Profile Category: Faculty

McGovern Institute faculty lead labs conducting groundbreaking research linked to the central mission of the institution. They also hold appointments in one or more academic departments at MIT.

James DiCarlo

Rapid Recognition

DiCarlo’s research goal is to reverse engineer the brain mechanisms that underlie human visual intelligence. He and his collaborators have revealed how population image transformations carried out by a deep stack of interconnected neocortical brain areas — called the primate ventral visual stream — are effortlessly able to extract object identity from visual images. His team uses a combination of large-scale neurophysiology, brain imaging, direct neural perturbation methods, and machine learning methods to build and test neurally-mechanistic computational models of the ventral visual stream and its support of cognition and behavior. Such an engineering-based understanding is likely to lead to new artificial vision and artificial intelligence approaches, new brain-machine interfaces to restore or augment lost senses, and a new foundation to ameliorate disorders of the mind.

Emilio Bizzi

Controlling Actions

A fundamental job of the brain is to produce actions. Emeritus Professor Emilio Bizzi examined how the brain handles the enormous complexity involved in making even the simplest movement. One of his key discoveries was that groups of muscles are activated synergistically by circuits of neurons in the spinal cord. He argued that these synergies represent fundamental building blocks for assembling repertoires of complex movements and might be used to restore limb movements compromised by stroke or muscle injury.

Polina Anikeeva

Probing the Mind-Body Connection

Polina Anikeeva develops cutting-edge neurotechnologies to probe the flow of information between the brain and peripheral organs in the body.

The brain and the digestive tract are in constant communication, relaying signals that influence our behavior and mental state. Anikeeva’s lab has developed ultrathin, flexible fibers that probe this extensive communication network. The multifunctional fibers are compatible the body’s soft tissue and are equipped with light emitters for activating subsets of cells and tiny channels for delivering genetic cargo or drugs. By deploying these probes within the gastrointestinal tract, Anikeeva’s team has explored how gut-brain circuits contribute to complex behaviors like decision-making and mood.

Anikeeva’s group is also developing magnetic nanoparticles to modulate neural activity wirelessly. Working in conjunction with biological receptors, these non-invasive nanoscale transducers could replace wires in deep-brain stimulation for Parkinson’s disease, or control stress hormones released by adrenal glands. Ultimately, Anikeeva hopes these novel technologies will improve therapies and predictive diagnostics for achieving healthy minds in healthy bodies.

Ed Boyden

Engineering the Brain

Ed Boyden develops advanced technologies for analyzing, engineering, and simulating brain circuits to reveal and repair the fundamental mechanisms behind complex brain processes.

Boyden may be best known for pioneering optogenetics, a powerful method that enables scientists to control neurons using light. He also led the team that created expansion microscopy, which expands nanoscale features in a cell to make them visible using conventional microscopes. In addition, his lab develops methods so that many signals can be imaged in living cells at the same time. He continues to invent new tools, and works to systematically integrate these tools to enable biologically accurate computer simulations of the brain.