TEAM MEMBERS
Ahmed Abdelfattah, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Robert J. and Nancy D. Carney University Assistant Professor of Brain Science
Department of Neuroscience
Brown University
185 Meeting Street
Providence, RI 02912
Eric Salter, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Fellow
I’m a longtime electrophysiologist turned microscopy enthusiast. I’m passionate about developing molecular tools that illuminate brain activity. Specifically, I am developing next-generation fluorescent voltage sensors that will enable interrogation of voltage dynamics across scales from sub-cellular to circuit level. These tools will allow us to answer new biological questions about the electrical underpinnings of brain function.
Jiani Chen
Ph.D. student, BME Graduate Program
Jiani Chen is a PhD student in the Biomedical Engineering program. She earned her Bachelor’s degrees in Biology and Cognitive Science from Occidental College and a Master’s in Biomedical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University. Her research focuses on development of new genetically encoded voltage indicators and other tools, contributing to the understanding of bioelectrical systems.
Tong Nie
Ph.D. student, BME Graduate Program
Tong is a first-year Ph.D. student in Biomedical Engineering at Brown University, with a Master of Science degree in Biomedical Engineering from Boston University. Tong’s current research focuses on opioid neuropeptide dynamics, utilizing genetically encoded biosensors to study and visualize these processes in real-time.
Isla Brooks
Rotating Ph.D. student, Neuroscience Graduate Program
Isla is a first-year neuroscience Ph.D. student at Brown. Her background is in whole-cell electrophysiology and computational modeling, and she is enjoying exploring the many ways genetically encoded voltage indicators can advance our understanding of cellular and circuit-level neural computations.
Nicole Casale
Research Assistant
Nicole earned a B.S. in Biological Sciences (2017) and a B.S. in Biotechnology (2023) from the University of Rhode Island. She is currently a Master’s student in Biotechnology at Brown University and works as a research assistant focusing on developing new far-red molecular probes for imaging the brain. Nicole is proud to have been a former NIH PREP Scholar (Brown University) and a former NIH URI MARC U*Trainee (URI). In her spare time, she enjoys spending time with her family, her two dogs, three fish, and her adopted lab rats.
Zain Peerbhoy
Research Assistant
Zain is a research assistant in the lab who graduated from Brown University in 2024 with a B.S. in Neuroscience and B.A. in Public Health. His focus is on developing the lab’s opioid receptor sensors. He plans on attending medical school in the fall. In his spare time, he’s an avid cricket fan, dedicated yogi, and talented chef.
Flavia Maria Galeazzi
Undergraduate Student
Flavia is a junior at Brown. She is double-majoring in Biological Physics and Computer Science. In the lab, she works on engineering new voltage sensors and data analysis pipelines.
Olivia Schmidt
Undergraduate Student
You?
Join Us and do some cool science!
We are recruiting at all levels.
Students and Postdocs: email Ahmed