Knowledge, tools & references.
A curated collection of scientific AI assistants, electrophysiology toolboxes, spinal anatomy atlases, experimental protocols, and academic guides used by Dr. Katinka Stecina and lab trainees.
Claude Team for Scientists + Claude Science
Role: Main scientific workbench
Why this is a good fit for Stecina Lab: Claude excels at nuanced scientific reasoning, rigorous manuscript drafting, protocol synthesis, and analyzing complex electrophysiology data processing scripts (Python/MATLAB). Its large context window allows you to load extensive literature, previous lab papers, or experimental logs without losing fidelity.
Recommended use: Primary daily workbench for scientific writing, figure narrative design, code development, and synthesizing experimental observations.
ChatGPT / Deep Research
Role: Independent reasoning, grant work, second-opinion research
Why this is a good fit for Stecina Lab: ChatGPT combined with Deep Research provides an autonomous research capability that scans and aggregates dozens of web sources, clinical trials, and multi-disciplinary papers. It acts as an adversarial thinking partner to stress-test grant hypotheses, uncover counter-arguments, and draft grant sections.
Recommended use: Grant proposal preparation, peer review rebuttal preparation, and comprehensive cross-disciplinary topic exploration.
Elicit
Role: Structured literature search / systematic evidence review
Why this is a good fit for Stecina Lab: Elicit is purpose-built for scientific workflows. It searches directly over 200M+ academic papers and builds structured comparison tables of methodologies, animal models, stimulation parameters, dosages, and sample sizes without hallucinating citations.
Recommended use: Systematic literature reviews, parameter benchmarking across historical spinal cord studies, and evidence matrix generation for thesis projects.
NotebookLM / Gemini Deep Research
Role: Internal lab knowledge base
Why this is a good fit for Stecina Lab: NotebookLM creates an instant private knowledge assistant grounded strictly in your uploaded lab PDFs, previous publications, protocols, and trainee theses. It cites exact page references and avoids hallucinating outside facts, while Gemini Deep Research provides deep external topic synthesis.
Recommended use: Onboarding new lab students to previous lab findings, querying the lab's internal PDF archives, and generating audio overviews for protocol review.
Consensus
Role: Quick evidence questions
Why this is a good fit for Stecina Lab: Consensus delivers rapid, peer-reviewed consensus meters for specific scientific inquiries (e.g., "Does spinal cord transcutaneous stimulation alter sympathetic tone in SCI?"). It aggregates extract summaries from published abstracts for instant verification.
Recommended use: Fact-checking background claims quickly during writing, clarifying clinical consensus, and checking recent conflicting neuroscience findings.
CED Spike2 & Signal
Standard data acquisition and multi-channel analysis software for intracellular, extracellular, and EMG recordings.
SpikeInterface
A unified Python framework for analyzing extracellular electrophysiology data, pre-processing, and multi-sorter benchmarking.
DeepLabCut
Deep learning tool for markerless pose estimation and kinematic movement tracking during locomotion and motor tasks.
Allen Spinal Cord Atlas
High-resolution, genome-wide digital atlas of gene expression in the adult and developing mouse spinal cord.
NeuroMorpho.Org
Centrally curated inventory of digitally reconstructed neurons and glia, including motoneuron and interneuron dendritic trees.
The Spinal Cord (Watson et al.)
Comprehensive guide to the organization, cytoarchitecture, and tracts of the mammalian spinal cord.
Fictive Locomotion Protocols
Standard experimental methods for evoking fictive locomotor rhythms and recording dorsal root and motor nerve reflexes.
H-Reflex & Cutaneous Reflex Testing
Guidelines for non-invasive spinal reflex assessment, nerve stimulation parameters, and EMG electrode placement in human participants.
Protocols.io Neuroscience Hub
Step-by-step collaborative scientific protocols, staining recipes, perfusion steps, and surgical preparation checklists.
Open Data Commons for SCI (ODC-SCI)
A community repository dedicated to sharing primary research data from spinal cord injury studies to accelerate translation.
SPARC Portal
NIH Stimulating Peripheral Activity to Relieve Conditions portal for autonomic neuromodulation data and anatomical maps.
NIH NCATS OpenData Portal (RWD)
NIH open-science platform providing access to Real-World Data (RWD), clinical cohorts, and translational screening datasets to accelerate biomedical discovery and translation.
Zenodo Open Research Data
General-purpose open-access repository developed under the European OpenAIRE program and operated by CERN.
Spinal Cord Research Centre
Directory, seminar schedules, research equipment hubs, and facility booking at the University of Manitoba SCRC.
Rady Faculty Graduate Programs
Information for prospective and current MSc/PhD students in Physiology & Pathophysiology at the Rady Faculty of Health Sciences.
Dr. Stecina on Google Scholar
Real-time citation index, co-author network, and complete historical bibliography for Dr. Katinka Stecina.
Have a tool or link to add?
If you have an analysis pipeline, paper, dataset, or utility that would benefit our research group and trainees, let us know.