Sunil Gandhi

About Sunil Gandhi

Dr. Gandhi has focused his scientific career on developing cell technology to tap the brain’s latent capacity to rewire itself. He received his graduate training with Charles Stevens, MD, PhD, at the Salk Institute where he studied the fundamental mechanisms of neurotransmitter release. As a postdoctoral fellow in Michael Stryker’s lab at UCSF, he made the exciting discovery that young interneurons implanted in older brains induced a rejuvenating period of brain plasticity. With the support of a New Innovator Award from the NIH Director, a Searle Scholars Award, and other prestigious grants, he has pioneered the use of embryonic inhibitory neuron transplantation to rewire the adult visual system. His lab discovered that transplanted inhibitory neurons successfully integrate into the circuitry of the adult host brain and correct developmental miswiring of the visual system in mice. More recently, the group has developed new methods for whole brain visualization using new brain clearing methods and light sheet microscopy. To disseminate these technologies to the neuroscience community, he has co-founded a BRAIN Initiative supported startup company Translucence Biosystems. The company successfully partnered with Zeiss Microscopy to develop and co-market a new microscopy system for higher resolution, faster light sheet microscopy of large, cleared samples.

Experience

1. Co-founder

   Translucence Biosystems

   Jan 2018 — Present · Irvine, CA, US

   Enabling the dimensional shift from 2D to 3D tissue histology, developing tissue clearing methods, assays, imaging technology, machine learning-enabled data processing tools and novel methods for big data statistical analysis of spatial anatomy.

Education

• Stanford University

  Bachelor of Science - BS, Neurosciences

  1994 — 1998

• UC San Diego

  Ph.D., Neurosciences

  1998 — 2003

• University of California, San Francisco

  Postdoctoral Fellow, Physiology Department, Dr. Michael Stryker

  2003 — 2009