# Jan Funke **Entity class:** Computational-connectomics researcher **Collection:** [[collections/Neurotech|Neurotech]] **Canonical source articles:** [[articles/The Organic-Synthetic Brain Atlas|The Organic-Synthetic Brain Atlas]] · [[articles/Technologies for Consciousness Mapping and Transfer|Technologies for Consciousness Mapping and Transfer]] ## Definition **Jan Funke** develops methods for automated analysis of microscopy datasets too large for manual inspection. His Janelia research lineage includes scalable neuron segmentation and [[wiki/Local Shape Descriptors|Local Shape Descriptors]], through which [[wiki/Arlo Sheridan|Arlo Sheridan]] entered PRISM's computational ancestry. Funke is credited with PRISM conceptualization; the formal contribution statement assigns hands-on barcode segmentation and automatic proofreading to Sheridan and [[wiki/William Patton|William Patton]]. ## Relationships - **Institutional lineage:** [[wiki/Janelia Research Campus|Janelia Research Campus]]. - **Method lineage:** [[wiki/Local Shape Descriptors|Local Shape Descriptors]] and [[wiki/Machine Learning Segmentation|machine-learning segmentation]]. - **Conceptual contribution:** [[wiki/PRISM (E11 Bio)|PRISM (E11 Bio)]]. - **Role boundary:** conceptual authorship is not substituted for the direct work assigned to Sheridan and Patton. - **Collection route:** [[collections/Neurotech|Neurotech]]. ## Simple Reminders, Quotations, and Thoughts <!-- BEGIN SIMPLE REMINDER SEED 2026-09-11 --> > "I should have been very happy, but instead I was worried because we didn't understand what was going on" > **— Jan Funke**, *HHMI/Janelia research story* [[reminders/Connectomics/The Neural Network Worked but No One Knew Why by Jan Funke|The Neural Network Worked but No One Knew Why by Jan Funke]] > "And that seemed a bit impossible because humans can't do it." > **— Jan Funke**, *Interview on machine learning inference from microscopy* [[reminders/Connectomics/The Brain-Mapping Task Humans Cannot Do Alone by Jan Funke|The Brain-Mapping Task Humans Cannot Do Alone by Jan Funke]] <!-- END SIMPLE REMINDER SEED 2026-09-11 --> ## Sources - [Janelia — AI at Janelia](https://www.janelia.org/ai-at-janelia) - [Local Shape Descriptors](https://localshapedescriptors.github.io/) - [PubMed Central — PRISM author contributions](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12485930/)