Dr Tianruo Guo is currently a Lecturer of Neuromodulation and an Early Career Academic Fellow with the Graduate School of Biomedical Engineering, UNSW. Guo uses computational analyses to guide the biological experimental design. Guo’s research interests include large-scale optimization for developing accurate ionic models of cardiac myocytes and neural cells, and biomedical signal processing. He is currently working in GSBmE to develop advanced electrical stimulation strategies for a visual prosthesis.

Guo has extensive experience in computational modelling since completing his Master degree in cardiac modelling and his PhD in simulating electrical activity in the mammalian retina. Over the past several years he has expanded his research skills greatly from that of theoretical modelling to also include retinal neuroscience. Guo has recently performed patch-clamp experiments in retinal tissue to validate his sophisticated computational models. With this deep insight he has proposed a new stimulation scheme using high frequency waveforms that will allow different classes of retinal ganglion cells (the ON and OFF pathways) to be selectively excited. This has enormous potential in the design of visual prostheses as it will allow more realistic recreation of the visual scene – previously not possible with current state-of-the-art retinal neuroprostheses.

TEACHING

Engineering in Medicine and Biology - BIOM1010 (2017)

Implantable Bionics / Bionic and Neuromodulation - BIOM9660 (2017-now)

Biomedical Instrumentation - BIOM9640 (2019-now)

GRANTS, AWARDS AND SCHOLARSHIP

1. UNSW-CAS Collaborative Research Bridging Grant (2019-2020)

2. UNSW-CAS Collaborative Research Mobility Grant (2019)

3. Retina Australia Research Fund (2018)

4. Australia-Germany Joint Research Co-operation Scheme (DAAD, 2018-2019)

5. SJTU-UNSW Collaborative Research Fund (2018-2020)

6. Ian Potter Foundation Travel Fund (2018)

7. UNSW Research Infrastructure Scheme (RIS, 2019)

8. Australian Biomedical Engineering Conference (ABEC), Best Poster Presentation Award (2018). 

9. Chinese Academy of Sciences Travel Grant (2015)

10. PhD Scholarship in Excitable Tissue Computational Modelling (2011-2014)

11. UNSW Postdoctoral Writing Fellowship Grant (2014)

12. IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, Student Paper Competition,Asia Pacific Finalist Award (2014) 

13. IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, Student Paper Competition, Asia Pacific Finalist Award (2013)

14. IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, Student Paper Competition, Second Place (2013)

15. Australian Biomedical Engineering Conference (ABEC), Best Presentation Award (2013). 

16. Australian Workshop on Computational Neuroscience, NeuroEng Student Prize (2013). 

17. Australian Biomedical Engineering Conference (ABEC) Travel Sponsorship (2013)

18. Postgraduate Research Student Support Conference Travel Grant (2014)

19. China Scholarship Council (CSC) National Scholarship for Outstanding Self-Funded Student Finalist (NSW division, 2014) 

20. UNSW Dean’s Award for Excellence in Postgraduate Research Finalist (2013)

PUBLICATIONS

Refereed journal articles

1. Siwei Bai, Donel Martin, Tianruo Guo, Socrates Dokos, Colleen Loo (2019), Computational Comparison of Conventional and Novel Electroconvulsive Therapy Electrode Placements for the Treatment of Depression, European Psychiatry. Vol. 60, pp 71-78. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eurpsy.2019.05.006
2. Tianruo Guo*, David Tsai*, Chih Yu Yang, Perry Twyford, Shelley I. Fried, John W. Morley, Gregg J. Suaning, Socrates Dokos and Nigel H. Lovell (2019), Mediating retinal ganglion cell spike rates using high-frequency electrical stimulation, Frontiers in Neuroscience. doi: 10.3389/fnins.2019.00413
3. Tianruo Guo*, Yang, C*, Tsai, D, Madhuvanthi, M, Suaning, GJ, Morley, JW, Dokos, S, Lovell, NH (2018) Closed-loop efficient searching of optimal electrical stimulation parameters for preferential excitation of retinal ganglion cells, Frontiers in Neuroscience. doi: 10.3389/fnins.2018.00168
4. Chih Yu Yang, David Tsai, Tianruo Guo, Socrates Dokos, Gregg J Suaning, John W Morley and Nigel H Lovell (2018), “Differential Electrical Responses in Retinal Ganglion Cell Subtypes: Effects of Synaptic Blockade and Stimulating Electrode Location”, Journal of Neural Engineering, doi: https://doi.org/10.1088/1741-2552/aac315
5. Barriga-Rivera, A., Tianruo Guo., Yang, C., Al Abed, A., Dokos, S., Lovell, N. H., Morley, J. W., Suaning, G. J. (2017), “High-amplitude electrical stimulation can reduce elicited neuronal activity in visual prosthesis,” Scientific Reports. 2017;7:42682.
6. Tianruo Guo, Tsai, D., Morley, J. W., Suaning, G. J., Kameneva, T., Lovell, N. H., Dokos, S. (2015), “Electrical Activity of ON and OFF Retinal Ganglion Cells: A Modelling Study,” 2015, Journal of Neural Engineering. 13 025005.
7. Tianruo Guo, David Tsai, John. W. Morley, Gregg. J. Suaning, Nigel. H. Lovell, Socrates. Dokos (2014), “Understanding the retina: a review of computational models of the retina from the single-cell to network level,” Critical Reviews in Biomedical Engineering. Vol. 42(5), pp 491-436, doi: 10.1615/CritRevBiomedEng.2014011732
8. Tianruo Guo, Amr Al Abed, Nigel H. Lovell, and Socrates Dokos (2013), “Optimisation of a Generic Ionic Model of Cardiac Myocyte Electrical Activity,” Computational and Mathematical Methods in Medicine, vol. 2013, Article ID 706195, 20 pages, 2013. doi:10.1155/2013/706195
9. Amr Al Abed, Tianruo Guo, Nigel H. Lovell, and Socrates Dokos, “Optimisation of Ionic Models to Fit Tissue Action Potentials: Application to 3D Atrial Modelling,” Computational and Mathematical Methods in Medicine, vol. 2013, Article ID 951234, 16 pages, 2013. doi:10.1155/2013/95123
10. Hong-Bo Xie, Tianruo Guo, Siwei Bai and Socrates Dokos, “Hybrid soft computing systems for electromyographic signals analysis: a review,” Biomedical Engineering Online, vol. 13(8), 2014. doi:10.1186/1475-925X-13-8
11. Hong-Bo Xie, Tianruo Guo, Bellie Sivakumar, Alan Wee-Chung Liew and Socrates Dokos, “Symplectic geometry spectrum analysis of nonlinear time series,” Proceedings of the Royal Society A. vol. 470(2170), 2014. doi:10.1098/rspa.2014.0409
12. Hong-bo Xie, Ping Zhou, Tianruo Guo, B. Sivakumar, Xu. Zhang, and S. Dokos, “Multi-scale two-directional two-dimensional principal component analysis and its application to high-dimensional biomedical signal classification,” IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering, vol. 63 (7), doi: 10.1109/TBME.2015.2436375

Refereed conference papers only when the paper was published in full in the proceedings

1. N Wang, X Song, T Li, T Guo, L Li, A preliminary study on virtual electrode for subretinal prostheses by computational model, Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC), 2019 Annual International Conference of the IEEE
2. T. Guo, D. Tsai, Madhuvanthi, M, L. Li, G. J. Suaning, J. W. Morley, S. Dokos, N. H. Lovell, Computational models and tools for developing sophisticated stimulation strategies for retinal neuroprostheses, Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC), 2018 Annual International Conference of the IEEE.
3. T. Guo, A. Barriga-Rivera, G J. Suaning, D Tsai, J. W. Morley, S Dokos, N H. Lovell, Mimicking Natural Neural Encoding through Retinal Electrostimulation, 2017 Annual International Conference of the IEEE on Neural Engineering.
4. H. Xie, T. Guo, Fuzzy Entropy Spectrum Analysis for Biomedical Signals De-Noising, 2018 IEEE International Conference on Biomedical and Health Informatics
5. A. Barriga-Rivera, T. Guo, J. W. Morley, S Dokos, N H. Lovell, G J. Suaning, Retinal Electrostimulation in Rats: Activation Thresholds from Superior Colliculus and Visual Cortex Recordings, Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC), 2017 Annual International Conference of the IEEE.
6. A. Alqahtani, A. Abed, T Guo, N. H. Lovell and S. Dokos, A Continuum Model of Electrical Stimulation of Multi-Compartmental Retinal Ganglion Cells， Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC), 2017 Annual International Conference of the IEEE.
7. C. Y. Yang, D. Tsai, T. Guo, G. J. Suaning, S. Dokos, J. W. Morley, N. H. Lovell, High Frequency Electrical Stimulation: the Effect of Spatial Location on Retinal Ganglion Cell Responses In vitro, Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC), 2016 Annual International Conference of the IEEE.
8. T. Guo, N H. Lovell, D Tsai, G J. Suaning, S Dokos, Optimizing retinal ganglion cell responses to high-frequency electrical stimulation strategies for preferential neuronal excitation, Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC), 2015 Annual International Conference of the IEEE on Neural Engineering (Invited paper).
9. Siwei Bai, T. Guo, D Tsai, G J. Suaning, N H. Lovell, S Dokos, Influence of Dendritic Morphology on the Dynamic Properties of Retinal Ganglion Cells: A Computational Study, Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC), 2015 Annual International Conference of the IEEE on Neural Engineering.
10. T. Guo, N. H. Lovell, D. Tsai, P. Twyford, S. Fried, J. W. Morley, G. J. Suaning and S. Dokos, Selective Activation of ON and OFF Retinal Ganglion Cells to High-frequency Electrical Stimulation: A Computational Modeling Study, Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC), 2014 Annual International Conference of the IEEE (EMBS Student Paper Competition, Asia Pacific Finalist)
11. T. Guo, D. Tsai, J. W. Morley, G. J. Suaning, N. H. Lovell, S. Dokos, The Unique Characteristics of ON and OFF Retinal Ganglion Cells: A Modeling Study, Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC), 2014 Annual International Conference of the IEEE
12. T Guo, D Tsai, J. W. Morley, G J. Suaning, N H. Lovell, S Dokos, Influence of Cell Morphology in a Computational Model of ON and OFF Retinal Ganglion Cells, Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC), 2013 Annual International Conference of the IEEE
13. T. Guo, D Tsai, S. Sovilj, J. W. Morley, G J. Suaning, N H. Lovell, S Dokos, Influence of Active Dendrites on Firing Patterns in a Retinal Ganglion Cell Model, Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC), 2013 Annual International Conference of the IEEE
14. T. Guo, D Tsai, J. W. Morley, G J. Suaning, N H. Lovell, S Dokos, Cell-specific Modeling of Retinal Ganglion Cell Electrical Activity, Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC), 2013 Annual International Conference of the IEEE (EMBS Student Paper Competition, Asia Pacific Finalist)
15. T. Guo, D Tsai, G J. Suaning, N H. Lovell, S Dokos, Modelling Normal and Rebound Excitation in Mammalian Retinal Ganglion Cells, Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC), 2012 Annual International Conference of the IEEE.
16. A Bradd, A Al Abed, T. Guo, N. H. Lovell and S. Dokos, Study of Sinoatrial Excitation using an Optimized Generic Model and Realistic Geometry. Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC), 2012 Annual International Conference of the IEEE
17. T. Guo, A. Al Abed, N. H. Lovell and S. Dokos, Parameter Fitting using Multiple Datasets in Cardiac Action Potential Modeling. Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC), 2011 Annual International Conference of the IEEE
18. A. Al Abed, T. Guo, N. H. Lovell and S. Dokos, Tissue-Based Optimization of a Sino-Atrial Node Disc Model. Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC), 2011 Annual International Conference of the IEEE 
19. T. Guo, A. Al Abed, N. H. Lovell and S. Dokos, A Generic Ionic Model of Cardiac Action Potential. Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC), 2010 Annual International Conference of the IEEE
20. A. Al Abed, T. Guo, N. H. Lovell and S. Dokos, An anatomically realistic 3D model of atrial propagation based on experimentally recorded action potentials. Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC), 2010 Annual International Conference of the IEEE

Patent

1. A. Barriga-Rivera, T. Guo, G. Suaning, J. W. Morley, N. H. Lovell. A method and apparatus for facilitating artificial vision. PCT/AU2017/050645

Conference Abstract

1. Socrates Dokos, T. Guo, Liming Li, Nigel Lovell, Selective Activation of Retinal Ganglion Cells, invited session, Computational Systems & Synthetic Biology; Multiscale Modeling, Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC), 2019 Annual International Conference of the IEEE.
2. Madhuvanthi Muralidharan, T. Guo, John W. Morley, Socrates Dokos, Nigel H. Lovell, Effective Stimulation Approaches to Mimic Physiological Neural Encoding of Retinal Ganglion Cells, Australian Biomedical Engineering Conference (ABEC), 2018. (Best Poster Presentation Award)
3. Gregg J. Suaning, John W. Morley, Nigel H. Lovell, T Guo, Socrates Dokos, Alejandro Barriga-Rivera, Retinal neuromodulation and the neural code - lost in translation? Artificial vision: latest progress and challenges ahead, Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC), 2018 Annual International Conference of the IEEE.
4. S. Dokos, T. Guo, N. H. Lovell, Computational Modelling of Retinal Electrical Stimulation, Simulation of Neurological Disorders and their Treatment with Neuromodulation, Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC), 2018 Annual International Conference of the IEEE.
5. Al Abed, T. Guo, N. H. Lovell, and S. Dokos, A Model of atrial propagation based on in vitro action potential records. The 30th Annual Meeting of the Australian Neuroscience Society and the 50th Anniversary Meeting of the Australian Physiological Society, Sydney, 2010
6. T Guo, D Tsai, G J Suaning, N H Lovell S Dokos, A modified retinal ganglion cell model, the 3rd International Conference on Neuroprosthetic Devices (ICND), Sydney, 2011. 
7. T Guo, D Tsai, G J Suaning, N H Lovell S Dokos, Influence of cell morphology in computational models of ON and OFF retinal ganglion cells, AuPS/PSNZ/ASB Joint Meeting, Sydney, 2012.
8. T Guo, D Tsai, G J Suaning, N H Lovell S Dokos, Influence of dendritic structure on retinal ganglion cell firing pattern: a modeling study, NeuroEng 2013: 6th Australian Workshop on Computational Neuroscience, Melbourne, Australia (NeuroEng Student Prize).
9. T Guo, D Tsai, G J Suaning, N H Lovell S Dokos, A generic modelling approach for reconstructing retinal ganglion cell electrical activity, Australian Biomedical Engineering Conference (ABEC), 2013. (Best Presentation Award)
10. Barriga-Rivera, T. Guo, N. H. Lovell, J. W. Morley, and G. J. Suaning， High-density simultaneous recordings from visual cortex and superior colliculus in a rat: a pilot study in retinal prosthesis，2017 International Conference on Cancer Nursing (ICCN), 2017.
11. J W Morley, C-Y Yang, D Tsai, T Guo, G Suaning, S Dokos, N H Lovell, High Frequency Electrical Stimulation: the Effect of Spatial Location on Retinal Ganglion Cell Responses In Vitro, Neuroscience 2016, San Diego CA, USA, 2016.

Invited talk

1. “Replicating a more physiological retinal neural code using high-rate electrical stimulation”, Eye and The Chip world research congress, November 2019, Detroit, US.
2. “Optimizing the performance of retinal neuroprostheses with high-frequency electrical stimulation, Artificial vision: latest progress and challenges ahead”, Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC), 2018 Annual International Conference of the IEEE. August, 2018, Honolulu.
3. “Next generation of neural interface”, UNSW China roadshow, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Feb, 2018, Beijing.
4. “Selective activation of retinal neurons using artificial electrical stimulation”, Shanghai Institute of Neuroscience, Chinese Academy of Sciences, August, 2015, Shanghai.
5. “Neural interface: a bridge between engineering and biology”, UNSW China roadshow, Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SHJT), October, 2015, Shanghai.
6. “Bionic eye, seeing, and not seeing the light”, Brain Awareness Session, Donald Wihelm Museum of Human Disease, March, 2018, Sydney.
7. “Implantable bionics”, High School Science Teacher’s Day, Donald Wihelm Museum of Human Disease, April, 2017, Sydney.
8. “Interface between biology and engineering”, Beijing University of Chemical technology (BUCT). October, 2016, Beijing.
9. “Optimizing the activation of retinal neurons using artificial electrical stimulation”, Jingmeng Hi-Tech, October, 2014, Beijing.