Hi, and welcome to my website.

I am Kris, currently a postdoctoral researcher working with Ken Miller at the Center for Theoretical Neuroscience, Zuckerman Institute, Columbia University. Previously, I completed my PhD in the lab of Julijana Gjorgjieva at the Technical University of Munich and the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research in Germany.

I use mathematical and computational approaches to understand how brain function emerges from the interplay among cell type diversity, circuit structure, network dynamics, and synaptic plasticity.

Selected topics I have worked on include:

• Investigating how recurrent cortical circuits with diverse cell types implement context-dependent processing using data-driven approaches (Wu et al., 2026 bioRxiv).
• Studying how short-term synaptic plasticity shapes network dynamics and computations in recurrent circuits (Wu and Zenke, 2021 eLife; Waitzmann*, Wu*, Gjorgjieva, 2024 PNAS).
• Studying how homeostatic mechanisms enable neural circuits to maintain stable and robust function under sensory perturbations (Wu et al., 2020 PNAS).

With advances in neuroscience technologies, I am increasingly interested in using data-driven approaches and AI tools to study how interactions across brain regions give rise to perception, cognition, and behavior.

I am always happy to discuss science. Please feel free to reach out anytime.

News

Mar 2026: Poster presentation at Cosyne in Portugal.

Feb 2026: New preprint Characteristics and dynamical signatures of recurrent cortical circuits during context-dependent processing is now on bioRxiv! For more details, please see this thread on Bluesky.

Publications

• Wu, Y. K., Chau, H. Y., Di Santo, S., and Miller, K. D. (2026). Characteristics and dynamical signatures of recurrent cortical circuits during context-dependent processing. bioRxiv.
• Veneto, F.*, Kepçe, A.*, Wu, Y. K.^#, and Gjorgjieva, J.^# (2025). Cell-type-specific synaptic scaling mechanisms differentially contribute to associative learning. bioRxiv.
• Couderc, Y., Reddy, T. D., Vardiero, G., Garg, A., Ricci, D., d’Almeida, M., Nicolas, C., Habchi, T., Wu, Y. K., Gjorgjieva, J., Li, Y., Valjent, E., and Beyeler, A. (2024). Dopamine transmission in the anterior insula shapes the neural coding of anxiety. bioRxiv.
• Waitzmann, F.*, Wu, Y. K.*^#, and Gjorgjieva, J.^# (2024). Top-down modulation in canonical cortical circuits with short-term plasticity. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 121(16), e2311040121.
• Wu, Y. K. and Gjorgjieva, J. (2023). Inhibition stabilization and paradoxical effects in recurrent neural networks with short-term plasticity. Physical Review Research, 5, 033023.
• Wu, Y. K.*, Miehl, C.*, and Gjorgjieva, J. (2022). Regulation of circuit organization and function through inhibitory synaptic plasticity. Trends in Neurosciences, 45(12): 884-898.
• Wu, Y. K., and Zenke, F. (2021). Nonlinear transient amplification in recurrent neural networks with short-term plasticity. eLife, 10, e71263.
• Wu, Y. K., Hengen, K. B., Turrigiano, G. G., and Gjorgjieva, J. (2020). Homeostatic mechanisms regulate distinct aspects of cortical circuit dynamics. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 117(39), 24514-24525.
• Pacheco, A. T., Tilden, E. I., Grutzner, S. M., Lane, B. J., Wu, Y., Hengen, K. B., Gjorgjieva, J., and Turrigiano, G. G. (2019). Rapid and active stabilization of visual cortical firing rates across light-dark transitions. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 116(36), 18068-18077.

*equal contribution, ^#co-senior authors.