Krishna Shenoy

Member, Bio-X

Bio

Krishna V. Shenoy, PhD, is the Hong Seh and Vivian W. M. Lim Professor of Engineering. He is with the Departments of Electrical Engineering (EE) and, by courtesy, of Bioengineering (BioE), Neurobiology and Neurosurgery in the Schools of Engineering (SOE) and Medicine (SOM) at Stanford University. He is also a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Investigator. Prof. Shenoy holds a BS in Electrical and Computer Engineering from UC Irvine (1987-1990), a PhD in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from MIT (1990-1995), was a postdoctoral fellow in Neurobiology at Caltech (1995-2001), and has been on faculty at Stanford since then (Assistant Prof. 2001-2008, Associate Prof. 2008-2012, Full Prof. 2012-2017, HHMI Investigator 2015 to present (and at least 2028), Endowed Chair 2017 to present). Prof. Shenoy directs the Stanford Neural Prosthetic Systems Lab (basic neuroscience and engineering) and co-directs the Stanford Neural Prosthetics Translational Laboratory (clinical trials), which aim to help restore lost motor function to people with paralysis. Honors and awards include a Burroughs Wellcome Fund Career Award in the Biomedical Sciences, a Sloan Fellow, a McKnight Technological Innovations in Neurosciences Award, an NIH EUREKA Award, an NIH Director’s Pioneer Award, the 2010 Stanford University Postdoc Mentoring Award, election as a Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) College of Fellows, and the 2018 recipient of the Andrew Carnegie Mind and Brain Prize from Carnegie Mellon University. In 2022 he was Elected to the National Academy of Medicine (NAM) and as an IEEE Fellow. Prof. Shenoy (1) serves on the Scientific Advisory Boards (SABs) of The University of Washington's Center for Neurotechnology (an NSF Engineering Research Center), MIND-X Inc., Inscopix Inc. and Heal Inc., (2) is also a consultant / advisor for CTRL-Labs and was on the Founding SAB, which was acquired in 2019 by Reality Labs, Meta Platforms (previously Facebook) and (3) is a co-founder and consultant / advisor for Neuralink Corp.

Academic Appointments

Member, Bio-X
Member, Wu Tsai Human Performance Alliance
Member, Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute

Administrative Appointments

Co-Chair of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging (DEIB) Committee, Neurosciences PhD Program, Stanford University (2020 - Present)

Honors & Awards

Elected Fellow, IEEE (2022-)
Elected Member, National Academy of Medicine (NAM) (2022-)
Recipient, Andrew Carnegie Mind and Brain Prize from Carnegie Mellon Unversity (2018)
Elected Fellow, American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) College of Fellows (2017-)
Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute (2015-)
Distinguished Alumnus Award, The Henry Samueli School of Engineering, University of California at Irvine (2013)
Postdoc Mentoring Award, Stanford University (2010)
NIH Director's Pioneer Award, National Institutes of Health (2009)
NIH EUREKA Award, National Institutes of Health (2009)
Technological Innovations in Neurosciences Award, McKnight Foundation (2007)
Research Fellow, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation (2002)
Career Award in the Biomedical Sciences, Burroughs Wellcome Fund (1999)

Boards, Advisory Committees, Professional Organizations

Scientific Advisory Board, MIND-X Inc. (acquired by Blackrock Microsystems, 2022) (2018 - Present)
Scientific Advisory Board, Inscopix Inc. (merged with Brucker, 2022) (2018 - Present)
Consultant / Advisor (2020-), Scientific Advisory Board (2016-2020), CTRL-Labs Inc (acquired by Facebook Reality Labs, Facebook, 2019; now Reality Labs, Meta Platforms) (2016 - Present)
Consultant / Advisor, co-founder, Neuralink Inc. (2016 - Present)
Scientific Advisory Board, U Washington's Ctr for Sensorimotor Neural Eng (an NSF Eng Research Ctr), 2016-2020 (2016 - Present)
Scientific Advisory Board, Heal Inc., 2015-2020 (2015 - Present)

Projects

Overview, Stanford University & HHMI

We conduct neuroscience, neuroengineering and translational research to better understand how the brain controls movement, and to design medical systems to assist people with paralysis (see Fig. 1 below). These medical systems are referred to as brain-machine interfaces (BMIs), brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) and intra-cortical neural prostheses. We conduct this research as part of our Neural Prosthetic Systems Lab (NPSL), which focuses on more basic systems and computational neuroscience and neuroengineering, and as part of our Neural Prosthetics Translational Lab (NPTL), which focuses on translating these advances to people with paralysis via clinical trials.

Neuroscience. Our neuroscience research investigates the neural basis of movement preparation and generation using a combination of electro- / opto-physiological (e.g., chronic electrode-array recordings and optogenetic stimulation), behavioral, computational and theoretical techniques (e.g., dynamical systems, dimensionality reduction, single-trial neural analyses). For example, how do neurons in premotor (PMd) and primary motor (M1) cortex plan and guide reaching arm movements?, which focuses on more translational systems and computational neuroscience and neuroengineering.

Neuroengineering. Our neuroengineering research investigates the design of high-performance and robust intra-cortical neural prostheses. These systems translate neural activity from the brain into control signals for prosthetic devices, which can assist people with paralysis by restoring lost motor functions. This work includes statistical signal processing, machine learning, and real-time system modeling and implementation. For example, how can we design motor prostheses with performance rivaling the natural arm, or communication prostheses rivaling the throughput of spoken language.

Translational. Our translational research including an FDA pilot clinical trial (BrainGate2) is conducted as part of the NPTL. For example, how do pre-clinical laboratory designs actually work with people with paralysis in real-world settings?

Location

Stanford, CA

Professional Education

Endowed Chair Professorship, Stanford University, Hong Seh and Vivian W. M. Professor of Engineering (2017)
Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), Investigator (appointed in 2015) (2015)
Professor, Stanford University, Departments of Electrical Engineering, Bioengineering & Neurobiology (2012)
Associate Professor, Stanford University, Departments of Electrical Engineering, Bioengineering & Neurobiology (2008)
Assistant Professor, Stanford University, Departments of Electrical Engineering, Bioengineering & Neurobiology (2001)
Senior Postdoc, Caltech, Systems Neuroscience, Division of Biology (2001)
Postdoc, Caltech, Systems Neuroscience, Division of Biology (1998)
Ph.D., MIT, Electrical Engineering & Computer Science (1995)
S.M., MIT, Electrical Engineering & Computer Science (1992)
B.S., UC Irvine, Electrical Engineering (1990)
N/A, UCSD, Electrical Engineering (1987)

Patents

Nir Even-Chen, Krishna V. Shenoy. "United States Patent US 10,949,086 B2 Systems and methods for virtual keyboards for high dimensional controllers", Leland Stanford Junior University, Mar 16, 2021
Krishna V. Shenoy, Jaimie M. Henderson, Frank Willett. "United States Patent US 2021/0064135 A1 Systems and methods for decoding intended symbols from neural activity", Leland Stanford Junior University, Mar 4, 2021
Nir Even-Chen, Krishna V. Shenoy, Jonathan C. Kao, Sergey Stavisky. "United States Patent US 10,779,764 B2 Task-outcome error signals and their use in brain-machine interfaces.", Leland Stanford Junior University, Sep 22, 2020
Sergey Stavisky, Krishna V. Shenoy, Jaimie M. Henderson. "United States Patent US 2019/0333505 A1 Systems and methods for decoding intended speech from neuronal activity", Leland Stanford Junior University, Oct 31, 2019
David Sussillo, Jonathan C. Kao, Sergey Stavisky, Krishna V. Shenoy.. "United States Patent US 10,223,634 B2 Multiplicative recurrent neural network for fast and robust intracortical brain machine interface decoders", Leland Stanford Junior University, Mar 5, 2019
Paul Nuyujukian, Jonathan C. Kao, Krishna V. Shenoy.. "United States Patent US 9,373,088 B2 Brain machine interface utilizing a discrete action state decoder in parallel with a continuous decoder for a neural prosthetic device", Leland Stanford Junior University, Jun 21, 2016
Jonathan C. Kao, Chethan Pandarinath, Paul Nuyujukian, Krishna V. Shenoy. "United States Patent US 2015/0245928 A1 Brain-machine interface utilizing interventions to emphasize aspects of neural variance and decode speed and angle", Leland Stanford Junior University, Sep 3, 2015
Jonathan C. Kao, Paul Nuyujukian, Mark M. Churchland, John P. Cunningham, Krishna V. Shenoy. "United States Patent US 9,095,455 B2 Brain machine interfaces incorporating neural population dynamics", Leland Stanford Junior University, Aug 4, 2015
Vikash Gilja, Paul Nuyujukian, Cynthia A. Chestek, John P. Cunningham, Byron M. Yu, Stephen I. Ryu, Krishna V. Shenoy. "United States Patent US 8,792,976 B2 Brain machine interface", Leland Stanford Junior University, Jul 29, 2014
Krishna V. Shenoy, Richard A. Andersen, Sohaib A. Kureshi. "United States Patent US 6,609,017 B1 Processed neural signals and methods for generating and using them", Caltech, Aug 19, 2003
Richard A. Andersen, Bijan Pesaran, Partha Mitra, Daniella Meeker, Krishna V. Shenoy, Shiyan Cao, Joel W. Burdick. "United States Patent WO 03/005934 A3 Cognitive state machine for prosthetic systems", Caltech, Jan 23, 2003
Richard A. Andersen, Bijan Pesaran, Partha Mitra, Daniella Meeker, Krishna V. Shenoy, Shiyan Cao, Joel W. Burdick. "United States Patent US 2003/0023319 A1 Cognitive state machine for prosthetic systems", Caltech, Jun 10, 2001
Krishna Shenoy. "United States Patent US 7,058,445 B2 Decoding of neural signals for movement control", Jun 6, 2001

Current Research and Scholarly Interests

Overview. We conduct neuroscience, neuroengineering and translational research to better understand how the brain controls movement, and to design medical systems to assist people with paralysis (see Fig. 1). These medical systems are referred to as brain-machine interfaces (BMIs), brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) and intra-cortical neural prostheses. We conduct this research as part of our Neural Prosthetic Systems Lab (NPSL), which focuses on more basic systems and computational neuroscience and neuroengineering, and as part of our Neural Prosthetics Translational Lab (NPTL), which focuses on translating these advances to people with paralysis via clinical trials, which I co-direct with Prof. Jaimie Henderson, M.D. in Neurosurgery.

Neuroscience. Our neuroscience research investigates the neural basis of movement preparation and generation using a combination of electro- / opto-physiological (e.g., chronic electrode-array recordings and optogenetic stimulation), behavioral, computational and theoretical techniques (e.g., dynamical systems, dimensionality reduction, single-trial neural analyses). For example, how do neurons in premotor (PMd) and primary motor (M1) cortex plan and guide reaching arm movements, which focuses on more translational systems and computational neuroscience and neuroengineering.

Neuroengineering. Our neuroengineering research investigates the design of high-performance and robust intra-cortical neural prostheses. These systems translate neural activity from the brain into control signals for prosthetic devices, which can assist people with paralysis by restoring lost motor functions. This work includes statistical signal processing, machine learning, and real-time system modeling and implementation. For example, how can we design motor prostheses with performance rivaling the natural arm, or communication prostheses rivaling the throughput of spoken language.

Translational. Our translational research including an FDA pilot clinical trial (BrainGate2) is conducted as part of the NPTL. For example, how do pre-clinical laboratory designs actually work with people with paralysis in real-world settings?

Clinical Trials

BrainGate2: Feasibility Study of an Intracortical Neural Interface System for Persons With Tetraplegia Recruiting
More
The purpose of this study is to obtain preliminary device safety information and demonstrate proof of principle (feasibility) of the ability of people with tetraplegia to control a computer cursor and other assistive devices with their thoughts.
Lead Sponsor
Stanford Investigators
- Krishna Shenoy
- Jaimie Henderson, MD
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Stanford Advisees

Med Scholar Project Advisor
Neal Patel
Doctoral Dissertation Reader (AC)
Iliana Bray, Julia Costacurta, Tucker Fisher, John Kochalka, Avery Krieger, Michael Silvernagel, Javier Weddington, Libby Zhang
Postdoctoral Faculty Sponsor
Laura Driscoll
Doctoral Dissertation Advisor (AC)
Erin Kunz, Shreyas Muralidharan, Jessica Verhein
Doctoral Dissertation Co-Advisor (AC)
Benyamin Meschede-Krasa
Postdoctoral Research Mentor
Lea Duncker
Doctoral (Program)
Chaofei Fan

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Krishna Shenoy

Member, Bio-X

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Stanford Investigators

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2020-21 Courses

2019-20 Courses

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