Theodore (Ted) Ho
Principal Investigator
Assistant Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering
AB, Harvard University
SM, Harvard University
PhD, UCSF, lab of Emmanuelle Passegue
Postdoc, Stanford University, lab of Dr. Karl Deisseroth
Neha Mukundan
PhD student
BS, UCLA
I’m a Neuroengineering PhD student from San Diego! I’m deeply passionate about leveraging optogenetics/neuromodulation to study and develop therapeutics for Alzheimer’s Disease. During my undergraduate studies at UCLA, I researched stress & gut-microbiome interactions, EEG feature extraction for Schizophrenia, and medical device development for REM Behavior Disorder. During my post-baccalaureate year, I developed pipelines to design custom neurosurgical hardware from medical imaging at the University of Washington. My golden retriever, Biscuit, is everything to me! If I can’t spend time with him, some things I love to do are watching/playing tennis and cooking.
Katherine Kearney
PhD student
BS, Stanford University
MS, Stanford University
I am a PhD student working in neural engineering with a particular focus on using optogenetics and machine learning to understand and repair cognitive decline due to aging and Alzheimer’s disease. I earned my B.S. in Bioengineering and my M.S. in Computer Science from Stanford University, where my research used simultaneous brain and spinal cord fMRI to inform new treatments for chronic pain. Before graduate school, I worked at the NIH Vaccine Research Center, applying spatial transcriptomics to uncover new features of cellular immune responses for HIV vaccine development, and at Thermo Fisher Scientific, where I helped develop novel mass spectrometers in the analytical instruments group. Outside the lab, I enjoy running around Town Lake and playing soccer.
Shangze Lyu
PhD student
BS, Georgia Tech
I previously worked on 40Hz stimulation and EEG studies on attention and neural connectivity, as well as molecular and cellular biology projects. I’m now interested in BCI and closed-loop neuromodulation for learning and memory dysfunction, particularly in Alzheimer’s disease. Outside lab, I enjoy motorcycles, travel, photography, and cooking.
Yuchang Tian
Rotation student
BS, Cornell University
MS, Yale
Yuchang is a first year graduate student in INP. Coming from a computational background, she is now exploring how the aging brain forms and retrieves association between stimuli during memory. Outside of academics, she enjoys backpacking and trail running.
Sai Aki
Undergraduate researcher
Alex Raich
Undergraduate researcher
I’m a sophomore mathematics student hoping to pursue an MD/PhD. I’m super intrigued by all things related to neurodegeneration and brain injury. Outside of school and the lab I’m into jiu-jitsu, freediving, trading, sharks, and LEGO!
Pavithra Vijayakumar
Undergraduate researcher
I am a Biomedical Engineering student who’s interested in neuroscience, biomedical research, and the development of medical technologies. Outside of the lab, I enjoy drawing, painting, hiking, and exploring new places around Austin.
Soham Deshpande
Undergraduate researcher
I’m Soham, and I’m an honors Biomedical Engineering student. I enjoy learning more about systems/computational neuroscience, neurotech R&D, and optogenetics. Find me on a basketball or tennis court, playing guitar, or finding new artists to listen to!
Saksham Agarwal
Undergraduate researcher
Hi! I’m Saksham, and I’m a CS + Math major here at UT. Academically, my interests lie in AI/ML, predictive modeling, and data science. Outside of school, I enjoy playing board games, hiking, and eating ice cream.
Pragnya Akula
Undergraduate researcher