abante lab @ ub

Marc Delgado joins the lab as a VISI-ON-BRAIN PhD student

Thu, 27 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The PhD position we advertised for the VISI-ON-BRAIN MSCA doctoral network has been filled: Marc Delgado will join the lab in January 2027 to work on multimodal deep learning for neurodevelopmental modelling 🎉 Welcome Marc!

ARGformer published in Bioinformatics

Fri, 21 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

ARGformer, our transformer model that learns directly from leaf-to-root paths in ancestral recombination graphs, is now out in Bioinformatics 🎉 The work was led by David Bonet, a PhD student in the lab co-supervised with Alexander G. Ioannidis (Stanford University), together with Cole Shanks and Marçal Comajoan Cara. It appears in the ECCB 2026 proceedings issue and will be presented at the conference. Congratulations David!

MINDAI project funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science

Mon, 20 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Our project MINDAI has been awarded funding under the Proyectos de Generación de Conocimiento 2025 call (AEI). Over the next four years, we will develop AI tools for multimodal single-cell data integration and build a comprehensive atlas of the mouse cortex.

Lab at FENS 2026: DECAG and NeuroPSM

Fri, 10 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Our lab is at FENS 2026 this week! Caterina Fuses presents DECAG, a deep generative model for inferring somatic CAG-repeat expansion from single-cell RNA-seq in Huntington’s disease, and Berta Ros & David Bonet present NeuroPSM, a transformer-based model for predicting neural responses to optogenetic photostimulation. Proud of both teams!

New PhD Position: VISI-ON-BRAIN MSCA Doctoral Network

Mon, 11 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

We are hiring a PhD student at the Universitat de Barcelona (VISI-ON-BRAIN MSCA network) 🧠 to develop AI models for brain data integration. Based in Barcelona. Apply by July 31, 2026: https://lnkd.in/gGMx9xSq

Paper accepted at ECCB 2026: ARGformer

Mon, 11 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The paper “ARGformer: learning on ancestral recombination graphs with transformers” by David Bonet (lab) has been accepted for presentation at ECCB 2026 🎉 and will appear in Bioinformatics (OUP). Congratulations David!

Riccardo's PhD secondment

Fri, 01 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Riccardo Smeriglio, a PhD student from Politecnico di Torino (Smilies lab), has started a PhD secondment in our lab in April 2026. He will be working on admixture mapping analysis of UK Biobank and All of Us data. Welcome, Riccardo!

Gabriel Peytral joins as an ERASMUS+ secondment

Wed, 01 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Gabriel Peytral is joining our lab as part of an ERASMUS+ secondment until August. He will participate in a collaboration with Jordi Bonaventura’s lab, working on the integration of photometry and behavior data. Welcome, Gabriel!

Launch of VISI-ON-BRAIN

Sun, 01 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

We’re delighted to announce the launch of VISI-ON-BRAIN, a €4.5 million Horizon Europe doctoral network. This network aims to advance human-relevant neuroscience tools beyond animal models. In our case, we will soon be looking for a PhD candidate to work on Multimodal Deep Learning for Neurodevelopmental Modelling!

ICASSP 2026 paper accepted

Thu, 15 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Our paper on the integration of single-cell calcium imaging data has been accepted to ICASSP 2026, which will take place this year in Barcelona. This work was brilliantly led by Berta Ros, a PhD student in our lab.

PMLR paper on Huntington’s disease onset

Thu, 01 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Our PMLR paper on the age of onset of Huntington’s disease was published in PMLR in December. Here are a few articles on this work: UB News, UB homepage, Institut de Neurosciences. Social posts: LinkedIn, X, Bluesky; and videos by first author Caterina Fuses: Instagram, YouTube, TikTok.

Welcome David Bonet

Mon, 01 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

We welcome David Bonet, who joins the lab as a PhD student co-supervised by Alex Ioannidis (Stanford University)!

Welcome David García and Zinnera Tariq

Wed, 01 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

We are excited to welcome David García (undergraduate intern) and Zinnera Tariq (master’s thesis student) to our lab for the fall semester!

Berta Ros receives FI-STEP fellowship

Mon, 01 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Congratulations to Berta Ros, a recent master’s student in our lab, for receiving the FI-STEP fellowship to pursue her PhD. Berta will develop deep generative models for multimodal analysis of transcriptomic and functional data, with a focus on applications to neurodegenerative disease research such as HD.

MLCB 2025 presentation accepted

Fri, 01 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Our paper on identifying genetic modifiers in Huntington’s disease using a multimodal phenotype prediction model has been accepted for presentation at MLCB 2025. The work will be published in PMLR later this year, and Caterina F. will present our findings at the conference.

MSCA Doctoral Network grant awarded

Tue, 01 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Our lab, in collaboration with the Canals, del Toro, and Giralt labs at the Universitat de Barcelona, along with other European institutions, has been awarded a prestigious MSCA Doctoral Network grant. This funding will support cutting-edge research and training opportunities for the next generation of scientists at the intersection of neuroscience and machine learning.