Research Experience
Current Research Group (ITBA)
Bioinspired Robotics Laboratory (ITBA)
Photos from lab activities and project demonstrations.
I began working with Pablo Martin Gleiser in March 2022 during my undergraduate Physics thesis at the National University of Rosario (UNR), initially through remote collaboration, and continued this work in July 2023 as part of my PhD at ITBA. My current research focuses on connectomics-driven embodied robotics, with broader interests in adaptive networks, neural dynamics, and structure-dynamics-behavior relationships. In parallel, I develop bioinspired robotic platforms as experimental testbeds for closed-loop sensorimotor interaction and robust embodied control.
Lead Researcher
Pablo Martin Gleiser first supervised me during my undergraduate Physics thesis at UNR, and later became my PhD advisor at ITBA. He is a physicist (BSc and PhD, National University of Cordoba, Argentina) and completed postdoctoral research at the Complex Systems Department, University of Barcelona, Spain. His academic work includes more than 50 scientific publications and interdisciplinary research spanning social-network analysis, connectomics, circadian rhythms, sleep studies, and robotics. His research interests include biological rhythms, synchronization, and complex systems.
Lab Focus
The lab combines computational neuroscience, connectomics, complex systems, and bioinspired robotics to study how network structure and neural dynamics shape behavior, and how these principles can be translated into embodied robotic platforms. Its current lines of work include connectome-informed embodied control inspired by C. elegans and Drosophila, as well as experimental and educational robotic testbeds for studying closed-loop sensorimotor interaction.
Collaborative Research (ITBA-University of Sussex)
Research stay at Berni’s lab (ITBA-University of Sussex)
Research visit to Jimena Berni's lab at the University of Sussex.
During my research visit to Dr. Jimena Berni’s lab at Brighton and Sussex Medical School, University of Sussex, in Brighton, UK, in September 2026, I studied motor circuits in larval and adult Drosophila, exploring common principles of motor control across developmental stages. I continue to collaborate remotely with the lab on the study of locomotion and its underlying neural circuits in larvae and adult flies.
Lead Researcher
Dr. Jimena Berni studies how neural circuits develop and generate behavior, with a particular interest in the genetic mechanisms that shape motor networks in Drosophila.
Lab Focus
The lab investigates how neural circuits assemble and diversify during development, and how their activity generates locomotion and exploratory behavior. Its research combines Drosophila neurogenetics, behavioral analysis, and computational modeling, with particular emphasis on the role of Hox genes in motor circuit development. Learn more in Jimena Berni’s institutional profile at BSMS.
Collaborative Research (ITBA-UV-IUE)
Collaboration with Hernán Villota and Patricio Orio (ITBA-UV-IUE)
I maintain a remote collaboration with Patricio Orio at the Valparaíso Neural Dynamics Laboratory (VANDAL), the University of Valparaíso (UV), and with Hernán Villota at the University Institution of Envigado (IUE), focused on connectome-based whole-brain modeling and hemispheric-specific network dynamics. This collaboration originated at the Latin America Summer School of Computational Neuroscience LACONEU held at the University of Valparaiso, where Patricio Orio served as mentor. Work initiated there later evolved into two posters and a conference paper. The collaboration currently centers on dynamic mean field (DMF) modeling to assess whether this framework improves the simulation of human brain functional activity.
Lead Researchers
Patricio Orio is the principal investigator of the Valparaíso Neural Dynamics Laboratory (VANDAL) and a Full Professor at the University of Valparaíso. He trained as a biochemist and earned his PhD in Sciences at the University of Chile. He served as my mentor at LACONEU, where this collaboration began. More information is available on VANDAL’s people page.
Hernán Villota, at the University Institution of Envigado (IUE), collaborates with me and Patricio on connectome-based whole-brain modeling and hemispheric-specific network dynamics.
Lab Focus
VANDAL uses mathematical modeling and dynamical systems analysis to study how neuronal properties and network topology shape neural activity, including synchronization, multistability, and chaotic dynamics. The lab also investigates sensory processing, including the dynamics of cold-sensitive nerve endings. Within our ITBA-UV-IUE collaboration, we focus on connectome-based models of human brain activity and the relationship between structural and functional connectivity.
Research Experience at IFIR (UNR-CONICET)
Biomedical Physics Group (IFIR, UNR - CONICET)
During my undergraduate Physics studies, I contributed to the UNR-CRH linkage project at IFIR (UNR-CONICET), which focused on the effects of ionizing radiation on biological systems and their applications in medical and biomedical physics. My selected contribution was Gomez Fava et al. (2022), a preliminary study on the viscoelastic properties of gamma-irradiated red blood cells using an erythrocyte rheometer, presented at the 107th Meeting of the Asociación Física Argentina (AFA) in Bariloche.
Research Mentor
Mariel Elisa Galassi was my research mentor during this period. She is an Independent Researcher at CONICET based at IFIR (UNR-CONICET). Her work focuses on atomic and molecular physics, medical and biomedical physics, and radiobiology, with particular emphasis on the effects of ionizing radiation on biological systems, including nanodosimetry and hadron dosimetry.
Lab Focus
The group combines hemorheology, bio-optics, and biosignal analysis to study biomedical effects of ionizing radiation; its work integrates radiobiology and dosimetry perspectives with applications in medical and biomedical physics, and includes research activity within the Biomedical Physics Group (IFIR, UNR-CONICET), in collaboration with Dr. Galassi.