Project Title: Temporal Interference brain-stimulation for cognitive enhancement in ageing
Supervisor: Dr Samuel Barnes, Dr Nir Grossman
Location: Level 5, Burlington Danes Building, Hammersmith Campus, Du Cane Road, W12 0NN
About Me
I am a President’s PhD scholar in the Barnes laboratory in the Department of Brain Sciences within the UK Dementia Research Institute centre at Imperial College London. My PhD focusses on Temporal Interference (TI) brain-stimulation of posterior cortical regions in aged mice to reduce neural hyperexcitability and enhances homeostatic control of cortical activity and cognition. This project addresses neural hyperexcitability implicated in ageing. By integrating behaviour, spatial transcriptomics, and longitudinal two-photon imaging, it will provide mechanistic evidence for TI brain-stimulation as a pro-plasticity, circuit-specific intervention with translational potential.
Before starting my PhD, I completed a BSc in Life Science & Technology with additional courses in Mechanical Engineering at the Technical University of Delft and the University of Leiden. During my final BSc project, I joined the Bonner-Weir Lab at Harvard Medical School, where I worked on enhancing subcutaneous islet transplantation for Type I diabetes. I then took a short break from science and pursued an MSc in Management at the Rotterdam School of Management, followed by an MSc in Engineering in Biomedicine at Imperial College London. During my MSc project in the Neural Coding and Neurodegenerative Disease Laboratory, I developed a longitudinal three-photon imaging pipeline to quantify cerebrovascular and amyloid plaque changes in a mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease.
Outside of research, I enjoy doing yoga, photography, biking, and travelling.
Qualifications
- 2023-2024: MSc Engineering in Biomedicine, Imperial College London
- 2022-2023: MSc in Management, Rotterdam School of Management
- 2022: BSc Final Project, Harvard Medical School
- 2018-2022: BSc Life Science & Technology, Technical University Delft & University of Leiden
Research Interests
Ageing, Alzheimer’s Disease, neurodegeneration, neural circuits, non-invasive neuromodulation, spatial transcriptomics, multiphoton imaging, cognition
Selected Publications
Stas, E.*, Yang, M.*, Schultz, S., Go, M. A. (2025). Longitudinal three-photon imaging for tracking amyloid plaques and vascular degeneration in a mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease. BioRxiv
* Contributed equally
Yang, M., Zhou, Z.-Q., Lang, S., Zheng, H. Chen, S., Li, T., Stas, E., Yu, J., Zhang, L., Zhang, Z., Uzungil, V., Liu, Q., Huang, Y., Jing, L., Li, Y., Jia, H., Li, M., Li, X., Li, J., Tang, Y., Gong, Y., Schultz, S.R. (2025) Ultra-wide-field, deep, adaptive two-photon microscopy. BioRxiv
French, A., Hollister-Lock, J., Sullivan, B. A., Stas, E., Hwa, A. J., Weir, G. C., & Bonner-Weir, S. (2024). Enhancement of subcutaneous islet transplant performance by collagen I gel. Cell Transplantation, 33, 1–12
Outreach
2023 Student Ambassador for Team Alzheimer Amsterdam
Contact Details
Email: eline.stas23@imperial.ac.uk
