The team
Sami El-Boustani
SNSF Assistant Professor
Sami obtained his PhD in neuroscience from Sorbonne University in 2011, working with Alain Destexhe (CNRS) on computational models of cortical dynamics. He then joined the laboratories of Mriganka Sur (MIT) and Carl Petersen (EPFL) as a postdoc to study plasticity and perception in sensory systems.
Giulio Matteucci
Postdoctoral Associate
Giulio obtained his PhD in cognitive neuroscience from SISSA in February 2020. During his PhD he worked with Davide Zoccolan (SISSA) studying shape and motion processing across the rat visual cortex by combining extracellular electrophysiology, behavior and computational modelling.
Dimokratis Karamanlis
Postdoctoral Associate
Dimos studied medicine at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, and then obtained his PhD in neuroscience from the IMPRS in Göttingen in 2023 where he worked with Tim Gollisch on the nonlinear processing of natural stimuli by the retina. He is currently investigating social information processing during goal-directed behavior in mice.
Maëlle Guyoton
Postdoctoral Associate
Maëlle obtained her Master degree from University of Bordeaux in 2019. She will study mechanisms of synaptic integration at the single-neuron level that orchestrates how internal representations of the world in the brain shape sensory perception and guide behavior.
Anas Masood
Graduate Student
Anas received his Bachelor degree in Computer Sciences from Habib University, Pakistan. He then pursued a Master in Neurosciences through the Neurasmus Scholarship, studying at Vrije University Amsterdam and Université de Bordeaux. He is interested in explaining neural circuits of social games and their reward-value representations in the behaving brain.
Beatriz Apgaua
Graduate Student
Beatriz graduated as a Biomedical Scientist in Brazil and earned a Master’s in Neuroscience at the Max Planck School in Göttingen, where she studied whole-brain dynamics in mice. Now, during her PhD, she is investigating the neural correlates of social decision-making in mice during cooperation and competition.
Charlie Foucher
Research Assistant
Charlie obtained their Bachelor in Biomedical Sciences from University of Fribourg in June 2021. They are currently starting a Master in Neuroscience and will focus on optogenetic manipulation of brain circuits involved in sensory perception and behaviour.
Yuqiao Xie
Master Student
Yuqiao received her Bachelor’s degree in Biotechnology from Air Force Medical University, China in 2024. She used to study social impairment in autistic mouse model. Now she is exploring social decision making of mice and related brain circuits.
Ioanna Dimitropoulou
Master Student
Ioanna obtained her Bachelor’s degree in Biology from Sorbonne University, where she is currently pursuing a Master’s in Integrative Biology and Physiology. She is working on image analysis to map synaptic plasticity across the mouse brain during sensorimotor learning..
ALUMNI
