leaders in the field.

Through the generosity of the Bertarelli Foundation in Switzerland, the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) annually selects five students to perform their master's research in Harvard Medical School (HMS) or HMS-affiliated labs over a twelve-month period. The students are funded throughout their stay and bring an additional $10,000 research allowance to the lab. The Bertarelli Fellows master's research program was conceived with neuro-engineering and translational neuroscience in mind (such as neural prosthetics), but can be construed to include broad areas of molecular, cellular, systems and computational neuroscience. The students will be engaged in research for at least 75% of their time while at Harvard Medical School, with the remaining time dedicated to other educational opportunities.

Riccardo Carpineto

Faculty Mentor: John Assad, Ph.D.

Department of Neurobiology, Harvard Medical School

Project Title: Dynamics of Inititation of Voluntary Movement in the Superior Colliculus in the Mouse Model

Project Summary: Voluntary movements, which are actions initiated without direct external stimuli, remain a central question in motor neuroscience. Unlike reactive movements, the timing of self-initiated actions must emerge from internal neural dynamics...

Gabriele Dall'Aglio

Faculty Mentor: Evan Macosko, Ph.D.

Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research, Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT

Project Title: Spatial Resolution of Molecular Mechanisms Underlying Striatal Vulnerability in XD

Project Summary: X-linked dystonia–parkinsonism (XDP) is a rare neurodegenerative disorder found almost exclusively in the Philippines, caused by a mutation in the TAF1 gene. The disease devastates the striatum (particularly medium spiny neurons) leading...

Alexis Cogne

Faculty Mentor: Conor J. Walsh, Ph.D.

Biodesign Lab, Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences

Project Title: Breaking the Cycle of Learned Non-Use: Wearable Digital Interventions for Upper-Limb Recovery After Stroke

Project Summary: Stroke is a leading cause of long-term disability worldwide, with upper-limb motor impairments affecting a large proportion of survivors. As populations age and the prevalence of risk factors increases, the incidence of stroke is expected...

Penghui Du

Faculty Mentor: Randy Buckner, Ph.D.

Department of Psychology, Harvard

Project Title: Evaluating Personalized and Standard Targeting Strategies for TMS in Depression

Project Summary: Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) is a standard treatment for depression, with target location traditionally determined by empirical rules or group-level functional connectivity combined with individual structural MRI. However...

Shiu-Cheng Wang

Faculty Mentor: Tomer David Ullman, Ph.D.

Department of Psychology, Harvard

Project Title: Computational Modeling of Mental Rotation in Aphantasia

Project Summary: Intuitive physics studies how we naturally reason about the physical world around us. The mental computations underlying this ability remain contested. A leading current proposal is that humans have a "physical game engine" that models...

Beatrice Campo

Faculty Mentor: Shriya Srinivasan, Ph.D.

Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences

Project Title: Ingestible Neuromodulator

Project Summary: This project focuses on the development and optimization of an ingestible neuromodulation device capable of reading from and stimulating the peripheral nervous system. By delivering targeted afferent signals from the gastrointestinal...

Davide Micheletti

Jessie Fang Lu Fu, Ph.D.

Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Dept. of Radiology, MGH, Harvard Medical School, HST/MIT

Project Title: Perfusion-Related Network Vulnerability to Early Tau Accumulation in Preclinical Alzheimer's Disease

Project Summary: Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common cause of dementia, affecting millions of people worldwide. Although approved therapies can slow disease progression, they are most effective when initiated before widespread tau accumulation and...