Aaron Milstein, PhD

Principal Investigator

Aaron Milstein is an Assistant Professor in the Dept. of Neuroscience and Cell Biology and the Dept. of Neurosurgery at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, and a resident faculty member at the Center for Advanced Biotechnology and Medicine. As a graduate student with Roger Nicoll, he integrated molecular biology and electrophysiology techniques with mathematical modeling to study synaptic transmission in the hippocampus, a brain region required for spatial and episodic memory. During a postdoc with Jeff Magee and Sandro Romani, he combined direct intracellular recordings from neuronal dendrites with biophysically detailed computational modeling to study how the integrative properties of neurons with extended dendrites contribute to the spatial memory function of the hippocampus. This work led to the discovery of a novel form of synaptic plasticity in which dendritic calcium spikes rapidly modify the spatial tuning of hippocampal place cells in as little as a single trial. As an Instructor mentored by Ivan Soltesz, Aaron developed large biologically-detailed neuronal network models to dissect the circuit components of memory and dysfunction in epilepsy.

Alessandro Galloni, PhD

Postdoctoral Fellow

Alessandro is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Milstein Lab. Before joining the lab, he received his PhD from The Francis Crick Institute & University College London for work with supervised by Dr. Ede Rancz. He studied the properties of L5 pyramidal neurons in the mouse visual cortex, using patch-clamp recordings in brain slices and analyzing biophysically detailed computational models to investigate how neuronal morphology shapes these properties. His work in the Milstein Lab is focused on building network models of neural circuits in the hippocampus to understand how recurrent connectivity and biologically plausible learning rules influence pattern recognition and memory storage in neural networks.

Sam Gritz

PhD Student

Sam earned his B.S. degree in Neuroscience with a double minor in Bioinformatics and Psychology. As an undergraduate student, he worked in the Hovel-Miner lab at George Washington University to characterize mitochondrion genes that result in Melarsoprol resistance. His lab studied Trypanosoma brucei, a species of parasitic kinetoplastid that cause Africa Sleeping Sickness. Outside of the lab, he also worked with the Psychiatric Institute of Washington DC to study the opioid usage population, hoping to understand the complexities of addiction. Sam is interested in the intersection of computational, theoretical, and systems neuroscience.

Michael Finch

Graduate Student

Michael Finch began working as a neuroscience PhD student in the Milstein Lab in Winter 2024. He is from St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada where he did his undergraduate degree in Health Sciences at Brock University. He previously worked in the lab of Dr. Rebecca MacPherson where he performed primarily biochemical analyses on adipose tissue in health and disease. He fell in love with research and stayed for a Master’s degree where he expanded his research scope to include the effects of metabolism on brain health and functionality in an Alzheimer’s Disease context. This work fostered an always-present fascination with the brain and its mechanistic underpinnings which led him to Rutgers. In his PhD he is applying multidimensional time series data analysis and neuronal microcircuit simulation techniques to understand neuronal population dynamics and memory formation in the hippocampus during goal-directed spatial navigation.

Rahul Pemmaraju

Medical\Graduate Student

Rahul earned his B.S in Biomedical Engineering with a minor in Computer Science from Rutgers University. As a student, he worked in Dr. Prabhas Moghe’s lab studying applications of rare-earth albumin nanocomposites for early cancer detection and surveillance. He then completed an M.S.E in Biomedical Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. At Hopkins, he worked under Dr. Junghoon Lee in the Medical Image Computing and Analysis Lab developing AI-based automatic tissue segmentation algorithms for radiation therapy treatment planning. He is currently pursuing a dual M.D.\Ph.D. degree, and is working on translating insight from BTSP to understand how the brain learns associations between cues and delayed rewards during spatial navigation.

Yash Chennawar

Undergraduate Student

Yash is an undergraduate sophomore at Rutgers pursuing a degree in Computer Science with a minor in Mathematics. He is interested in the intersection of artificial intelligence and machine learning with neuroscience. Yash worked as a research assistant in the Milstein Lab as part of the Rutgers Aresty Summer Science and CABM SURE programs during the summer of 2024. His project aimed to develop an artificial neural network using biologically-plausible learning rules to perform a nonlinear pattern recognition task. His poster won a Best Poster Award from the SURE program.

Anshul Voleti

Undergraduate Student

Anshul is an undergraduate at Rutgers pursuing a degree in Cell Biology and Neuroscience. He is interested in building computational models at the intersection of AI and neurobiology. Anshul worked as a research assistant as part of the 2024 CABM SURE Program. His work focused on developing more biological plausible artificial neural networks to perform nonlinear pattern recognition learning tasks. His poster won a Best Poster Award from the SURE program.

Ajay Peddada

Research Assistant

Currently: Medical (MD) student  @ University of South Alabama

Ajay worked as a Research Assistant in the Milstein Lab from Winter 2020 – Summer 2022. He received dual B.S. degrees in Electrical Engineering and Biology from the University of South Alabama. He is currently enrolled in an M.D. program at the University of South Alabama College of Medicine. In the lab, Ajay worked on translating insight from neurophysiology to artificial learning systems to accomplish rapid and continual learning.

Aya Samadzelkava

Undergraduate / Research Assistant

Currently: PhD student @ CUNY

Aya received her undergraduate degrees in Mathematics and Physics from Rutgers in 2022.  She worked as a Research Assistant in the Milstein lab from Summer 2021 – Summer 2022, and was supported by the CABM SURE program, the SAS Cell Biology and Neuroscience Dept., and the Physics Dept. She is currently enrolled in a PhD program in Neuroscience at CUNY. Her work in the lab focused on understanding the roles of specific neuronal cell types in generating unique patterns of output given overlapping patterns of input to a neuronal network.

Maya Salameh

Undergraduate

Maya is a senior undergraduate student at Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar, pursuing a major in Biological Sciences with a minor in Neuroscience. Her past research experience was centered on colorectal cancer, with a specific focus on understanding the role of fibroblasts in tumor progression. Maya worked as a Research Assistant in the Milstein lab as part of the Rutgers NeuroSURP and CABM SURE programs in Summer 2023. Her project in the lab involved constructing a computational model of an artificial neural network and using biologically realistic learning rules to train the network to perform a pattern discrimination task. Her work was honored with a Best Poster Award by the SURE program!

Tyler Rivera

Undergraduate

Tyler received his bachelor’s degree in Neurophysics from Moravian University in 2022. He worked as a Research Assistant in the Milstein lab as part of the Rutgers NeuroSURP program in Summer 2022. His work in the lab focused on understanding the roles of biological synaptic plasticity rules and feedback inhibition from local interneurons in pattern discrimination learning. He is currently pursuing a PhD in Neuroscience at Penn State.

Sandhya Senthilkumar

Undergraduate

Sandhya is a pre-med Sophomore at Rutgers Undergraduate majoring in Computer Science and minoring in Biology. She has worked as a Research Assistant in the Milstein lab since Summer 2022, and has been supported by the Aresty Summer Science Program, the CABM SURE Program, and the SAS Cell Biology and Neuroscience Department. She currently plans to apply to medical schools in order to become a doctor specializing in Neurosurgery and Emergency Medicine. Her work in the lab focuses on understanding the roles of biological synaptic plasticity rules and feedback inhibition from local interneurons in pattern discrimination learning.

Reuben Oumnov

Undergraduate

Reuben received his bachelor’s degree in Neuroscience from the Dominican University in 2022. He worked as a Research Assistant in the Milstein lab as part of the Rutgers NeuroSURP program in Summer 2021. His work in the lab focused on understanding the roles of specific neuronal cell types in generating unique patterns of output given overlapping patterns of input to a neuronal network. He is currently pursuing a Masters degree in Bioinformatics at New Mexico State University.

Kiran Hiremath

Undergraduate Student

Kiran is a senior Rutgers pre-med undergraduate majoring in Cell Biology and Neuroscience. She has worked as a Research Assistant in the Milstein lab as part of the Aresty Summer Research Program in Summer 2021 and through the SAS Cell Biology and Neuroscience Dept. in Fall 2021. Her work in the lab focuses on understanding the roles of specific neuronal cell types in generating unique patterns of output given overlapping patterns of input to a neuronal network.