Main Authors

Expert Collaborators

41 experts from leading institutions contributed their knowledge and insights to this report.

Adam Glaser

Allen Institute for Neural Dynamics

Pioneer of open-top light-sheet microscopy (OTLS) and expansion-assisted selective plane illumination microscopy (ExA-SPIM).

Profile

Adam Marblestone

Convergent Research

CEO and Schmidt Futures Innovation Fellow. Former Google DeepMind researcher. MIT TR "35 Innovators Under 35" (2018).

Scholar
Anders Sandberg

Anders Sandberg

Institute of Futures Studies

Co-author of the seminal 2008 "Whole Brain Emulation: A Roadmap" with Nick Bostrom. Provides critical continuity to this updated report.

Profile

Andrew Payne

E11 Bio

Founder and CEO. Developing PRISM technology for scalable optical connectomics at mammalian scale. 2024 Foresight Fellow.

Profile

Andy McKenzie

Apex Neuroscience

MD/PhD with expertise in neuropsychiatric disorders, brain preservation/biostasis, and computational biology.

Website

Anshul Kashyap

Wispr Flow

ML Research Engineer working on brain-computer interfaces and neural speech synthesis.

Scholar

Camille Mitchell

MIT Boyden Lab

PhD Candidate developing techniques for understanding neurological disorder mechanisms.

Profile

Christian Larson

OpenWorm Project

PhD in neuroscience from UC San Diego. Works on simulating C. elegans for whole brain emulation.

OpenWorm

Claire Wang

MIT

Undergraduate in EECS and Neuroscience working on whole nervous system emulation of C. elegans using deep learning.

Website

Connor Flexman

Independent Researcher

Generalist researcher with physics background. Active in AI alignment community; research spans physics and AI forecasting.

LinkedIn

Daniel Leible

MIT

PhD student researching neuronal connectivity mapping and in vivo imaging.

MIT BCS

Davi Bock

University of Vermont

Leading expert in synaptic connectomics. Senior author on landmark FlyWire connectome papers mapping 139,255 neurons.

Scholar

Davy Deng

Harvard-MIT HST

Doctoral student working on reverse engineering C. elegans whole nervous system.

Kording Lab
Ed Boyden

Ed Boyden

MIT

Y. Eva Tan Professor of Neurotechnology and HHMI Investigator. Pioneer of optogenetics and expansion microscopy.

MIT

Florian Engert

Harvard University

Professor achieving first brainwide imaging at single-cell resolution in a living vertebrate.

Harvard

Glenn Clayton

Mark Two Venture Studio

Tech entrepreneur focused on seed-stage deep tech and AI startups.

LinkedIn

James Lin

MIT Boyden Lab

Develops expansion microscopy tools for brain-mapping. Supported by Magnificent Grants and Emergent Ventures.

Website

Jianfeng Feng

Warwick & Fudan

Developed the world's first Digital Twin Brain (DTB) platform for simulating spiking neuronal networks.

Warwick

Jordan Matelsky

Johns Hopkins APL

Develops scalable graph analysis tools for connectomics including BossDB, Motif Studio, and Grand.

Website

Ken Hayworth

HHMI Janelia

President of Brain Preservation Foundation. Co-inventor of Tape-to-SEM process for neural circuit imaging.

BPF

Kevin Esvelt

MIT Media Lab

Pioneer of CRISPR gene drive technology. Director of Sculpting Evolution group; major focus on biosecurity.

MIT

Konrad Kording

University of Pennsylvania

Nathan Mossell Professor. Co-founder of Neuromatch; leading C. elegans nervous system reverse engineering efforts.

Lab

Lei Ma

Computational Neuroscience

Contributor to the Brain Emulation Report.

Logan Trasher Collins

Washington University

PhD Candidate and Foresight Fellow. Published on insect brain emulation and imaging methods for connectomics.

Blog

Michael Andregg

Eon Systems PBC

Founder and CEO. Expert in computational requirements for brain emulation and optical computing hardware.

LinkedIn

Michael Skuhersky

MIT Boyden Lab

2017 Foresight Fellow. Focuses on recording and simulating complete neural circuitry of C. elegans.

MIT

Michal Januszewski

Google Research

Key contributor to flood-filling networks, Drosophila connectome, and H01 human brain sample (1.4 petabyte dataset).

Google

Nicolas Patzlaff

Max Planck Institute

Doctoral researcher in neuroimaging methodology development.

LinkedIn

Niko McCarty

Asimov Press

Founding Editor. Former biological engineer at Caltech. MS in Bioengineering; MA in Science Journalism from NYU.

Website

Oliver Evans

Independent

Contributor to the Brain Emulation Report.

Ons M'Saad

Yale / Panluminate

Developer of pan-Expansion Microscopy (pan-ExM), enabling light microscopy comparable to electron microscopy.

LinkedIn

Patrick Mineault

Amaranth Foundation

NeuroAI Lead. Founding CTO of Neuromatch Academy. Former positions at Google, Meta, and Mila.

Website

Quilee Simeon

MIT Boyden Lab

PhD Candidate specializing in multimodal neural data modeling using transformer architectures.

Website

Richie Kohman

Eon Systems PBC

Former CSO at Wyss Center. Co-led the IARPA MICrONS brain connectomics project.

Website

Srinivas Turaga

HHMI Janelia

Group Leader pioneering AI for connectomics, developing deep neural networks for brain connectivity mapping.

Janelia
Tomaso Poggio

Tomaso Poggio

MIT CBMM

Founder of computational neuroscience. Students include Demis Hassabis (DeepMind) and Christof Koch (Allen Institute).

MIT

Viren Jain

Google Research

Leads Google Connectomics Team. Key contributions to the 1.4 petabyte human brain connectome (2024).

Website

Xander Balwit

Asimov Press

Editor-in-Chief. Science writer specializing in biotechnology and brain research, including connectomics.

Asimov

Yangning Lu

MIT Boyden Lab

Develops expansion microscopy and dense membrane labeling techniques for ultrastructure visualization.

MIT

Zeguan Wang

MIT Boyden Lab

Specializes in whole-brain voltage imaging at 200.8 Hz across entire larval zebrafish brains.

MIT

Robert Bolkow

Independent

Contributor to the Brain Emulation Report.