Melissa Claire Maaike Fasol

Melissa Claire Maaike Fasol

Accelerating AI for Good.

Cape Town, SA

About

I completed my PhD in AI & Computational Neuroscience in 2024, followed by a role as a Computational Biologist at an immuno-oncology startup in Stockholm. While I loved the experience, I believe there are rare moments in life when you can take a leap - so I’ve decided to start my own venture. Stay tuned! 🚀

Work Experience

Stealth

Founder

May 2025 - -
Remote
I’m currently building something at the intersection of AI and brand visibility. It’s early days, but the focus is on helping companies adapt to how AI is changing the way we search, discover, and understand information - with a strong emphasis on transparency and explainability.

Moleculent

Computational Biologist

September 2024 - March 2025
Stockholm, Sweden
  • Built an end-to-end pipeline to clean and process high-res spatial omics images, boosting signal quality for downstream analysis.
  • Applied ML techniques including normalizing flow models, Graph Attention Networks (GATs), and clustering to extract insights from protein marker data.
  • Automated image processing with Nextflow and developed interactive tools for scientists using napari + scverse.
  • Reduced processing time and improved accuracy of spatial cell-cell interaction analysis.

The University of Edinburgh

PhD student

October 2020 - July 2024
Edinburgh
The focus of my PhD was to find an EEG biomarker for rare neurodevelopmental disorders with supervised machine learning. Features were calculated from EEG recordings collected from rat models and human patients to explore translational possibilities such as data augmentation. XAI techniques identified the critical features influencing these models’ predictions, opening up exciting possibilities: Could this technology accurately assess how rodent models mimic human disorders? Or could it enhance medical diagnostics and deepen our understanding of the cellular impacts of particular mutations? Skills List

Selected Publications:

  • Single-Channel EEG Artifact Identification with the Spectral Slope (IEEE BIBM) [view]
  • Face-valid phenotypes in a mouse model of the most common mutation in EEF1A2-related neurodevelopmental disorder (Disease Models and Mechanisms) [view]
  • Spike-to-excite: photosensitive seizures in artificial neural networks
  • Identifying Translatable EEG Biomarkers for SYNGAP1 Haploinsufficiency with Explainable Machine Learning (In preparation)
Skills List

Grants & Awards:

  • Simons Trust Imbizo Follow Up Grant (2024)
  • PhD scholarship (tuition and stipend) awarded by the Engineering and Physical Research Council (EPSRC) (2020)

Conference Presentations:

  • Single-Channel EEG Artifact Identification with the Spectral Slope IEEE International Conference on Bioinformatics and Biomedicine (December, 2023)
  • Identifying Translatable EEG Biomarkers for SYNGAP1 Haploinsufficiency International League Against Epilepsy, Newcastle (September 2023)
  • Quantifying the Spectral Slope in Neurodevelopmental Disorders IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology, Glasgow (2022)

Teaching:

  • Mentor: undergraduate Neuroscience Honours student, undergraduate BEng and Computer Science Student (January - April 2023)
  • Teaching Assistant: Statistics Practical in R (October - December 2022)

IBRO-Simons Computational Imbizo

Student

July 2022 - September 2022
Cape Town
The Imbizo is a machine learning and computational neuroscience school in Cape Town. Alongside lectures on neuronal biophysics, network dynamics and machine learning, I worked on building a sleep scorer using a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) to distinguish between sleep and wake states from spectrogram images.

Key Skills:

  • Computer Vision, PyTorch, CNNs

Presentation:

  • Exploring autoencoders to classify EEG recordings into sleep stages IBRO-Simons Computational Neuroscience Imbizo, Cape Town (2022)

Amgen

Amgen Summer Scholar

June 2019 - September 2019
Munich, Germany and Cambridge, UK
I studied the effect of hyperglycaemia on the Tlr2 and Cxcr3 innate immunity pathways activated after neural injury, finding that hyperglycaemia over activates oligodendrocyte progenitor cells resulting in exacerbated glial scar formation. The program ended with a symposium at the University of Cambridge:

Presentation:

  • Brain Regeneration: Hyperglycemia and Glial Scar Formation Amgen Scholars Symposium (September, 2019)
Skills List

Key Skills:

  • DNA extraction, Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR), gel electrophoresis
  • Cryostat slicing, immunostainings, confocal microscopy

Prosper Social Finance

Senior Analyst

September 2018 - March 2020
Edinburgh, United Kingdom
Prosper Social Finance is the UK's first socially responsible investment fund. As part of their analyst program, I researched sustainable stocks according to ESG criteria, financial health and values. Following this, I researched pharmaceutical stocks associated with Alzheimer's research, and my stock pitch led to an investment from the university. The following year, I was selected as a Senior Analyst to support the management team with investment strategy.

Population Council

Field Work Intern

January 2016 - June 2016
Homa Bay, Kenya
Field work conducted in rural parts of Kenya to identify strategies and public policies that could aid teenage mothers return to school after pregnancy. I wrote a report proposing methods which could improve the rate of return to school after childbirth, published in the IIEP Unesco Learning Portal [view].

Education

The University of Edinburgh

PhD (Neuroscience & Biomedical Engineering)

October 2020 - April 2024
Edinburgh, UK

Thesis Title: Identifying Translatable EEG Biomarkers for SYNGAP1 Haploinsuffifiency with Explainable Machine Learning

Courses: Engineering Mathematics 1a, Engineering Mathematics 1b, Programming Skills for Engineers, Sensor Networks and Data Analysis

The University of Edinburgh

BSc (Hons) Neuroscience

September 2016 - July 2020
Edinburgh, UK

Honours Project: Seizure propagation patterns in kainate mouse models of Temporal Lobe Epilepsy

Courses: Neurobiology of Cognition in Health and Disease, Making Sense of Disease Pathways, Mechanisms of Brain Development, Pharmacology, Anatomy and Development, Programming for Biologists, Astrobiology