MnRI Colloquium Speaker - Suhasa Kodandaramaiah

Title: Robotics for Multi-scale biological interfacing

Abstract: Computations in the brain that mediate behavior occur across multiple spatial and temporal scales. Information is integrated within single cells, which are interconnected in dense local circuits, and these circuits are further incorporated into larger networks spanning many brain regions. A critical challenge for modern neuroscience is to study the brain across these multiple scales without losing signal fidelity or information. Traditionally, modalities used to observe activity at one level do not scale effectively to the next level. Research in my laboratory focuses on developing robotic systems that help neuroscientists and biologists bridge these experimental scales. In the first part of the talk, I will describe how robotic systems can automate precise and delicate laboratory procedures such as patch clamping and microinjection to record and manipulate single cells in tissue at high throughput. These simple vision-guided micromanipulator robots enable genetic barcode tagging of single neurons in the brain, as well as tagging of stem cells in developing embryos and genomic editing of whole intact organisms. Next, I will discuss how we use computer vision-guided robots to automate precise microsurgery procedures in preclinical rodent models for implanting brain-wide neural imaging devices. Finally, I will describe work from our lab developing exoskeletons for mice, designed to help neuroscientists gather large-scale neural imaging datasets from animals performing complex behavioral tasks.

Bio: Dr. Kodandaramaiah is Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Minnesota. He currently serves as the Director of Student Research and Recruitment for the ME department. He obtained a bachelor’s degree from Visveswaraya Technological University in India, a master’s degree from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor and PhD from Georgia Institute of Technology, all in Mechanical Engineering. He then completed post-doctoral training in Dr. Edward Boyden’s laboratory in the Media Lab and McGovern Institute for Brain Research at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His research is at the intersection of robotics, precision engineering and neuroscience and is broadly focused on engineering and applying novel technologies to interface with and understand brains in action. In 2010, his work was awarded the R. V. Jones Memorial Award by the American Society for Precision Engineering. In 2012, Dr. Kodandaramaiah was recognized by Forbes magazine's 30 under 30 list of rising researchers in science and healthcare. He held the position of Mcknight Land-Grant Professor at the University of Minnesota between 2020 and 2022. He is also a recipient of the McKnight Foundation’s 2021 award for technological innovations in neuroscience. In 2023, Dr. Kodandaramaiah co-founded and serves as the CTO of Objective Biotechnology Inc., a UMN spin-off that is commercializing technologies developed in his laboratory.