Open Positions
We are seeking to recruit multiple post-doctoral researchers to our group. Positions are funded by grants from the National Institutes of Health and private foundations.
Candidates should possess a Ph.D. in a related field including but not limited to Biomedical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Neurobiology, Neuroscience, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, Mechanical Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Physics, Optics, Material Science, and Mathematics. Experience developing optical systems is preferred. Experience with micro/nano fabrication, in vivo electrophysiology/imaging, rodent cranial surgery and advanced biological imaging (two-photon and confocal microscopy) are desired. Successful candidate will work on developing multi-scale neuro-imaging platforms. He/she will be working with a highly interdisciplinary team of neural engineers, neuroscientists, physicists, biologists, and material scientists.
Interested candidates should submit curriculum vitae, the names of three references, a statement of research experience, and date of availability to Prof. Suhasa Kodandaramaiah (suhasabk@umn.edu).
Lab News
March 2023
Congrats to Arun! He has been selected to attend the 2023 Neurobehavior workshop at Stanford University.
February 2023
Congrats to Pin-Hao! He has been awarded the 2023 Interdisciplinary Doctoral Fellowship from the UMn graduate school.
Congrats to Arun! He has been selected to attend the Advanced Techniques in Neuroimaging workshop organized by the Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute at Stanford.
Congrats to Beatrice for successfully defending her Master’s thesis, "Computer Vision Methods to Characterize the Morphology of Mouse Skulls for Neuroscience Applications".
january 2023
Congratulation to Jay! His ECoG paper is now published in the Journal of Neural Engineering!
Congrats to Amey for successfully defending his dissertation, "Universal robot for automated microinjection with application in transgenesis and cryopreservation".
Congrats to Andrew and Amey (with contributioins from Danny) for winning the Min-Corps MVP challenge Grant! They will receive up to $5000 from the Office of technology commercialization to make a minimum viable product of their Ai guided microinjection robot.
NOVEMBER 2022
Congrats to Travis for winning the CNE travel grant, which will provide $1000 for him to attend the SfN conference!
A new Ph.D. student in Biomedical Engineering, Mac, has joined our lab as a graduate student.
Zahra, Beatrice, Jay, Arun, James, Travis, Zoey, Michael, Jacob, Matt, and Danny presented at the 2022 SfN Conference! Nice going. It was amazing.
september 2022
Suhasa presented his work about neurotechnologies for brain wide neural interfacing during complex behavior at the Mechanical Engineering Departmental Seminar!
Andrew featured in the UMGC newsletter for engineering tools for genomics research!
August 2022
Skylar will be leaving the lab and pursue his master’s degree in Biomedical Engineering at Duke University!
JuLY 2022
Congratulation to Zahra! Her eSee-Shells paper is now published in the Journal of Advanced Healthcare Materials!
June 2022
Eunsong joins the lab as a research technician! She will be taking over Skylar’s position as of this Agust!
Esha joins the lab as an undergraduate research assistant!
May 2022
Congratulation to Suhasa and our team! MDTA faculty Dr. Suhasa Kodandaramaiah and Dr. Tim Ebner were awarded a grant for their proposal "Robot assisted brain-wide neural recordings and comprehensive behavioral monitoring in freely behaving mice".
Dr. Kapil Saxena joins the lab as a Research Scientist! He will be focusing on deciphering the social behavior tools and techniques.
Vijay will be leaving the lab and start his career as an engineer at Medtronic!
Eunsong graduates with her Bachelor’s degrees in Biomedical Engineering!
April 2022
James presented his work on ‘multi-probes alignment platform for neuroscience’ in the ME Connect Seminar Series!
November 2021
Congrats to Amey! his paper is published at the 43rd Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine Biological Society (EMBC)!
October 2021
Amey won first place at the Mechanical Engineering ‘3 Minute Thesis competition. Way to go!
Jacob successfully defended his thesis on ‘Robotics for Spatial Transcriptomics Microinjection’! Great job Jacob!
Amey won the People's Choice Award at the College of Science and Engineering ‘3 Minute Thesis competition
Andrew presented his poster at the Neurobiology of Drosophila conference
Zahra presented her work on ‘eSee-shells’ at the Mechanical Engineering ME Connect seminar series
Jacob presented his work on ‘Robotics for Spatial Transcriptomics Microinjection’ at the Mechanical Engineering ME Connect seminar series
September 2021
Amey and Jia were winners in the Poster Competition at Institute for Engineering in Medicine Annual Conference
Amey, Andrew, Jia, Jacob, and Matt presented their posters at Institute for Engineering in Medicine Annual Conference
Suhasa held a session on Student Career Development, hosting a panel for discussion focused on diverse student career trajectories such as academic, industry and “alternative career paths.” at the IEM Annual Conference
Zahra and Preston (from Swisher Lab, Elec. and Comp. Eng. Dpt.) presented their work on ‘eSee-shells’ at the Center for Neuro-engineering seminar series
April 2021
Matt and Daniel’s paper “Miniaturized head-mounted microscope for whole-cortex mesoscale imaging in freely behaving mice” has been published in NATURE METHODS!
Jay, Jacob, Amey, Zahra and Andrew present their paper "Automated Device for Public Elevator Control Panel UVC Sanitization" at Design for Medical Device Conference 2021
Amey and Andrew present their work on the Automated Microinjection Robotic System at the Mechanical Engineering ME Connect seminar series
March 2021
Amey, Andrew, and Suhasa submitted US Provisional patent "Multi-perspective microscopic imaging guided microinjection of microscopic objects across large field of views"
Amey and Andrew won best poster at the ME Gradute Student Welcome Week Poster show
December 2020
Amey and Matt awarded UMII MnDRIVE Ph.D. fellowship for 2021
November 2020
Pin-hao joins the lab as a graduate student!
Beatrice joins the lab as a graduate student!
September 2020
Andrew, Amey, and Jacob published a review: “Single neuron recording: progress towards high-throughput analysis” in Bioelectronics In Medicine
Amey and Andrew presented their poster at the IEM Annual conference.
Amey, Andrew, and Jacob presented their technology regarding automated microinjection system at UMN, Technology commercialization, Business advisory group meeting
James Hope Phd, joins the lab as a Post-Doctoral Fellow! James will be focusing on exciting robot-mouse interfaces
Ridwan Hossain Phd, joins the lab! Ridwan will be focusing on micro electronics for recording electrical and visual brain activity
August 2020
Danny defends his Masters Thesis! And transitions to Research Engineer for the lab as well as the Imaging Core and the Center for Addiction Research
Skylar joins the lab as a Research Technician!
JUNE 2020
Pre-print of Matt and Daniel’s paper describing a miniaturized head-mounted device for whole cortex mesoscale imaging in freely behaving mice is now on BioRxiv!
Daniel presents his poster, titled Mesoscale Calcium Imaging in Freely Behaving Mice Using a Head-Mounted Miniaturized Mesoscope, at the virtual 2020 BRAIN Initiative Conference
MAY 2020
Matt’s paper describing the assembly and operation of an open-source, computer numerical controlled (CNC) robot for performing cranial microsurgical procedures is now published in Nature Protocols!
Judith, Peter, and Lucas graduate with their Bachelor’s degrees in Mechanical Engineering
APRIL 2020
Judith is awarded an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) Award
Andrew and Amey present their poster, titled Development of a Computer-Guided Robot for Microinjection of Embryos for the Fruit Fly, Drosophila Melanogaster, at the virtual 2020 Allied Genetics Conference
MARCH 2020
Leila defends her PhD thesis, titled Technologies for Cortex-Wide Neural Interfacing!
Daniel presents his poster, titled Mesoscale Calcium Imaging in Freely Behaving Mice Using a Head-Mounted Miniaturized Mesoscope, at the 2020 University of Minnesota Graduate Student Poster Session
Amey is granted a University of Minnesota Conference Travel Award
FEBRUARY 2020
Suhasa gives a talk, titled Mesoscale Calcium Imaging Across the Cortex in Freely Behaving Mice, at the 2020 SPIE Photonics West Conference
Matt presents his poster, titled Mesoscale Calcium Imaging in Freely Behaving Mice Using a Head-Mounted Miniaturized Mesoscope, at the University of Minnesota Mechanical Engineering Connect seminar
NOVEMBER 2019
Vijay joins the lab as a Research Engineer!
OCTOBER 2019
Nearly the entire lab packs their bags and takes off for Chicago for the 2019 Neuroscience Conference where we present 3 posters, give a talk, and interactively present our technologies at the Tools & Tech Satellite Event
Judith presents a poster, titled Effects of Mild Traumatic Brain Injury on Widespread Cortical Function, at the 2019 BMES Conference
Jacob joins the lab as a graduate student!
Orestes joins the lab as a Research Technician!
SEPTEMBER 2019
Judith is awarded a University of Minnesota Mechanical Engineering Harrison Benjamin Scholarship
Samantha presents a poster, titled Transparent Skulls for Pan-Cortical Neural Interfacing in mice, at the 2019 Minnesota Symposium on Addiction Neuroscience
AUGUST 2019
Judith presents her poster, titled Effects of Mild Traumatic Brain Injury on Widespread Cortical Function, at the 2019 Fall University of Minnesota Undergraduate Research Symposium and the 2019 McNair Scholars Research Symposium
JUNE 2019
Matt presents his poster, titled Mesoscale Calcium Imaging in Freely Behaving Mice Using a Head-Mounted Miniaturized Mesoscope, at the 2019 BRAIN Initiative Conference
Samantha is awarded the University of Minnesota Regents Scholarship for Summer 2019, Fall 2019, and Spring 2020
Samantha joins the lab full-time as a Research Technician and Lab Manager!
MAY 2019
Daniel S.S. and Samantha graduate with their Bachelor’s degrees in Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering!
Judith becomes a Robert E. McNair Post-Baccalaureate Achievement Program Scholar
APRIL 2019
Leila’s paper describing engineered transparent polymer skulls now published in Nature Communications!
Suhasa is the lead PI on a $ 2.41 Million R01 grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Along with co-PI Sarah Swisher and co-I Timothy Ebner, the lab will develop new tools for large-scale neural sensing in freely behaving animals.
Judith presents a poster, titled Mesoscope for Wide Field Cortical Activity Monitoring in Freely Behaving Mice, at the 2019 Spring University of Minnesota Undergraduate Research Symposium
MArch 2019
Leila wins second place in the Best Paper Competition at the IEEE Neural Engineering Conference in San Francisco, California
Lab is awarded a 2-year $390,000 R21 grant from the National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Stroke. The grant fund the development of miniaturized robotic neural probes.
Suhasa is co-PI in a $680,428 BRAIN Initiative: Targeted BRAIN Circuits Planning grant awarded to Prof. Lucy Vulchanova, Prof. Prakash Kara and Dr. Daryl Gohl. The proposal develops new technologies to map and understand spinal pain circuits
FEBRUARY 2019
Leila and Matt present their work on technologies for large scale neural interfacing at the Mechanical Engineering ME-Connect Seminar Series
Our work on robotics for high throughput single cell gene manipulation presented at the CELL: Single Cells: Technology to Biology symposium in Singapore
January 2019
Suhasa talks about technologies developed in the lab at the Inaugural Rice Neural Engineering Seminar Series in Houston, TX
The Craniobot paper, lead by Matt and Leila, is now accepted in the journal Scientific Reports
DECEMBER 2018
New paper describing robotic microinjections into single cells in intact tissue now posted on BioRxiv!
NOVEMBER 2018
Lab travels to San Diego to present 7 posters at the Annual Society for Neuroscience Conference.
Suhasa presents at the IEEE Brain initiative symposium
Leila is awarded the University of Minnesota Informatics Institute’s Graduate Fellowship for 2019
October 2018
Matt is awarded the University of Minnesota’s Distinguished Master’s Thesis Award
Suhasa gives an invited talk at the Inaugural Mayo UMN Symposium on Biosensing and Nanotechnology Symposium in Rochester, MN
September 2018
Leila earns Honorable mention in the Best Student Poster Competition at the ASME NanoEngineering for Medicine and Biology (NEMB) Conference
August 2018
New pre-print posted from the lab on BioRxiv: Describing transparent Polymer Skulls for interfacing with the whole cortex
JULY 2018
Leila wins NSF supported travel award for attending the ASME NanoEngineering for Medicine and Biology (NEMB) Conference in Los Angeles.
Andrew Algeria and Daniel Surinach, both awarded the UMN DOVE graduate fellowships, join the lab.
J Neurophysiology paper Simultaneous patching with extracellular recordings to evaluate performance of high density MEAs published!
JUNE 2018
Daniel Sousa Schulman wins multiple awards! A scholarship from the Mechanical Engineering department at UMN, the A.F. Johnson and the Ronald L. & Janet A. Christenson Scholarships as well as the Tau Beta Pi Honors society scholarship.
Alana Tillery from the University of Maryland joins the team for the summer as a part of the NSF REU program.
High schoolers Suleyman Jafar and Joseph Wang join the team for the summer.Suleyman is a part of the Continuing Umbrella of Research Experiences (CURE) Internship program run by UMN in collaboration with the Washington Technology Magnet School in St. Paul.
MAY 2018
Lab awarded $200,000 award from the Minnesota Traumatic Brain Injury Foundation to study global structural and functional reorganization of the cortex in mild traumatic brain injury. Collaborative effort along with the Ebner lab in Neuroscience and Park lab in neurology.
April 2018
Gabriella Shull Awarded the NSF GRFP!
Judith Dominguez awarded the Society for Hispanic Professional Engineering Scholarship
March 2018
Suhasa gives an talk the GRC Neuroelectronic Interfaces Conference at Galveston TX.
Lab’s first journal article submitted. Check out pre-print of the paper describing a fully open-source, sub-$1000 cranial microsurgery robot or ‘Craniobot’. Led by Leila Ghanbari, Matthew Rynes and Greg Johnson, along with our league of extraordinary undergrads!
Leila Ghanbari, Matthew Rynes and Gabriella Shull present talks at the Design of Medical Devices conference.
January 2018
Michael Laroque was accepted into UMN Medical School starting in the Fall!
eLIFE paper describing robotic multi-neuron patching is published: https://elifesciences.org/articles/24656
December 2017
Mathew Rynes successfully defends his Masters Thesis. Matt worked along with Leila Ghanbari to apply principles of computer numerical controlled machining to microsurgical procedures.
Our paper describing robotic multi-neuron patching in vivo is accepted for publication at eLIFE!
November 2017
Nahom Mossazghi gives a talk at the Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students (ABRCMS) in Phoenix, AZ
Leila Ghanbari and Mathew Rynes present at the Annual Society for Neuroscience conference.
Our paper describing computer vision guided robotic patch clamping in vivo is published in Neuron
Paper describing engineered infrared fluorescent proteins for neuroimaging is published in Biophysical Journal
AUGUST 2017
Our paper describing how realtime high resolution two-photon imaging can assist targeted patch clamp recordings of rare cell types in the brain is out in Neuron. Accompanying perspective article in The Scientist, and MIT News.
July 2017
Lab undergraduate student, McNair Scholar, and MnDrive Fellow Nahom Mossazghi is selected to be a part of the National Institute of Health (NIH) Undergraduate Scholars Program. The program covers $20,000 in tuition expenses and a one year research traineeship at the NIH main campus in Bethesda Maryland after graduation!
JUNE 2017
Our breakthrough in non-invasive deep brain stimulation using temporally interfering high frequency electric fields is published in Cell! Collaboration led by Nir Grossman at University College London. Some perspective pieces in popular press: New York Times, Guardian, The Scientist, Science and IEEE spectrum
May 2017
ME freshman Judith Dominguez receives Undergraduate Research Opportunities award for her proposed summer research work in the lab!
Our paper examining the role of mesoscale duration membrane fluctuation events and their role in gating neuronal spiking during behavior is published in J Neurophysiology! This is a collaboration with the Singer Lab at Georgia Tech and Boyden lab at MIT and demostrates the use of robotic patch clamping systems for
March 2017
The lab receives a seed grant from MIT’s McGovern Institute Neurotechnology (MINT) fund, kickstarting a collaboration with Mark Harnett’s Lab at MIT. The collaboration aims to engineer a robotic platform for high density intracellular recordings from intact mammalian circuits in vivo.
January 2017
Gabriella Shull joins the lab. Gabi is a NSF IGERT Neuroengineering trainee interested in engineering novel high density neural recording devices.
December 2016
Leila Ghanbari wins the 2017 University of Minnesota Informatics Institute(UMII) Graduate Fellowship!
November 2016
Nature news feature on our collaborative project developing a non-invasive transcranial deep brain stimulator, presented recently at the Society for Neuroscience conference. The effort is headed by Nir Grossman (University College London), Ed Boyden (MIT), Li- Huey Tsai (MIT) and Alvaro Pascual-Leone (Harvard).
October 2016
The autopatcher has now gone fully autonomous! Ilya Kolb and colleagues at Georgia Tech in their recent Nature Scientific Reports paper, utilize an elegant pipette cleaning method to demonstrate the first system to perform sequential patch-clamp recordings without a human operator using a single pipette.
September 2016
Suhasa gives a talk at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology at Leipzig Germany.
We welcome new lab members: Gregory Johnson, Jay Hu, Lenora Haltom and Micheal Laroque.
August 2016
We start moving into our permanent lab space in the newly renovated mechanical engineering building!
July 2016
Our paper describing integration of microscopy and computer vision for image guided autopatching in brain slices has now been published as an innovative methodology in the Journal of Neurophysiology! Collaboration with the Chubykin lab at Purdue, Forest lab at Gatech, Boyden lab at MIT and Hongkui Zheng’s group at the Allen Institute for Brain Science.
April 2016
Nature publishes a perspective article on state-of-the-art robotic tools being used for single neuron recordings in intact brains. Featuring our recently published Nature Protocols and the 2012 Nature Methods articles!
March 2016
Our paper describing methodologies to setup and use the Autopatcher for in vivosingle neuron electrophysiology was published in Nature Protocols! Want to set one up in your own lab? Check out www.autopatcher.org as well!
Leila Ghanbari joins the lab as the first graduate student in the team!
February 2016
Got our temporary lab space which we will be using until this Fall. First packages begin to stream in!
December 2016
After a meandering road trip, Suhasa and family reached Minnesota on an unusually warm December morning (thanks El Nino). Immediately treated to that famed Minnesota accent at the first rest stop