Meet the Team
Courtesy of the Feinstein Institutes, 2023
Prof. Chad Bouton
Lab Director, Principal Investigator,
VP of Advanced Engineering
Professor Chad Bouton is Vice President of Advanced Engineering and Director of the Neural Bypass and Brain-Computer Interface Laboratory in The Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research at Northwell Health in New York. Prof. Bouton’s work has been featured on 60 Minutes and in the New York Times, Washington Post, ABC, CBS, NBC, the BBC, Wired Magazine, and many other media outlets. He formerly served as research leader at Battelle Memorial Institute—the world’s largest independent research and development organization. Prof. Bouton and his team pioneered the first brain-computer interface technology known as a ‘neural bypass’ that used a brain implant to restore movement in a paralyzed person.
Currently Prof. Bouton and his colleagues have continued the groundbreaking neural bypass work to now restore both movement and the sense of touch simultaneously in the human hand. He holds over 70 patents worldwide and his technologies have been awarded three R&D 100 Awards and has been recognized by the US Congress for his contributions to the medical device technology field. Prof. Bouton has licensed and commercialized disruptive technologies for over 25 years to treat or diagnose cancer, diabetes, congestive heart failure, and paralysis from stroke and spinal cord injury. Most recently he founded a medical device startup, Neuvotion, Inc. (2019). He also has been named Inventor of the Year (2010), Distinguished Inventor (2011), Innovator of the Year in New York (2017), and was selected by the National Academy of Engineering (2011) as one of the top 100 engineering innovators in the world.
Santosh Chandrasekaran, PhD
Research Scientist
Dr. Santosh Chandrasekaran is a leading expert in artificial somatosensation. He seeks to combine principles of neuroscience and technical know-how of engineering to restore somatosensation in humans. He trained as a neuroscientist with Dr. Alison Barth and Dr. Nathan Urban at Carnegie Mellon University, studying plasticity in the rodent somatosensory cortex for his PhD. Seeking sensory systems research opportunities with a tangible clinical impact, he joined the Rehab Neural Engineering labs at the University of Pittsburgh. Here, as a postdoctoral fellow he worked with Dr. Lee Fisher on using spinal cord stimulation to restore somatosensation to the missing hand in people with upper-limb amputations. At the Feinstein Institutes, he is leading studies involving BCI-mediated approaches for restoring dextrous movement and somatosensation in people with tetraplegia.
He loves to read, sketch, play the violin and go on hikes, rock climbing and skiing. He is exploring hyper-local advocacy initiatives - approaching underprivileged community schools to encourage their students to apply to Feinstein Institutes internships, lobby NYC Parks to plant more trees in the neighbourhood or install a Little Free Library for the neighbourhood kids.
Zeev Elias, MS
Electrical Engineer
Zeev has his Masters Degree in Biomedical Engineering specializing in sensors and wearable devices for neuromuscular applications. He has previously worked in labs researching learning retention, Schwann cells, and neurological deficit detection methods. In his spare time he likes to travel and enjoys photography.
Erona Ibroçi, MPH
Project & Clinical Manager
Erona received her Master of Public Health in Epidemiology from the Icahn School of Medicine Graduate Program. She has years of experience coordinating clinical trials and large prospective studies. In her spare time, she enjoy staying up to date on the latest research and developments in the field, and trying out different coffee shops and roasters to discover the best iced coffee in town.
Aniket Jangam, MS
Electrical Engineer
Aniket has a Master's degree in Electrical Engineering with experience in designing wearable systems and medical consumer devices. He has an entrepreneurial outlook and aims to provide electrical engineering solutions to complex problems in the modern world. Apart from engineering, he is interested in painting, poetry and fictional stories.
Christina Maffei, MS, OTR/L, CBIS
Occupational Therapist
Christina specializes in neurological conditions. She received her Masters from Columbia University. She has 7+ years of experience treating patients with spinal cord injury, stroke, and multiple sclerosis with previous experience at Mount Sinai Hospital, and currently works at STARS rehabilitation. On her free time she exercises on her Peloton and enjoys to cook.
Sarah Wandelt, PhD
Neural Engineer
Dr. Sarah Wandelt is a passionate researcher with a keen focus on Neuroprosthetics. Her journey began at Ecole Polytechnique Federal de Lausanne, where she pursued a Master's degree in Bioengineering with a minor in Neuroprosthetics, and gained expertise in non-invasive EEG and EMG devices. Under the mentorship of Richard Andersen at the California Institute of Technology, she studied the representation of grasp and speech signals in brain recordings of human participants. Her work involved decoding internal speech from multielectrode unit recordings from the posterior parietal cortex, earning her the Dr. Nagendranath Reddy Biological Sciences Thesis prize for her thesis. Beyond the lab, she enjoys traveling, tending to her collection of plants, and going on hikes.
.png)
Evan Cater
Medical Student
Evan is a medical student at the Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell. His has previously worked in laboratories at The Rockefeller University, investigating molecular neurobiology and electron microscopy. When not pursing his medical degree, he enjoys playing tennis, discovering new music, and cooking.
Dana Fried, MOT, OTR/L
Occupational Therapist
Dana received her Masters in Occupational Therapy at Quinnipiac University. She has over 8 years of experience providing occupational therapy services for individuals recovering from neurological conditions with cognitive, physical, visual, and functional impairments. She has previous experience working at The Cerebral Palsy Association of Nassau County and currently works for Transitions of Long Island. Dana is interested in applying her occupational therapy skill set to research involving upper extremity recovery. In her free time, you can find her at Orange Theory, traveling, or eating sushi.
Isabelle Rosenthal, PhD
Neural Engineer
Dr. Isabelle Rosenthal is a researcher with expertise in neural prosthetics, machine learning, and sensory processing. During her PhD, advised by Dr. Richard Andersen at Caltech, she used human electrophysiology to study how real and artificial tactile sensations are encoded in the sensorimotor loop and integrated with information from other sensory modalities. Before her graduate studies, she earned an degree in Neuroscience from Wellesley College and was a lab manager at the National Institutes of Health, studying the neuroscience of color vision through MEG, MRI, and electrophysiology. In her free time, Isabelle enjoys hiking, knitting, and trying new foods.
Ashley Miller, BS
Research Assistant / Rehabilitation Services Aide
Ashley obtained a Bachelor of Science in community health with minors in psychology and disability studies from Hofstra University. During this time, she led research analyzing the frequency of student-student and student-professor interactions within courses utilizing an active learning and/or lecture approach. She also worked as a research assistant analyzing vending selection processes and taste scores to understand student preferences for brand labeled and filtered fountain water. She currently works at Northwell STARS Rehabilitation as a rehabilitation services aide and within the neural bypass lab as a research assistant. She plans to obtain a Masters from Hofstra University and become a neurological occupational therapist treating those with spinal cord injuries, histories of strokes, and multiple sclerosis. In her free time, Ashley enjoys going to Zumba and walking the Long Beach boardwalk.
​
​
Kevin King, MS
Johnny Ciancibello, MS
Margo (Malgorzata) Straka, PhD
Nikunj Bhagat, PhD
Sadegh Ebrahimi, PhD
Richard Ramdeo, CIP
Luka Srsic
Sam Russo
​
Lab Alumni and Visiting Scholars
​
​
Emma Ronai
Armand Ahmetaj, MS
Mahika Nagaradona
Michael Winick
Rrucha Singh, BS
​