neville sanjana

curriculum vita

Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT // 7 Cambridge Center, 5014C // Cambridge, MA 02142 // 617.714.7718 // nsanjana AT mit

research interests

• I create technologies to elucidate how complex biological systems work. My research spans neuroscience and synthetic biology with a focus on building new molecular tools for understanding neural circuits and to address their dysfunction in human neurological disorders. More information on specific projects can be found here.

education

• Ph.D., Neuroscience, Brain and Cognitive Sciences, MIT, 2010
• B.S. with honors and distinction, Symbolic Systems, Stanford University, 2001
• A.B. with distinction, English, Stanford University, 2001
•     Phi Beta Kappa, Stanford University, 2001

publications

• A transcription activator-like effector toolbox for genome engineering
  Sanjana, N.E., Cong, L., Zhou, Y., Cunniff, M.M., Feng, G., Zhang F. Nature Protocols 7, 171-192 (2012).
• The wanderlust of newborn neocortical interneurons
  Scott, B. B., Sanjana, N. E., Journal of Neuroscience 29, 7114-7115 (2009).
• A fast flexible ink-jet printing method for patterning dissociated neurons in culture
  Sanjana, N. E. and Fuller, S. B., Journal of Neuroscience Methods 136, 151-163 (2004).
• Bayesian models of inductive generalization
  Sanjana, N. E., Tenenbaum, J.B. , Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems 15, 51-58 (2003).

conference abstracts

• Optimized assembly of transcription activator-like effectors.
  Sanjana, N. E., Cong, L., Zhou, Y., Zhang F. Synthetic Biology 5.0 (2011).
• A hidden Markov model for the directed outgrowth and turning motions of axons.
  Sanjana, N. E., Seung H.S. Society for Neuroscience 39th Annual Meeting (2009).
• A hidden Markov model for the directed outgrowth and turning motions of axons.
  Sanjana, N. E., Seung H.S. Howard Hughes Medical Institute Janelia Farms Conference on Constructing Neural Circuits (2009).
• A hidden Markov model for the directed outgrowth and turning motions of axons.
  Sanjana, N. E., Seung H.S. Neural Information Processing Systems Workshop on Stochastic Models of Behavior (2008).
• A new technique for visualizing neurite movement during the initial stages of dendrite and axon outgrowth.
  Sanjana, N. E., Seung H.S. Society for Neuroscience 37th Annual Meeting (2007).
• Culture of mammalian neurons in a microfluidic chamber for long-term studies of axon growth and chemotaxis in a chemical gradient.
  Sanjana, N. E., Siddiqui A., Choi J., Freeman D., Seung H.S. Society for Neuroscience 35th Annual Meeting (2005).
• Capturing property-based similarity in human concept learning using maximum-likelihood Gaussians with a Bayesian framework.
  Sanjana, N. E., Tenenbaum, J.B. Sixth International Conference on Cognitive and Neural Systems (2002).

awards and fellowships

• 2009: Honorable Mention, Olympus BioScapes International Digital Imaging Competition
  • Selected to join traveling exhibit on display in science museums worldwide (2010-2012)
• 2005: BCS Team Award for Outstanding Teaching, MIT
• 2003: Angus MacDonald Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, MIT
• 2002: Best Student Paper Award honorable mention, Neural Information Processing Systems Conference
• 2002: Fellowship to attend the Complex Systems Summer School, Santa Fe Institute
• 2001-2006: Predoctoral Fellowship, Howard Hughes Medical Institute
• 2001: Finalist ($1000 honorarium), Hertz Foundation Predoctoral Fellowship
• 2001: Honorable Mention, National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate (NDSEG) Fellowship
• 2001: K. Jon Barwise Award, Stanford University
• 2001: Undergraduate Research Opportunities Major Grant, Stanford University
• 1996: Superior Medal, JEA National Journalism Write-Offs
• 1996: First Place, California State Science Olympiad
• 1995: First Place, Senior Division, Navy Research and Development (now Navy Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command, San Diego)

teaching experience

• Massachusetts Institute of Technology

• 9.12: Experimental Molecular Neurobiology (TA Fall 2004)
• 9.01: Neuroscience and Behavior (TA Fall 2003)
• 9.00: Introduction to Psychology (TA Fall 2002)

• Stanford University

• SSP100: Introduction to Symbolic Systems (Planning/creation committee 1999-2000, TA Fall 2000)
• CS106A: Programming Methodology (TA Fall 1999 and Summer 2000)

industry

• Moderator, Flagship Ventures Brain Futures event, November 2007.

media & more

• KULTURAMA: Museum of Mankind, Zürich, Switzerland, June 2010-February 2011.
• Neural Architectures exhibition, Institute of Neuroinformatics, Universität Zürich & ETHZ,
  Switzerland, March-April 2010.
• Algae Sex and Amoeba Smackdown - Best Microscopy Videos of the Year, io9 (Gawker.com), November 2009.
• Science 2.0: You Say You Want a Revolution? HHMI Bulletin, November 2008.
• Young Scientists Reach Out WGBH Science City, Original broadcast: April 24, 2007.
• Cranial Explorations in the Splash Class HHMI Bulletin, Winter 2005.
• Peptides: the 21st century's building blocks MIT News Office, September 10, 2003.