About

Polina Anikeeva joined the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences and the McGovern Institute at MIT as an associate investigator in 2018 and is also a professor in the Department of Material Sciences and Engineering. She obtained her PhD at MIT in 2009 and was awarded tenure in 2017. Her research focuses on designing, synthesizing, and fabricating optoelectronic and magnetic devices to advance the understanding and treatment of disorders of the nervous system. Her lab develops probes compatible with delicate neural tissue that match the signaling complexity of neural circuits, as well as magnetic nanoparticles for non-invasive neural stimulation. Her ultimate goal is to better understand, diagnose, and treat brain disorders such as depression, Parkinson’s disease, and spinal cord injury. She and her Bioelectronics group develop multifunctional fibers capable of delivering electrical, optical, and chemical signals to specific neurons, which can also record neural activity and deliver genes into the brain and spinal cord. Additionally, she investigates wireless and minimally invasive neural stimulation using magnetic fields to activate nanoparticles injected into specific regions of the nervous system. Her work applies these tools to study brain circuits related to motivation, anxiety, social interactions, and spinal circuits in the context of recovery following injury.

Research topics

• Computer Science
• Biology
• Neuroscience
• Nanotechnology
• Materials science
• Chemistry
• Acoustics
• Physics
• Food science
• Composite material
• Mathematics

Selected publications

• Accessing the viscera: Technologies for interoception research

  Current Opinion in Neurobiology · 2025-05-17 · 2 citations

  reviewOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Magnetoelectric nanodiscs diminish motor deficits in a model of Parkinson's disease

  bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) · 2025-06-08

  preprintOpen access

  Magnetoelectric nanodiscs (MENDs) offer a wireless, minimally invasive route to neuromodulation by converting weak magnetic fields into electric polarization, but their therapeutic applications have remained unrealized. Here, we report the therapeutic development of MENDs for deep brain stimulation (DBS) in the subthalamic nucleus (STN) to alleviate motor deficits in a mouse model of Parkinson's disease. To quantitatively assess therapeutic outcomes, we introduce GaitPattern, a computational pipeline that extracts DBS-induced alterations in salient gait features. Using GaitPattern, we demonstrate that MEND-mediated STN DBS induces motor improvements with precision comparable to clinical electrode-based DBS, while minimizing inflammatory responses associated with the implanted hardware. Notably, MEND-mediated DBS reduces oxidative stress in the brain, a key contributor to neurodegeneration. These findings position MEND-mediated STN DBS as an effective and minimally invasive neuromodulation strategy.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Multifunctional bioelectronics for brain–body circuits

  Nature Reviews Bioengineering · 2025-03-27 · 23 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• A gut sense for a microbial pattern regulates feeding

  Nature · 2025-07-23 · 27 citations

  articleOpen access

  To coexist with its resident microorganisms, the host must have a sense to adjust its behaviour in response to them. In the intestine, a sense for nutrients transduced to the brain through neuroepithelial circuits guides appetitive choices1–5. However, a sense that allows the host to respond in real time to stimuli arising from resident gut microorganisms remains to be uncovered. Here we show that in the mouse colon, the ubiquitous microbial pattern flagellin—a unifying feature across phyla6—stimulates Toll-like receptor 5 (TLR5) in peptide YY (PYY)-labelled colonic neuropod cells. This stimulation leads to PYY release onto NPY2R vagal nodose neurons to regulate feeding. Mice lacking TLR5 in these cells eat more and gain more weight than controls. We found that flagellin does not act on the nerve directly. Instead, flagellin stimulates neuropod cells from the colonic lumen to reduce feeding through a gut–brain sensory neural circuit. Moreover, flagellin reduces feeding independent of immune responses, metabolic changes or the presence of gut microbiota. This sense enables the host to adjust its behaviour in response to a molecular pattern from its resident microorganisms. We call this sense at the interface of the biota and the brain the neurobiotic sense7. A study reveals a gut–brain sensory pathway through which the microbial component flagellin activates neuropod cells in the colon to signal the brain and reduce feeding in mice.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Magnetoelectric nanodiscs enable wireless transgene-free neuromodulation

  Nature Nanotechnology · 2024-10-11 · 63 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Abstract Deep brain stimulation with implanted electrodes has transformed neuroscience studies and treatment of neurological and psychiatric conditions. Discovering less invasive alternatives to deep brain stimulation could expand its clinical and research applications. Nanomaterial-mediated transduction of magnetic fields into electric potentials has been explored as a means for remote neuromodulation. Here we synthesize magnetoelectric nanodiscs (MENDs) with a core–double-shell Fe 3 O 4 –CoFe 2 O 4 –BaTiO 3 architecture (250 nm diameter and 50 nm thickness) with efficient magnetoelectric coupling. We find robust responses to magnetic field stimulation in neurons decorated with MENDs at a density of 1 µg mm −2 despite individual-particle potentials below the neuronal excitation threshold. We propose a model for repetitive subthreshold depolarization that, combined with cable theory, supports our observations in vitro and informs magnetoelectric stimulation in vivo. Injected into the ventral tegmental area or the subthalamic nucleus of genetically intact mice at concentrations of 1 mg ml −1 , MENDs enable remote control of reward or motor behaviours, respectively. These findings set the stage for mechanistic optimization of magnetoelectric neuromodulation towards applications in neuroscience research.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Fiber-based Probes for Electrophysiology, Photometry, Optical and Electrical Stimulation, Drug Delivery, and Fast-Scan Cyclic Voltammetry In Vivo

  bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) · 2024-06-08 · 1 citations

  preprintOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

  Recording and modulation of neuronal activity enables the study of brain function in health and disease. While translational neuroscience relies on electrical recording and modulation techniques, mechanistic studies in rodent models leverage genetic precision of optical methods, such as optogenetics and imaging of fluorescent indicators. In addition to electrical signal transduction, neurons produce and receive diverse chemical signals which motivate tools to probe and modulate neurochemistry. Although the past decade has delivered a wealth of technologies for electrophysiology, optogenetics, chemical sensing, and optical recording, combining these modalities within a single platform remains challenging. This work leverages materials selection and convergence fiber drawing to permit neural recording, electrical stimulation, optogenetics, fiber photometry, drug and gene delivery, and voltammetric recording of neurotransmitters within individual fibers. Composed of polymers and non-magnetic carbon-based conductors, these fibers are compatible with magnetic resonance imaging, enabling concurrent stimulation and whole-brain monitoring. Their utility is demonstrated in studies of the mesolimbic reward pathway by simultaneously interfacing with the ventral tegmental area and nucleus accumbens in mice and characterizing the neurophysiological effects of a stimulant drug. This study highlights the potential of these fibers to probe electrical, optical, and chemical signaling across multiple brain regions in both mechanistic and translational studies.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Magnetically Actuated Fiber‐Based Soft Robots

  Advanced Materials · 2023-06-03 · 109 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

  Broad adoption of magnetic soft robotics is hampered by the sophisticated field paradigms for their manipulation and the complexities in controlling multiple devices. Furthermore, high-throughput fabrication of such devices across spatial scales remains challenging. Here, advances in fiber-based actuators and magnetic elastomer composites are leveraged to create 3D magnetic soft robots controlled by unidirectional fields. Thermally drawn elastomeric fibers are instrumented with a magnetic composite synthesized to withstand strains exceeding 600%. A combination of strain and magnetization engineering in these fibers enables programming of 3D robots capable of crawling or walking in magnetic fields orthogonal to the plane of motion. Magnetic robots act as cargo carriers, and multiple robots can be controlled simultaneously and in opposing directions using a single stationary electromagnet. The scalable approach to fabrication and control of magnetic soft robots invites their future applications in constrained environments where complex fields cannot be readily deployed.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Multifunctional microelectronic fibers enable wireless modulation of gut and brain neural circuits

  Nature Biotechnology · 2023 · 134 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  • Computer Science
  • Neuroscience
  • Computer Science

  Progress in understanding brain-viscera interoceptive signaling is hindered by a dearth of implantable devices suitable for probing both brain and peripheral organ neurophysiology during behavior. Here we describe multifunctional neural interfaces that combine the scalability and mechanical versatility of thermally drawn polymer-based fibers with the sophistication of microelectronic chips for organs as diverse as the brain and the gut. Our approach uses meters-long continuous fibers that can integrate light sources, electrodes, thermal sensors and microfluidic channels in a miniature footprint. Paired with custom-fabricated control modules, the fibers wirelessly deliver light for optogenetics and transfer data for physiological recording. We validate this technology by modulating the mesolimbic reward pathway in the mouse brain. We then apply the fibers in the anatomically challenging intestinal lumen and demonstrate wireless control of sensory epithelial cells that guide feeding behaviors. Finally, we show that optogenetic stimulation of vagal afferents from the intestinal lumen is sufficient to evoke a reward phenotype in untethered mice.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Fatigue-resistant hydrogel optical fibers enable peripheral nerve optogenetics during locomotion

  Nature Methods · 2023-10-19 · 93 citations

  articleOpen access
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Magnetoelectric Nanodiscs Enable Wireless Transgene-Free Neuromodulation

  bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) · 2023-12-25 · 10 citations

  preprintOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

  Abstract Deep-brain stimulation (DBS) with implanted electrodes revolutionized treatment of movement disorders and empowered neuroscience studies. Identifying less invasive alternatives to DBS may further extend its clinical and research applications. Nanomaterial-mediated transduction of magnetic fields into electric potentials offers an alternative to invasive DBS. Here, we synthesize magnetoelectric nanodiscs (MENDs) with a core-double shell Fe 3 O 4 -CoFe 2 O 4 -BaTiO 3 architecture with efficient magnetoelectric coupling. We find robust responses to magnetic field stimulation in neurons decorated with MENDs at a density of 1 µg/mm 2 despite individual-particle potentials below the neuronal excitation threshold. We propose a model for repetitive subthreshold depolarization, which combined with cable theory, corroborates our findings in vitro and informs magnetoelectric stimulation in vivo. MENDs injected into the ventral tegmental area of genetically intact mice at concentrations of 1 mg/mL enable remote control of reward behavior, setting the stage for mechanistic optimization of magnetoelectric neuromodulation and inspiring its future applications in fundamental and translational neuroscience.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• Fiber Inspired Neural Probes for the Multifunctional Dynamic Brain Mapping

  NIH · $1.7M · 2015–2019

• Fusion of nanomagnetic and viral tools to interrogate brain-body circuits

  NIH · $5.3M · 2021–2026

• CAREER: Optoelectronic neural scaffolds: materials platform for investigation and control of neuronal activity and development

  NSF · $450k · 2013–2018

• Multi-Site Non-Invasive Magnetothermal Excitation and Inhibition of Deep Brain Structures

  NIH · $3.6M · 2016–2021

Frequent coauthors

• Anthony Tabet

  Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  99 shared

• Atharva Sahasrabudhe

  Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  78 shared

• Florian Koehler

  Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  77 shared

• Marc‐Joseph Antonini

  Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  75 shared

• Dekel Rosenfeld

  Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  69 shared

• Georgios Varnavides

  Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

  67 shared

• Yoel Fink

  Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  63 shared

• Po‐Han Chiang

  National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University

  61 shared

Labs

• Brain and Cognitive SciencesPI

Awards & honors

• NSF CAREER grant
• DARPA Young Faculty Award