Fabien Wagner leads the Neuromodulation and Digital Therapeutics (NeuroDTx) team, which aims at developing new neuromodulation strategies for restoring motor and cognitive functions in neurological disorders or after injury.
During his PhD at Brown University (USA), he used a combination of optogenetic stimulation and microelectrode array recordings to investigate the transition to epileptic seizures in rodent models of epilepsy. During his postdoc at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL, Switzerland), he developed spinal cord neuroprostheses to restore locomotion, first in non-human primates and then in patients with spinal cord injury as part of a first-in-human clinical study (Wagner et al., Nature 2018; Rowald et al., Nat Med 2022).
In 2020, Fabien joined the Institute of Neurodegenerative Diseases (IMN), where he set up a new team called “Neuromodulation and Neuroprosthetics” to expand neuroprosthetic systems towards neurocognitive impairments, thanks to funding from the region Nouvelle-Aquitaine (Neurocampus chair for young group leaders, 2020-2023) and a European Research Council (ERC) starting grant (2022-2027).
In 2024, he joined forces with Amélie Aussel at Inria to leverage digital sciences for the optimization and understanding of neuromodulation approaches. Their new team, NeuroDTx, joined the VBHI institute to test the potential of novel digital therapeutics, including non-invasive brain stimulation, for mitigating cognitive deficits in patients with neurovascular disorders. Fabien Wagner is a member of the Institute’s Board of Directors.
Before he had children, Fabien used to appreciate outdoor activities such as skydiving and scuba diving. Now, he enjoys walks in the park.
