Brian Goodell

Hello! I'm Brian, a programmer and maker currently building computational and physical tools for neuroscience research in the Flavell Lab at MIT. I come from academic backgrounds in Computer Science and Political Science, with no formal Neuro training, which reflects my philosophy of cross-disciplinary work and broad interest in learning. Outside the lab I'm usually running, dancing, or working on projects to make my life better.

  Why would a CS-focused person study worms!??

Understanding how computational (living or silicon) systems use information to make decisions is a fascinating question, but ultimately intractable with most “intelligent” systems. Luckily there's levels to intelligence. C. elegans is a tiny nematode with 302 neurons; few enough that we can watch activity in every neuron across the whole brain as the animal moves freely, yet enough that it can perform complex, goal-directed navigation, among many other complex behaviors.
I've made tools to exploit this: a laser system to control the animals thermosensation, and a real-time imaging pipeline which extracts activity from every neuron in its head, providing a clean window into how this biological computational system can process information and make decisions.