Biography

I am an electrical and computer engineer who aims to back-engineer complex biological systems and to discover their inner working principle and the most efficient ways to interact with them. To do so, I often have to invent and build the needed tools and methods along the way.

I am currently working at Prof. Boyden’s lab at MIT. We settled to explore instances of affective states in whole-brain dynamics and how those modulate decision-making. We are studying zebrafish larvae. To do so, we employ high spatio-temporal resolution microscopes like SCAPE and automated experimental and analysis pipelines and optimized genetically expressed indicators of neuronal activity in the zebrafish larvae model. Combining those tools with a robust theoretical framework that enables strictly defined falsifiable hypotheses and matching experimental paradigms, we try to generate the datasets that will allow shining light to non-reflexive behaviors.

I am privileged to work in a (team of) teams that augments my thinking framework and experimental observations with complementary ones either related to our model (different zebrafish genotypes, pharmacological stimulations, ex-vivo anatomical and transcriptomics maps, e.t.c) from other models, ranging from worms to human brain organoids. Being able to assist those teams in a variety of imaging and analysis needs provides constant stimulation.

Before coming to MIT, Prof. Westmeyer’s team at Munich (Germany) “hooked me up with” zebrafish research. I had the chance to build a novel tracking microscope that can capture brain imaging from freely swimming fish while learning why this was important and how to showcase it. I developed the needed mindset and skills to build such a highly automated microscope during my Ph.D. under the mentorship of Prof. Ntziachristos (TUM), where I worked in improving imaging fluorescence probes in both pre-clinical and clinical applications with a focus on cancer imaging. My undergraduate education at Technical University of Athens (NTUA) and my Master Thesis (supervised by Prof. Maragos) covered the theory and tools of signals and systems processing and fuel my interest in dynamical systems and how they give rise to chaotic (yet well defined?) patterns.

Full list of publications can be found on my Google Scholar profile or including abstracts, represenative figures, and link to full-text PDFs here

Tackling standardization in fluorescence molecular imaging

The emerging clinical use of targeted fluorescent agents heralds a shift in intraoperative imaging practices that overcome the limitations of human vision. However, in contrast to established radiological methods, no appropriate performance specifications and standards have been established in fluorescence molecular imaging. Moreover, the dependence of fluorescence signals on many experimental parameters and the use of wavelengths ranging from the visible to short-wave infrared (400–1,700 nm) complicate quality control in fluorescence molecular imaging. Here, we discuss the experimental parameters that critically affect fluorescence molecular imaging accuracy, and introduce the concept of high-fidelity fluorescence imaging as a means for ensuring reliable reproduction of fluorescence biodistribution in tissue.

Maximilian Koch, Panagiotis Symvoulidis, Vasilis Ntziachristos

Nature Photonics, Volume 12, pages505–515 (2018),2018

PDF

NeuBtracker—imaging neurobehavioral dynamics in freely behaving fish

A long-standing objective in neuroscience has been to image distributed neuronal activity in freely behaving animals. Here we introduce NeuBtracker, a tracking microscope for simultaneous imaging of neuronal activity and behavior of freely swimming fluorescent reporter fish. We showcase the value of NeuBtracker for screening neurostimulants with respect to their combined neuronal and behavioral effects and for determining spontaneous and stimulus-induced spatiotemporal patterns of neuronal activation during naturalistic behavior.

Panagiotis Symvoulidis, Antonella Lauri, Anca Stefanoiu, Michele Cappetta, Steffen Schneider, Hongbo Jia, Anja Stelzl, Maximilian Koch, Carlos Cruz Perez, Ahne Myklatun, Sabine Renninger, Andriy Chmyrov, Tobias Lasser, Wolfgang Wurst, Vasilis Ntziachristos, Gil G Westmeyer

Nat. Methods, vol. 14, no. 11, pp. 1079–1082, 2017,2017

PDF Project Video

Courses

The Professors of the Chair of Biological Imaging of the Technical University of Munich, are teaching a variety of pre/post-grad course at both engineering and Medical faculties. I am happy to be entrusted with assisting in some of them including:

1. Optical Electrophysiology part of the Neuro-Recording Moduletaught to the Elite Master Program in Neuroengineering, including Microscopy Tutorial focusing on Calcium Imaging and fundamentals of Calcium Trace Analysis using Matlab.
2. Clinical Optical Imaging & Image Analysis (using FIJI) parts, of the post-grad course Preclinical Imaging Class of the Faculty of Medicine.

Student’s Projects Supervision

Motivated students have the chance to work on related projects. I (co-/) supervised a series of PhD-, Master-, and Bachelor-level students as part of their thesis or semester research projects, in a variety of topics including: (1) HDR Fluor. Imaging, (2) Correction of Out-Of-Plane Singal in Episcopic Fluor. Imaging, (3) 3D Printing of medical data, (4) SPIM(Selective Plane Illumination Microscopy), (5&6) Tracking using CNN(Convolutional Neuronal Networks) and on Embedded Systems like NVIDIA Jetson.

• symvou@gmail.com
• +1 857 320 88 66
• symvou