Anna Devor.

Anna Devor

Professor of biomedical engineering
Boston University

Anna Devor is professor of biomedical engineering at Boston University (BU), associate director of the BU Neurophotonics Center, and editor-in-chief of the journal Neurophotonics, published by the optical engineering society SPIE.

Devor’s lab, the Neurovascular Imaging Laboratory, specializes in imaging neuronal, glial, vascular and metabolic activity in the brains of living and behaving experimental animals. Her research is focused on understanding fundamental neurovascular and neurometabolic principles of brain activity and the mechanistic underpinning of noninvasive brain imaging signals. She also works on imaging of stem-cell-derived human neuronal networks.

Devor received her Ph.D. in neuroscience from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. After completing her postdoctoral training in neuroimaging at the Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, she established her own lab at the University of California, San Diego before moving it to BU in 2020. She has a wide network of collaborators across the world and is experienced in leading large, multidisciplinary teams.

Explore more from The Transmitter

Barbara Finlay looking at a glass jar with a brain.

Remembering Barbara Finlay, ‘maverick’ of evolutionary neuroscience

Finlay, who died on 12 September, championed the idea that developmental constraints dictate how evolution sculpts brains, a concept she used to model the timing of hundreds of events and align them across mammalian species.

By Calli McMurray
23 October 2026 | 8 min read
A crow looking at a screen showing a circle of white dots on a black background.

Crows have brains ‘in the fast lane’

The birds accurately complete decision-making tasks twice as fast as primates, although their endbrains look considerably different.

By Sarah Thau
22 October 2026 | 4 min read
A boy manipulates blocks at a table while sitting across from a woman taking notes.

Prevalence of profound autism declines with new definition

The updated, more precise definition used in a CDC study includes adaptive scores.

By Brianna Abbott
22 October 2026 | 5 min read