Rina Zelmann, M.Eng., Ph.D.


Investigator, Instructor (M)
Neurology, Mass General Research Institute
Instructor in Neurology
Harvard Medical School

Education

Electronics Engineer Universidad de Buenos Aires 2002
Master's in Engineering (Biomedical) McGill University 2009
PhD (Biomedical Engineering) McGill University 2012

Research Interests

electrophysiology; epilepsy; sleep

Research Narrative

I am a biomedical engineer and Instructor in the Department of Neurology at MGH/ HMS. I specialize in the analysis of intracerebral activity and the effect of stimulation in the human brain, with extensive experience in epilepsy research. I have extensively contributed to the analysis and interpretation of intracranial EEG activity, understanding its relation to scalp recordings, improving depth electrode implantation, studying mechanisms of normal and epileptic activity, and closed-loop stimulation.


My goal is to better understand, evaluate, and modulate physiological and pathological neural dynamics during different brain states to enhance the diagnosis and treatment of neurological disorders. My new research direction focuses on understanding mechanisms of sleep micro-structure, how sleep plays a role in disease (epilepsy in particular), and, most importantly, how we might be able to intervene to restore good sleep and better neural health.

I believe in teamwork, collaborative research, and open science (my algorithms have been used in >100 publications) to accelerate clinical research and in transmitting this collaborative approach to a new generation. My goal is to use neuromodulation approaches to increase our mechanistic understanding of sleep physiology and improve epilepsy diagnosis, through innovative research at MGB and collaborative international projects.