Prof. Mawase focuses his work on the principals of motor control and on brain rehabilitation — deciphering the mechanisms that determine the extent of recovery following a stroke. Using tools from behavioral and computational neuroscience and functional imaging of the brain, he aims to bridge the gap between basic science and clinical applications.
For example, Prof. Mawase and a team of researchers from the Technion and the Rabin Medical Center, guided Shaked Ron, then a medical and undergraduate student, in his work for the annual 2019 student project fair in the Faculty of Biomedical Engineering. Ron took first place for the development of advanced methods in mapping the functional areas of the cerebral cortex during awake brain surgery. Performing brain surgery while the patient is awake allows patients to perform tasks such as talking, counting, and wiggling their toes. This helps neurosurgeons map areas of the brain more precisely, reducing risk to the patient during surgery.
Prof. Mawase received his bachelor’s degree (summa cum laude), his master’s degree (magna cum laude), and his Ph.D. from the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Ben Gurion University of the Negev. He conducted postdoctoral research at John Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, Md., before joining the Technion faculty in 2018.