Dr. Ulaş Çiftçioğlu will give a seminar on “Neuroscience and Data Science” on 29 March at 12:45. The abstract of the talk and a short bio is shared below.

Bio:
M. Ulaş Çiftçioğlu is a systems engineer at Aselsan Healthcare Systems. He holds a Ph.D. in Neurobiology from the University of Southern California, an MS degree in Medical Informatics from Middle East Technical University (METU) and a BS degree in Electrical–Electronics Engineering also from METU. His Ph.D. and postdoctoral research at the University of Southern California focused on visual processing in the thalamus of the brain. During his MS, he developed algorithms for tissue segmentation in brain MR images. Prior to his current role, he worked with C. Light Technologies to develop prognostic models for Multiple Sclerosis. Currently, he is working on the development of a clinical MRI system at Aselsan.

Abstract:
The role of the thalamus in processing visual sensory information has traditionally been considered as minimal. However, the thalamus contains various visual nuclei with different connectivity and function. As opposed to the well-studied thalamic dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus (dLGN), the role of the thalamic ventral lateral geniculate nucleus (vLGN) and thalamic reticular nucleus (TRN) in visual processing is relatively unknown. To explore that, we have used electrophysiological, optogenetic, histological, and computational techniques to investigate the physiology and morphology of neurons in these two nuclei. The sensory physiology in these nuclei highlighted the diversity within the thalamus in terms of visual processing and shed light on how they may serve vision.
Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a neurological disease with various symptoms. Assessment and monitoring of MS is quite expensive and subjective. C. Light Technologies, a medical device company, is developing an eye movement tracking device to ultimately assess neurological diseases in an objective and cost-effective way. I have investigated whether this technology can provide a prognostic value, in addition to the already demonstrated diagnostic value. This pilot study suggested that measurements of eye movement tracking can provide insights on the progression of MS in individual patients.