Johan Winnubst

Dr. Johan Winnubst is E11 Bio’s Co-founder and Lead Scientist of Neuroanatomy.

With his experience in collecting and analyzing large-scale anatomy data he aims to bridge the gap between advanced optics, computer vision, and ML techniques to make next-generation brain circuit mapping a reality. During his PhD, Johan studied the role of spontaneous activity in shaping synaptic connectivity during development and discovered a novel ‘out-of-sync lose-your-link’ wiring-rule (Winnubst et al., Neuron, 2015). During his Postdocoral research, he was the principal scientist on the Janelia MouseLight project that developed a sub-micron, whole-brain imaging system that led to the generation of a database of over 1000 fully reconstructed neurons, the largest of its kind at the time (Winnubst et al., Cell, 2019). He later developed a novel VR imaging system in the lab of Nelson Spruston and studied changes in hippocampal network activity as mice learned a complex generalization task (Sun*, Winnubst* et al., Nature, 2025). By comparing these changes to ones observed in ML models his team discovered a novel normative model of hippocampal learning as well as provided a template for the discovery of new neuro-inspired AI models.

In his spare time Johan loves to learn about history, mythology and space travel, as well as going on long walks with his Border Collie Millie.