NWB News

The recorded talks from NeuroDataReHack 2026 are now available on YouTube. This was the fifth annual NeuroDataReHack, a week-long workshop hosted at the Janelia Research Campus of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute from July 12 to 17, 2026. Participants learned how to find, read, and analyze open neurophysiology datasets shared in the Neurodata Without Borders (NWB) format on the DANDI Archive, and they spent most of the week working on their own reanalysis projects.

Watch the Talks

The NeuroDataReHack 2026 playlist collects the recorded talks from the event. The full schedule, with each talk linked to its recording, is on the event page. The talks are grouped by topic below.

Getting Started with NWB and DANDI

• Welcome to NeuroDataReHack 2026, by Ben Dichter (CatalystNeuro)
• Introduction to NWB and DANDI, by Ryan Ly (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory)
• How to read NWB files (including streaming), by Oliver Ruebel (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory)
• A tour of NWB Dandisets and searching tools, by Ben Dichter (CatalystNeuro)

Datasets on DANDI

• Data from the International Brain Laboratory, by Pranav Rai (International Brain Laboratory)
• Introduction to OpenScope data and the DataBook, by Carter Peene (Allen Institute for Neural Dynamics)
• OpenScope DataBook (electrophysiology), by Carter Peene (Allen Institute for Neural Dynamics)
• Dandiset showcase: Glia Accumulate Evidence that Actions Are Futile and Suppress Unsuccessful Behavior, by Misha Ahrens (HHMI Janelia Research Campus)

Analysis Tools

• Neural Data Analysis with Pynapple, by Guillaume Viejo (Flatiron Institute)
• Visual computations in large-scale recordings, by Carsen Stringer (HHMI Janelia Research Campus)
• Facemap: quantifying orofacial behavior, by Atika Syeda (HHMI Janelia Research Campus)
• Spike sorting with Kilosort, by Jacob Pennington (HHMI Janelia Research Campus)

AI-Assisted Workflows

• Developing with LLMs, by Ben Dichter (CatalystNeuro)
• Applying Neural Foundation Models (torch_brain), by Alexandre Andre (University of Pennsylvania)
• Getting started with AI agents, by Ben Dichter (CatalystNeuro)
• Agent skills, by Ben Dichter (CatalystNeuro)

Contributing to Open Source

• How to write good issues, by Ben Dichter (CatalystNeuro)

A few additional talks, most of them given remotely, are not yet posted because the room recording did not capture the presenters’ shared slides. We are working to recover usable recordings and will add them to the playlist and the schedule when they are available.

About NeuroDataReHack

NeuroDataReHack focuses on generating new insights from existing neurophysiology data through secondary analysis. The workshop emphasizes analyzing data that is already in NWB format and available on DANDI, rather than converting new data. This lets participants validate findings across species and brain areas, apply analysis tools to established datasets, explore follow-up questions to published studies, and create educational content from open data.

Get Involved

If you would like to work with the datasets and tools covered in these talks, the DANDI Archive is a good place to start, and the NWB YouTube channel has recordings from previous events and tutorials. To hear about future NeuroDataReHack events and other NWB news, subscribe to our mailing list. More information about past and upcoming workshops is on our events page.

NeuroDataReHack 2026 was hosted by the Janelia Research Campus of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and organized by Benjamin Dichter.