Current Fellows

Riccardo Carpineto

John Assad, Ph.D., Department of Neurobiology, HMS

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

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

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

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

Tomer David Ullman, Department of Psychology, Harvard

Project Title: Computational Modeling of Mental Rotation in Aphantasia

Project Title: 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 the...

Bertarelli Fellowship Program

Bertarelli Research Awards

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...

Léonie Asboth

Faculty Mentor: Alvaro Pascual-Leone, M.D., Ph.D.

Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) Department of Neurology

Project Summary: When planning a movement towards a visual target, the sensorimotor nervous system is engaged to estimate the spatial location of the target and correspondingly perform the motor output to reach it. Movements can be planned in two major...

Lionel Renaud

Faculty Mentor: Edwin M. Robertson, B.M., D.Phil.

Department of Neurology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center

Project Summary: The aim of this project is to improve our understanding of the neural principles governing memory interference. Memory interference can provide insights into how different types of memory interact and are organized within the human brain...

Efe Karabeyli

Faculty Mentor: Carl-Fredrik Westin, Ph.D.

Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Department of Radiology

Project Summary: This project focused on the development of a new and robust approach to investigate the compressed sensing technologies for brain imaging. Mr. Karabeyli will work with the lab’s algorithmic development team and learn about current...

Charles-Henri Vila

Faculty Mentor: Daniel B. Polley, Ph.D.

Department of Otology and Laryngology, Massachusetts Eye and Ear

Project Summary: The adult nervous system can recover limited function following stroke or injury. Here, the plan is to study how the central auditory pathways of an adult mouse gradually recover the ability to encode sound following near-complete...

Isabelle Dalle Fusine

Faculty Mentor: Bernardo L. Sabatini, M.D., Ph.D.

Department of Neurobiology, Harvard Medical School

Project Summary: This study will focus on long-term depression (LTD), an important mechanism of synaptic plasticity that modifies synapses in response to neuronal activity and experience. Long-lasting changes in synapse function such LTD are involved in...

Ari Carlo Sarfatis

Faculty Mentor: Jeffrey D. Macklis, M.D.

Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology and Center for Brain Science

Project Title: Targeted manipulation of growth cone molecular networks implicated in cerebral cortex circuit (re)generation

Project Summary: Cortical projection neurons are integral to many of the most important capacities of neural circuitry, including sensation, motion, and higher-order cognition. These glutamatergic neurons cross extremely long distances -- up to 10,000s of...

Norbert Majubu