About me

Hi, I'm Shawn! I've spent the last 15+ years doing neuroscience in one form or another: pipetting at the bench, training animals on behavioral tasks, and recording and analyzing neural activity. Along the way I discovered that my favorite part of research is the tinkering. I enjoy building the rigs, tools, and analysis pipelines that make experiments actually work.

These days I put that experience to use by helping other researchers design behavioral setups or wrangle data. I also love contributing to open-source neuroscience tools. I'm based in Singapore but work with labs and companies everywhere, remotely or in person. If you're stuck on a technical problem or just want to chat about an idea, I'd love to hear from you!

What I can do

  • Custom Platform Development

    Animal behavior, neural activity recordings.

  • Neuro Data Analysis

    Behavioral metrics, physiological measures, neural activity.

  • Support and Documentation

    Open-source tools for neuroscience.

  • Others

    Workshops, specialized training.

Daniel lewis
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Daniel lewis

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Resume

Current Experience

  1. Consultant

    Client - NeuroGEARS Ltd Mar 2024 - Present

    • Create and update documentation, articles, and tutorials to enhance user accessibility and engagement for Bonsai, an open-source software for constructing interactive systems for neuroscience experiments.


    • Provide technical support for Bonsai users on community forums, helping them troubleshoot issues and optimize their experimental setups.


    • Contribute device tutorials for Harp, a cross-institutional collaboration to develop interoperability standards for neuroscience hardware and software.


    Client - Independent Research Labs, University of California San Diego Jan 2025 - Mar 2026

    • Develop and maintain bespoke end-to-end hardware and software solutions for neuroscience experiments for multiple labs, accelerating research timelines and enhancing experimental capabilities.


    • Design modular Bonsai workflows to integrate diverse hardware components (cameras, sensors, stimulation devices) with easy to use graphical user interfaces, real-time experimental control, and synchronized data logging capabilities.


    • Engineer data analysis pipelines by integrating machine learning frameworks with custom analysis scripts, featuring comprehensive testing, validation and documentation.

Past Experience

  1. Postdoctoral Associate

    The Scripps Research Institute 2019-2023

    • Conducted research into the neural circuits underlying olfaction-driven social behavior in mice.


    • Developed and implemented signal processing and data analysis methods for physiological signals (respiration, pupil dilation) to study state-dependent modulation of arousal.


    • Setup and optimized machine learning pipelines for pose estimation and behavioral motif extraction to study postural and facial responses to olfactory stimuli.


    • Performed stereotaxic surgery, craniotomy, virus injections, fiber photometry, and optogenetics to monitor and manipulate neural activity, investigating the neural mechanisms underlying sexual arousal.


    • Designed and consulted on custom hardware/software setups for behavior, contributing to collaborative projects and high impact publications.


  2. PhD Student and Postdoctoral Fellow

    DUKE-NUS Medical School 2011-2019

    • Conducted research into the mechanisms underlying neuropsychiatric disorders using environmental, cellular and transgenic mice models.


    • Performed PCR, molecular cloning, HEK293 and neuronal cell culture, transient transfection, shRNA, lentivirus and AAV production to study disease mechanisms using transgene knockdown and over-expression.


    • Utilized western blot, qPCR, confocal microscopy, immunohistochemstry, in-situ hybridization and electrophysiology to quantify disease phenotypes.


    • Characterized behavioral abnormalities in mice models using a wide panel of behavioral assays targeting sensory and motor function, cognition, memory, social behaviors and neuropsychiatric phenotypes (anxiety/depression/schizophrenia/repetitive behaviors).


    • Published 2 first author and 3 collaborative publications in high impact journals and presented at international neuroscience conferences.

Education

  1. PhD in Neuroscience

    NUS Graduate School for Integrative Sciences and Engineering 2011 — 2017

  2. BSSc (Honors) in Psychology

    National University of Singapore 2007-2011

Awards

  1. Dorris Neuroscience Award

    The Scripps Research Institute 2021/2023

  2. Khoo Postdoctoral Fellowship Award

    Duke-NUS Medical School 2017

  3. NUS Graduate School For Integrative Sciences and Engineering Scholarship

    National University of Singapore 2011

  4. Dean's List

    National University of Singapore 2008/2009

Teaching/Science Outreach

  1. Organizer and Chairman for NGSS student symposium.

    NUS Graduate School for Integrative Sciences and Engineering 2012-2013

  2. Teaching assistant for Singapore Technological Endowment Program(STEP)/NUS Sunburst Brain Camp

    National University of Singapore 2012-2013

  3. Teaching assistant for PL3253: Psychobiological Perspective of Emotions

    National University of Singapore 2012

  4. Postgraduate mentor for Brain Book (a collaborative effort on a neuroscience book for adolescents)

    National University of Singapore 2012

Publications

Publications

  1. Vagal sensory neurons mediate the Bezold–Jarisch reflex and induce syncope

    Nature 623, 387–396 (2023)

    Jonathan W Lovelace, Jingrui Ma, Saurabh Yadav, Karishma Chhabria, Hanbing Shen, Zhengyuan Pang, Tianbo Qi, Ruchi Sehgal, Yunxiao Zhang, Tushar Bali, Thomas Vaissiere, Shawn Tan, Yuejia Liu, Gavin Rumbaugh, Li Ye, David Kleinfeld, Carsen Stringer, Vineet Augustine Link

  2. Bespoke behavior: mechanisms that modulate pheromone-triggered behavior

    Current Opinion in Neurobiology 64, 143-150 (2020)

    Shawn Tan, Lisa Stowers Link

  3. Prenatal selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) exposure induces working memory and social recognition deficits by disrupting inhibitory synaptic networks in male mice

    Molecular Brain 12(1), 29 (2019)

    Weonjin Yu, Yi-Chun Yen, Young-Hwan Lee, Shawn Tan, Yixin Xiao, Hidayat Lokman, Audrey Khoo Tze Ting, Hasini Ganegala, Taejoon Kwon, Won-Kyung Ho, Hyunsoo Shawn Je Link

  4. Postnatal TrkB ablation in corticolimbic interneurons induces social dominance in male mice

    Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 115(42), E9909-E9915 (2018)

    Shawn Tan, Yixin Xiao, Henry H Yin, Albert I Chen, Tuck Wah Soong, Hyunsoo Shawn Je Link

  5. Maternal separation does not produce a significant behavioral change in mice

    Experimental Neurobiology 26(6), 390-398 (2017)

    Shawn Tan, Hin San Ho, Anna Yoonsu Song, Joey Low, Hyunsoo Shawn Je Link

  6. Direct induction and functional maturation of forebrain GABAergic neurons from human pluripotent stem cells

    Cell reports 16(7), 1942-1953 (2016)

    Alfred Xuyang Sun, Qiang Yuan, Shawn Tan, Yixin Xiao, Danlei Wang, Audrey Tze Ting Khoo, Levena Sani, Hoang-Dai Tran, Paul Kim, Yong Seng Chiew, Kea Joo Lee, Yi-Chun Yen, Huck Hui Ng, Bing Lim, Hyunsoo Shawn Je Link

  7. Regulation of brain-derived neurotrophic factor exocytosis and gamma-aminobutyric acidergic interneuron synapse by the schizophrenia susceptibility gene dysbindin-1

    Biological Psychiatry 80(4), 312-322 (2016)

    Qiang Yuan, Feng Yang, Yixin Xiao, Shawn Tan, Nilofer Husain, Ming Ren, Zhonghua Hu, Keri Martinowich, Julia S Ng, Paul J Kim, Weiping Han, Koh-ichi Nagata, Daniel R Weinberger, Hyunsoo Shawn Je Link

Skills

Technical Skills

  • System Neuroscience

    Confocal Microscopy, Histology, Fiber Photometry, Fluorescence Immunohistochemstry, Functional Ultrasound Imaging, In-situ Hybridization, In-vivo electrophysiology (single unit recording/LFP), Mice Behavioural Assays, Optogenetics, Stereotaxic Surgery.

  • Molecular Neuroscience

    AAV/Lentivirus Production, Genotyping, Knockdown and Over-expression Assays, Mammalian Cell Culture (HEK293T and Mouse Primary Neurons), Molecular Cloning, Nucleic Acid Extraction, Patch Clamp Electrophysiology, PCR, qPCR, Western Blot.

  • Data Science

    DeepLabCut, Graphpad Prism, Jupyter Notebook, Matplotlib, Moseq, Python, Pandas, Scikit-learn, Scipy, Seaborn, Numpy.

  • Office Tools

    Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop, Github, Discord, Google Suite, Microsoft Office (Excel, Onenote, Outlook, Powerpoint, Word), Slack, Zoom.

Courses and Certifications

  1. Foundational C# Certification

    Microsoft/FreeCodeCamp (2026)

    ~ 50 hour course covering C# fundamentals

  2. Introduction to Git and Github

    Coursera (Google) (2024)

    ~ 30 hour course covering version control, working with local and remote repositories, and best practices for online collaborations.

  3. Deep Learning in Neuroscience

    Neuromatch Academy (2021)

    ~ 120 hour intensive, interactive live course covering core topics in deep learning, including optimization, regularization, generative models, unsupervised and reinforcement learning using Pytorch.

  4. Applied Data Science with Python Specialization

    Coursera (University of Michigan) (2021)

    ~ 160 hour course covering data processing, data visualization, statistical analysis and machine learning using Pandas, Matplotlib, Scikit-learn, NLTK and NetworkX pythons libraries.

  5. Fundamentals of Computing Specialization

    Coursera (Rice University) (2018)

    ~ 80 hour course building on Python fundamentals and covering interactive programming, algorithimic thinking and object-oriented programming.

  6. Python for Everybody Specialization

    Coursera (University of Michigan) (2018)

    ~ 80 hour course covering fundamental Python programming concepts such as functions, data structures, and accessing networked application programming interfaces.

Portfolio