Our Team
Principal Investigator
Edward Chang, MD
Dr. Edward Chang is a neurosurgeon at UC San Francisco specializing in the treatment of intractable epilepsy, trigeminal neuralgia, and brain tumors. His research focuses upon the brain mechanisms for human speech, movement, and cognition. He co-directs the Center for Neural Engineering & Prostheses at UC Berkeley and UCSF, which brings together engineering, neuroscience, neurology and neurosurgery to develop state-of-the-art biomedical devices to restore function for patients with neurological disabilities.
Faculty
Matthew Leonard, PhD
Associate Professor
Matt Leonard is a cognitive neuroscientist interested in how the brain understands sequences of speech sounds as words. After completing his PhD at UCSD and a postdoc at UCSF, Matt joined the faculty in the UCSF department of Neurological Surgery, where he continues work with the Chang Lab as he studies the neural basis of word representations using ECoG and stimulation techniques. He was also a co-PI on the DARPA-funded Targeted Neuroplasticity Training (TNT) program, which seeks to use non-invasive peripheral nerve stimulation to enhance and accelerate learning of complex cognitive tasks like language acquisition.
David Moses, PhD
Assistant Professor
David Moses completed his doctoral research in the Chang lab, where he studied speech perception, automatic speech recognition, brain state representations, and real-time neural signal processing. As a postdoc and now faculty member, he is continuing his research on automatic speech recognition and real-time neural signal processing.
Kristin Sellers, PhD (UNC Chapel Hill)
Assistant Professor
Kristin Sellers completed her Ph.D. in Neurobiology at UNC-Chapel Hill. She started at UCSF in 2016 as a Postdoctoral Scholar and then Associate Professional Researcher in the Chang Lab, investigating therapeutic electrical stimulation for neuropsychiatric disorders as part of the DARPA-funded SUBNETS project and in clinical trials in major depressive disorder and chronic pain. She is now an Assistant Professor with a research program focused on enabling human brain-computer interfaces for the treatment of neurological and psychiatric conditions, primarily through closed-loop neurostimulation.
Ankit Khambhati, PhD (University of Pennsylvania)
Assistant Professor
Ankit Khambhati is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Neurological Surgery. He is interested in understanding rules by which brain networks reorganize in support of continuously changing behavioral and brain states. He completed his Ph.D. in Bioengineering under Dr. Brian Litt at the University of Pennsylvania. His graduate work focused on building computational tools to map brain networks involved in the initiation and propagation of debilitating seizures, using electrophysiology data from human epilepsy patients. He next completed a postdoc with Dr. Danielle Bassett, where he built machine learning methods to understand the mechanics of brain network reorganization. In the Chang Lab, he aims to use these tools and understand how theoretical principles from network theory can inspire next-generation interventional approaches to rehabilitate affected networks in brain disorders.
Peng Cong, PhD (Case Western Reserve)
Professor, Director of Brain Interface Technology
Peng Cong is an industry-seasoned world-class medical device engineering leader. He was the designer for two of the world’s first implantable bidirectional brain interfaces, the Activa PC+S and Summit RC+S devices, at Medtronic and he led and completed overall implantable system development for Galvani, a $750M joint venture between Google and GSK representing one of the world’s first bioelectronics systems. Peng joined the UCSF Department of Neurosurgery as Professor and Director of Brain Interface Technology, where he works closely with clinical teams to explore cutting-edge brain interface technology for the treatment of neuropsychiatric disorders and the development of speech prostheses.
Postdocs
Anusha Allawala, PhD (Brown University)
Anusha’s research is centered on optimizing neuromodulation for psychiatric disorders and improving our understanding of affective and cognitive processing in mood disorders. She received her PhD in Biomedical Engineering at Brown University. During graduate school she helped lead efforts on high-density intracranial monitoring and multi-modal behavioral measurement in patients with depression during deep brain stimulation at Baylor College of Medicine in collaboration with Dr. Sameer Sheth. As a postdoc she will work on efforts towards closed-loop neuromodulation for mood disorders.
Jon Gauthier, PhD (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
[website] [CV] [Google Scholar]
Jon's research is focused on computational modeling of spoken language understanding. He completed his Ph.D. in cognitive science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology under the mentorship of Professor Roger Levy, where he used psycholinguistic models of word recognition to predict the neural response to speech. His current research combines methods from artificial intelligence and cognitive science to study how the brain represents aspects of language structure and meaning.
Shailee Jain, PhD (University of Texas at Austin)
[website] [CV] [Google Scholar]
Shailee’s research is focused on understanding the neural code of speech and language processing in the brain through artificial neural networks. Her doctoral dissertation focused on understanding semantic & temporal processing in the human cortex, drawing from neuroscience, NLP and machine learning. As a postdoctoral scholar in the Chang lab, Shailee will be focusing on using both ECoG and single neuron recordings to understand how words are contextualized in speech and temporal processing across neural ensembles.
Donghyeok Lee, PhD (Seoul National University)
Donghyeok's research focuses on understanding the mechanisms of brain states and regulating them through neuromodulation. He completed his Ph.D. in Brain and Cognitive Sciences under Prof. Chung at Seoul National University, where his doctoral research centered on modulating human decision-making through brain stimulation. In the Leonard and Chang labs, he investigates how different brain states influence perceptual learning using invasive neurophysiological recordings and pupillometry.
Jessie Liu, PhD (UC Berkeley-UCSF)
Jessie completed her Ph.D. in bioengineering in the Chang Lab in 2023. Her dissertation research covered both the development of algorithms for speech neuroprosthetic technology and investigating speech-motor sequence control in the brain. As a postdoc, Jessie continues to work towards developing robust speech neuroprosthesis algorithms as well as further understanding the neural basis of speech production, using machine learning and statistical techniques.
Yitzhak Norman, PhD (Weizmann Institute)
[website] [CV] [Google Scholar]
Yitzhak (Itzik) Norman is a postdoctoral scholar in the Chang Lab. His research focuses on the neuronal mechanisms underlying the ability to encode, retrieve and reenact a previous conversation in our minds. During his PhD at the Weizmann Institute of Science, Itzik studied the role of hippocampal ripples in human declarative memory. As a postdoc, he investigates the cortical-hippocampal interplay during speech perception and production, and utilizes a combination of advanced brain imaging techniques (high-field 7T fMRI) with direct intracranial recordings (ECoG).
Many Xu, PhD (Johns Hopkins)
Many (Duo Xu) is a postdoctoral scholar in the Chang Lab. He sees speech production as a process of complex, flexible and highly context-dependent motor sequence generation, and he approaches the underlying mechanisms from single-neuron activities and circuit level computations. Many completed his Ph.D. in neuroscience at Johns Hopkins University under the supervision of Dr. Daniel H. O'Connor, where he uncovered neuronal populations that encode and control sensorimotor sequence execution and organization using a novel sequence task in animals. Outside of work, when he has time, Many creates science related contents on YouTube and Bilibili.
Xiaofang Yang, PhD (Princeton University)
Xiaofang is a postdoctoral scholar in the Chang Lab. She obtained her PhD from Princeton University, where she worked with Dr. Sabine Kastner to study the attentional modulation of visual and auditory perception. Her current research interest is functional connectivity and population coding in speech processing.
Yizhen Zhang, PhD (University of Michigan)
[website] [CV] [Google Scholar]
Yizhen Zhang is a postdoctoral scholar in the Chang lab. She completed her Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Michigan in June 2021. In her Ph.D. research supervised by Prof. Zhongming Liu, she studied neural encoding and decoding of naturalistic stimuli and brain-inspired artificial intelligence. Her current research interest is making AI models more like human learners by grounding language learning in perception (e.g., visual experience), action, and emotion.
Lingyun Zhao, PhD (Johns Hopkins)
Lingyun is a postdoctoral scholar in the Chang Lab. He obtained his PhD in Johns Hopkins University where he worked with Dr. Xiaoqin Wang to study the vocal production and communication of nonhuman primates. His current research interest is the coordination in motor production and the sensorimotor mechanism in speech.
Graduate Students
Samantha Brosler (Bioengineering)
Samantha graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 2022 with a BSE in bioengineering and a concentration in neuroengineering. Now as a PhD student in the Chang lab, Samantha is interested in computational methods for speech and motor decoding and aims to focus on translational projects involving brain-computer interfaces. Outside of lab, she enjoys running, hiking, and playing ultimate frisbee.
Ilina Bhaya-Grossman (Bioengineering)
Ilina received her undergraduate degree from the University of California, Berkeley in Computer Science and Cognitive Science in 2018. During her time at Berkeley, she worked with Dr. Arjen Stolk and Professor Robert Knight on a dual-EEG communication study attempting to shed light on the neurophysiological features of non-verbal human communication; this work was ultimately the focus of her honors thesis. Ilina is broadly interested in the neural correlates and theory underlying communication and hopes to continue her exploration of this area of study in the Chang lab with work on bilingual speech perception.
Quinn Greicius (Bioengineering)
Quinn graduated from Stanford University in 2021 with a B.S. in Mathematics. Prior to starting his PhD, he was a Clinical Research Coordinator in the Chang Lab responsible for conducting intraoperative Neuropixels recordings and developing the related hardware, software, and analysis platforms.
Kaylo Littlejohn (Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences)
Kaylo received his BS degree in Electrical Engineering from Columbia University in 2020. During his time at Columbia, Kaylo developed VR 3D real time closed loop brain machine interface paradigms under Dr. Paul Sajda. Now as a graduate student in the Chang Lab, Kaylo works on the BCI Restoration of Arm and Voice (BRAVO) clinical trial and is broadly interested in real time speech synthesis and machine learning applied to developing assistive communication devices.
Jeremy Saal (Neuroscience)
Jeremy holds a Bachelor of Science in Cognitive Science from the University of California, Santa Cruz, earned in 2017. He then advanced his studies with a Master's in Cognitive Neuroscience at Maastricht University, where he specialized in decoding navigational features from the hippocampus using intracranial recordings. Currently a graduate student in the Shirvalkar and Chang labs, Jeremy's research is centered on network analysis and decoding related to chronic pain, and investigating the cognitive aspects of pain expectation.
Alex Silva (Bioengineering)
Alex received his BSE in bioengineering in 2020 from the University of Pennsylvania where he worked with Drs. Kathryn Davis and Brian Litt on mapping seizure spread patterns with intracranial EEG and diffusion tensor imaging. As a student in the Chang Lab and UCSF MD/PhD program, Alex aims to focus on translational projects in brain computer interface, intraoperative recording, and epilepsy. Outside of lab, he enjoys soccer, hiking, and exploring the Bay Area.
P.S. Nandini (Bioengineering)
P.S.Nandini is a PhD student in the UC Berkeley-UCSF Joint Bioengineering Graduate Program. She holds an MS in Neuroscience from Berlin, Germany and Amsterdam, Netherlands, with the Erasmus Mundus Scholarship. For her current PhD work, Nandini is working with Dr. Khambhati and researching timescales in long-term recordings of neural physiology and behavior in patients with treatment-resistant depression as part of the ongoing PRESIDIO clinical trial. Nandini is an inaugural Quad Fellow, a Kavli Fellow, and a recipient of Narotam Sekhsaria Scholarship, JN Tata Scholarship and the H2H8 Graduate Research Grant.
Research Specialists
Anthony Fong
Anthony Fong is interested in the human brain function, consciousness, and technological applications. At UCSF Anthony develops computer programs that can that receive real-time electrocorticography (ECoG) data, detects when there is change in the ECoG that corresponds to malignant state, and delivers therapeutic stimulation when this state is detected. During this process he collaborates with researchers, neurologists, and psychiatrists who develop the algorithms used to detect the malignant state.
Irina Hallinan
Irina received her BS in Computer Science at Rice University and Master of Engineering in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences at University of California, Berkeley. During her master’s studies, under the guidance of Dr. Brian Barsky, she developed an assistive communication application for American Sign Language speakers. Prior to joining the Chang lab, Irina designed and developed interactive data-driven applications for scientists at NASA. As a Research and Development Engineer on the BCI Restoration of Arm and Voice (BRAVO) clinical trial, Irina aims to focus on developing intuitive brain-computer interfaces to assist both patients and researchers.
Rujul Gandhi
Rujul received her SB in Linguistics and Computer Science and her MEng in Computer Science from MIT. For her master's thesis, she worked on applying natural language processing to robot planning problems. At the Chang Lab, Rujul is working mostly with single neuron recordings to study speech perception. She is interested in studying how information is represented in speech and understood in the brain.
Lab Manager
Viv Her
Speech-Language Pathologist
Catherine Wang
Catherine received her BA degree in Linguistics/Cognitive Science from the University of Southern California and her MS in Speech-Language Pathology from San Jose State University. She completed her clinical fellowship training at the Long Beach VA. In the Chang Lab, Catherine collects behavioral data on language recovery following resective neurosurgery. In addition to assessing research participants’ speech and language skills after surgery, she assists in conducting intraoperative research tasks. Catherine is passionate about applying research findings to improve clinical assessment and treatment of aphasia.
Clinical Research Coordinators
Cady Kurtz-Miott
Cady Kurtz-Miott is a clinical research coordinator for the BRAVO clinical trial and the EXPY study with Brigham & Women’s Hospital. She received her B.A. in Biology from Lewis & Clark College in 2022. Previously, Cady worked as a research assistant under Dr. Michael Brainard at the UCSF Center for Integrative Neuroscience using electrical stimulation and other neurophysiology techniques to study sensory motor learning. She is passionate about improving medical technology and access to healthcare.
Aria Lin
Aria Lin is a Clinical Research Coordinator for the emotion work in Chang Lab examining the neural mechanisms of human emotion. Aria received her B.S. in Bioengineering from the University of California, Berkeley in 2021. She previously worked in industry on the automation of a CRISPR-based, genetic engineering workflow. Aria is interested in understanding how emotion is represented in the brain and the implications that has for the diagnosis and treatment of psychiatric diseases.
Siddharth Marathe
Siddharth received his BS in Bioengineering and Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences in 2024 from UC Berkeley. As an undergrad, he worked in the Chang and Kleen Labs at UCSF to analyze intracranial and single-unit recordings in patients with epilepsy. Now, as a CRC in the Chang Lab and Kleen Lab, Siddharth focuses on collecting, preprocessing, and analyzing ECoG and intraoperative Neuropixel recordings and developing task-related infrastructure. Outside of lab, Siddharth enjoys hiking, playing classical guitar, and basketball.
Tanay Poddar
Tanay Poddar is a clinical research coordinator for the Neuropixels project. He received his B.A. in Neuroscience from the University of Pennsylvania in 2024. In addition to collecting intraoperative recordings, he assists with behavioral data acquisition and preprocesses neuronal data. Tanay is passionate about researching the biological basis of neural circuitries to improve the delivery of healthcare.
Residents/Fellows
Andrew Moses Lee, MD
Joline Fan
Jonathan Burke, MD PhD (U Penn)