Dr Shyam Kumar Sudhakar is a Neuroscientist with interests and specialisation in the field of Computational Neuroscience. Dr Sudhakar received his PhD from Universiteit Antwerpen, Belgium. At Antwerp, he was supported by the prestigious Marie-Curie fellowship for three years and subsequently with funds from Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology, Japan. During his PhD, he developed a large-scale network model of the granular layer of the cerebellar cortex.
Dr Sudhakar then went on to pursue postdoctoral training at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, United States. During his postdoctoral training, he focused on the computational modeling of neurological disorders (Epilepsy, Traumatic Brain Injury) and the modeling of oscillations generated in a brain region called the retrosplenial cortex. Prior to joining Krea University, Dr Sudhakar briefly worked as a post-doctoral researcher at École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland.
Dr Sudhakar is an avid traveler and loves exploring new places. In addition to traveling, he spends his free time learning more about financial markets.
Dr Shyam Kumar Sudhakar aims to understand the cellular, molecular, and network-level mechanisms underlying pathological brain states through biophysically detailed computational modeling. Specifically, he is interested in studying traumatic brain injuries (TBI) with the aim of identifying novel drugs for neuroprotection and computational biomarkers of injury severity and disease progression. He employs biologically realistic computational modeling, large-scale analysis of patient datasets and collaborates with experimental researchers in the field to pursue his research interests. His long-term goal is to understand how network activity and oscillations are altered in neurological disorders and develop novel strategies to stop abnormal functioning in such brain states.
Dr Sudhakar’s other research interests include understanding patterns of comorbidities in patients with traumatic brain injury through large-scale data analysis and graph theory approach and studying depolarisation block, a neuronal activity pattern known to be involved in a number of diseased brain states. He believes that his research work would greatly help to uncover the brain mechanisms of behaviour and how those mechanisms become abnormal in neurodegenerative diseases.
Areas of Interest and Expertise:
Computational Neuroscience
Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)
Epilepsy
Data Science
Machine Learning
1. Sudhakar S.K (2023). Are GABAergic drugs beneficial in providing neuroprotection after traumatic brain injuries? A comprehensive literature review of preclinical studies. Front Neurol;14(1109406);
2. Brennan EW, Jedrasiak-Cape I, Kailasa S, Rice SP, Sudhakar SK, Ahmed OJ (2021). Thalamus and claustrum control parallel layer 1 circuits in retrosplenial cortex. eLife 10:e62207 [eLife DIGEST]
3. Brennan E.W*., Sudhakar S.K*., Jedrasiak-Cape I., John T.T., Ahmed O.J. (2020). Hyperexcitable neurons enable precise and persistent encoding in the superficial retrosplenial cortex. Cell Reports 30:1598-1612. * Co-first authors
4. Sudhakar, S.K., Choi, T.J., and Ahmed, O.J. (2019). Biophysical Modeling Suggests Optimal Drug Combinations for Improving the Efficacy of GABA Agonists after Traumatic Brain Injuries. J. Neurotrauma 36, 1–14
Form and Function
Brain and Behaviour
Introduction to Computational Thinking
Life at Different Scales
Introduction to Human Brain and Mind