Polina Anikeeva

Anikeeva was born in Saint Petersburg, Russia (then Leningrad, Soviet Union). Her parents were both mechanical engineers.[5] As a child she was interested in science fiction novels.[6] She studied biophysics at Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University, where she worked under the guidance of Tatiana Birshtein.[6] During her undergraduate studies she completed exchange programmes at ETH Zurich and Los Alamos National Laboratory. After a summer in New York City, she became increasingly interested in American research and molecular biology.[5] She joined Vladimir Bulović's laboratory of organic electronics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) for her graduate studies.[2] Here she studied nanoparticles, quantum dots and organic electronic materials for light-emitting diodes. Her doctoral research was commercialised by the display industry, and acquired by a manufacturer that would eventually become part of Samsung.[5]

After completing her doctorate, Anikeeva moved to the West Coast, and was appointed to Karl Deisseroth's neuroscience laboratory. There she worked on novel approaches to control and investigate the brain using light.[7] Whilst her early devices allowed the monitoring of neural activity in freely moving animals, they were made of rigid materials that were not particularly compatible with the nervous system.[5]

After a brief spell in California, Anikeeva returned to Cambridge, Massachusetts as an Assistant Professor at MIT.[8] At MIT, the Anikeeva laboratory studies implantable devices for the optical stimulation and electronic recording of neural activity.[9][10] Her laboratory combines fibre fabrication for neural probes with fundamental studies in how to interface with the nervous system.[7][11] The fibre is ultra-thin, stretchable and durable, allowing for detailed investigations of neurological conditions. The neural probes make use of magnetic nanoparticles and heat sensitive ion channels. She is interested in the patterns of neural activity that give rise to particular behaviours, which may help to rehabilitate people after spinal cord injury.[7]

Anikeeva gave a TED talk on brain-computer interfaces.[12]