Neela obtained Bachelor’s degree in Pharmacy from JNT University, India and MSc Pharmacology from Aston University, UK.

He pursued his PhD thesis ‘In vitro characterisation of epileptiform-like activity’ in Andy Trevelyan’s lab, Newcastle University, UK. During this period, he developed a simple set of extracellular local field potential recording experiments and measures that can be used to characterise the evolution of epileptiform-like activity in brain slices when challenged with different types of pro-epileptic media. This powerful tool was used to understand the effects of drugs acting at different GABA receptors, for example, diazepam and baclofen on the evolution of epileptiform-activity. It was found that these drugs have differential effects that were dependent on the brain region and the mechanisms underlying the development of seizure-like activity. He also discovered a non-canonical mode of communication between different regions in brain slices and its role on how epileptiform-like activity in one region influences the activity in other regions. Using targeted patch-clamp, optogenetics and calcium-imaging techniques, he investigated the roles played by different populations of GABAergic interneurons and their recruitment to different types of epileptiform-like activity. In 2015, he was invited to IBRO-UCT African Advanced School on Epilepsy, Cape Town, to give a lecture on the concepts of extracellular local field potential recording technique and train attendees on building and using an extracellular field potential recording rig. During his PhD, he visited Schevon’s Lab in Columbia University, USA to build a multi-electrode array rig using Utah arrays to record high-density extracellular electrophysiology signals from brain slices of transgenic mouse lines.

In 2018, after PhD, he joined Kind-Wyllie Lab at the University of Edinburgh (UoE) where he used his expertise to understand the pathological mechanisms underlying seizure development in a grain2a rodent model of epilepsy. During his time at UoE, he collaborated with Gonzalez-Sulser’s lab and worked on a project to show that ‘medial septal GABAergic neurons reduce seizure durations upon optogenetic closed-loop stimulation’. In December 2019, he was awarded RS MacDonald Seedcorn fund of £5000 to investigate 'the role of microglia in the development of epilepsy and associated anatomical damage'. Unfortunately, the project had to be discontinued due to the COVID-19 pandemic.