People
Thank you very much for your interest in our group.
We form a small laboratory at Charité – University Medicine Berlin and focus on the following central questions:
- How does the human brain respond to focal stimuli applied by invasive and noninvasive neuromodulation methods
- Specifically, we study the effects of deep brain stimulation on small brain nuclei
- How do distributed brain networks respond to such stimuli
- We use noninvasive techniques like resting-state fMRI and diffusion-weighted MRI to address this question
- How does DBS electrode placement affect
- Clinical
- Neural
- or behavioral response
In second line, we’re highly interested in structural and functional connectomics as well as detailed anatomical definitions of the human brain.
Some of our lab members take part in developing the open-source toolbox Lead-DBS – which has become a multi-institutional endeavor.
Andreas Horn
Before bringing to life the NetStim Lab in April 2019, Andreas worked as a postdoc at the Laboratory for Brain Network Imaging and Modulation headed by Prof. Michael Fox at Harvard. Prior to that, he completed an MD/PhD with Prof. Andrea Kühn in the Movement Disorders and Neuromodulation Section at Charité Berlin, conjointly with a scientific appointment at the laboratory of Prof. Felix Blankenburg (Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience / Max Planck Institute for Human Development). Andreas also holds a Dr. med., which he obtained under the guidance of Prof. Cornelius Weiller in Freiburg. As a PI he is affiliated with the PhD program of the Einstein Center for Neurosciences Berlin and the International Graduate Program Medical Neurosciences at Charité Berlin, and teaches medical as well as postgraduate-level courses.
Within the scope of his scientific work, Andreas is keenly interested in the interactions between the basal ganglia and the cerebral cortex. Phylogenetically, both originate from the peduncular hypothalamus and form a system optimized in controlling our environment, first and foremost by means of action (e.g., motor output). Hence, Andreas strives to explore network connectivity and causality in this system, the human connectome and its structure-function relationship. As a clinical case of connectomics, he studies effects of deep brain stimulation (DBS) on aberrant circuitries that lead to movement disorders. These interests are often realized by furthering development of the Lead-DBS toolbox, which Andreas envisions as a collaborative platform for the refinement and scientific application of methods to study how DBS interacts with the brain.
When not in the lab, Andreas may be found marveling at the invigorating powers of the coffee machine in the kitchen or hidden in the lab’s cooler eating ice cream. He may (or may not) have played in dubious rock bands with doubtful musical output back in the days, but nonetheless his love for music has lived on until today. Apart from that, Andreas also has a thing for podcasts (he even hosts one himself – it’s called Stimulating Brains!) and the ramblings of Jerome Salinger, whom he credits as his favorite author. Ningfei Li gave him a drone once, which is amazing, but if you see Andy and his drone you better watch out because he has only been crashing into trees with it so far.
Ningfei Li
Member of the NetStim lab since its early days, Ningfei is also an essential part of the core Lead-DBS development team and completed his PhD within the lab. Beforehand Ningfei received Bachelor’s and Master’s of Engineering degrees with specializations in Electronics Science and Technology, as well as in Signal and Information Processing at the Northwestern Polytechnical University of Xi’an, China.
In the framework of his PhD project, Ningfei intends to contribute to the improvement of DBS therapy for patients by investigating connectomic DBS targets in Parkinson’s disease (PD), dystonia and obsessive compulsive disorder. More specifically, he aims at generating predictive models of structural connectivity profiles derived from diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (dMRI) based connectomes and linking these to clinical improvement. Currently, Ningfei has extended his focus toward the comparative study of DBS targeted to the subthalamic nucleus across different diseases.
Simón Oxenford
Simón joined the NetStim lab in September 2019 and, beyond being part of the core development team of Lead-DBS, is pursuing his PhD within the lab. During his Bioengineering studies in Buenos Aires, he got fascinated by the nuts and bolts of image processing, and more specifically, by the potentials of the brain imaging technique of MRI to reveal information about the hidden workings of the brain.
With an aspiration to contribute useful methodology for the scientific advancement of the field of DBS, in his PhD, Simón is currently exploring methods to refine registration tools and to use these methods to build more predictive DBS models.
Besides his love for getting at the bottom of a problem and questioning things, Simón likes to play football and the electric bass. Over time, he discovered that creativity plays a central role for him – from the music he enjoys to the research he pursues, and for all the other aspects of life in between. Someday, Simón hopes to follow his favorite band Snarky Puppy on tour.
Barbara Hollunder
Barbara’s research interests include symptom-specific connectomic DBS for improved precision neuromodulation, dimensional approaches to neuropsychiatry and comparative studies across disorders. Within the realms of her PhD, Barbara currently aims to model optimal network targets for DBS therapy with focus on neuropsychiatric symptoms by tracing structural (dMRI derived) and functional (resting-state fMRI derived) connectivity profiles across different brain disorders, including Parkinson’s disease (PD), obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), or Tourette’s syndrome. In that, she hopes to contribute a small piece of the puzzle which may advance the field toward personalization of connectomic DBS to unique symptom profiles of individual patients.
Besides her passion for unraveling neuroscientific conundrums, Barbara is an art lover and curious adventure enthusiast who adores to explore every nook and cranny in- and outside of Berlin, both cycling and walking. When exhausted from too many discovery trips or treasure hunts at flea markets, she likes to dive into drawing and photography.
Ana Sofía Ríos Infante
Ana is a Master’s student in the International Graduate Program Medical Neurosciences and initially joined us in February 2020 for a lab rotation. To our delight, she decided to stay and complete her Master’s thesis within the NetStim lab. Prior to moving to Berlin, Ana completed her Medical Diploma in Mexico followed by a year-long work experience in the Genetic’s clinic of a public hospital.
Eagerly interested in neurodegenerative diseases, Ana strives to explore the effects of neuromodulation as a treatment option for different disorders. In the framework of her Master’s thesis, she is currently validating the WarpDrive tool, which has recently been developed by fellow lab member Simón Oxenford within the Lead-DBS environment. Her goal with this project is to manually improve accuracy of atlas fit at the level of specific brain nuclei (such as the STN or the fornix) across different datasets of Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease patients. With regards to everyday life in the NetStim lab, Ana appreciates the relaxed environment and being surrounded by people that are both hard-working and supportive of each other.
Ana, whose favorite brain area is the corpus callosum, also admits to being a heavy coffee addict. In her free time, she likes to explore Berlin with her bike and discover small coffee spots all around the city, so hit her up if you’re looking for a list of the top addresses for Berlin’s most delicious coffee! She also really loves cooking and recently discovered a passion for playing Sudoku.
Bassam Al-Fatly
Bassam, an MD/PhD student in the laboratory of Andrea Kühn, is also affiliated with the NetStim lab via multiple projects since early 2019. He earned a Medical School Diploma earlier on, followed by a Master’s of Science degree in Neurophysiology, both in Baghdad, Iraq. Moreover, he received a 6-months research training in non-invasive brain stimulation at the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Rome, Italy under the mentorship of Prof. Paolo Maria Rossini as a scholar of the IFCN in 2015/2016.
Bassam is endeavoring to understand remote network effects of DBS and leverage the latter in the development of a personalized medicine approach for DBS outcome in patients. In his PhD, which he pursues as a fellow of the International Graduate Program Medical Neurosciences at Charité Berlin, he thus applies structural and functional connectomic analyses to investigate neuroimaging correlates of DBS effects in movement disorders (besides others, such as psychiatric conditions). Although Bassam came to like programming and figure design already outside the realm of scientific papers, he now exploits these skills in his scientific career. Apart from his research, Bassam has also been involved in teaching (e.g., postgraduate-level classes on neuroanatomy) and supervision of Master’s students.
Bassam’s scientific enthusiasm got inspired already early during childhood by his father (a quantum physicist), who is still his most important driving force for investing himself into science up until today. Moreover, he loves his family and spends most of his non-scientific time with his wife and kids. Bassam also enjoys traveling and listening to contemporary music, especially to movie soundtracks (such as Hans Zimmer). Get in touch with Bassam if you’re a fellow fan of the Globus Pallidus internus, which is his favorite brain region!
Lukas Goede
Lukas is a research fellow in the NetStim lab since February 2020. Concurrently, he is working as a physician in the Department of Neurology with Experimental Neurology and the Movement Disorders and Neuromodulation Unit at Charité Berlin.
Lukas’ scientific interests primarily revolve around brain networks and network stimulation, as well as the application of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) and DBS in clinical contexts and beyond. These interests are also reflected in his current main research project, in which he aims to leverage multifocal tDCS in order to stimulate neuronal networks and investigate their relationship with clinical outcome parameters in patients with Parkinson’s disease. In joining knowledge gained through both his research and clinical activities, Lukas hopes to ultimately improve patients’ outcome by refining stimulation methods and subsequently translating these from bench to bedside.
Something Lukas highly values in research is that there is a continuous learning curve. Moreover, he really appreciates scientific exchange, and finds it essential being immersed within a great team and research environment – all things he likes about the NetStim lab! When Lukas is not in the lab fiddling with electrodes or in the clinical ward seeing patients, one might find him heading out for a cycling tour in and around Berlin or jumping into one of Berlin’s many amazing lakes. Recently, he also rediscovered the beauty of hiking.
Nanditha Rajamani
Nanditha joined the NetStim laboratory in November 2020 as a PhD student in the international medical neuroscience program. After a Masters in Computer Engineering at Georgia Tech, she worked with the Child Mind Institute in New York to help develop the C-PAC software.
Broad areas of interests include personalisation and symptom specific approaches to neuromodulation therapy. With an engineering background, she is also interested in contributing with data science and exploring clinical statistics, to better understand and produce meaningful results in scientific discoveries. Her current projects include developing mixture models for PD using connectomic DBS, and developing/implementing a BIDS-like format for the lead-DBS software.
While not working, Nanditha loves to practice calligraphy/solve sudoku/write short stories and has an intense obsession with watching studio ghibli movies (maybe not at the same time).
“If the world is a simulation, I’d like to be a feature, not a bug.”
Garance Meyer
Garance is a postdoc in the NetStim lab. She draws from a broad background in cognitive neuroscience which she gained through a Bachelor’s degree in cognitive science as well as both a Master’s of Science and a PhD in neuroscience, all from the University of Lyon, France. Her PhD project aimed to unravel the core neurocognitive mechanisms underlying impulsivity in Parkinson’s Disease, using custom behavioral tasks and electroencephalography.
In her scientific work, Garance is most interested in the role of the basal ganglia and associated circuits in normal cognitive functioning as well as in pathological conditions. Inspired by an internship in a neuromodulation clinical unit, she also maintains a fascination for brain stimulation. She likes to converge these two key interests in her research by leveraging connectomic neuromodulation as a window into the workings of basal ganglia-related circuits.
Garance’s favorite aspects of being a scientist include the opportunity to confront ideas with inspiring people. She also very much enjoys the aspect of creativity involved in research. As much as she would like to work against the stereotype of a nerdy scientist though, reading great papers with a very big cup of tea is admittedly one of her favorite activities. Being a keen hiker, Garance cannot wait to explore Boston and surroundings on foot, although she must admit she is a bit afraid of snow (which remains a rare occurrence in the south of France), and of missing cheese and other French delicacies.
Clemens Neudorfer
Clemens joined the NetStim Lab as a research fellow in 2020. He completed his MD at the Medical University of Innsbruck, Austria and the Medical Faculty at the University of Cologne, Germany. Following two years of neurosurgery residency he pursued a postdoctoral fellowship in Andres Lozano’s lab at the Toronto Western Hospital, Canada focusing on neuroimaging approaches to elucidate the local and network effects of deep brain stimulation (DBS) in movement disorders and psychiatric diseases. Upon completion, Clemens returned to Germany and joined the NetStim lab focusing on personalized (symptom and disease-specific) approaches to neuromodulation therapy. He hopes to translate modeling approaches from neuroimaging into the operating room and inform therapeutic strategies in clinical practice.
Konstantin Butenko
Prior to joining the NetStim lab as a postdoc, Konstantin completed a Master of Science (Computational Science and Engineering) as well as a PhD (Dr.-Ing), both at the University of Rostock. While starting out as an industrial engineer, Konstantin wrote his master thesis in accelerating physics until he got introduced to neuroscience where he hopes to settle eventually. Within the scope of his PhD entitled “Modeling Perspective on Translatability of DBS Mechanism for Treating Parkinsonian Motor Symptoms in Rodent and Human”, he focused on a theoretical analysis of DBS mechanisms in human and rodent basal ganglia. The results indicated a feasible though limited translatability of neural activation patterns.
To further realize his appreciation for challenging engineering problems, Konstantin aims to establish modeling approaches for clinical assistance in DBS programming. His main scientific interests involve the simulation of symptom-specific DBS, the development of computational models for fundamental research on the basal ganglia in the context of neurological disorders, as well as software development for modeling of brain stimulation. For his scientific work, Konstantin sees the opportunity to help in alleviating the suffering of people affected by neurological diseases as his greatest inspiration.
Beyond aspects immediately relevant to his research, Konstantin is always keen on further expanding his knowledge of brain mechanisms. He believes that working in science is the best way to surround yourself with highly intelligent people– and that all other benefits come from it. If you ask him, Python is simply the best programming language, but he is not as biased when it comes to brain areas. Besides, Sicily counts among his favorite destinations to which science has brought him –and he would return just for the magnificent Etna views! Outside of the lab, Konstantin is a big fan of car racing, especially Formula I – and he takes every opportunity to participate in a cart race.
Lauren Hart
Lauren is a research assistant in the NetStim Lab since early 2022. Apart from her involvement in the lab, she is also a Senior at Boston University, Yawkee Scholar, and member of the tri-alpha honors society. At the NetStim, Lauren’s contribution involves tasks such as coordinating multiple lab projects, curating and maintaining databases of neuromodulation datasets, and analyzing involved connectomic profiles. Other responsibilities include helping with Lead-DBS user support, website management, and professionalizing Lead-DBS documentation (such as in form of a manual and walkthrough videos).
To realize her vision of herself as a life-long learner, she plans on investing herself into a PhD with high translational value in the future in the hope of improving the quality of life of individuals affected by different neurological and psychiatric conditions. In this context, her main scientific interests lie in functional neuroimaging, and neuromodulation to treat conditions such as epilepsy, depression, and movement disorders.
Outside of science, Lauren enjoys running with a goal of completing the Boston Marathon, snowboarding, and listening to podcasts –usually while walking with her dog, Oakley. Currently she is also making a 3D-printer with the purpose of printing out a 3D model of her brain but would love to expand its use towards other projects in the future. Apart from that, Lauren is a true coffee aficionado, she may be exactly the right person to ask when in search of the best places to find good espresso and croissants in Boston!
Min Jae Kim
Min Jae joined the NetStim lab Boston in June 2022 as a research assistant. During his Biomedical Engineering (BME) and Neuroscience undergraduate studies at the Johns Hopkins University, he trained at Johns Hopkins Neuromodulation and Advanced Treatment Center under Dr. Kelly Mills and investigate the network-level effect of Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) in neurocognition in Parkinson’s Disease (PD) using brain connectomics analysis.
Continuing his prior work, Min Jae is interested in studying the network-level effect of DBS on different neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders. While working at the Netstim, he hopes to augment his understanding of image processing methodologies and pathophysiology of neurological disorders and utilize them during his practice as a future neurologist-scientist. Currently, he is surveying how different patterns of connectivity maps produced from DBS are differentially associated with clinical outcomes in Parkinson’s Disease (PD). Utilizing methodologies in functional brain connectivity and MRI processing, he hopes to translate his project to better understand how specific connectivity patterns after DBS can have different therapeutic effect across a range of movement and neuropsychiatric disorders.
Aside from lab work, Min Jae loves biking and touring around Boston. Other than that, he loves entomology (the study of insects and arachnids). He fell in love with insects since he was five and is still fascinated with these little critters ever since. Fun fact: Min Jae had 5 pet tarantulas during college!
Luise Poser
Luise joined the NetStim Lab in October 2022 for her dissertation. She is a 5th year medical student at Charité Berlin. At the lab, she is working on evoked potentials in DBS patients with Parkinson’s disease in a clinical context.
In her free time, Luise enjoys playing the violine and has a passion for marathon running.
Jan Roediger
Jan is a physician interested in the translational principles of Deep Brain Stimulation. His research is focussing on the local and network effects of DBS in patients with Parkinsons Disease and aims at moving Neuroimaging from bench to bedside to optimize therapeutic strategies in the field. He is enrolled in the MD/PhD program of the Einstein Center for Neurosciences and affiliated with the Lab of Andrea Kühn.
Leon Sobesky
Leon is a medical student working for his dissertation at the lab.
Qiang Wang
Qiang joined the NetStim team as a PhD student following the completion of his medical Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees, both with a focus on Neurosurgery in the Guangdong province, China. He got fascinated by invasive network stimulation research in movement disorders already while working towards his Master’s degree, where he investigated Parkinson’s disease and levodopa-induced dyskinesias in rat models, conducted microelectrode implantation, as well as basic oscillatory activities analysis.
With a profound desire to translate his research into improving patients’ wellbeing, he presently strives to compare the similarities and differences between patient-specific and normative connectivity profiles seeding from deep brain stimulation electrodes for Parkinson’s disease within his PhD project, primarily by leveraging structural connectivity measures, including MRI and dMRI.
In the hope of his functional neurosurgery skill and scientific work mutually enriching each other in the future, Qiang’s most important mission is to continue informing his research with the help of patient experts-by-experience. He also likes to see research as a means of amplifying scientific advancements in order to make them available to a broader range of affected individuals. When in search for a helping hand or for somebody with whom to share some fun, waffles, and a good cup of original Chinese tea, Qiang is the person you’re looking for!
