News

NSF-funded E-CAS project results: Researchers Study The Brain's Neural Code by Simulating Cortical Circuits on 100k Simultaneous Cores Using Google Cloud

24 June 2020

Researchers from the State University of New York (SUNY) Downstate Health Sciences University presented the Phase 1 results of the NSF-funded “Exploring Clouds for the Acceleration of Science” (E-CAS) project to a scientific panel and the general public. This online presentation describes their efforts to decipher the brain's neural code through large-scale detailed simulation of cortical circuits.

New publication in eLife on the NetPyNE tool

26 May 2019

Researchers from the Neurosim lab have published a paper in eLife, a highly reputed journal. The paper describes an accessible computational tool to build models of brain circuits, which could be of interest to a wide audience.

The journal also provides an 'eLife digest’, which describes the work without jargon and placing it in context.

Workshop at Brown on Multiscale Modeling Using NEURON/NetPyNE

23 May 2019

The Neuroscience department at Brown University invited Dr. Dura-Bernal to give a workshop on multiscale modeling using the NetPyNE software tool. The 2.5 hour workshop included an lecture and a hands-on tutorials and was attended by over 20 students and researchers from Brown. 

For more information visit: https://hnn.brown.edu/index.php/2019/04/30/workshop-on-multiscale-network-modeling-using-neuron-netpyne/

Dr. Dura-Bernal received the 2019 Furchgott Scholar Award

15 May 2019

The Robert F. Furchgott Scholar Award is an early career investigator prize of $10,000. It is given to post-graduate level trainees at Downstate Medical center who have made outstanding scientific contributions to their chosen area of study. The 2019 prize was awarded to Salvador Dura-Bernal for his contributions to the computational neuroscience field. 

For more information please visit: https://www.downstate.edu/rffs/awards/recipients.html

Neuron School in Sardinia includes Dr. Dura-Bernal among teaching faculty

4 May 2019

Dr. Dura-Bernal was invited to teach at the Neuron School organized in Sardinia, April 29 - May 3. The course provided an introduction to the principles of computational neuroscience to students from many different disciples and nationalities.

For more information visit:  https://www.neuronschool.org/ 

Research proposal selected for the first-phase of the Exploring Clouds for Acceleration of Science project

26 March 2019

Internet2 and the NSF have selected the project proposal by Drs. Lytton and Dura-Bernal, "Deciphering the Brain’s Neural Code Through Large-Scale Detailed Simulation of Motor Cortex Circuits", for the first phase of their Exploring Clouds for Acceleration of Science (E-CAS) project.

Dr. Dura-Bernal gives talks at Google Next'18 San Francisco and London on cloud computing for brain simulations

12 October 2018

Dr. Salvador Dura-Bernal was invited to give talks at the Google's cloud computing conference Next'18 in San Francisco on July 26 and London on October 12, 2018. The session was called "Computing with Power Not Previously Possible with BigQuery & Compute Engine".

Google case study on Neurosim lab's use of Google cloud supercomputers

5 October 2018

Researchers at the Neurosim Lab used Google Cloud Platform (GCP) supercomputers to run their detailed simulations of brain circuits. They made use of GCP's integration with Slurm, and by running on 50,000 processors simultaneously they managed to cut computing time from several days to a few hours. See case study here: https://edu.google.com/latest-news/stories/sunydownstate-gcp 

Awarded NSF XSEDE HPC Research Allocations

18 March 2018

The Neurosim lab has been awarded an NSF XSEDE HPC Research Allocation. The awarded resources include 2.9M hours on XSEDE supercomputers (Comet and Stampede2) and 2TB storage, with an estimated value of $143,694.84. The project is titled "Cortical dynamics in a multiscale model of primary motor cortex", and has William Lytton WW as PI, Salvador Dura-Bernal as co-PI, and Donald Doherty as Allocation Manager. Further details can be found below:

Multiscale Modeling Tutorial at CNS 2018

21 February 2018

The CNS18 meeting organizers have accepted our Tutorial proposal titled: Multiscale modeling from molecular level to large network level (using NEURON, RxD and NetPyNE) and organized by Drs. Salvador Dura-Bernal (SUNY Downstate, USA), Robert McDougal (Yale University) and William Lytton (SUNY Downstate). It will take place on July 13 in Seattle, USA.