Computational Neuroscience

Matthew
Tarchick

Ph.D. · Integrated Bioscience · University of Akron → UC Berkeley

Is a neuron a computer? Can we predict its behavior from the genes it expresses and the currents it carries?

If the model is built from the biology up, I think we can. That means starting with what the cell actually expresses: which ion channels, in what proportions, constrained by transcriptomics and physiology together.

If the model actually behaves like the tissue, then we can ask the harder question: what does failure look like? When the eye degenerates, when the circuit breaks down, can the model tell us where it went wrong and what would fix it?

That's what I'm building toward.

Analysis Tools
bioRxiv · 2026 · in submission
Adapting a two-photon scanning microscope for simultaneous single photon imaging of an infrared dopamine sensor
Tarchick MJ, Caval-Holme F, Smith B, Mocellin P, Landry M, Komatsu N, Feller MB
Experimental Eye Research · 2024
Photoreceptor deficits appear at eye opening in Rs2 mutant mouse models of X-linked retinoschisis
Tarchick MJ, Beight C, Bonezzi PB, Peachey NS, Renna JM
Journal of General Physiology · 2023
Light drives the developmental progression of outer retinal function
Bonezzi PJ, Tarchick MJ, Moore BM
Hardware Tools
Journal of Physiology · 2020
Ex vivo electroretinograms made easy: performing ERGs using 3D printed components
Bonezzi PJ, Tarchick MJ, Renna JM
Modeling Tools
Featured Publications
Scientific Reports · 2023
Modeling cholinergic retinal waves: starburst amacrine cells shape wave generation, propagation, and direction bias
Tarchick MJ, Clute DA, Renna JM
Journal of Physiology · 2020
Ex vivo electroretinograms made easy: performing ERGs using 3D printed components
Bonezzi PJ, Tarchick MJ, Renna JM