Team

Research Group Leader

Xenia Kobeleva is an assistant professor in Neurostimulation at Ruhr University Bochum (RUB), group leader of RUB’s Computational Neurology Group, and senior physician at the Department of Neurology of the RUB University Hospital Knappschafskrankenhaus.

She is an expert in neurodegenerative diseases and brain modelling, and works at the intersection of medical research, computer science, and clinical practice. Consequently, she is member of RUB’s Faculty of Medicine (primary affiliation) and Faculty of Computer Science (secondary affiliation), and is PI at the RUB Institute for Neuroinformatics (INI), at the RUB Science Hub Neuroscience, and at the Bernstein Node Bochum.

She identifies as a true translational neuroscientist, attaining research questions from the bedside, studying them in the lab, and bringing computational solutions and digital twin technologies back to the bedside. For more information on Xenia Kobeleva, please see her personal page.

Dr. Nikolai Syrov

Postdoctoral Associate

Nikolay Syrov joined the Computational Neurology Research Group as a postdoctoral researcher in 2025. He currently works on developing state-dependent personalized neurostimulation approaches aimed at efficiently modulating brain activity. He obtained his PhD in Physiology in 2022 from Lomonosov Moscow State University, where his research focused on brain-computer interfaces for motor rehabilitation. Following his doctorate, he studied mechanisms of action preparation and led projects investigating neuromarkers of sensorimotor network impairments after stroke, extensively employing EEG, fNIRS, and TMS techniques.

Shoto Yamada

PhD Candidate

Shoto Yamada is a PhD candidate at Ruhr University Bochum, co-supervised by Prof. Dr. Xenia Kobeleva and Prof. Dr. Robert Schmidt. He joined the Computational Neurology Research Group in late 2024, following his Master's thesis project that was also supervised by Prof. Kobeleva. Shoto holds a Master's degree in Cognitive Science from Ruhr University Bochum and focuses on the development and application of probabilistic machine learning techniques for the analysis of electrophysiology data. Currently, he is working on developing a Bayesian Hidden Markov Model to detect transient oscillations, contributing to advancements in understanding neural dynamics.

Franziska-Maria Fuchs

MD Candidate

Franziska-Maria Fuchs is a student of medicine at the University of Bonn and joined the Computational Neurology Research Group in 2023 for pursuing her doctoral thesis. She accompanies a clinical trial in the field of the hereditary spastic paraplegias (HSP), in which she investigates the treatment outcome of transcranial magnetic stimulation on patients suffering from HSP.

Briand Qeriqi

MD Candidate

Briand Qeriqi is a student of medicine at Ruhr University Bochum and joined the Computational Neurology Research Group in 2023 for pursuing his doctoral thesis. He conducts clinical-experimental research in the field of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD), utilizing imaging techniques such as functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) and brain modeling tools.

Robin Rademacher

MD Candidate

Robin Rademacher is a student of medicine at Ruhr University Bochum and joined the Computational Neurology Research Group in 2025 for pursuing his doctoral thesis. He investigates age-related alterations in neurophysiological correlates of visual working memory, recording cortical activity via electroencephalography (EEG) during different stages of the memory process and utilizing transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) of frontal cortical regions to modulate memory characteristics in young and older adults.

Skyla Schmidt

Student research assistant

Skyla Schmidt completed her undergraduate studies in Psychology at Maastricht University and seeks to continue her studies with a Master's degree at Ruhr University Bochum. In 2025, she joined the Computational Neurology Group as a student research assistant for Dr. Nikolai Syrov's study on state-dependent personalized neurostimulation.

Sven Liebthal

Team Assistant

Sven Liebthal is the Computational Neurology Research Group's team assistant. After completing a commercial apprenticeship, he studied Economics with a focus on Logistics and then worked in this profession for over ten years in the private sector before joining Ruhr University Bochum. He greatly adds to the group by bringing in and applying his economic and managerial expertise.

Alumni

• Pegah Majlessi (Master's student and undergraduate research assistant, 2024-2025)
• Dr. Riccardo Leone (PhD Student, 2022-2025)
• Nahid Hasan (postgraduate research assistant, 2022-2023)
• Steven Geysen (postgraduate research assistant, 2022-2023)
• Julian Schulte (Master's student in 2021-2022, doctoral research assistant, 2022)
• Sobhan Moazemi (doctoral research assistant, 2020-2021)
• Julian Herrmann (medical doctoral student, 2017-2021)
• Maher Zoubi (medical doctoral student, 2017-2021)