Collaborators

Present:

Past:

Graduate Students:


  • Lee Von Kraus , PhD Candidate
  • Personal Website

  • Marcello DiStasio, MD/PhD Candidate
  • I am an MD/PhD student working on the functional interaction between the thalamus and cortex in the sensorimotor system.  By recording extracellular electrical activity from the primary sensory and motor cortex and rVPL nucleus of thalamus in rats as they perform reaching movements, I am trying to determine how feed-forward models of actions modulate afferent sensory feedback.  In other words, I am trying to determine how the brain predicts the sensory consequences of its own movement commands.  In order to evalute information exchange across brain regions I am making use of techniques from the information theory, biophysical models, and the family of generalized linear models.




  • Brandi T. Marsh, MD/PhD Candidate
  • I am an MD/PhD candidate at SUNY Downstate Medical Center and NYU-Poly pursuing my PhD in biomedical engineering. My project in the Francis lab involves development of reinforcement learning brain machine interfaces in macaques. I completed my B.S in biomedical engineering from Columbia University.





  • John S. Choi, PhD Candidate
  • I am a 4th year graduate student in the Francis Lab, and my primary research interest is in developing biomimetic somatosensory feedback devices for patients that have undergone amputation or spinal cord trauma.  Recently developed robotic limbs are now being fit with tactile and proprioceptive sensors that mimic natural skin and muscle receptors, but the precise methods for engaging intact neural structures for meaningful feedback are still a matter of active research.  By using model-based control algorithms, we seek to optimally encode readings from these sensors into stimulation patterns that evoke the most natural neural responses.  I am currently studying the application of these algorithms in rats and non-human primates by microstimulating in VPL thalamus and measuring evoked spikes and potentials in somatosensory cortex (S1).



  • Jordan C. Iordanou, MD/PhD Candidate

Alumni Post-docs:


  • Weiguo Song, PhD






  • Janina Ferbinteanu, PhD

  • Kwangtaek Kim, PhD

Alumni:


  • Mulugeta Semework, PhD

  • Pratik Chhatbar, MD/PhD
  • On completion of my graduate studies in the field of Sensorimotor Neuroprosthetics under Dr. Joseph T. Francis, I joined the Neurosciences Department at Medical University of South Carolina as a Post-doctoral Scholar. I am currently broadening my skills in the field of Two-photon Microscopy and Intrinsic Signal Imaging in Kara Lab under the mentorship of Dr. Prakash Kara. I am also planning to device translational / clinical research projects under the supervision of Dr. Sunil Patel in Neurosurgery division.

  • Shaohua Xu, PhD