James Priestley

James Priestley is a Researcher and Lecturer at EPFL, leading the Priestley Lab within the School of Basic Sciences (SB) and the Institute of Bioengineering (BMI). He holds dual roles: Scientist in the GR-PRIESTLEY group and Lecturer in the SSV-ENS teaching unit. His lab focuses on the neurobiology of memory, particularly episodic memory formation via hippocampal-cortical circuits in behaving mice. Research combines large-scale neural recordings, virtual reality, and computational modeling to bridge biological and artificial neural network dynamics.

Research interests span hippocampal representations of space and time, plasticity mechanisms underlying memory, and real-time neural decoding. The lab collaborates with the EPFL neuroscience doctoral school (EDNE), supervising PhD students Margaret Lane, Daniel Molinuevo, and Olivier Ulrich. Funding includes the ELISIR Scholarship, EPFL Life Science Independent Research Program, and the Fondation Marina Cuennet-Mauvernay.

Teaching responsibilities include courses in life sciences engineering. The Priestley Lab is located in AAB 1 37, Lausanne, with active projects on closed-loop neural interfaces and behavioral experiments using virtual reality. Student opportunities include semester projects on real-time neural decoding and video game-based cognitive experiments.