Timothy C. Marzullo, Ph.D.

 

Ann Arbor, MI

cell: 734-223-8133

Email: tmarzull@umich.edu

 

Objective:

To build tools to understand and manipulate the natural world

 

Specific Skills and Knowledge:

Awake, Behaving Electrophysiology (spikes, field potentials, EEGs, ECoGs)

Multichannel chronic brain stimulation and recording

Neural Engineering

Building Things

Public Speaking

 

Education:

2008                Ph.D., Neuroscience Program, in Neural Engineering Lab of  Daryl Kipke at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor – Accessibility and Manipulation of Brain Signals for Neuroprosthetic Applications

2001                B.S. in Biochemistry from the University of Texas at Austin

  

Publications:

Abidian MR, Ludwig KA, Marzullo TC, Martin DC, Kipke DR. Interfacing conducting polymer nanotubes with the central nervous system: chronic neural recording using poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) nanotubes. Advanced Materials. 2009 July.

 

Parikh H, Marzullo TC, Kipke D. Lower layers in the motor cortex are more effective targets for penetrating microelectrodes in cortical prostheses. Journal of Neural Engineering. 2009 April; 6(2): 026004.

 

Gage G. Marzullo T. Parikh H.  "Die Cingulare Theorie der Vereinigung: Der Gyrus Cinguli ist Fur Alle Geistigen Leistungen Zustandig." in the book "Braintertainment 2.0" in press late 2009. 

 

Marzullo TC, Parikh H. How neurons must one man have, before you call him a man? IEEE Potentials. 2008 Nov/Dec;27(6):26-33. correction

 

Marzullo TC, Miller CR, Kipke DR. Suitability of the cingulate cortex for neural control. IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering. 2006 Dec;14(4):401-9.

 

Marzullo T, Rantze E, Gage G. Stock market behavior predicted by rat neurons. Annals of Improbable Research. 2006. Jul/Aug: 22-25.

 

Ehlmann BL, Chowdhury J, Marzullo TC et. al.  Humans to Mars: a feasibility and cost-benefit analysis. Acta Astronautica. 2005 May-Jun;56(9-12):851-8.

 

Stavisky RC, Britt JM, Zuzek A, Pham T, Marzullo TC, Bittner GD. Degeneration of mammalian PNS and CNS axons is accelerated by incubation with protein synthesis inhibitors. Neuroscience Research. 2003 Dec; 47(4): 445-9.

 

Marzullo TC, Britt JM, Stavisky RC, Bittner GD. Cooling enhances in vitro survival and fusion-repair of severed axons taken from the peripheral and central nervous systems in rats. Neuroscience Letters, 2002 Jul 12; Vol. 327(1): pgs 9-12.

 

Conference Proceedings (selected):

Marzullo TC, Kim E, Lehmkuhle MJ, Kipke DR. A direct visual and motor interface in a rat. 2007. 3rd International IEEE/EMBS Conference on Neural Engineering. Kohala Coast, HI: 9-12.

 

Gage GJ, Kawahara C, Ross SE, Marzullo TC, Kipke DR. Laminar analysis of movement direction information in local field potentials of the rat motor cortex. 2006. 28th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. Washington, D.C: 2589 – 2592.

 

Marzullo TC, Dudley JR, Miller  CR, Trejo L, Kipke DR. Spikes, local field potentials, and electrocorticogram characterization during motor learning in rats for brain machine interface tasks.  2005 27th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. Shanghai, China: 429-431.

 

Otto KJ, Vetter RJ, Marzullo TC, Kipke DR. Brain-machine interfaces in rat motor cortex: implications of adaptive decoding algorithms. 2003. 1st International IEEE/EMBS Conference on Neural Engineering. Capri, Italy: 100-103.

 

 

Poster Presentations (selected)

Marzullo TC, Parikh H, Gage G. The cingular theory of unification: the cingulate cortex does everything. abstract 28.7, 2007 society for neuroscience meeting. San Diego, CA.

 

Marzullo TC, Parikh H, Kim E, Kipke DR. Analysis of field potentials during neuroprosthetic tasks using spikes as the control signal. abstract 256.8, 2006 society for neuroscience meeting. Atlanta, GA.

 

Berke JD, Alraggi TK, Hetrick VL, Gritton HJ, McDougal L, Eichenbaum HB, Johnson MD, Marzullo TC, Greene RW.  β oscillations accompany the formation of hippocampal "place cell" representations during exploration of novel environments. abstract 68.1, 2005 society for neuroscience meeting. Washington, DC.

 

Weiss KA, Brown TC, Marzullo TC. The brain eaters: interactive neuroanatomy lesson. abstract 26.11, 2004 society for neuroscience meeting. San Diego, CA.

 

Marzullo TC, Chowdhury J. Humans to Mars: the political initiative and technical expertise required for human exploration of the red planet. presentation given at 2003 14th international academy of astronautics humans in space symposium. Banff, Alberta, Canada.

 

Marzullo TC, Buonanno A, Boyle R. Neuroanatomical localization of glutamate subunit receptors in the vestibular system of the mouse. 2002 NASA Ames Research Center summer poster session.

 

Honors:

2009                Kauffman Foundation Entrepreneur Postdoctoral Fellow

2009                The $100 Spike Project, inventing lost-cost neurophysiology, is Recipient of a Dare to Dream Seed Grant from the Center for Entrepreneurship at the University of Michigan

2008                The $100 Spike Project is 1 of 4 presentations highlighted out of 10,000 for the Nature Magazine Neuroscience Podcast

2005, 2006      NASA Graduate Student Researchers Program fellowship renewed

2004                Marine Biological Laboratory NeuroInformatics summer course, Woods Hole, MA

2004                NASA Graduate Student Researchers Program fellowship

2003                Rackham International Travel Grant

2002                National Institutes of Health (NIH) training grant

2002                NASA Ames Astrobiology Academy Internship

2002                $5000 grant from Michigan Space Grant Consortium

2001                University of Michigan Rackham Regents Fellowship

2001                $1000 Research Grant for nerve protein synthesis inhibition project from University of Texas Vice President of Research

2000                $1000 University of Texas College of Natural Sciences Foundation Scholarship

 

Selected Work Experience:

2009-current    Co-founder, Backyard Brains, Inc, commercializing The $100 Spike Project

2008-current    Research Engineer, NeuroNexus Technologies, Ann Arbor

2008-2009       Post-Doctoral Fellow, Neural Engineering Lab, U-Michigan

2002-2008       Ph.D. Research in lab of Dr. Daryl Kipke, Neural Engineering Lab, U-Michigan

2003                Graduate Student Instructor for Cell Biology Lab Course, U-Michigan

2002                Research Assistant for Dr. Richard Boyle, BIOVis Center, NASA Ames Research Center

2000-2001       Research assistant for George D. Bittner, Professor in Biological Sciences, Section of Neurobiology, UT-Austin

 

Extra-Curricular and Community Activities:

Current            Periodically (every three months) giving interactive lessons on Neuroscience to area junior high school and elementary school students

2004                Invited and hosted Dr. Dave Williams, Neurolab Astronaut, for seminar to UM Biomedical Research Community on experiments done on STS-90

2004                Mentored NASA Summer High School Apprenticeship Research Program (SHARP) student for project on neural data analysis; Student proceeded to win Intel International Science Fair on project

2004                Organized and taught Neuroscience Enrichment sessions at Summer Science Camp for disadvantaged students at West Middle School, Ypsilanti, MI

2003-2004       President, UM Neuroscience Graduate Student Organization

2003 & 2004   First prize, two years in a row, at Ann Arbor Hands On Museum Brainsrule science fair for designing an Interactive Neuroanatomy Exhibit for Elementary School Students. Exhibit now constantly wins first prize with other presenters year after year.

2002                Invited speaker to 300 high school students on -The Brain, Graduate School, and Mars- at Springlake High School, Springlake, Michigan

2002-2004       Taught elementary school students basic neuroanatomy at Angell Hall Elementary School

2001-2002       Member of University of Michigan Manned Mars Rover Engineering Team

1997                Varsity rower for University of Texas Men's Crew Team

 

Hobbies:

Amateur rocketry, Restoring my 1973 Chevrolet El Camino and 1981 Toyota Tercel

 

References:

Daryl R. Kipke, Ph.D. – Thesis Project Advisor, Professor in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Michigan, phone: (734) 764-3716, email: dkipke@umich.edu

Aileen Y. Huang-Saad, Ph.D. Entrepreneurship Advisor, Center for Entrepreneurship at the University of Michigan, phone: 734-647-9737, e-mail: aileenhs@umich.edu

Leonard J. Trejo, Ph.D. – NASA GSRP project Advisor, computer scientist, NASA Ames Research Center, Mail Stop 269-3, office: (650) 604-2187, email: ltrejo@mail.arc.nasa.gov

Douglas A. O'Handley, Ph.D. – Director, Ames Astrobiology Academy, 1997-2003, NASA Ames Research Center, retired. home: (408) 872-1619 cell: (408) 666-4319, e-mail: dohphd@earthlink.net

Richard Boyle, Ph.D. – Director, BioVIS Technology Center, Mail Stop 239-11, NASA Ames Research Center, office: (650) 604-1099, e-mail: richard.boyle@nasa.gov

George D. Bittner, Ph.D. – Professor in Biological Sciences, Section of Neurobiology, University of Texas at Austin, phone: (512) 471-5454, e-mail: bittner@mail.utexas.edu