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United Kingdom

USD 150 /hr

Computational Neuroscientist | EEG/MEG, Bayesian Modelling, Neuropharmacology & Mechanistic Biomarkers

Profile Summary

I am a computational neuroscientist and research leader specialising in EEG/MEG, Bayesian generative modelling, neuropharmacology and mechanistic biomarkers. I am currently a Senior Lecturer (Research) at the University of Exeter and previously held research positions at the University of Cambridge and Cardiff University. I hold a PhD in Neuroscience from Cardiff University. My research combines human neurophysiology with biophysical and dynamical-systems modelling to infer the synaptic, receptor and circuit mechanisms underlying observed brain activity. I have worked extensively with pharmacological and clinical datasets, including studies of ketamine, GABAergic compounds, psychiatric disorders, neurodevelopmental conditions and neurodegenerative disease. I develop and apply methods including Bayesian inference, dynamic causal modelling, neural mass models, active inference, hierarchical modelling and computational biomarker development. My work spans study design, EEG/MEG analysis, model development, statistical inference, scientific programming and interpretation of complex neurophysiological data. I also work with academic and industry partners on translational R&D, including computational neuropharmacology, mechanism-informed biomarkers, quantitative assays and early-stage technical feasibility. I am particularly interested in projects where mechanistic modelling can add insight beyond conventional statistical or machine-learning approaches.

Subject Matter Expertise

• ★ Computational Neuroscience
• ☆ Molecular Biology
• ☆ Biomarkers
• ☆ Neuroscience
• ☆ Neuropharmacology
• ☆ Applied Mathematics
• ☆ Mathematical Models
• ☆ Python
• ☆ Pharmacy
• ☆ Clinical Pharmacy

Services

• Writing
• Research
• Consulting
• Data & AI
• Product Development

Writing Medical Writing, Technical Writing

Research Feasibility Study, Technology Scouting, Gap Analysis, Scientific and Technical Research

Consulting Healthcare Consulting, Scientific and Technical Consulting

Data & AI Predictive Modeling, Statistical Analysis, Algorithm Design-Non ML, Algorithm Design-ML, Data Processing, Data Insights

Product Development Product Evaluation, Product Validation, Concept Development, Prototyping

Work Experience

Senior Lecturer

University of Exeter

August 2021 - Present

Research Fellow

Cardiff University

May 2017 - Present

Research Associate

University of Cambridge

September 2015 - May 2017

Research Associate

Cardiff University

October 2014 - September 2015

Education

MSc

University of Exeter

October 2022 - October 2023

PhD (Medicine)

Cardiff University

September 2010 - September 2014

MSc

University of Bristol

October 2006 - October 2010

Certifications

• n/a

  n/a

  January 2026 - January 2026

Publications

JOURNAL ARTICLE

Alexander Shaw, Eric Darko, Debora Akortia, Gifty Nkrumah, Francis Opoku Agyapong, Sampson Twumasi-Ankrah, Michael Owusu-Ansah, Rosanna Glazik, Nicholas Grassly, Ellis Owusu-Dabo, et al. (2026). Environmental surveillance of pathogens in Africa . Applied and Environmental Microbiology.

Hughes LE, Adams NE, Rouse MA, Naessens M, Shaw A, Murley AG, Cope TE, Holland N, Nesbitt D, Street D, et al.(2025). GABAergic modulation of beta power enhances motor adaptation in frontotemporal lobar degeneration . Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association.

McNabb CB, Driver ID, Hyde V, Hughes G, Chandler HL, Thomas H, Allen C, Messaritaki E, Hodgetts CJ, Hedge C, et al.(2025). WAND: A multi-modal dataset integrating advanced MRI, MEG, and TMS for multi-scale brain analysis . Scientific data.

Rachael L. Sumner, Rebecca L. McMillan, Anna Forsyth, Suresh D. Muthukumaraswamy, Alexander D. Shaw (2024). Neurophysiological evidence that frontoparietal connectivity and GABA-A receptor changes underpin the antidepressant response to ketamine . Translational Psychiatry.

Robin J. Murphy, Kate Godfrey, Alexander D. Shaw, Suresh Muthukumaraswamy, Rachael L. Sumner (2024). Modulation of long-term potentiation following microdoses of LSD captured by thalamo-cortical modelling in a randomised, controlled trial . BMC Neuroscience.

Adams NE, Jafarian A, Perry A, Rouse MA, Shaw AD, Murley AG, Cope TE, Bevan-Jones WR, Passamonti L, Street D, et al.(2023). Neurophysiological consequences of synapse loss in progressive supranuclear palsy . Brain : a journal of neurology.

Alexander Shaw, Elizabeth Stone, Malak Alshakhouri, Suresh Muthukumaraswamy, Rachael L. Sumner (2023). Changes in Visual Long-Term Potentiation Show Preserved Cyclicity in Human Females Taking Combined Oral Contraceptives . Neuroendocrinology.

Saxena N, Muthukumaraswamy SD, Richmond L, Babic A, Singh KD, Hall JE, Wise RG, Shaw AD(2021). A comparison of GABA-ergic (propofol) and non-GABA-ergic (dexmedetomidine) sedation on visual and motor cortical oscillations, using magnetoencephalography . NeuroImage.

Alexander D. Shaw and Hannah L. Chandler and Khalid Hamandi and Suresh D. Muthukumaraswamy and Alexander Hammers and Krish D. Singh(2021). Tiagabine induced modulation of oscillatory connectivity and activity match PET-derived, canonical GABA-A receptor distributions . European Neuropsychopharmacology. 50. Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Localization.LocalizedHtmlString 34--45. Elsevier {BV}

Natalie E Adams and Laura E Hughes and Matthew A Rouse and Holly N Phillips and Alexander D Shaw and Alexander G Murley and Thomas E Cope and W Richard Bevan-Jones and Luca Passamonti and Duncan Street and Negin Holland and David Nesbitt and Karl Friston and James B Rowe(2021). GABAergic cortical network physiology in frontotemporal lobar degeneration . Brain. 144. (7). Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Localization.LocalizedHtmlString 2135--2145. Oxford University Press ({OUP})

Egerton A, Murphy A, Donocik J, Anton A, Barker GJ, Collier T, Deakin B, Drake R, Eliasson E, Emsley R, et al.(2021). Dopamine and Glutamate in Antipsychotic-Responsive Compared With Antipsychotic-Nonresponsive Psychosis: A Multicenter Positron Emission Tomography and Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy Study (STRATA) . Schizophrenia bulletin.

Rachael L. Sumner, Hugues Berry, Meg J. Spriggs, Alexander D. Shaw(2021). Modelling thalamocortical circuitry shows that visually induced LTP changes laminar connectivity in human visual cortex . PLOS Computational Biology. 17. (1). Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Localization.LocalizedHtmlString e1008414. Public Library of Science ({PLoS})

Alexander D Shaw, Suresh D Muthukumaraswamy, Neeraj Saxena, Rachael L Sumner, Natalie E Adams, Rosalyn J Moran, Krish D Singh(2020). Generative modelling of the thalamo-cortical circuit mechanisms underlying the neurophysiological effects of ketamine . NeuroImage. 221. Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Localization.LocalizedHtmlString 117189. Elsevier {BV}

(2020). Juvenile myoclonic epilepsy shows increased posterior theta, and reduced sensorimotor beta resting connectivity . Epilepsy Research.

Dobson-Stone C, Hallupp M, Shahheydari H, Ragagnin AMG, Chatterton Z, Carew-Jones F, Shepherd CE, Stefen H, Paric E, Fath T, et al.(2020). CYLD is a causative gene for frontotemporal dementia - amyotrophic lateral sclerosis . Brain : a journal of neurology.

(2020). GABA-ergic dynamics in human frontotemporal networks confirmed by pharmaco-magnetoencephalography . The Journal of Neuroscience.

(2019). Oscillatory, Computational, and Behavioral Evidence for Impaired GABAergic Inhibition in Schizophrenia . Schizophrenia Bulletin.

(2019). In Vivo Assay of Cortical Microcircuitry in Frontotemporal Dementia: A Platform for Experimental Medicine Studies . Cerebral Cortex.

(2018). Peak visual gamma frequency is modified across the healthy menstrual cycle . Human Brain Mapping.

(2017). Neurophysiologically-informed markers of individual variability and pharmacological manipulation of human cortical gamma . NeuroImage.

(2015). Structural and neurochemical correlates of individual differences in gamma frequency oscillations in human visual cortex . Journal of Anatomy.

Suresh D. Muthukumaraswamy, Alexander D. Shaw, Laura E. Jackson, Judith Hall, Rosalyn Moran, Neeraj Saxena(2015). Evidence that Subanesthetic Doses of Ketamine Cause Sustained Disruptions of NMDA and AMPA-Mediated Frontoparietal Connectivity in Humans . The Journal of Neuroscience. 35. (33). Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Localization.LocalizedHtmlString 11694--11706. Society for Neuroscience

(2015). Ketamine amplifies induced gamma frequency oscillations in the human cerebral cortex . European neuropsychopharmacology : the journal of the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology.

Brealy JA, Shaw A, Richardson H, Singh KD, Muthukumaraswamy SD, Keedwell PA, Psychological medicine, 2015, vol. 45, no. 4, pp. 783-794 .

Shaw A, Brealy J, Richardson H, Muthukumaraswamy SD, Edden RA, John Evans C, Puts NA, Singh KD, Keedwell PA, Biological psychiatry, 2013, vol. 73, no. 7, pp. 691-698 .

PREPRINT

Alexander Shaw(2026). Coordination Without Command: Active Inference and the Route to Embodied Intelligence . Zenodo

Alexander D Shaw(2026). Polyphonic Intelligence: Constraint-Based Emergence, Pluralistic Inference, and Non-Dominating Integration .

Alexander D. Shaw, Lioba Chiara Sophie Berndt (2026). The Embodied Octopus: Distributed Intelligence and Active Inference in a Flexible Body .

Alessia Caccamo, Dominic M Dunstan, Mark P Richardson, Alexander D Shaw, Marc Goodfellow (2025). Dynamics-Informed Priors (DIP) for Neural Mass Modelling .

Alexander Shaw, Malak Alshakhouri, Cynthia Sharpe, Peter Bergin, Suresh Muthukumaraswamy, Khalid Hamandi, Rachael L. Sumner (2025). Females with epilepsy show abnormal changes to perimenstrual sensory induced long-term potentiation .

Lioba C S Berndt, Rosina M Diebel, Nicholas A Donnelly, Jeremy Hall, Marianne B M van den Bree, Rick A Adams, Alexander D Shaw, Matt W Jones (2025). Sleep as a window into thalamocortical pathology: generative modeling implicates NMDA receptor hypofunction in 22q11.2 deletion syndrome .

Alexander D. Shaw, Rachael L Sumner, Lioba Chiara Sophie Berndt (2025). Predictive Coding and Neurocomputational Psychiatry: A Mechanistic Framework for Understanding Mental Disorders .

Alexander D. Shaw (2025). Toward a reusable architecture for intelligent agents .

Alexander D. Shaw, Lioba Chiara Sophie Berndt (2025). A Neuro-Inspired Computational Framework for AGI: Predictive Coding, Active Inference, and Free Energy Minimisation .

Alexander D. Shaw, Lioba Chiara Sophie Berndt (2025). A Neuro-Inspired Computational Framework for AGI: Predictive Coding, Active Inference, and Free Energy Minimisation .

Alexander D. Shaw, Rachael L Sumner, Lioba Chiara Sophie Berndt (2025). Predictive Coding and Neurocomputational Psychiatry: A Mechanistic Framework for Understanding Mental Disorders .

S Berndt LC, Singh KD, Shaw AD(2024). Restoring Synaptic Balance in Schizophrenia: Insights from a thalamo-cortical conductance-based model .

Hughes LE, Adams NE, Rouse MA, Naessens M, Shaw A, Murley AG, Cope TE, Holland N, Nesbitt D, Street D, et al.(2024). GABAergic modulation of beta power enhances motor adaptation in frontotemporal lobar degeneration .

Natalie E. Adams, Amirhossein Jafarian, Alistair Perry, Matthew A. Rouse, Alexander D. Shaw, Alexander G. Murley, Thomas E. Cope, W. Richard Bevan-Jones, Luca Passamonti, Duncan Street, et al.(2022). Neurophysiological consequences of synapse loss in progressive supranuclear palsy . Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory

(2020). GABAA receptor mapping in human using non-invasive electrophysiology . [].

(2020). A comparison of GABA-ergic (propofol) and non-GABA-ergic (dexmedetomidine) sedation on visual and motor cortical oscillations, using magnetoencephalography . [].

(2020). Modelling thalamocortical circuitry shows visually induced LTP changes laminar connectivity in human visual cortex . [].

Adams NE, Hughes LE, Phillips HN, Shaw AD, Murley AG, Cope TE, Bevan-Jones WR, Passamonti L, Rowe JB(2019). GABA-ergic dynamics in human frontotemporal networks confirmed by pharmaco-magnetoencephalography .

Shaw AD, Hughes LE, Moran R, Coyle-Gilchrist I, Rittman T, Rowe JB(2018). In vivo assay of cortical microcircuitry in frontotemporal dementia: a platform for experimental medicine studies .

Sumner R, McMilllan R, Shaw AD, Singh K, Sundram F, Muthukumaraswamy S(2017). Peak gamma frequency and cortical laminar processing are modified across the healthy menstrual cycle .

OTHER

Alexander Shaw, Lioba Berndt, Krish Singh (2025). Restoring Synaptic Balance in Schizophrenia: Insights from a thalamo-cortical conductance-based model .

Alexander D Shaw, Hannah L Chandler, Khalid Hamandi, Suresh D Muthukumaraswamy, Alexander Hammers, Krish D Singh(2020). GABAA receptor mapping in human using non-invasive electrophysiology . Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory

Alexander D Shaw, Suresh D Muthukumaraswamy, Neeraj Saxena, Rachael L Sumner, Natalie Adams, Rosalyn J Moran, Krish D Singh(2019). Generative modelling of the thalamo-cortical circuit mechanisms underlying the neurophysiological effects of ketamine . Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory