My research explores how sleep, torpor, and artificial intelligence can be harnessed to promote brain repair, recovery, and resilience after neurological injury. Stroke remains a leading cause of death and disability, and recovery depends on the brain’s ability to rewire damaged circuits—a process strongly shaped by sleep. My lab studies how regionally specific NREM slow waves and other sleep-dependent mechanisms promote neuroplasticity after stroke, using optical imaging, electrophysiology, and closed-loop neuromodulation to identify and manipulate the neural signatures of recovery.

In parallel, we investigate torpor, a hypothermic and hypometabolic state, as a model of cerebroprotection. We recently identified a population of GABAergic neurons in the medial preoptic area whose activation induces synthetic torpor and reduces stroke injury. Through metabolomics, transcriptomics, and imaging, we are defining the pathways by which torpor confers neuroprotection and exploring its potential as a translational therapy for brain injury.

Our work also extends to AI-driven neuroscience, where I co-lead efforts to build an AI biomedical scientist capable of literature synthesis, hypothesis generation, and data analysis. By integrating large-scale datasets across sleep, stroke, and neurodegeneration, we aim to accelerate discovery and identify predictive biomarkers of recovery. Our lab values integrity, creativity, and inclusivity, fostering collaboration across disciplines to transform sleep, torpor, and AI into active therapeutic and discovery frontiers for neurological disease.

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I am deeply committed to mentoring the next generation of scientists, engineers, and physician–innovators. My trainees have advanced to medical and graduate programs and postdoctoral positions at institutions such as Duke, Caltech, Harvard, and Janelia Labs.

As a neuroscientist, engineer, and physician, I mentor students across disciplines to integrate experimental neuroscience, artificial intelligence, and translational medicine. My lab investigates how sleep and hypometabolic states such as torpor promote brain repair after stroke, combining physiological experiments with computational modeling and AI-based signal analysis.

I strive to serve as a role model for “dual-threat” physician–engineers who aim to create new technologies and AI systems that advance both fundamental neuroscience and clinical care.