Leifer develops closed-loop optical instrumentation that simultaneously records brain-wide calcium activity and delivers single-neuron optogenetic perturbations in freely moving C. elegans, building functional atlases of signal propagation and studying how whole-brain neural dynamics generate behavior. His group's whole-brain, cellular-resolution imaging in unrestrained animals is a benchmark advanced-microscopy approach for linking neural dynamics to behavior.
Liu develops ultra-flexible, tissue-scaffold-integrated mesh bioelectronics that become seamlessly incorporated into developing neural tissue, enabling minimally invasive single-cell recording of brain activity with millisecond precision as the brain develops â a bioelectronic sensing platform explicitly aimed at eventual human/clinical translation for understanding neurodevelopmental disease.
Muller designs wireless, miniaturized CMOS integrated circuits for closed-loop neural recording and stimulation (including the WAND platform), pushing implantable bioelectronic sensing toward fully autonomous, battery-free operation.
Park's group works at the interface of physics, chemistry, and neuroscience, developing nanowire- and nanoelectrode-based intracellular electrophysiology probes as well as NV-diamond quantum sensing platforms (often in collaboration with Lukin), building on the same NV ensemble quantum-sensing lineage (DEER, nanoscale NMR, T1 relaxometry, pT/âHz sensitivity) while also pushing nanoscale bioelectronic recording.
Prawer is the founding figure of Melbourne diamond science, spanning colour-centre quantum technology, diamond surface chemistry and â unusually â clinical translation. His group developed the nitrogen-doped ultrananocrystalline diamond electrode arrays used in the Australian diamond bionic eye, a hermetically sealed, chronically implantable retinal stimulator that has been through human implantation; that is a rare example of an exotic-materials sensing/stimulation technology carried into human trials. In parallel the group works on diamond surface termination and functionalisation for near-surface NV sensing, nanodiamond bioconjugation, and diamond as a radiation-hard detector material. Positioned against the established body of NV-ensemble quantum sensing work â DEER, nanoscale NMR and T1 relaxometry protocols operating at pT/sqrt(Hz) field sensitivity â his surface- and materials-engineering work is precisely what sets the standoff distance, and hence the achievable pT/sqrt(Hz) sensitivity, of near-surface NV ensembles used for DEER and nanoscale NMR. Preferred attribute present: demonstrated human trials with a complex implanted technology.
Schultz uses two-photon calcium imaging and other optical neurotechnology to study neural population activity in vivo, with application to understanding circuit dysfunction in neurodegenerative disease and to brain-machine interfaces.