Objective
The DANDI Archive now has 450+ neurophysiology datasets in the Neurodata Without Borders format spanning many species, brain areas, task types, and imaging modalities. These include high-value datasets, e.g. from Allen Institute OpenScope, the MICrONS project, and the International Brain Laboratory Brain Wide Map, as well as diverse contributions from neuroscience labs around the world. In this workshop, we will teach attendees about the open neurophysiology datasets available on the DANDI Archive and train them on how to maximally utilize the archive and the NWB standard to incorporate existing data into their scientific workflows. Feedback from attendees will be used to improve the software and data standard to better enable reanalysis workflows.
Example projects include but are not limited to:
- Determine whether your result is present in another species or brain area.
- Showcase the capabilities of your tool or analysis on existing data from another lab.
- Explore follow-up questions to a study.
- Create educational content that uses open data.
This event will primarily focus on analyzing existing data in NWB and on DANDI, not converting data to NWB. If you are interested in learning how to convert data, consider signing up for an NWB Data Conversion Workshop.
Application
Applications for NeuroDataReHack 2026 are now closed, and the event took place July 12 to 17, 2026. The recorded talks are available on the NeuroDataReHack 2026 playlist, and the full schedule with links to each recording is below. To hear about future NeuroDataReHack events, subscribe to our mailing list.
Schedule
The full schedule is below. Talks are linked to their recordings; the NeuroDataReHack 2026 playlist collects all of them. Participants checked in on Sunday, July 12, and most of each day was devoted to working on projects, with meals and breaks provided.
Day 1 (Sunday, July 12): Accessing data and starting projects
| Time | Session | Speaker | Affiliation |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8:15 AM | Breakfast | ||
| 9:00 AM | Welcome to NeuroDataReHack 2026 | Ben Dichter | CatalystNeuro |
| 9:30 AM | Introduction to NWB and DANDI | Ryan Ly | Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory |
| 10:30 AM | How to read NWB files (including streaming) | Oliver Ruebel | Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory |
| 11:30 AM | A tour of NWB Dandisets and searching tools | Ben Dichter | CatalystNeuro |
| 12:30 PM | Lunch | ||
| 1:30 PM | Data from the International Brain Laboratory | Pranav Rai | International Brain Laboratory |
| 2:15 PM | OpenScope Predictive Processing and the Global Brain Observatory * | Jerome Lecoq | Allen Institute for Neural Dynamics |
| 3:00 PM | Introduction to OpenScope data and the DataBook | Carter Peene | Allen Institute for Neural Dynamics |
| 3:20 PM | Project roundtable | Ryan Ly | Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory |
| 4:50 PM | Hacking on projects | ||
| 5:30 PM | Speed networking | Ben Dichter | CatalystNeuro |
| 6:30 PM | Dinner |
Day 2 (Monday, July 13): Analyzing data
| Time | Session | Speaker | Affiliation |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8:15 AM | Breakfast | ||
| 9:00 AM | Introduction to Day 2 | Ben Dichter | CatalystNeuro |
| 9:15 AM | OpenScope DataBook (electrophysiology) | Carter Peene | Allen Institute for Neural Dynamics |
| 9:45 AM | How to write good issues | Ben Dichter | CatalystNeuro |
| 10:30 AM | Reuse showcase: Neural population geometry and optimal coding of tasks with shared latent structure * | Will Slatton | Harvard University |
| 11:00 AM | Hacking on projects | ||
| 12:00 PM | OpenScope DataBook (calcium imaging) * | Carter Peene | Allen Institute for Neural Dynamics |
| 12:30 PM | Lunch | ||
| 1:30 PM | Neural Data Analysis with Pynapple | Guillaume Viejo | Flatiron Institute |
| 3:15 PM | Hacking on projects | ||
| 5:15 PM | Dandiset showcase: Glia Accumulate Evidence that Actions Are Futile and Suppress Unsuccessful Behavior | Misha Ahrens | HHMI Janelia Research Campus |
| 6:00 PM | Hacking on projects | ||
| 6:30 PM | Dinner |
Day 3 (Tuesday, July 14): Advanced analysis
| Time | Session | Speaker | Affiliation |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8:15 AM | Breakfast | ||
| 9:00 AM | Introduction to Day 3 | Ben Dichter | CatalystNeuro |
| 9:10 AM | Project check-ins | Everyone | |
| 9:25 AM | Developing with LLMs | Ben Dichter | CatalystNeuro |
| 10:55 AM | Applying Neural Foundation Models (torch_brain) | Alexandre Andre | University of Pennsylvania |
| 12:30 PM | Lunch | ||
| 1:30 PM | Virtual datasets and LINDI * | Ryan Ly | Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory |
| 2:10 PM | Hacking on projects | ||
| 6:30 PM | Dinner |
Day 4 (Wednesday, July 15): Hacking on projects
| Time | Session | Speaker | Affiliation |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8:15 AM | Breakfast | ||
| 9:00 AM | Introduction to Day 4 | Ben Dichter | CatalystNeuro |
| 9:10 AM | Project check-ins | Everyone | |
| 9:30 AM | Converting data to NWB * | Ryan Ly | Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory |
| 10:15 AM | Neurosift and AI for analysis * | Jeremy Magland | Flatiron Institute |
| 11:00 AM | NWB analysis pipelines with CICADA * | Robin Dard | Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne |
| 11:30 AM | Hacking on projects | ||
| 12:30 PM | Lunch | ||
| 1:30 PM | Lab tour * | Jakob Voigts | HHMI Janelia Research Campus |
| 2:10 PM | Hacking on projects | ||
| 3:00 PM | Getting started with AI agents | Ben Dichter | CatalystNeuro |
| 4:00 PM | Agent skills | Ben Dichter | CatalystNeuro |
| 5:00 PM | Hacking on projects | ||
| 6:30 PM | Dinner |
Day 5 (Thursday, July 16): Data processing
| Time | Session | Speaker | Affiliation |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8:15 AM | Breakfast | ||
| 9:00 AM | Introduction to Day 5 | Ben Dichter | CatalystNeuro |
| 9:10 AM | Visual computations in large-scale recordings | Carsen Stringer | HHMI Janelia Research Campus |
| 9:40 AM | Facemap: quantifying orofacial behavior | Atika Syeda | HHMI Janelia Research Campus |
| 10:10 AM | Spike sorting with Kilosort | Jacob Pennington | HHMI Janelia Research Campus |
| 10:40 AM | SpikeInterface * | Alessio Buccino | Allen Institute for Neural Dynamics |
| 11:25 AM | Hacking on projects | ||
| 12:30 PM | Lunch | ||
| 1:30 PM | Group photo | Everyone | |
| 1:45 PM | Hacking on projects | ||
| 6:30 PM | Dinner |
Day 6 (Friday, July 17): Presentations
| Time | Session | Speaker | Affiliation |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8:15 AM | Breakfast | ||
| 9:00 AM | Introduction to Day 6 | Ben Dichter | CatalystNeuro |
| 9:10 AM | Hacking on projects | ||
| 12:15 PM | Project presentations | Everyone | |
| 12:30 PM | Lunch | ||
| 1:30 PM | Project presentations | Everyone | |
| 3:15 PM | Project presentations | Everyone | |
| 5:00 PM | Discussion and feedback | Everyone | |
| 6:30 PM | Dinner |
* Recordings for the talks marked with an asterisk are not yet available online. Some were given remotely and the room recording did not capture the presenter’s shared slides. We are following up to add them where recordings can be recovered.
Eligibility
Eligibility is broad. This course is intended for PhD students, postdoctoral researchers, principal investigators, or similar. Advanced undergraduates may be considered on a case-by-case basis. We welcome applicants from all areas of neuroscience, including but not limited to experimentalists, computational neuroscientists, and data scientists. Applicants should have basic programming experience in Python or MATLAB and experience with neurophysiology research. Preference will be given to applicants who have a specific project in mind that involves reanalyzing existing neurophysiology data in NWB format and who has not previously attended a NeuroDataReHack event.
Logistics
Thanks to the generous sponsorship of The Janelia Research Campus, this event will be free to participants:
- There is no registration or application fee.
- Participants will be provided a private room at Janelia Research Campus for the duration of this event, checking in on Sunday, July 12, and checking out the evening of Friday, July 17 or the morning of Saturday, July 18.
- Breakfast, lunch, dinner, and coffee breaks will be provided. Janelia is adept at accommodating dietary restrictions; please indicate any dietary restrictions on your application.
- You will be responsible for booking your own flight and transportation to Janelia Research Campus.
- You will be responsible for determining visa and/or healthcare requirements for travel to the United States. Please plan accordingly, as this process can take several months. We would be happy to provide a letter of invitation to support your visa application if needed.
What to Bring
Bring a laptop with appropriate software installed. Python should be installed and MATLAB is optional. For instructions on how to install PyNWB, see the PyNWB documentation. For instructions on how to install MatNWB, see the MatNWB documentation
Code of Conduct
Please see the Code of Conduct for all NWB events.