Nature

Christian L. Ebbesen, PhD

I'm Director of Data Science at Lundbeck A/S. The data science department supports research projects across the clinical and pre-clinical research organization – neuroscience, drug discovery and drug development – with advanced AI, ML, modeling and analyses; Finding new ways to support and restore brain health. Before joining Lundbeck, I was a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Robert Froemke at the NYU Neuroscience Institute and the Skirball Institute of Biomolecular Medicine. In my postdoctoral work, I focused on the oxytocin system and used a combination of experimental and computational methods to map complex, cortical receptive fields during social behavior in mice.

I received my PhD in Neurobiology from the Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, Germany. I did my doctoral research in the laboratory of Michael Brecht at the Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience and I was associated with the Berlin School of Mind and Brain. During my PhD, I worked on the cortical control of rat whisker movements in the context of rat social facial touch and on spatial and temporal coding in para-hippocampal cortex. I received my master's and bachelor's degrees in physics/biophysics from the Niels Bohr Institute at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark.

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  Some selected highlights

Nature
We combine 3D videography, deep learning, physical modeling and GPU-accelerated robust optimization to map 'social' receptive fields in barrel cortex.
Ebbesen & Froemke
Nature Comm., 2022 		Nature
Cortical areas with diverse response patterns and diverse functions (somatosensory, auditory, motor, frontal) encode the social context of social facial touch via a common population structure.
Ebbesen et al. Nature Comm., 2019 		Nature
Recording and manipulation of neural activity during various whisking behaviors suggests that vibrissa motor cortex is less of a whisking "motor" and rather more like a whisking "brake".
Ebbesen et al. Nature Neurosci., 2017
Nature
Temporal coding features in parahippocampal cortex are cell type-specific and in-vitro spike patterns do not match how neuronal cell types spike in-vivo during spatial exploration.
Ebbesen et al. Cell Reports, 2016 		Nature
We identify unique functional and anatomical features of parasubicular neurons (strong theta rhythmicity, head-direction selectivity and targeted output to pyramidal cell patches in layer 2 of medial entorhinal cortex)
Tang✳, Burgalossi✳, Ebbesen✳, Saguinetti-Scheck✳ et al.
J.Neurosci., 2016 		Nature
We use supervised machine learning with juxtacellularly recorded and labeled neurons in freely moving animals to tie functional responses (grid/border cells) to anatomical structure (pyramidal/stellate cells) by their spike locking to the theta rhythm.
Tang✳, Burgalossi✳, Ebbesen✳ et al. Neuron, 2014

  Some reviews and opinions

Nature
We outline how neuroscience can build on recent advances in machine learning, robotics and micro-engineering to understand the neural basis of "body language" in rodents.
Ebbesen & Froemke, Curr Opin Neurobiol., 2021 		Nature
We review recent studies that implicate rodent motor cortex in "higher-order" motor functions, such as behavioral strategizing, working memory, and decision making.
Ebbesen et al., J.Neurosci., 2018 		Nature
Some opinions about the evolution and function of the mammalian primary motor cortex, particularly its role in movement suppression.
Ebbesen & Brecht,
Nature Reviews Neurosci., 2017

  Publications

Industry research
2025 Wiedemann J, Ebbesen CL, Jensen T, Quintana M, Krismer F, Wendelberger B & Zanigni S (2025) Development of a Bayesian Progression Model to assess the impact of an intervention on the progression of multiple system atrophy. The International Society for CNS Clinical Trials and Methodology (ISCTM) 21st Annual Scientific Meeting.
2024 Harrsen K, Hansen IH, Nielsen T, Rieckmann A, Luna G, Wedenborg E, Rijnbeek P, Diaz C, Duarte-Salles T, Mørup M & Ebbesen CL (2024) A collaborative Neuroscience Research Program on Cluster Headache across the EHDEN data network. European Health Data Evidence Network (EHDEN) Symposium (accepted).
2024 Farkhani S, Lolansen N, Janjua TAM, Herrik KF, Richter U & Ebbesen CL (2024) Using Variational Auto-Encoders to Identify Drug-Induced Neural Signatures in Rats. Danish Digitalization, Data Science & AI (D3A) (accepted).
2024 Harrsen K, Hansen IH, Nielsen T, Rieckmann A, Luna G & Ebbesen CL (2024) A collaborative neuroscience research program on Cluster Headache across a standardized health data network. European Observational Health Data Sciences and Informatics (OHDSI) Symposium (accepted).
2023 Ebbesen CL, Kompus K & Bahl J (2023) Investigating blood biomarkers of psychiatric disease in the "Real World" by data mining and Bayesian hierarchical network modelling. Society for Neuroscience Meeting (accepted).
Journal articles
2022 Ebbesen CL & Froemke RC (2022) Automatic mapping of multiplexed social receptive fields by deep learning and GPU-accelerated 3D videography. Nature Communications 13:593. doi: 10.1038/s41467-022-28153-7 (bioRxiv 2020.05.21.109629. doi: 10.1101/2020.05.21.109629).
2021 Ebbesen CL & Froemke RC (2021) Body language signals for rodent social communication. Current Opinion in Neurobiology 68:91-106. doi: 10.1016/j.conb.2021.01.008.
2019 Ebbesen CL, Bobrov E, Rao RP & Brecht M (2019) Highly structured, partner-sex– and subject-sex-dependent cortical responses during social facial touch. Nature Communications 10(1):4634. doi: 10.1038/s41467-019-12511-z. PMID: 31604919 (bioRxiv: 545434. doi: 10.1101/545434.)
2018 Ebbesen CL, Insanally MN, Kopec CD, Murakami M, Saiki A & Erlich JC (2018) More Than Just a “Motor”: Recent Surprises From the Frontal Cortex. Journal of Neuroscience 38(44):9402-13. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1671-18.2018. PMID: 30381432
↑ Invited review, based on a Mini-Symposium (intro slides) that I organized and chaired at SfN 2018 in San Diego.
2017 Ebbesen CL & Brecht M (2017) Motor cortex – to act or not to act? Nature Reviews Neuroscience. 18(11):694-705. doi: 10.1038/nrn.2017.119. PMID: 29042690
2017 Ebbesen CL, Doron G, Lenschow C & Brecht M (2017) Vibrissa motor cortex activity suppresses contralateral whisking behavior. Nature Neuroscience. 20(1):82-89. doi: 10.1038/nn.4437. PMID: 27798633
↑ Previewed by: Kim J & Hires A (2017) Brake and gas pedals in motor cortex Nature Neuroscience. 20(1):4-6. doi: 10.1038/nn.4461. PMID: 28025981
2016 Ebbesen CL, Reifenstein ET, Tang Q, Burgalossi A, Ray S, Schreiber S, Kempter R & Brecht M (2016) Cell Type-Specific Differences in Spike Timing and Spike Shape in the Rat Parasubiculum and Superficial Medial Entorhinal Cortex. Cell Reports. 16(4):1005-1015. doi: 10.1016/j.celrep.2016.06.057. PMID: 27425616
2016 Tang[*] Q, Burgalossi[*] A, Ebbesen[*] CL, Sanguinetti-Scheck[*] JI, Schmidt H, Tukker JJ, Naumann R, Ray S, Preston-Ferrer P, Schmitz D & Brecht M (2016) Functional Architecture of the Rat Parasubiculum. Journal of Neuroscience. 36(7):2289-301. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3749-15.2016. PMID: 26888938 [*] Co-first author
↑ ”Featured Article”, previewed by: Esch, T (2016) This Week in The Journal: Anatomy and Physiology of Parasubiculum. Journal of Neuroscience. 36(7):i-i.
2016 Reifenstein ET, Ebbesen CL, Tang Q, Brecht M, Schreiber S & Kempter R (2016) Cell-Type Specific Phase Precession in Layer II of the Medial Entorhinal Cortex. Journal of Neuroscience. 36(7):2283-8. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2986-15.2016. PMID: 26888937
2015 Tang Q, Ebbesen CL, Sanguinetti-Scheck JI, Preston-Ferrer P, Gundlfinger A, Winterer J, Beed P, Ray S, Naumann R, Schmitz D, Brecht M & Burgalossi A (2015) Anatomical Organization and Spatiotemporal Firing Patterns of Layer 3 Neurons in the Rat Medial Entorhinal Cortex. Journal of Neuroscience. 35(36):12346-54. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0696-15.2015. PMID: 26354904
2014 Tang[*] Q, Burgalossi[*] A, Ebbesen[*] CL, Ray S, Naumann R, Schmidt H, Spicher D & Brecht M (2014) Pyramidal and stellate cell specificity of grid and border representations in layer 2 of medial entorhinal cortex. Neuron. 84(6):1191-7. doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2014.11.009. PMID: 25482025 [*] Co-first author
↑ Previewed by: Savelli F & Knierim JJ (2014) Strides toward a Structure-Function Understanding of Cortical Representations of Allocentric Space. Neuron. 84(6):1108-1109. doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2014.12.013. PMID: 25521370
2012 Ebbesen CL & Bruus H. (2012) Analysis of laser-induced heating in optical neuronal guidance. Journal of Neuroscience Methods. 209(1):168-77. doi: 10.1016/j.jneumeth.2012.02.006. PMID: 22387314
2012 Adams[*] JD, Ebbesen[*] CL, Barnkob R, Yang AHJ, Soh HT & Bruus H (2012) High-throughput, temperature-controlled microchannel acoustophoresis device made with rapid prototyping. Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering. 22(7): 075017 [*] Co-first author
Peer-reviewed conference proceedings
2019 Schwartzberg L, Papadoyannis E, Talbot J, Ebbesen CL, Littman DR, Froemke RC (2019) Sickness Behavior and Gut-Brain Signaling Via Vagus Nerve in Infected Mice. Brain Stimulation: Basic, Translational, and Clinical Research in Neuromodulation 12(2):e4. doi: 10.1016/j.brs.2018.12.017
2010 Ebbesen CL, Adams JD, Barnkob R, Soh HT & Bruus H (2010) Temperature-controlled highthroughput (1 L/h) acoustophoretic particle separation in microchannels. Proc 14th MicroTAS, 3-7
Doctoral thesis
2018 Ebbesen CL (2018) Cortical circuits underlying social and spatial exploration in rats. Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Lebenswissenschaftliche Fakultät. doi: 10.18452/19231
Popular science and commentary
preprint Ebbesen CL (2020) Flawed estimates of cognitive ability in Clark et al. Psychological Science, 2020. PsyArXiv 2020.06.17. doi:10.31234/osf.io/tzr8c.
↑ A submitted comment on a deeply flawed paper that was published in Psychological Science.
2019 Ebbesen CL (2019) Det er lige så biologisk korrekt at sige 'hen' som at sige 'rødhåret'. [The use of gender neutral pronouns does not conflict with biological science.] Dagbladet Information [Danish national newspaper], 21. October 2019, pp. 16-17 (online version w/comments) (reddit thread)
↑ Associated interview on national public radio: Hjerneforsker kritiserer Berlingskes chefredaktør for at "vrøvle", når hun siger, at der kun findes to køn. [Interview about the neuroscience of sex and gender.] Radio24syv [National Danish public–service radio station], kulturprogrammet AK24syv, 15. October 2019, 18:40–19:00. (download mp3 version)


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