Our laboratory headed by Prof. Dr. Mehmet Fatih Yanik is developing advanced technologies to communicate with and to non-invasively manipulate brain networks and subsequent cognitive behaviours for both fundamental studies and therapeutics of brain disorders. We are also developing cognitively challenging paradigms at the core of major brain disorders such as Autism and Schizophrenia; yet also important for robotics and AI where good computational models currently do not exist (such as imitation learning and inference of rule switching).
PROJECTS: We MAY have available projects in the lab for undergraduate, master's, PhD level students, and postdocs. Please contact Prof. Mehmet Fatih Yanik directly with your CV/transcript (yanik at ethz dot ch).
SNSF Advanced Grant for Mehmet Fatih Yanik
Mehmet Fatih Yanik is awarded the SNSF Advanced Grant (1.9 Mio CHF). His team is developing an approach to precisely modify neural networks in the brain. The aim is to use this approach to treat psychiatric and neurological disorders that are resistant to existing treatments. His concept uses biocompatible electrodes implanted in the brain to precisely measure and influence brain activity. Simultaneously, he uses another unique technology to release drugs with pinpoint accuracy in the affected brain regions to trigger rewiring of brain networks. In his Advanced Grant project, Yanik's team will investigate neurological processes that extend across multiple areas of the brain. He wants to be able to distinguish between pathological and normal processes and to modify the pathological processes without affecting healthy brain functions with utmost precision. He is one out of three recipients of this prestigious grant in the life sciences.
Months-long tracking of neuronal ensembles spanning multiple brain areas with Ultra- Flexible Tentacle Electrodes
Bridge Discovery Award to Prof. Yanik’s team for pre-clinical large animal studies to translate non-invasive focal brain drug delivery technology to clinic
Treatment of brain disorders such as depression, chronic anxiety, obsessive compulsivity, schizophrenia, and epilepsy remain a formidable challenge despite the significant advances made in our understanding of the basic neurobiology. In addition to reasons for therapeutic failures specific to each brain disorder, there is a common underlying problem: Brain disorders often originate from dysfunctions of specific brain regions and circuits. Yet, clinically non-invasive treatments rely on systemic drugs and are incapable of targeting desired brain areas and circuits specifically with chemical precision. Prof. Yanik and his team recently developed a novel technology for non-invasive focal hyperconcentrated drug delivery to the brain circuits using focused ultrasound (external page https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-18059-7). While this technology's intense development has been supported by ERC Consolidator award, the SNSF and Innosuisse now granted 2.2 Mio CHF towards clinical translation. Together with neurosurgeon Dr. Michael Hugelshofer's team (University Hospital Zurich), and veterinarian Dr. Henning Richter's team (Vetsuisse Faculty), Prof. Yanik’s team is working on demonstrating the efficacy and safety of this drug delivery technology in preclinical large-animal models.
Bayesian surprise shapes neural responses in somatosensory cortical circuits
Deep-learning-based identification, tracking, pose estimation and behaviour classification of interacting primates and mice in complex environments
Non-invasive molecularly-specific millimeter- resolution manipulation of brain circuits by ultrasound-mediated aggregation and uncaging of drug carriers
Engineering brain activity patterns by neuromodulator polytherapy for treatment of disorders
Brain activity patterns in high-throughput electrophysiology screen predict both drug efficacies and side effects
