Team

  • Dimitar Kostadinov

    PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

    Dimitar obtained a BSc in Physiology from McGill University in Montreal, where he worked on activity-dependent maturation of neuronal firing properties of autonomic neurons. He then went onto to do a PhD with Josh Sanes at Harvard University, where he uncovered the mechanisms and function of dendritic self-avoidance in mammalian neurons. Following his graduate studies, Dimitar was a postdoctoral fellow in Michael Häusser’s lab at UCL, where he identified reward-related instructive signals conveyed to the cerebellum via climbing fibers.

    Dimitar joined the CDN at King’s as a Wellcome Trust Fellow in 2023.

    [Email], [CV], [Google Scholar], [ORCID]

  • Ceren Arslan

    RESEARCH ASSISTANT

    Ren received a BSc in Medical Sciences from the University of Brighton, before moving on to obtain her MSc in Biomedical & Molecular Sciences Research from King’s College London, where she studied the distribution of GABAergic synapses in the olfactory bulb in Matt Grubb’s lab. She is interested in investigating the dynamics of network connectivity, specifically within the context of behaviour.

    Ren became the first member of the lab in 2023, helping with the conceptualization and development of the lab’s experimental set-ups.

    [Twitter]

  • Carolina Soares

    LIDo PhD STUDENT

    Carolina graduated in 2021 from Queen Mary University of London in Biochemistry and then underwent a Masters by Research at the University of Edinburgh in Integrative Neuroscience where she carried out patch-clamping and optogenetic manipulations of MEC cells. Her research interests encompass the neural and behavioural basis of predictive-coding and decision-making.

    Carolina is a science communicator and hosts a neuroscience podcast, Neuroverse, to engage audiences in science and philosophy.

    [Twitter], [LinkedIn], [Neuroverse podcast]

  • Subham Ganguly

    MRC-ITND PhD STUDENT

    Subham received his BSc in Neuroscience from King’s College London, where he worked on single-cell RNA-sequencing of direct pericyte-to-neuron reprogrammable cells in Benedikt Berninger’s lab. He then received an MRes in Brain Sciences at UCL, where he conducted a protocol-building project on thick-tissue multiplexed in-situ hybridization in Yoh Isogai’s lab at SWC. His research interest is driven by a desire to decode brain activity to develop seamless brain-computer interfaces that enhance human-machine integration.

    [Twitter], [LinkedIn], [Github]

  • Cristiana Iosif

    POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCHER

    Cristiana gained her BSc in Physiology and Pharmacology from University of Leicester in 2018, where she worked on cardiac potassium channel electrophysiology. She then completed a Masters by Research in Neuroscience in 2019, where she worked on quantifying the molecular damage on mitochondrial structure in Huntington’s disease phenotypes. Cristiana completed her PhD in Richard Apps’ and Zafar Bashir’s laboratories at the University of Bristol in 2023, where she worked on the neuromodulatory effect of acetylcholine in the cerebellum, using a combination of behavioural and electrophysiological studies.

    Cristiana joined the lab in 2024, where she will continue her work on studying cerebellar neuromodulation.

  • Maxime Beau

    PhD STUDENT Collaborator (at UCL)

    Maxime is a PhD student in Michael Häusser’s lab at UCL. He and Dimitar have worked closely together for several years studying cerebellar coding during goal-directed behaviour. In his PhD work, Maxime has pioneered the use of Neuropixels probes in cerebellar neurophysiology research and developed tools to analyze and interpret these recordings.

    [Google Scholar], [Github]

Opportunities in the lab

We are a new team of researchers interested in understanding how brain regions work together to drive adaptive behaviour. We are looking for ambitious and motivated researchers at all levels to join our team, and our aim is to create a research environment where scientific discovery and the development of lab members go hand-in-hand. Trainees with interact closely with the lab’s PI (Dimitar), and we will collaborate in solving problems in service of our scientific goals. You can find information about our specific research questions and how we plan to answer them here and about our vision for the lab’s research culture here.

Postdoctoral fellows

We are actively seeking postdoctoral researchers with experience in applying modern neurophysiological and/or molecular methods to understand the organization and function of neural circuits. Experience with techniques such as two-photon imaging, electrophysiology, single-cell sequencing, and large-scale data analysis are desirable but not strictly required. We have funding for multiple postdoctoral positions, but trainees should also apply for independent funding. There are a variety of funding opportunties available, and you can apply for most of these even before starting in the lab. Possible funding sources include: the BBSRC Discovery Fellowship, the EMBO Postdoctoral Fellowship, the HFSP Postdoctoral Fellowship, the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship, the Newton International Fellowship, the Wellcome Early-Career Award, and others.

If you are interested in doing a postdoc in the lab, please send inquiries with your research interests and CV directly to Dimitar.

PhD students

We are actively seeking enthusiastic and motivated PhD students to join the lab. Experience with neuroscience experiments and data analysis are desirable but not required. A primary goal of your PhD will be the acquire the skills needed to be an independent scientist. PhD students may be hired directly to the lab or come through established PhD programs at King’s.

If you would like to inquire about available PhD positions or are a PhD student who is interested in a rotation in our laboratory, please get in touch with Dimitar.

Undergraduate and Masters students

Opportunities for undergraduate and masters students enrolled at King’s will arise as the lab grows and established researcher can take on and mentor students at earlier career stages. These projects may be either experiment- or analysis-focused, so we encourage students from a variety of backgrounds who are interested in doing their research projects in the lab to email Dimitar about potential opportunties.

Research assistants

The lab is not currently looking for a research assistant / technician. Please check back in the future as opportunities may arise.