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Polina Anikeeva joined the department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences and the McGovern Institute as an associate investigator in 2018 and is a professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering. She obtained her PhD from MIT in 2009 and was awarded tenure in 2017. Anikeeva is a recipient of the NSF CAREER grant, DARPA Young Faculty Award, and several fellowships. Her research focuses on designing, synthesizing, and fabricating optoelectronic magnetic devices to advance fundamental understanding and treatment of nervous system disorders. Anikeeva’s lab creates probes that are compatible with delicate neural tissues and match the signaling complexity of neural circuits. Additionally, her group develops magnetic nanoparticles for non-invasive neural stimulation, aiming to understand, diagnose, and treat brain disorders, including depression, Parkinson’s disease, and spinal cord injuries. Furthermore, Anikeeva collaborates with the Bioelectronics group to create multifunctional fibers that can deliver electrical, optical, and chemical signals to specific neurons. These flexible probes are capable of recording neural activity and delivering genes to the brain and spinal cord. Anikeeva investigates methods for stimulating neurons wirelessly with minimal invasiveness by using magnetic fields to activate nanoparticles injected into specific regions of the nervous system, providing insights into brain circuits related to motivation, anxiety, and social interactions in the context of recovery from injury.