Side projects · September 2026
Notebook
Side projects around the science I care about: brain-computer interfaces, the tissue that walls them off, and how to show both.
All seven were made in one session on 26 September 2026 with Claude, Anthropic's AI model. I asked for demos built around my own interests; Claude did the research, wrote the code and made every figure. They live here as experiments in science communication, not as my lab work.
-
The Biointerface Brief
Where brain-computer interfaces stood in September 2026: who leads the clinic, what the brain does to an implant, and the research bet that is still open.
-
Walled off: the foreign-body response
Scrub through twelve weeks after an electrode enters the brain as microglia swarm, astrocytes build a scar and neurons die back. Then try a soft, porous probe.
-
The publishing gap
Brain-computer interface papers are up 2.6 times since 2017. Papers on how tissue responds to the electrodes have barely moved.
-
Light Into Spike
A mechanism-of-action animation drawn entirely in code: a virus delivers a light-gated channel, blue light opens it, and the neuron fires.
-
MOA Storyboarder
Paste a mechanism, get back a timed shot list, a Blender build list and a color script for a 3D animation of it.
-
NTA, simulated
A Monte Carlo of nanoparticle tracking analysis that asks how far reported vesicle sizes drift from the truth, and why.
-
Neural Overclock
Dodge spikes as a brain implant. Slowing time saves you, and every second of it grows scar tissue that costs you charge for good.
Everything on these pages loads from bryanchen.net itself. Nothing here tracks you, sets a cookie, or calls an AI service.