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PhD in Biology oriented to Neuroscience and Doctor in Medicine
Uruguayan and Italian citizen based in Leicester (UK)
PhD in Biology and Doctor in Medicine
Expertise areas
Neurophysiology and Computational Neuroscience (Matlab and R)
Multi electrode array recordings and analysis, voltage clamp
EEG and physiological recordings
Teaching in higher education, tutoring at degree and post-graduation levels.
Contact
a.capurro@qmul.ac.uk
alberto.capurro@gmail.com
https://sites.google.com/site/albertocapurro/
Academic education
• PhD in Biology oriented to Neuroscience (1996-1999) at PEDECIBA (United Nations sponsored Program for Development of Basic Science, Faculty of Science, UdelaR, Montevideo, Uruguay). PhD recognized by University of Sao Paulo (Brazil) in 2003.
• MSc in Neuroscience (1991-1994) at PEDECIBA.
• Doctor in Medicine (1983-1992) at the Faculty of Medicine of UdelaR (Montevideo, Uruguay).
Professional experience and scientific training
• From March 2022 Lecturer in Neuroscience at Blizard Institute (Queen Mary University London).
• 2018-2021 Research Associate at the Bioscience Department of Newcastle University. Funded by MRC.
• 2017-2018 Postdoctoral Research Associate at Wolfson Centre for Age-Related Diseases, Division of Neurosciences, King’s College London. Funded by Action on Hearing Loss.
• 2012-2017 Research Associate at the Department of Neuroscience, Psychology and Behaviour of the University of Leicester. Funded by Marie Curie Fellowship and EPSRC.
• 2008-2012 Research Associate at the Department of Engineering of the University of Leicester. Funded by EU commission and MRC.
• 2006-2008 Postdoctoral position at the Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience Freiburg and Section Epileptology of the University Clinic (Freiburg University, Germany). Funded by BCCN.
• 2002-2005 Postdoctoral position at the Mathematical Physics Department of São Paulo University (Brazil). Funded by FAPESP.
• 1997-1998 Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Research Fellow at the Biophysical Engineering Department of Osaka University (Japan). Funded by JSPS and PEDECIBA.
• 1996-2004 Assistant Researcher at the Neurophysiology Department of the Institute of Biological Research “Clemente Estable” (Ministry of Education and Culture of Uruguay).
• 1996-1997 Trainee researcher at the Physics Department of the “Universidad Nacional de La Plata” (Argentina). Funded by PEDECIBA.
• 1994-1995 Trainee researcher at the Neurophysiology laboratory of the Institute “Ramon y Cajal” (CSIC, Madrid, Spain). Funded by BID-CONICYT.
• 1992-1996 Fellowship for initiation to research at Neurophysiology Department of the Institute of Biological Research “Clemente Estable” (Ministry of Education and Culture of Uruguay).
Teaching experience
My research has been always combined with teaching, delivering seminars, lectures, practical classes and mainly tutoring at degree and post-graduation levels in UK and abroad. I am now coursing the last year of the PGCAP at QMUL and acting as convener in a BSc and in a MSc course.
Languages
Multilingual in English, Spanish and Portuguese.
Research Grants
Barts Charity grant in 2022 to fund a micro-electrode array setup at Blizard Institute.
Research interests
• Physiology of the nervous system, sensory neurons, and biological neuronal networks
• Translational Medicine (Epilepsy, Tinnitus, Traumatic Brain Injury).
• Pain modulation
• Analysis of spike trains, EEG and MEG data
• Dynamical systems, information theory and brain oscillations
• Gene expression analysis and deconvolution methods applied to neurodegenerative diseases
• Consciousness science
• University teaching
Articles published in peer reviewed journals (449 citations in Google Scholar)
• Olsen T, Capurro A, Svent M, Pilati N, Large, CH, Hartell N and Hamann M (2021) Sparsely distributed, presynaptic Kv3 K+ channels control spontaneous firing and cross-unit synchrony via the regulation of synaptic noise in an auditory brainstem circuit. Front. Cell. Neurosci. 15:721371. doi: 10.3389/fncel.2021.721371.
• Capurro A, Thornton J, Cessac B, Armstrong L, Sernagor E (2020) Nav1.7 gating in human iPSC derived sensory neurons: an experimental and computational study. BioRxiv (doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.08.04.235861.
• Olsen T, Capurro A, Pilati N, Large, CH and Hamann M (2018) Kv3 K+ currents contribute to spike-timing in dorsal cochlear nucleus principal cells. Neuropharmacology 133: 319-333.
• Capurro A, Bodea L, Schaefer P, Luthi-Carter R and Perreau VM (2015) Computational deconvolution of genome wide expression data from Parkinson’s and Huntington’s disease brain tissues using Population-Specific Expression Analysis. Frontiers in Neuroscience 8: 441. doi:10.3389/fnins.2014.00441
• Capurro A, Baroni F, Kuebler LS, Kárpáti Z, Dekker T, Lei H, Hansson BS, Pearce TC, Olsson SB (2014) Temporal Features of Spike Trains in the Moth Antennal Lobe Revealed by a Comparative Time-Frequency Analysis. PLoS ONE 9(1): e84037. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0084037
• Pearce TC, Karout S, Capurro A, Rácz Z, Gardner JW and Cole M (2013) Rapid Processing of Chemosensor Transients in a Neuromorphic Implementation of the Insect Macroglomerular Complex. Frontiers in Neuroscience 7:119. doi: 10.3389/fnins.2013.00119
• Capurro A, Baroni F, Olsson S, Kuebler L, Karout S, Hansson BS and Pearce TC (2012) Non-linear blend coding in the moth antennal lobe emerges from random glomerular networks. Frontiers in Neuroengineering 5:6. doi: 10.3389/fneng.2012.00006
• Rácz Z, Cole M, Gardner JW, Chowdhury MF, Bula WP, Gardeniers JGE, Karout S, Capurro A and Pearce TC (2012) Design and Implementation of a Modular Biomimetic Infochemical Communication System. International Journal of Circuit Theory and Applications. doi: 10.1002/cta.1829.
• Chong KY, Capurro A, Karout S, Pearce TC (2012) Stimulus and Network Dynamics Collide in a Ratiometric Model of the Antennal Lobe Macroglomerular Complex. PLoS ONE 7(1): e29602. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0029602
• Karout S, Rácz Z, Capurro A, Cole M, Gardner JW, Pearce TC (2011) Ratiometric Chemical Blend Processing with a Neuromorphic Model of the Insect Macroglomerular Complex. American Institute of Physics Conference Proceedings 1362, pp. 77-78.
• Capurro A and Quian Quiroga R (2009) The neural correlates of perceptual awareness. Psyche 15: 29-38.
• Diambra L, Malta CP and Capurro A (2009) Long-term oscillations in the sleep/wake cycle of infants. Physica A 388:4727-4735.
• Cordeiro JG, Capurro A, Aertsen A, Cordeiro KK, Araújo JC and Schulze-Bonhage A (2009) Improvement in hippocampal kindling analysis through computational processing data. Arquivos de Neuro-Psiquiatria 67:677-683.
• Diambra L, Capurro A and Malta CP (2007) Constructing the average natural history of HIV-1 infection. American Institute of Physics Conference Proceedings 913: 157-162.
• Capurro A, Malta CP, Diambra L, Contreras P and Migliaro ER (2007) Respiratory modulation of heart beat-to-beat interval in diabetic patients. Physica A 378: 336-344.
• Capurro A, Malta CP, Diambra L, Contreras P and Migliaro ER (2005) Cross-correlation of heartbeat and respiration rhythms. Physica A 356: 37-42.
• Capurro A, Diambra L and Malta CP (2005) Model for the respiratory modulation of the heart beat-to-beat time interval series. Physica A 355: 439-460.
• Capurro A and Pakdaman K (2004) The electric fish Brachyhypopomus pinnicaudatus produces jamming avoidance responses to signals that are harmonically related to its own discharges. Journal of Experimental Biology 207: 2907-2916.
• Capurro A and Malta CP (2004) Noise autocorrelation and jamming avoidance performance in pulse type electric fish. Bulletin of Mathematical Biology 66 (4): 885-905.
• Capurro A, Diambra L and Malta CP (2003) Model for the heart beat-to-beat time series during meditation. Physica A 327: 168-173.
• Diambra L, Malta CP, Capurro A and Fernandez J (2001) Nonlinear structures in EEG signals. Physica A 300: 505-520.
• Capurro A, Longtin A, Bargarinao E, Sato S, Macadar O and Pakdaman K (2001) Variability of the electric organ discharge interval in Gymnotus carapo. Biological Cybernetics 84: 309-321.
• Capurro A, Pakdaman K, Perrone R and Macadar O (1999) Analysis of the jamming avoidance response in the electric fish Gymnotus carapo. Biological Cybernetics 80: 269-283.
• Capurro A, Diambra L, Lorenzo D, Macadar O, Martin M, Mostaccio C, Plastino A, Perez J, Rozman E, Torres M, and Velluti J (1999) Human brain dynamics: the analysis of EEG signals with Tsallis information measure. Physica A 265: 235-254.
• Capurro A, Pakdaman K, Nomura T and Sato S (1998) Aperiodic stochastic resonance with correlated noise. Physical Review E 58: 4820-4827).
• Capurro A, Macadar O, Perrone R and Pakdaman K (1998) Computational model of the jamming avoidance response in the electric fish Gymnotus carapo. Biosystems 48: 21-27.
• Diambra L, Capurro A and Plastino A (1998) Neural networks that learn how to detect epileptic spikes. Physics Letters A 241: 61-66.
• Capurro A, Diambra L, Lorenzo D, Macadar O, Martin M, Mostaccio C, Plastino A, Rozman E, Torres M and Velluti J (1998) Tsallis entropy and cortical dynamics: the analysis of EEG signals. Physica A 257: 149-155.
• Capurro A, Diambra L, Lorenzo D, Macadar O, Martin M, Plastino A, Rozman E, Torres M and Velluti J (1997) Tsallis information measure, multirresolution analysis and nonlinear dynamics. INRIA research reports 3184.
• Capurro A, Reyes-Parada M, Olazabal D, Perrone R, Silveira R and Macadar O (1997) Aggressive behavior and jamming avoidance response in the weakly electric fish Gymnotus carapo. Effects of 3,4 Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA). Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology A 118A: 831-840.
• Capurro A, Reyes-Parada M, Ardanaz J, Silveira R and Macadar O (1994) Serotonergic control of electric organ discharge in Gymnotus carapo. Role of 5-HT2A/2c receptor subtypes. Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology A 109A: 583-591.
Book Chapters
• Kuhn A, Capurro A and Luthi-Carter R (2015) Gene Expression-Based Approaches to Understanding Huntington’s Disease and New Tools for the Interpretation of Expression Datasets. Chapter 2 in: Kewal K. Jain (ed.), Applied Neurogenomics, Neuromethods, vol. 97, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4939-2247-5_2. New York: Springer Science+Business.
• Pearce TC, Karout S, Capurro A, Rácz Z, Cole M, Gardner JW (2013) Robust Ratiometric Infochemical Communication in a Neuromorphic “Synthetic Moth”. In: N.F. Lepora et al. (eds.), Biomimetic and Biohybrid Systems. Second International Conference, Living Machines 2013, London. Proceedings: Living Machines 2013, LNAI 8064, pp. 204–215, 10. 1007/978-3-642-39802-5_18, Berlin Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.
Presentations in scientific meetings
• Capurro A, Thornton J, Armstrong L, Sernagor E. Computational model of sodium Nav1.7 channel activation in nociceptive dorsal root ganglion neurons. Poster presentation at BNA spike sorting symposium (Edinburgh, June 2019) and at the UK Neural Computation meeting (Nottingham, July 2019).
• Capurro A. Auditory Brainstem Response toolbox. Oral presentation at the meeting of the Hearing Research Group (Sheffield, June 2018).
• Capurro A (2017) Implementation of Population-Specific Expression Analysis and discussion of potential methodological improvements. Workshop on computational deconvolution (NUI, Galway, Ireland, May 2017).
• Capurro A, Baliño P, Baez C and Luthi-Carter R (2016) Restorative Effects of the TrkB agonist 7,8-Dihydroxyflavone on Neuronal Network Activity in an in vitro model of Huntington's disease. 10th International Meeting on Substrate-Integrated Microelectrode Arrays (Reutlingen, Germany, July, 2016).
• Olsen T, Capurro A, Pilati N, Large C, and Hamann M (2016) Blocking potassium currents desynchronises spike timing in dorsal cochlear nucleus principal cells. 10th International Tinnitus Research Initiative Conference (Nottingham, 2016).
• Capurro A, Perrone S, Heuschkel M, Makohliso S, Baez C and Luthi-Carter R (2014) Use of Entropy to Discriminate Between Different Conditions in MEA Recordings. 9th International Meeting on Substrate-Integrated Microelectrode Arrays (Reutlingen, Germany, July 1-4, 2014).
• Karout S, Rácz Z, Capurro A, Cole M, Gardner JW, Pearce TC (2011) Ratiometric chemical blend processing with a neuromophic model of the insect macroglomerular complex. AIP Conference Proceedings “ISOEN: 14th International Symposium on Olfaction and Electronic Nose” (Rockefeller University, May 2011).
• Capurro A, Baroni F, Olsson S, Kuebler L, Hansson BS and Pearce TC (2010) Interactions between odorants in single neurons of the antennal lobe. Poster at “International Workshop on Dynamical Olfaction” (Brighton, UK, June 30th to July 2th, 2010).
• Capurro A, Aertsen A and Schulze-Bonhage A (2007). Evolution of high frequency components in depth EEG recordings during early stages of hippocampal kindling in rats. Fifth Joint Meeting of the German, Austrian and Swiss Sections of the International League Against Epilepsy, Basel, Switzerland. Epilepsia 48 (Suppl. 3) 1-
