Michael Deistler

Alright, let's get this going! I am Michael and I build Machine Learning tools for Neuroscience @mackelab.bsky.social. In particular, I work on: • Simulation-based inference (SBI) @sbi-devs.bsky.social • Jaxley, a differentiable simulator for neuroscience @jaxleyverse.bsky.social

sbi v.0.26.1 is out 🎉. We initially planned this release for January, but then the Grenoble Hackathon and GSoC applications happened. Now we have three new methods, better neural nets, cleaner internals, better docs, and 9 new contributors 🤗. Highlights below 🧵

Our paper “Multifidelity Simulation-based Inference for Computationally Expensive Simulators” has been accepted at ICLR 2026! 🥳 We hope this can be a practical solution for anyone analysing and doing inference on computationally expensive simulators. Paper: openreview.net/pdf?id=bj0dc...

SBI Hackathon Grenoble is a wrap! 🎉 35 researchers and a great hybrid format of 1.5 days of tutorials + 1.5 days of applied hackathon. Many went from “having heard of sbi” to applying full SBI workflows to their own research projects. 🧵👇

Finally got the job ad—looking for 2 PhD students to start spring next year: www.gao-unit.com/join-us/ If comp neuro, ML, and AI4Neuro is your thing, or you just nerd out over brain recordings, apply! I'm at neurips. DM me here / on the conference app or email if you want to meet 🏖️🌮

On our blog: For decades, brain simulations have either been largely simplified, or they could not perform cognitive tasks. #JAXLEY, a new AI tool, opens possibilities to build brain simulations that overcome both limitations: www.machinelearningforscience.de/en/jaxley-ai... #AIforScience

Simulation-based Inference (SBI) brings the power of generative modeling to parameter inference in science and engineering. We have now written a practical guide on how to effectively use these methods across domains 🔭👁️‍🗨️🦞

Eine neue Software ermöglicht Gehirnsimulationen, die sowohl detailliert die Prozesse im Gehirn imitieren als auch anspruchsvolle kognitive Aufgaben lösen können. Entwickelt wurde das Programm von einem Forschungsteam am Exzellenzcluster @ ml4science.bsky.social der Universität Tübingen.

Our work on training biophysical models with Jaxley is now out in @natmethods.nature.com. Led by @deismic.bsky.social, with @philipp.hertie.ai, @ppjgoncalves.bsky.social & @jakhmack.bsky.social et al. Paper: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

🎉 sbi participated in GSoC 2025 through @numfocus.bsky.social and it was a great success: our two students contributed major new features and substantial internal improvements: 🧵 👇

“Mapping ion channel function” doi.org/10.7554/eLif... isn’t exactly a citation slayer, but it’s still one of my favourites (& my first independent project). Today we push pt 2, where we trace code origin & unite almost all channel models in a common expression. Boom! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

I've been waiting some years to make this joke and now it’s real: I conned somebody into giving me a faculty job! I’m starting as a W1 Tenure-Track Professor at Goethe University Frankfurt in a week (lol), in the Faculty of CS and Math and I'm recruiting PhD students 🤗

From hackathon to release: sbi v0.25 is here! 🎉 What happens when dozens of SBI researchers and practitioners collaborate for a week? New inference methods, new documentation, lots of new embedding networks, a bridge to pyro and a bridge between flow matching and score-based methods 🤯 1/7 🧵

Looky Looky! 😍🥳👏 arxiv.org/abs/2508.12939 Super fun project, I ❤️ed coauthoring w/ @sbi-devs.bsky.social. Great lead by @deismic.bsky.social & @janboelts.bsky.social. Contribs by many talented people @jakhmack.bsky.social. 🙏 to #BenjaminKurtMiller for the kickstart! @helmholtzai.bsky.social

📢 I am looking for AI post-doc/research/engineer positions in Europe (Paris, London, Zurich, ...) starting 2026. My work revolves around generative modeling and AI for Science, with 4+ publications at top conferences during my PhD. If you are hiring, please reach out! If not, please repost 🔁

🎓Hiring now! 🧠 Join us at the exciting intersection of ML and Neuroscience! #AI4science We’re looking for PhDs, Postdocs and Scientific Programmers that want to use deep learning to build, optimize and study mechanistic models of neural computations. Full details: www.mackelab.org/jobs/ 1/5

Exciting project in Parkinson's disease! Patrik Verstreken's lab (verstrekenlab.sites.vib.be) and my lab are looking for a postdoc to develop and apply ML methods to the analysis of exciting brain-on-chip data. Please spread the word! More details at: jobs.vib.be/j/110908/pos...

🎉 Exciting news! We are lauching an sbi office hour! Join the sbi developers Thursdays 09:45-10:15am CET via Zoom (link: sbi Discord's "office hours" channel). Get guidance on contributing, explore sbi for your research, or troubleshoot issues. Come chat with us! 🤗 github.com/sbi-dev/sbi/...

We are looking to hire a Senior Scientist or #Postdoc to study brains, biophysics, and behaviour using #Drosophila as a model. Please spread the word! www.medunigraz.at/en/job-openi...

It's been a blast, thanks to @sbi-devs.bsky.social ! This week's hackathon was phenomenal! 🙏 😍 The sbi hackathon welcomed about 25 people in Tübingen with contributions spanning the globe , e.g. 🇺🇸🇯🇵🇧🇪🇩🇪. Wanna see, what we did? Check out the PRs👇 github.com/sbi-dev/sbi/...

sbi 0.24.0 is out! 🎉 This comes with important new features: - 🎯 Score-based i.i.d sampling - 🔀 Simultaneous estimation of multiple discrete and continuous parameters or data. - 📊: mini-sbibm for quick benchmarking. Just in time for our 1-week SBI hackathon starting tomorrow---stay tuned for more!

Together with @dendritesgr.bsky.social, we’ll be hosting a tutorial on constructing and optimizing biophysical models (via Jaxley & DendroTweaks) 🚀 Join us in Florence if you like dendrites, biophysics, or optimization!

1) Some exciting science in turbulent times: How do mice distinguish self-generated vs. object-generated looming stimuli? Our new study combines VR and neural recordings from superior colliculus (SC) 🧠🐭 to explore this question. Check out our preprint doi.org/10.1101/2024... 🧵

🚀 Excited to share my latest paper! 📄✨ This project started at the beginning of the pandemic and took longer than expected, but that’s the beauty of science! 🧬🔬 Check it out in the following threads! #PandemicProjects My post comes a bit late because of TAing duties in @imbizo.bsky.social🇿🇦(1/14)

🙏 Please help us improve the SBI toolbox! 🙏 In preparation for the upcoming SBI Hackathon, we’re running a user study to learn what you like, what we can improve, and how we can grow. 👉 Please share your thoughts here: forms.gle/foHK7myV2oaK... Your input will make a big difference—thank you! 🙌

🎉 Just in time for the end of the year, we’ve released a new version of sbi! 📦 v0.23.3 comes packed with exciting features, bug fixes, and docs updates to make sbi smoother and more robust. Check it out! 👇 🔗 Full changelog: github.com/sbi-dev/sbi/...

Apropos of never ending discussions about whether ANNs are "good" models of the nervous system, here is a slide I present to masters students showing a network that is found in motor control circuits *across phyla* (that's pretty ubiquitous!) I ask them to guess what it does...

The SBI package has a public discord server now! 🌍 It is open for users or (aspiring) contributors, or for researchers interested in simulations or Bayesian inference with neural networks. See you there! 👋

I will talk about our efforts to train biophysically detailed neuron models at the CMC Learning Club today (2pm CET). Zoom link sent upon empty email to virtual-talk-link-request@cmclab.org. Thanks a lot @neuroprinciplist.bsky.social for organizing this!

It has been almost 5 years since our first mini-hackathon to kickstart the sbi toolbox. Since then, it has seen lots of major updates, many of them driven by new contributors 🚀 We have now written an updated paper to reflect the current state of contributors & features of the toolbox. Check it out!