Approaches
Two-photon microscopy
A relatively non-invasive measurement of brain activity in live tissue, on a massive scale!
Electrophysiology
Monitoring a spectrum of fast electrical activity, from a single synapse to the entire cell, with great temporal resolution and target precision.
Behavior and transgenics
Linking molecular causes to circuit changes, to behavioral outcomes. Discover and validate treatments for cognitive disorders using simpler models of cognition.
About us
New lab, open since October 2018
Iaroslav "Alex" Savtchouk is excited to announce the opening of his new lab at Marquette University, Department of Biomedical Sciences.
(On the left here you can see our new femtosecond lasers getting delivered!)
Research topics
Our core competences include two-photon imaging, electrophysiology, and signal processing. We are interested in understanding how astrocytes and GABAergic interneurons contribute to functioning of the cerebellum and of the rest of the brain.
We are likewise interested in developing new technologies allowing ever-faster, higher-fidelity visualization of brain activity in rodents and, eventually, humans!
We are always looking to hire talented people!
A limited number of funded job openings for postdocs/lab technicians are available (announcement coming in mid-2019).
Meanwhile, we always look to host scientists at all levels willing to apply for independent financial support. Contact us today to discuss how we can support your fellowship application.
We are also accepting motivated graduate and undergraduate Marquette University students to join our amazing team!
While you are at it, have a look at this large quartz specimen shown to the left. Like calcite, quartz can be birefringent — one of several optical anisotropies that make some crystals very useful for working with laser light!
Open positions
Why you should join our team
Our lab is fully committed to supporting ambitious people with the resources and mentorship they deserve. Your success is our success!
We are currently accepting motivated graduate and undergraduate Marquette University students to join our amazing team!
Current Marquette Students:
Undergraduates:
We have several open position for paid undergraduate assistants. The position requires either an existing experience in computer programming, or a strong motivation to learn it.
Graduates:
The lab is accepting graduate program students for rotations starting Fall 2019 semester.
Others:
We are always willing to host scientists at all levels with a drive to seek independent financial support. Contact us today to discuss how we can support your fellowship application for the external funding sources.
A limited number of funded job openings for postdocs/lab technicians are also available (announcement coming in summer 2019).
Would you like to learn cool things while working to understand the brain? Do you want to learn and apply advanced biological and programming techniques for your own experiments? Are you yearning to apply your physics/math education to a real-world biomedical problem? Are you not afraid to make your own road?
If yes, this lab is probably the right place for you.
Our public tools:
'Big data' ImageJ plugins
Three of the plugins developed for our Science and Frontiers publications are available here:
https://github.com/volterralab
(Volterra lab's GitHub page is currently maintained by a very talented PhD student Carlos Vivar Rios!)
Large-scale calcium signal exploration and analysis in 3D
Please see our Frontiers paper here for a publicly available versions of the analysis plugins (direct link to the zip in Supplementary is here). This page will host the updated versions with bug fixes.
Coming soon:
We will periodically link the the development versions of our public analysis software and plugins here.