News Archives

August 7, 2022
New call for undergrad project added "Prototype joint kinematics tracking via wireless sensors"!
 
February 15, 2022
Congratulations to Dr. Mojgan Goftari on successfully defending her PhD thesis, "Developing predictive models to optimize patient-specific deep brain stimulation therapy for Parkinson’s disease" Way to go, Dr. Goftari!
 
February 2, 2022
Congratulations to Dr. Alex Doyle on successfully defending her PhD thesis, "Investigating the effects of subthalamic nucleus stimulation on gait and pedunculopontine nucleus activity in a preclinical animal model of Parkinson’s disease" Way to go, Dr. Doyle!
 
August 20, 2021
Several of our graduate students are returning from their summer internships! Alex interned at Abbott, Mojgan interned at AstraZeneca, and Annie interned at Medtronic. Way to go and welcome back, team!
 
April 27, 2021
Annie Brinda authored a journal article entitled, "Longitudinal analysis of local field potentials recorded from directional deep brain stimulation lead implants in the subthalamic nucleus," accepted for publication in the Journal of Neural Engineering. Awesome job, Annie!
August 20, 2021
Several of our graduate students are returning from their summer internships! Alex interned at Abbott, Mojgan interned at AstraZeneca, and Annie interned at Medtronic. Way to go and welcome back, team!
April 27, 2021
Annie Brinda authored a journal article entitled, "Longitudinal analysis of local field potentials recorded from directional deep brain stimulation lead implants in the subthalamic nucleus," accepted for publication in the Journal of Neural Engineering. Awesome job, Annie!
March 23, 2021
Cara Piazza received the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship! Congratulations, Cara!
February 22, 2021
Ed Bello successfully defended his thesis, "Characterization of the cortical electrophysiological effects of motor thalamic DBS." Great Job, Dr. Bello!
January 19, 2021
Mojgan Goftari's article entitled, "7T MRI and computational modeling supports a critical role of lead location in determining outcomes for deep brain stimulation: A Case Report," has been accepted for publication in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience. Keep up the awesome work, Mojgan!
December 10, 2020
Mojgan Goftari was awarded the UMII MnDrive Graduate Assistantship! Congratulations, Mojgan!
October 6, 2020
Mojgan Goftari authored a journal entitled, "Pallidothalamic tract activation predicts suppression of stimulation-induced dyskinesias in a case study of Parkinson’s disease," which has been accepted for publication in Brain Stimulation. Great job, Mojgan!
September 23, 2020
Ed Bello authored a journal article entitled, "Frequency-dependent spike-pattern changes in motor cortex during thalamic deep brain stimulation," which has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Neurophysiology. Great work, Ed!
September 9, 2020
Dr. Julia Slopsema, a recent NRTL graduate, authored a journal article entitled, "Orientation-selective and directional deep brain stimulation in swine assessed by functional MRI at 3T," accepted for publication in NeuroImage. Congrats, Julia!
September 8, 2020
Rebecca Butler joined the NTRL team to complete her PhD! Welcome, Rebecca!
July 7, 2020
Alex Doyle and Jordan Krieg co-authored a journal article entitled, "Dose-dependent effects of translational alternating current stimulation on spike timing in awake nonhuman primates," which has been accepted for publication in Science Advances. Great work, team!
January 29, 2020
Logan Grado successfully defended his thesis, "Machine Learning for Deep Brain Stimulation." Great Job, Dr. Grado!
December 17, 2019
Julia Slopsema successfully defended her thesis, "Orientation-Selective Programming Strategies for Targeted Deep Brain Stimulation." Congratulations, Dr. Slopsema!
October 7, 2019
Mojgan Goftari attended the 2019 Udall Centers Meeting in Washington D.C., where she presented her research poster and networked with others working to better treat Parkinson's disease.
October 3-6, 2019
Six lab members attended and presented posters at the NTS/NYC Neuromodulation Conference in Napa, CA. They did a great job sharing our DBS research. Thanks, team!
September 23, 2019
Maddie Blumenfeld and Ed Bello won a poster award at the Annual IEM Conference and Retreat! Great job!
August 29, 2019
Annie, Mojgan, and Josh have all passed their preliminary exams! Congrats!
August 25, 2019
Bree, Annie and Robin volunteered at the UMN State Fair booth this weekend to teach the community about neuromodulation. Keep up the great work!
May 1, 2019
Our paper was listed in the highly cited collection of JNE publications. Congrats, Edgar and David!
April 19, 2019
Our lab members presented 8 research posters at the 7th Annual Minnesota Neuromodulation Symposium. Way to go, team!
7th Annual Minnesota Neuromodulation Symposium
 

 

April 9, 2019
Annie Brinda was awarded an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship. Congratulations, Annie!
December 6, 2018
Logan Grado published his paper, "Bayesian adaptive dual control of deep brain stimulation in a computational model of Parkinson's disease" in PLOS - Computational Biology. Great job, Logan!
October 10, 2018
Edgar Peña published his paper, "Multi-objective particle swarm optimization for postoperative deep brain stimulation targeting of subthalamic nucleus pathways" in the Journal of Neural Engineering. Congrats, Edgar!
September 24, 2018
Julia Slopsema and Annie Brinda won 1st and 3rd place, respectively, for their posters at the Annual Institute for Engineering in Medicine Annual Retreat! Great Job!
Institute for Engineering in Medicine Annual Retreat
August 25, 2018
Several of our lab members led a neuromodulation demo at the Minnesota State Fair. Thank you guys for sharing the importance of neural engineering!
StateFair2018
August 9, 2018
Julia Slopsema published her paper, "Clinical deep brain stimulation strategies for orientation-selective pathway activation" in the Journal of Neural Engineering. Well done, Julia!
June 25-27, 2018
We hosted the 2018 Neural Interfaces Conference right here in Minneapolis!
 2018 Neural Interfaces Conference
 

Jne 5, 2018
Alex Doyle was awarded an NIH National Research Service Award. Congratulations, Alex!
May 23, 2018
David Zhang published his paper, "High-resolution local field potentials measured with deep brain stimulation arrays," as a featured article, in the Journal of Neural Engineering. Great Job, David!
February 23, 2018
Our paper describing a novel particle swarm optimization algorithm for programming DBS systems was one of the highlighted papers for 2017 in the Journal of Neural Engineering!
January 24, 2018
Joe Xiao published his paper, "Deep brain stimulation induces sparse distributions of locally modulated neuronal activity" in Nature Scientific Reports. Well done, Joe!
December 14, 2017
Edgar Peña successfully defended his thesis, "Optimization Algorithms for Spatially Targeted Deep Brain Stimulation." Congratulations, Dr. Peña!
November 20, 2017
Annie Kovach and Mojgan Goftari joined the lab. Welcome!
November 6, 2017
Edgar Peña and Logan Grado won 1st and 3rd place at the Institute for Engineering in Medicine Conference & Retreat! Well done!
October 24, 2017
Edgar Peña gave an invited talk at Auburn University. Congratulations, Edgar!
September 21, 2017
Logan Grado was awarded an NIH National Research Service Award. Congratulations, Logan!
September 16, 2017
Logan Grado published his paper, "The Sliding Windowed Infinite Fourier Transform," in the IEEE Signal Processing Magazine. Well done, Logan!
August 23, 2017
David Zhang successfully defended his thesis, "Programming and Sensing with Deep Brain Stimulation Arrays." Congratulations, Dr. Zhang!
March 17, 2017
Julia Slopsema was awarded an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship. Congratulations, Julia!
February 7, 2017
The lab's Particle Swarm Optimization method was featured on Medical Physics Web! See the feature here.
January 30, 2017
MariPen Yeatts joined the lab. Welcome, MariPen!
January 9, 2017
Julia Slopsema published her paper, "Orientation selective deep brain stimulation," in the Journal of Neural Engineering. Great job, Julia!
January 9, 2017
Edgar Peña and Simeng Zhang published their paper, "Particle swarm optimization for programming deep brain stimulation arrays," in the Journal of Neural Engineering. Nicely done, Edgar and Simeng!
December 9, 2016
Ben Teplitzky successfully defended his thesis, "Personalized computational models of deep brain stimulation." Way to go, Ben!
August 24, 2016
Joe Xiao successfully defended his thesis, "Experimental and Model-Based Approaches to Directional Thalamic Deep Brain Stimulation." Outstanding, Joe!
July 27, 2016
The lab was awarded an NIH R01 grant to develop novel "Spatiotemporal Optimization of Deep Brain Stimulation for Parkinson's Disease."
June 27, 2016
The lab presented four posters at the 2016 NANS / Neural Interfaces Conference in Baltimore, MD, and Julia Slopsema gave a highlight talk on her work "Advanced stimulation patterns for directional activation."
May 23, 2016
Ben Teplitzky published his paper, "Model-based comparison of deep brain stimulation array functionality with varying number of radial electrodes and machine learning feature sets" in Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience. Well done, Ben!
May 19, 2016
Joe Xiao published his paper, "Multimodal 7T imaging of thalamic nuclei for preclinical deep brain stimulation applications" in Frontiers in Neuroscience, Brain Imaging Methods. Well done, Joe!
May 15, 2016
Alex Doyle joined the lab. Welcome, Alex!
March 24, 2016
Laura Zitella successfully defended her PhD thesis. Outstanding, Laura!
November 13, 2015
Julia Slopsema joined the lab. Welcome, Julia!
October 17, 2015
Allison Connolly published her paper, "A novel lead design for modulation and sensing of deep brain structures," in the Brain Special Issue of the IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering. Well done, Allison!
August 1, 2015
Joe Xiao published his paper, "Spherical statistics of neuronal populations modulated by deep brain stimulation," in the Journal of Neuroscience Methods. Well done, Joe!
July 13, 2015
Joe Xiao and Edgar Peña published their paper, "Theoretical optimization strategies for directionally segmented deep brain stimulation electrode arrays," in IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering. Well done, Joe and Edgar!
July 2, 2015
Laura Zitella published her paper, "Subject-specific computational modeling of DBS in the PPTg area" in Frontiers of Computational Neuroscience. Well done, Laura!
June 16, 2015
Filippo Agnesi published his paper, "Fidelity of frequency and phase entrainment of circuit-level spike activity during DBS," in the Journal of Neurophysiology. Well done, Filippo!
June 1, 2015
Joe Xiao was awarded the Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship. Well done, Joe!
April 17, 2015
The lab presented five posters at the 2015 Minnesota Neuromodulation Symposium.
April 15, 2015
Allison Connolly published her paper, "Classification of pallidal oscillations with increasing parkinsonian severity," in the Journal of Neurophysiology. Well done, Allison!
April 15, 2015
Allison Connolly published her paper, "Modulations in oscillatory frequency and coupling in globus pallidus with increasing parkinsonian severity," in the Journal of Neuroscience. Well done, Allison!
April 14, 2015
Laura Zitella published her paper, "In vivo 7T MRI of the non-human primate brainstem," in PLoS ONE. Well done, Laura!
April 6, 2015
Joe Xiao was awarded a MnDRIVE fellowship to further investigate his optimization algorithms for programming DBS electrode arrays. Congrats, Joe!
January 21, 2015
PI Matt Johnson was awarded a McKnight Land Grant Professorship.
Dec 15, 2014
Allison Connolly successfully defended her thesis "Advances in Bidirectional Deep Brain Stimulation Interfaces." Congratulations, Dr. Connolly!
Nov 14, 2014
Allison Connolly received a BRAIN Young Investigator Award (Honorable Mention) for her project "Large-scale Monitoring and Modulation of Deep Brain Activity in Non-human Primates."
Allison Connolly

Nov 7, 2014
Edgar Pena was invited to give a talk on "spatial and temporal modeling of electrical brain stimulation" at the 2014 SHPE National Conference. Congrats, Edgar!
Oct 24, 2014
Katelynn Brintz presented a poster at the 2014 Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES) Meeting in San Antonio, TX. Well done, Katelynn!
September 8, 2014
David Zhang joined the laboratory. Welcome, David!
Aug 27, 2014
Andrew Radtke successfully defended his MS project. Congrats, Andrew.
Aug 15, 2014
Kevin Moshenian successfully defended his MS thesis. Congrats, Kevin.
Jul 31, 2014
Ben Teplitzky was awarded a MnDRIVE fellowship to investigate plasticity in DBS and tDCS. Congratulations, Ben!
Jun 23-25, 2014
NRTL members presented six posters at the 2014 Neural Interfaces Conference in Dallas, TX. Dr. Johnson led an oral session on the need for more experimental validation of computational models of neuromodulation.
Apr 9, 2014
Kevin Mohsenian and John LaRoy presented their Journal of Medical Device publications at the 2014 Design of Medical Devices (DMD) conference.
Jan 24, 2014
Our manuscript, "Computational modeling of an endovascular approach to deep brain stimulation" was accepted in the Journal of Neural Engineering. Excellent work, Ben!
Nov 13, 2013
The lab presented three posters at the 2013 Society for Neuroscience Conference in New Orleans.
Nov 6, 2013
Ben Teplitzky and Allison Connolly presented posters at the 2013 IEEE-EMBS Neural Engineering Meeting.
Oct 31, 2013
Edgar Pena and Ed Bello II joined NTRL. Welcome!
Oct 11, 2013
The lab participated in Brain Awareness week by teaching 4th and 5th graders about the brain.
Aug 2, 2013
Our manuscript, "Deep brain stimulation imposes complex informational lesions" was accepted in PLoS ONE. Great work, Filippo!
July 18, 2013
Our laboratory organized a public outreach event at the Bakken Museum to teach kids and adults about electricity and the nervous system.
April 12th, 2013
Ben Teplitzky was awarded 1st prize for his poster presentation at the 2013 Minnesota Neuromodulation Symposium. Well done, Ben!
March 29th, 2013
Laura Zitella received an honorable mention for the 2013 NSF GRF award. Congratulations Laura!
March 29th, 2013
Karlo Malaga was awarded the NSF fellowship. Well done, Karlo!
Jan 24, 2013
Our manuscript, "Neuromodulation for Brain Disorders: Challenges and Opportunities" was accepted in IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering.
Jan 10, 2013
Our manuscript, "Computational modeling of pedunculopontine nucleus deep brain stimulation" was accepted and received the cover in Journal of Neural Engineering. Great work, Laura and Kevin!
Dec 6, 2012
Allison Connolly and Ben Teplitzky were awarded with an Associate position within the University of Minnesota's IGERT Graduate Training Program in Systems Neuroengineering.
Oct 17, 2012
The lab presented five posters at the 2012 Society for Neuroscience Conference in New Orleans.
Sept 29, 2012
The lab was awarded an NIH R01 grant to develop novel "Algorithms for Programming Deep Brain Stimulation Systems."
Sept 11, 2012
Allison Connolly, Ben Teplitzky, and Laura Zitella each received awards for their presentations at the IEM Innovation Showcase Poster Session in Minneapolis, MN.
Aug 30, 2012
Allison Connolly presented a poster at the IEEE-EMBS Conference in San Diego, CA.
June 18, 2012
The lab presented three posters at the Neural Interfaces Conference in Salt Lake City, UT. Dr. Matt Johnson spoke on "Advances in deep brain stimulation probe technology."
May 9, 2012
Our manuscript, "Improved spatial targeting with directionally segmented deep brain stimulation leads for treating essential tremor" was accepted in the Journal of Neural Engineering.
April 17, 2012
Our manuscript, "Neural targets for relieving parkinsonian rigidity and bradykinesia with pallidal deep brain stimulation" was accepted in the Journal of Neurophysiology.
March 30, 2012
Kevin Mohsenian received an honorable mention for the 2012 NSF GRF award. Well done Kevin!
Dec 13, 2011
Maureen Keane successfully defended her master's degree dissertation. Congrats, Maureen!
Dec 12, 2011
Laura Zitella was awarded an NSF IGERT fellowship for 2012-13. Congrats, Laura!
Nov 23, 2011
Allison Connolly's manuscript on MEG during DBS was accepted in Brain Stimulation.
Nov 16, 2011
The lab presented five posters at the Society for Neuroscience Conference in Washington DC.
Sept 2, 2011
Dr. Matt Johnson (Co-PI) and Dr. Bin He (PI) were awarded a five-year, $3 million grant from the NSF through the Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT) program to develop a neuroengineering training program for PhD students.
Oct 13, 2011
Kevin Mohsenian was selected as the recipient of the BMES 2011 Undergraduate Research Award for his paper, "Computational modeling of pedunculopontine nucleus deep brain stimulation." Kevin was presented with a certificate at the Awards Ceremony at the BMES Conference. Congrats, Kevin!
June 12, 2011
Maureen Keane was the first female finisher in Trinona, the Sprint Triathlon held in Winona, MN.

May 20, 2011
Allison Connolly, Maureen Keane, and Steve Deyo presented their work at the International Neuromodulation Congress in London, England.
Apr 5, 2011
Ben Teplitzky was awarded the NSF fellowship for 2011. Congrats, Ben!
Apr 5, 2011
Allison Connolly was awarded the NSF Fellowship for 2011. Congratulations, Allison!
Apr 1, 2011
Karlo Malaga presented his work on computational models of DBS for dystonia at the National Conference of Undergraduate Research in Ithaca, NY
Dec 22, 2010
The lab was awarded a research grant from the Institute for Engineering in Medicine to study essential tremor.
Dec 6, 2010
Allison Connolly was awarded a one-year Walter Barnes Lang fellowship.
Nov 3, 2010
Karlo Malaga was awarded the Minnesota High Tech Foundation scholarship in part for his work developing models of GPi-DBS for dystonia.
Oct 27, 2010
Karlo Malaga was selected for a 2010 University of Minnesota SEED award.
Oct 21, 2010
We hosted forty 4th grade students (and thirty parents) from the Twin Cities area as part of the 2010 FIRST Lego League. In collaboration with the Minnesota Supercomputing Institute's LCSE-MSI Visualization Laboratory, students participated in a virtual deep brain stimulation procedure and used 3D goggles to learn about the anatomical targets of stimulation within the human brain.
Oct 3, 2010
Steve Deyo completed the Twin Cities Marathon.
Sept 7, 2010
Allison Connolly was awarded the University of Minnesota's Graduate School Fellowship for incoming students.