The EU-funded VIBraTE ERA Chair (Grant no 101086815) will establish a Neurotechnology laboratory at the IICT. Among the objectives of the lab will be to model and investigate the properties, geometry, and mechanical effects of the interaction of the brain with the implanted electrodes. ERA Chairs are funded by the European Union to support the development of research excellence in specific scientific areas. The objective of the ERA Chair project is to attract and maintain high-quality researchers at IICT, improve research quality and impact, and enhance the institution’s research environment. The project provides funding for doctoral and postdoctoral research projects, mobility opportunities, and training activities for researchers. The project will improve the international research visibility of the IICT in the field of neurotechnology.

 

The project leader, Assoc. Prof. Dimiter Prodanov shares a position with the Interuniversity Microelectronics Centre (Imec) in Leuven, Belgium, which is one of the globally leading research organizations in the area of nanoelectronics and digital technologies. Dimiter Prodanov obtained an MD from the Medical University – Sofia in 1999 and a Ph.D. in Neuroscience from Twente University, Enschede, the Netherlands in 2006. In 2006 he was awarded a John G Nicholls fellowship from the International Brain Research Organization (IBRO) to continue his research in Neuroscience at the Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium. In 2007-2008 he conducted a postdoctoral study at the University of Liege, Belgium in the therapeutic applications of vagus nerve stimulation and pathophysiology of migraine. Since 2008 Dimiter Prodanov joined Imec as a senior scientist, where he conducted research in the development of deep brain stimulation and high-density recordings from the brain. Since 2013 Dimiter Prodanov is an affiliated researcher in Neuroelectronics Research Flanders. Assoc. Prof. Prodanov is interested in nanotechnology, computational biology, and therapeutic modulation of brain activity. His technical interests include applications of computer algebra tools and numerical algorithms to modeling biophysical phenomena and image processing. Since 2003 he is an active contributor to the public-domain imaging program ImageJ. Since 2009 he has been actively engaged in the emerging discipline of Neuroinformatics. He authored more than 60 scientific articles, 6 book chapters, and 2 patents.