People

James completed an undergraduate in Computer Engineering at Purdue University and his MD at SUNY Downstate, then served as a resident physician on the COVID wards at King's County Hospital before switching to computational neuroscience research where he worked on NetPyNE implementation of thalamocortical and nociceptive networks.

He is interested in the application of machine learning to neuroscience--especially predictive methods for parametric data exploration--and, more broadly, to other life sciences/and clinical practice. 
 

Roman Baravalle is a postdoctoral fellow in the Dura-Bernal Lab. Currently, Dr. Baravalle investigates the biophysical underpinnings of low-dimensional manifolds in behavior. His research aims to unlock the potential for improved Brain-Computer Interface decoding accuracy, creating a new generation of computational models to benchmark BCIs.

Eugenio is a nuclear engineer but soon in his career, he became interested in biology and neuroscience. Then, he completed a Ph.D. in Physics studying the role of adaptation currents and history-dependent stochastic effects on neural coding under the supervision of Dra. Inés Samengo at Balseiro Institute (Bariloche, southern Argentina). Then, he moved to Italy to broaden his interests in cognitive neuroscience under the self-organized tutorship of Prof. Dr. Alessandro Treves, who introduced him to the grid cells' world, spatial coding, and all that, in a project lead by Edvard Moser.

Valery is a research scientist at the Dura-Bernal Lab, where he is in charge of developing, documenting and disseminating the software tool NetPyNE (www.netpyne.org). He obtained his M.S. in Applied Math and Computer Science from Tavrida National University (Ukraine) in 2011, followed by solid and diverse experience in enterprise software engineering. Eventually Valery became interested in computational neuroscience, and after some self-studying he joined and completed internship here at the lab.

Ph.D. Candidate at SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University

M.Sc. in Neuroscience from the Federal University of São Paulo
B.S. in Biomedical Engineering from the Vale do Paraíba University
Visiting Student at the University of Illinois at Chicago

My interests are in the development of biophysically inspired computational models of the brain, bridging the gap between fundamental questions in neuroscience and computer simulations.

B.S. in Neuroscience from the University of Minnesota 

Formerly involved in the study of addiction and reward guided decision making using in vivo mouse models, my focus has since shifted to computational neuroscience. Currently, I am interested in studying the underlying mechanisms of disease states using data driven multi-scale models of the brain. 

B.A. in Neuroscience from Hamilton College

My research background is in the neurobiology of drug addiction and metabolic disorders. Currently, I am interested in computational neuroscience, specifically multiscale modeling of brain neurocircuitry. I am interested in modeling disease conditions to better understand the disease itself and how we can translate our findings clinically. 

Currently an MSc student in Biological Sciences with a Mention in Neuroscience at University of Valparaíso, Chile (2019 - present).

BS in Physics with a Mnetion in Astronomy, Northern Catholic University (UCN), Antofagasta, Chile (2013 - 2018).

I am a Ph.D. student located in Sweden. I am associated with Dura-Bernal Lab as a student intern. My Ph.D. thesis revolves around using mathematical models to describe different functions of the brain. Currently, I am working to integrate models of the neurovascular coupling with models describing electrophysiological properties. This effort aims to bridge the gap between these two interconnected systems.

I am a dual Master's student of Neuroscience and Data Science at Bar-Ilan University and Vrije University Amsterdam. In 2023, I had the opportunity to join the Dura-Bernal Lab as a Google Summer of Code contributor, under the mentorship of James Chen and Valery Bragin. Our project aimed to improve the NetPyNE toolkit's user accessibility by conducting batch simulations to extract connectivity rules from an Auditory Cortex model.

I am a recent graduate student currently affiliated with the Dura-Bernal Lab as a student intern. I obtained my undergraduate degree in Bioengineering from Universidad Santiago de Cali (USC), in Cali, Colombia (2018 - 2023). My undergraduate thesis focused on developing an online control system for a brain-computer interface aimed at implementing a third virtual arm, with the goal of advancing real-time motor neurorehabilitation for patients experiencing limitations in the use of their upper limbs.