PhD Students

Patrycja Dzialecka

Patrycja is a PhD student at the CDT for Neurotechnology. She investigates the neural circuit responses to Temporal Interference (TI) stimulation in healthy and diseased brains. Her research focuses on 1) characterising the spatiotemporal effects of short-term TI stimulation and 2) applying repeated stimulation protocols in early-stage Alzheimer’s Disease model, aimed at ameliorating the disease progression. The techniques she uses include calcium imaging, immunohistochemistry, behavioural testing and computational modelling. Prior to joining the lab, Patrycja completed an MEng in biomedical engineering at University College London (UCL). Her masters project focused on automisation of the all-optical closed-loop neural interface developed in Michael Hausser’s lab. She also studied for a year at Northwestern University, and worked on developing a co-adaptive body-machine interface at Shirley Ryan Ability Lab (Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago). She enjoys spending her free time being active and outdoors, especially running, hiking and gardening.

Email: p.dzialecka18@imperial.ac.uk
Twitter: @pdzialecka

Matteo Vinao-Carl

Matteo was awarded a BSc in Neuroscience from the University of Bristol in 2014, and in 2016-2018 received an MSc in Translational Neuroscience and an MRes in Neurotechnology from Imperial College London. His PhD at Imperial is focused on developing computational methods to identify brain signatures of cognitive performance, and targeting them via phase-locked stimulation of brain rhythms.

His main interest for future work is in data-driven discovery and real-time control of brain dynamics.

Other areas of interest include:

Multi / meta stability and non-linear wave propagation.
Multiscale dynamics and reduced order models.
Non-linear control theory.
Dimensionality reduction and machine learning.
Non-linear time series analysis.
Variational methods.

In his spare time Matteo studies Japanese , makes ramen, grows yeast for sourdough, and plays chess.

Matteo is co-supervised by David Sharp.

Email: matteo.vinao-carl16@imperial.ac.uk
Twitter: @VinaoCarl

Kety Alania

Kety develops brain stimulation strategies, using, for example, temporal interference (TI), to change human brain activity and function. Her research combines non-invasive brain stimulation methods, neuroimaging such as fMRI, EEG recording, and cognitive behaviour assessments. Previously, Kety completed a BSc in psychology at Royal Holloway University of London and an MSc in translational neuroscience at Imperial College London.

Currently she is leading the first non-invasive deep brain stimulation study in Alzheimer’s patients using TI electrical stimulation and she is also developing a new method to record human brain activity via EEG during electrical stimulation. In her spare time she enjoys running and interior design.

Kety is co-supervised by David Sharp.

Email: ketevan.alania17@imperial.ac.uk
Twitter: @ketevanity

Xiaoqi Zhu

Xiaoqi is a PhD student investigating temporal interference (TI) stimulation, a non-invasive deep brain stimulation technique, via electrophysiological recording in vivo (local field potential, LFP). His project aims to offer a direct way to investigate the brain responses to electrical stimulation via LFP. He completed his BSc and MRes in Biomedical Engineering at Xi’an Jiaotong University before joining the ISN Lab at Imperial and UK DRI. In his free time, Xiaoqi likes swimming.

Email: x.zhu19@imperial.ac.uk
Twitter: @xiaoqi_zhu

Jean Rintoul

Jean is a PhD student in the ISN lab at the UK Dementia Research Institute, in the Department of Brain Sciences. Her research focuses on novel strategies for neural encoding and decoding, bridging biophysics, electrical engineering and in vivo electrophysiology. Prior to joining, Jean worked in industry on projects such as the Emotiv EEG BCI system, an open source electrical impedance tomography project (openeit.github.io) and a bioimpedance spectroscopy solution for neurogenic bladder disorder (lirscientific.com). https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=-Zh8BRgAAAAJ&hl=en

Email: jeanrintoul@imperial.ac.uk
Twitter: @jeantoul

Junheng Li

Junheng is co-supervised by Mauricio Barahona (Math). Junheng is a current PhD student in the lab, working on computational analysis of sleep, using feature-based statistical learning to derive the fundamental brain dynamic changes and state transitions. Based on the models and underlying mathematics, Junheng aims to develop closed-loop neuromodulation to facilitate sleep and help with sleep-related problems in people with dementia.

Katharine Wiltshire

Katharine is a final year PhD student at Imperial College London, working on a collaborative project with the Grossman and Matthews labs. Her project is investigating alternating current electric field stimulation of microglia, the resident immune cells of the brain, and whether this electrical stimulation can alter the phenotype of microglia, to increase their neuroprotective functions. Katharine studied for her BSc in Medical Sciences at the University of Leeds, during which she completed a placement year at GlaxoSmithKline investigating respiratory inflammation. After graduating she joined the Matthews lab as a Research Technician investigating neuroinflammation prior to her PhD. Outside of the lab, Katharine enjoys travelling, fitness and performing arts.

Katie is supervised by David Owens.

Email: k.wiltshire@imperial.ac.uk
Twitter: @kh_wiltshire

Sofia Peressotti

Sofia is a Bioengineering PhD student collaborating with the ISN Lab (first supervisor Dr Rylie Green). Her interests include the development of interventional approaches for clinically viable brain regeneration platforms. She investigates the effects of stimulation with temporally interfering fields (TI) on neural stem cells, towards a combinatorial treatment for Alzheimer’s Disease.

She previously completed a MSc in Bioengineering at Imperial College London with a focus on Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering, and a BSc in Biomedical Engineering at Politecnico di Torino, Italy.

Email: sofia.peressotti15@imperial.ac.uk
Twitter: @SofiaPeressotti

Simon Williamson

Simon is a Clinical PhD Fellow at the UKDRI CDT in AI for Healthcare (AI4Health), and is co-supervised by Dr Christopher Butler, Dr Pedro Mediano and Prof. Mauricio Barahona. His project aims to translate TI stimulation into a novel circuit-level therapeutic intervention for Alzheimer's disease, principally by developing a closed-loop system for optimised and spatiotemporally precise stimulation delivery. Prior to joining the lab, Simon completed an MBBS (Medicine) at the University of East Anglia followed by an MPhil (Translational Biomedical Research) at the University of Cambridge. He has also undertaken clinical training in Psychiatry (currently out of programme).