Philip Sabes, PhD

Title(s)Professor Emeritus, Physiology
SchoolSchool of Medicine
AddressLocation Required, #001
Phone415-502-7372
ORCID ORCID Icon0000-0001-8397-6225 Additional info
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    Philip Sabes is a Professor Emeritus at UCSF and a neurotechnology startup founder.

    Dr. Sabes received his PhD from MIT in machine learning and human motor control. He did his postdoctoral research in neurophysiology at Caltech and the Salk Institute, before joining the UCSF Department of Physiology in 2000. At UCSF, Dr. Sabes' lab studied neural computations for movement control and developed novel tools for interfacing with the primate brain.

    The Sabes Lab studied how sensory and motor experience shapes movement control and the underlying brain circuits. For example, the lab showed that visual and somatosensory feedback are flexibly and adaptively combined within individual computations, enabling more precise limb movement (Sober and Sabes, 2003 & 2005). The lab then showed how this kind of flexible information flow can explain the complex sensorimotor representations seen in the primate cortex (McGuire and Sabes, 2009). They also showed how these representations are continually changing -- incorporating the statistics of recent movements to optimize the next movement (Verstynen and Sabes, 2011; Cheng and Sabes, 2006). The lab demonstrated that non-human primates can learn to use entirely novel, artificial sensory feedback as if it were a natural sensory signal. Specifically, the primates learned to interpret electrical microstimulation as multidimensional feedback about limb position. These results have clear application in delivering artificial sensory feedback via a Brain Machine Interface (Dadarlat, O'Doherty and Sabes, 2015).

    The biggest bottleneck for conducting neuroscience in large brains is our limited ability to record and influence activity patterns, especially deep in the brain. To expand this ability, the lab also built new tools for Brain Interfacing. They developed the first centimeter-scale optogenetic interface in primates which allowed them to study stimulation-induced plasticity between brain areas (Yazdan-Shahmorad et al., 2016 & 2018). The lab also develop the most flexible and scalable approach to-date for electrode-based brain interfacing -- a novel "sewing-machine" approach for robotically placing many micron-scale, thin-film devices to individually specified locations even deep in the brain (Hanson, et al., 2019, in collaboration with the Maharbiz lab at UC Berkeley).

    Dr. Sabes was asked to help build the founding team of Neuralink, and in 2017 he retired from UCSF in order to work full time on this groundbreaking company. While he was at Neuralink, the company refined the sewing-machine approach started in his lab, demonstrating 1000+ channels of robotically-inserted, micron-scale thin-film electrodes with a fully implanted, wireless interface. Since leaving Neuralink, Philip has focused on brain interfacing for Neuromodulation. In 2020 he co-founded Starfish Neuroscience, which is working on non-invasive Neuromodulation as well as advanced implantable brain interfaces. He is currently working on a new startup, Integral Neurotechnologies, with the goal of treating psychiatric and neurological disorders and advancing human neuroscience.
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    A New Scalable Approach to High Bandwidth, Minimally Invasive Neural Recording and Stimulation
    DARPA W911NF-15-2-0054Jun 15, 2015 - Sep 14, 2017
    Role: Principal Investigator
    Restoring proprioception via a cortical prosthesis: A novel learning-based approach
    CDMRP - Spinal Cord Injury Research Program W81XWH-14-1-0510Oct 1, 2014 - Sep 30, 2017
    Role: Principal Investigator
    Unlearning neural systems dysfunction in neuropsychiatric disorders
    DARPA W911NF-14-2-0043Jul 1, 2014 - Jun 3, 2019
    Role: Co-Investigato
    Visuomotor adaptation in reaching
    NIH R01EY015679Sep 1, 2004 - Jun 30, 2013
    Role: Principal Investigator

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    Collapse Publications
    Publications listed below are automatically derived from MEDLINE/PubMed and other sources, which might result in incorrect or missing publications. Researchers can login to make corrections and additions, or contact us for help. to make corrections and additions.
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    Altmetrics Details PMC Citations indicate the number of times the publication was cited by articles in PubMed Central, and the Altmetric score represents citations in news articles and social media. (Note that publications are often cited in additional ways that are not shown here.) Fields are based on how the National Library of Medicine (NLM) classifies the publication's journal and might not represent the specific topic of the publication. Translation tags are based on the publication type and the MeSH terms NLM assigns to the publication. Some publications (especially newer ones and publications not in PubMed) might not yet be assigned Field or Translation tags.) Click a Field or Translation tag to filter the publications.
    1. Rotational dynamics in motor cortex are consistent with a feedback controller. Elife. 2021 11 03; 10. Kalidindi HT, Cross KP, Lillicrap TP, Omrani M, Falotico E, Sabes PN, Scott SH. PMID: 34730516; PMCID: PMC8691841.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 22     Fields:    Translation:Animals
    2. An Open Resource for Non-human Primate Optogenetics. Neuron. 2020 12 23; 108(6):1075-1090.e6. Tremblay S, Acker L, Afraz A, Albaugh DL, Amita H, Andrei AR, Angelucci A, Aschner A, Balan PF, Basso MA, Benvenuti G, Bohlen MO, Caiola MJ, Calcedo R, Cavanaugh J, Chen Y, Chen S, Chernov MM, Clark AM, Dai J, Debes SR, Deisseroth K, Desimone R, Dragoi V, Egger SW, Eldridge MAG, El-Nahal HG, Fabbrini F, Federer F, Fetsch CR, Fortuna MG, Friedman RM, Fujii N, Gail A, Galvan A, Ghosh S, Gieselmann MA, Gulli RA, Hikosaka O, Hosseini EA, Hu X, Hüer J, Inoue KI, Janz R, Jazayeri M, Jiang R, Ju N, Kar K, Klein C, Kohn A, Komatsu M, Maeda K, Martinez-Trujillo JC, Matsumoto M, Maunsell JHR, Mendoza-Halliday D, Monosov IE, Muers RS, Nurminen L, Ortiz-Rios M, O'Shea DJ, Palfi S, Petkov CI, Pojoga S, Rajalingham R, Ramakrishnan C, Remington ED, Revsine C, Roe AW, Sabes PN, Saunders RC, Scherberger H, Schmid MC, Schultz W, Seidemann E, Senova YS, Shadlen MN, Sheinberg DL, Siu C, Smith Y, Solomon SS, Sommer MA, Spudich JL, Stauffer WR, Takada M, Tang S, Thiele A, Treue S, Vanduffel W, Vogels R, Whitmire MP, Wichmann T, Wurtz RH, Xu H, Yazdan-Shahmorad A, Shenoy KV, DiCarlo JJ, Platt ML. PMID: 33080229; PMCID: PMC7962465.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 42     Fields:    Translation:AnimalsCells
    3. Cortical Stimulation Induces Network-Wide Coherence Change In Non-Human Primate Somatosensory Cortex. Annu Int Conf IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc. 2019 Jul; 2019:6446-6449. Bloch JA, Khateeb K, Silversmith DB, O'Doherty JE, Sabes PN, Yazdan-Shahmorad A. PMID: 31947318; PMCID: PMC8523211.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 3     Fields:    Translation:Animals
    4. Convection Enhanced Delivery of Optogenetic Adeno-associated Viral Vector to the Cortex of Rhesus Macaque Under Guidance of Online MRI Images. J Vis Exp. 2019 05 23; (147). Khateeb K, Griggs DJ, Sabes PN, Yazdan-Shahmorad A. PMID: 31180352; PMCID: PMC8720291.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 15     Fields:    Translation:HumansAnimals
    5. The “sewing machine” for minimally invasive neural recording. bioRxiv. 2019; (578542). Timothy L. Hanson, Camilo A. Diaz-Botia, Viktor Kharazia, Michel M Maharbiz, Philip N. Sabes. . View Publication.
    6. Novel techniques for large-scale manipulations of cortical networks in non-human primates. Annu Int Conf IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc. 2018 Jul; 2018:5479-5482. Yazdan-Shahmorad A, Silversmith DB, Sabes PN. PMID: 30441577.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 10     Fields:    Translation:AnimalsCells
    7. Targeted cortical reorganization using optogenetics in non-human primates. Elife. 2018 05 29; 7. Yazdan-Shahmorad A, Silversmith DB, Kharazia V, Sabes PN. PMID: 29809133; PMCID: PMC5986269.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 27     Fields:    Translation:AnimalsCells
    8. Superior arm-movement decoding from cortex with a new, unsupervised-learning algorithm. J Neural Eng. 2018 04; 15(2):026010. Makin JG, O'Doherty JE, Cardoso MMB, Sabes PN. PMID: 29192609.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 7     Fields:    Translation:Animals
    9. Widespread optogenetic expression in macaque cortex obtained with MR-guided, convection enhanced delivery (CED) of AAV vector to the thalamus. J Neurosci Methods. 2018 Jan 01; 293:347-358. Yazdan-Shahmorad A, Tian N, Kharazia V, Samaranch L, Kells A, Bringas J, He J, Bankiewicz K, Sabes PN. PMID: 29042259.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 27     Fields:    Translation:AnimalsCells
    10. A silicon carbide array for electrocorticography and peripheral nerve recording. J Neural Eng. 2017 10; 14(5):056006. Diaz-Botia CA, Luna LE, Neely RM, Chamanzar M, Carraro C, Carmena JM, Sabes PN, Maboudian R, Maharbiz MM. PMID: 28573982.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 18     Fields:    Translation:Animals
    11. Neural Representation and Causal Models in Motor Cortex. J Neurosci. 2017 03 22; 37(12):3413-3424. Chaisanguanthum KS, Shen HH, Sabes PN. PMID: 28219983; PMCID: PMC5373126.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions:    Fields:    Translation:Animals
    12. Encoding and Decoding of Multi-Channel ICMS in Macaque Somatosensory Cortex. IEEE Trans Haptics. 2016 Oct-Dec; 9(4):508-514. Dadarlat MC, Sabes PN. PMID: 27740497.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 1     Fields:    Translation:Animals
    13. A Large-Scale Interface for Optogenetic Stimulation and Recording in Nonhuman Primates. Neuron. 2016 Mar 02; 89(5):927-39. Yazdan-Shahmorad A, Diaz-Botia C, Hanson TL, Kharazia V, Ledochowitsch P, Maharbiz MM, Sabes PN. PMID: 26875625.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 41     Fields:    Translation:AnimalsCells
    14. Learning to Estimate Dynamical State with Probabilistic Population Codes. PLoS Comput Biol. 2015 Nov; 11(11):e1004554. Makin JG, Dichter BK, Sabes PN. PMID: 26540152; PMCID: PMC4634970.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 5     Fields:    Translation:Humans
    15. Strategies for optical control and simultaneous electrical readout of extended cortical circuits. J Neurosci Methods. 2015 Dec 30; 256:220-31. Ledochowitsch P, Yazdan-Shahmorad A, Bouchard KE, Diaz-Botia C, Hanson TL, He JW, Seybold BA, Olivero E, Phillips EA, Blanche TJ, Schreiner CE, Hasenstaub A, Chang EF, Sabes PN, Maharbiz MM. PMID: 26296286; PMCID: PMC6284522.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 22     Fields:    Translation:AnimalsCells
    16. A learning-based approach to artificial sensory feedback leads to optimal integration. Nat Neurosci. 2015 Jan; 18(1):138-44. Dadarlat MC, O'Doherty JE, Sabes PN. PMID: 25420067; PMCID: PMC4282864.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 81     Fields:    Translation:Animals
    17. Motor variability arises from a slow random walk in neural state. J Neurosci. 2014 Sep 03; 34(36):12071-80. Chaisanguanthum KS, Shen HH, Sabes PN. PMID: 25186752; PMCID: PMC4152607.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 38     Fields:    Translation:HumansAnimalsCells
    18. Learning multisensory integration and coordinate transformation via density estimation. PLoS Comput Biol. 2013 Apr; 9(4):e1003035. Makin JG, Fellows MR, Sabes PN. PMID: 23637588; PMCID: PMC3630212.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 23     Fields:    Translation:HumansAnimals
    19. How each movement changes the next: an experimental and theoretical study of fast adaptive priors in reaching. J Neurosci. 2011 Jul 06; 31(27):10050-9. Verstynen T, Sabes PN. PMID: 21734297; PMCID: PMC3148097.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 105     Fields:    Translation:Humans
    20. Heterogeneous representations in the superior parietal lobule are common across reaches to visual and proprioceptive targets. J Neurosci. 2011 May 04; 31(18):6661-73. McGuire LM, Sabes PN. PMID: 21543595; PMCID: PMC3100795.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 53     Fields:    Translation:AnimalsCells
    21. Sensory integration for reaching: models of optimality in the context of behavior and the underlying neural circuits. Prog Brain Res. 2011; 191:195-209. Sabes PN. PMID: 21741553; PMCID: PMC3361512.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 28     Fields:    Translation:HumansCells
    22. Sensory transformations and the use of multiple reference frames for reach planning. Nat Neurosci. 2009 Aug; 12(8):1056-61. McGuire LM, Sabes PN. PMID: 19597495; PMCID: PMC2749235.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 85     Fields:    Translation:Humans
    23. Visual-shift adaptation is composed of separable sensory and task-dependent effects. J Neurophysiol. 2007 Nov; 98(5):2827-41. Simani MC, McGuire LM, Sabes PN. PMID: 17728389; PMCID: PMC2536598.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 51     Fields:    Translation:HumansCells
    24. Calibration of visually guided reaching is driven by error-corrective learning and internal dynamics. J Neurophysiol. 2007 Apr; 97(4):3057-69. Cheng S, Sabes PN. PMID: 17202230; PMCID: PMC2536620.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 52     Fields:    Translation:Humans
    25. Modeling sensorimotor learning with linear dynamical systems. Neural Comput. 2006 Apr; 18(4):760-93. Cheng S, Sabes PN. PMID: 16494690; PMCID: PMC2536592.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 69     Fields:    Translation:Humans
    26. Flexible strategies for sensory integration during motor planning. Nat Neurosci. 2005 Apr; 8(4):490-7. Sober SJ, Sabes PN. PMID: 15793578; PMCID: PMC2538489.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 188     Fields:    Translation:Humans
    27. Multisensory integration during motor planning. J Neurosci. 2003 Aug 06; 23(18):6982-92. Sober SJ, Sabes PN. PMID: 12904459; PMCID: PMC6740676.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 173     Fields:    Translation:HumansCTClinical Trials
    28. Parietal representation of object-based saccades. J Neurophysiol. 2002 Oct; 88(4):1815-29. Sabes PN, Breznen B, Andersen RA. PMID: 12364508.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 13     Fields:    Translation:AnimalsCells
    29. The planning and control of reaching movements. Curr Opin Neurobiol. 2000 Dec; 10(6):740-6. Sabes PN. PMID: 11240283.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 61     Fields:    Translation:HumansAnimals
    30. The role of inertial sensitivity in motor planning. J Neurosci. 1998 Aug 01; 18(15):5948-57. Sabes PN, Jordan MI, Wolpert DM. PMID: 9671681; PMCID: PMC6793054.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 35     Fields:    Translation:HumansCTClinical Trials
    31. Obstacle avoidance and a perturbation sensitivity model for motor planning. J Neurosci. 1997 Sep 15; 17(18):7119-28. Sabes PN, Jordan MI. PMID: 9278546; PMCID: PMC6573278.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 40     Fields:    Translation:Humans
    32. New icosahedral phases in Ti-transition-metal alloys. Phys Rev B Condens Matter. 1988 Oct 15; 38(11):7810-7813. Kelton KF, Gibbons PC, Sabes PN. PMID: 9945513.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions:
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