Starting between 

Oct 2022-Mar2023

Starting between 

Apr-Sep 2023

Faculty Research Interests and Project Information

Click here for more information on Research Activities at OIST.

The topic of the project will be determined according to the research interest of the intern. Examples of research projects are: comparative genomics of termites, coevolution between termites and the intracellular parasites Wolbachia and Cardinium, coevolution between termites and their gut prokaryotes.

1. Social dilemmas and governance of common goods
2. Biodiversity dynamics and speciation
3. Sustainable fisheries management and fishing-induced evolution
4. Systemic risk and network dynamics
5. Evolutionary community ecology and eco-evolutionary vegetation dynamics
6. Adaptive dynamics theory and models
7. Simplifying spatial complexity
8. Disease ecology and evolution

Projects in computational neuroscience and brain-inspired artificial intelligence.

Theory, simulation, and simple experiments focused on physical and biological processes with interesting geometrical or topological features, including the formation of holes during the growth of the "Swiss cheese plant" (genus monstera), the water driven erosion of stone, the formation of ridges and cracks on the bark of growing trees, and the healing of punctured soap films.

1.  swarm robotics to study the self-organization of social complexity;
2.  human-computer interaction studies to investigate how digital technology becomes incorporated   into our behavior;
3.  EEG hyperscanning experiments to study the neural underpinnings of social interaction;
4.  sensory substitution studies to investigate the dynamics of perceptual learning.

1.  computational neuroscience models of cognitive function.
2.  mathematical/biological mechanisms of learning.
3.  analysis of neural activity data for exploring neural code.

1. The organization and signaling of astrocytes that shape synaptic circuit function
2. The role of sleep molecules in synapse homeostasis

Projects related to genomics and evolutionary cell biology of diverse symbioses (in deep sea protists, insects, corals, etc.) are available depending on interests of the intern.

Development of organic glow-in-the-dark systems including organic synthesis and optical measurements.

Project involves training in animal surgery, in vivo two-photon imaging, and/or data analysis dependent on the interest and background of the applicant. Applicants who might want to join the OIST Graduate Program in the field of Neuroscience are specifically encouraged to apply.

Vincent Laudet

pi-Conjugated Polymers Unit

1. Mechanisms that regulate retinal neurogenesis and neural circuit formation
2. Mechanisms that regulate retinal cell death including photoreceptor degeneration
3. Mechanisms that regulate lens fiber differentiation
4. Mechanisms that regulate social behavior

Projects in epigenome analysis of plant genomes.

1. Design, fabrication, and testing of a novel ion trap
2. Integration of a micro optical resonator in an ion trap
3. Ultra-narrow linewidth laser and its application to spectroscopy

1. Functional studies on synaptic dysfunctions in human iPSC-derived neuronal culture models, using imaging and electrophysiological techniques.
2. Proteomic-based studies of synaptic proteins regarding their brain regional differences and differences between diseased and healthy humans.

Reiko Toriumi

Gravity, Quantum Geometry and Field Theory Unit

1. Focussed ultrasound effects on the brain.
2. Mouse behavior in virtual reality.

1. GraphLIME: Local Interpretable Model Explanations for Graph Neural Networks, TKDE 2022
2. Feature Robust Optimal Transport for High-dimensional Data, ECML 2022
3. Post-selection inference with HSIC-Lasso, ICML 2021
4. Semantic Correspondence as an Optimal Transport Problem, CVPR 2020
5. More Powerful Selective Kernel Tests for Feature Selection, AISTATS 2020

Yutaka Yoshida

Neural Circuit Unit