On the 13th of June, Danylo Batulin from the group of FIAS fellow Jochen Triesch defended his doctoral thesis at the Faculty of Computer Science and Mathematics of Goethe University Frankfurt.

In his thesis, Batulin studied the process of epilepsy disease development (epileptogenesis) and the role of neuro-immune interactions in it. He developed the first-of-its-kind mathematical model of epileptogenesis caused by injury. The developed framework allows for the simulation of various types of disease-inducing injuries and characteristic time courses of pathology development. In addition to reproducing experimental data and providing insights into principles of disease development, the model can be used for the simulation of therapeutic intervention strategies. These simulations can be used for the optimization of the design of pre-clinical research trials on anti-epileptic and anti-epileptogenic treatment.

In a side project, Batulin collaborated with other scientists from the lab on the project dedicated to Covid research. He analyzed human neuroimaging data and developed the optimization pipeline that allows for the estimation of patient-specific parameters for the mathematical model, which can be used for the generation of long-term predictions of neural pathology associated with Covid impact on the human brain.

 Since joining FIAS in 2019 as a graduate student of the International Max Planck Research School for Neural Circuits, Batulin not only worked on his research projects but also took an active role in the life of the institute and scientific community of the Rhein-Main area. For example, he successfully applied for the position as a FIAS student representative. Also, Batulin taught as teaching assistant the computational neuroscience course at Neuromatch Academy and organized the German Neuroscience Olympiad for high school students for multiple years.

Currently, Batulin is actively looking for his next position in the industry environment, in which he could utilize his analytical thinking, programming, data analysis and modeling skills.

Congratulations and all best wishes for the future!

List of publications:

Batulin, et al. “A mathematical model of neuroimmune interactions in epileptogenesis for discovering treatment strategies.” Iscience 25.6 (2022): 104343.

Stöber, et al. “Degeneracy in epilepsy: Multiple Routes to Hyperexcitable Brain Circuits and their Repair.” Communications Biology 6.1 (2023): 479.

Sommer, Batulin, Triesch. “A Model of Viral/SARS-CoV-2 Spreading and Grey Matter Loss in the Human Brain.” [in preparation]