Principal Investigator
Instructor of Anesthesiology
Research studies actively involved in: P-DROWS-E, CET-REM, CLASS-D
Mehdi Kafashan is an Instructor of Anesthesiology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Mehdi’s research focuses on studying the role of dynamics and synaptic plasticity in brain networks and their impact on brain function and behavior. Currently, he investigates sleep structure in patients with mental health disorders. Mehdi is a Co-Leader for the Technology Working Group in the Center for Biological Rhythms and Sleep (COBRAS). Prior to that, Mehdi studied sensory information processing in the brain to link neural data and rodent behavior as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Harvard Medicine School. He obtained his Ph.D. in Electrical and Systems Engineering from Washington University in St Louis, where he developed several techniques to elucidate dynamics of neural circuits underlying cognition and consciousness utilizing tools from machine learning, dynamical systems theory, and Bayesian statistics. Mehdi has been awarded two research fellowships and has published in more than twenty journals and peer-reviewed conferences. His research interests include computational and clinical neuroscience, statistical signal processing, and neural engineering.