Graduate Students
Name: Razan Alotaibi
Program: M.S. in Anatomy and Neurobiology
Advisor: Karin Schon, Ph.D.
Research Summary: Razan is studying the influence of exercise on cognitive abilities through correlating processed structural MRI data with tasks of spatial navigation and executive function in older humans.
Name: Katharine Babcock
Program: M.S. in Anatomy and Neurobiology
Advisor: Ann McKee, M.D.
Research Summary: Katie is investigating potential mechanisms of blood-brain-barrier dysfunction and its relationship to neurodegeneration in Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) using immunohistochemical and immunofluorescent techniques.
Name: Karen Bottenfield
Program: Ph.D. in Anatomy and Neurobiology
Advisor: Tara Moore, Ph.D.
Research Summary: Karen recently began her rotation with the Laboratory of Cognitive Neurobiology.
Name: Morgan Brady
Program: M.S. in Anatomy and Neurobiology
Advisor: Tarik Haydar, Ph.D.
Research Summary: Morgan is looking at the effects of the Olig2+ gene triplication on spinal cord neurons in mouse models Down Syndrome.
Name: Chris Brooks
Program: Ph.D. in Anatomy and Neurobiology
Advisor: Kevin “Kip” Thomas, M.B.A, Ph.D.
Research Summary: Chris is using video annotation software and wearable sensors to quantitatively assess the functional and motor impairments associated with Parkinson’s disease.
Name: Yi (Chloe) Bu
Program: M.S. in Anatomy and Neurobiology
Advisor: First-Year Student
Research Summary: Yi is a first-year student and is currently in laboratory rotations.
Name: Jocoll Burgess
Program: M.S. in Anatomy and Neurobiology
Advisor: Farzad Mortazavi, Ph.D.
Research Summary: Jocoll is studying minicolumns and axonal bundle organization in area 46 layer 5 in young and old monkeys using 3D modeling techniques. She is looking for noticeable anatomical difference between groups and whether cognitive impairment is dependent on anatomical differences.
Name: Samantha Calderazzo
Program: M.S. in Anatomy and Neurobiology
Advisor: First-Year Student
Research Summary: Samantha is a first-year student and currently in laboratory rotations.
Name: Wayne Chang
Program: Ph.D. in Anatomy and Neurobiology
Advisor: First-Year Student
Research Summary: Wayne is a first-year student and currently in laboratory rotations.
Name: Matthew Czech
Program: Ph.D. in Anatomy and Neurobiology
Advisor: First-Year Student
Research Summary: Matthew is a first-year student and currently in laboratory rotations.
Name: Renee DeVivo
Program: M.S. in Anatomy and Neurobiology
Advisor: Ron Killiany, Ph.D.
Research Summary: Renee is analyzing cognitive impairment in the aging brain and how such changes are reflected in the hippocampus and entorhinal cortex utilizing functional MRI.
Name: Amr Elmansoury
Program: M.S. in Anatomy and Neurobiology
Advisor: First-Year Student
Research Summary: Amr is a first-year student and is currently in laboratory rotations.
Name: Guanying He
Program: M.S. in Anatomy and Neurobiology
Advisor: First-Year Student
Research Summary: Guanying is a first-year student and currently in laboratory rotations.
Name: Kathryn Kern
Program: Ph.D. in Anatomy and Neurobiology
Advisor: Karin Schon, Ph.D.
Research Summary: Katie’s research examines the effects of exercise on the medial temporal lobe memory system in human aging using structural and functional neuroimaging and exercise physiology techniques.
Name: Sophie Kontur
Program: M.S. in Anatomy and Neurobiology
Advisor: Elizabeth Whitney, Ph.D, MSPT
Research Summary: Sophie is looking at vascular variation in cadavers to see if variation medially- such as in the heart or abdomen- predicts variation distally.
Name: Chelsey LeBlang
Program: Ph.D. in Anatomy and Neurobiology
Advisor: Jennifer Luebke, Ph.D.
Research Summary: Chelsey is studying the relationship between stress granule biology, inflammation, and tau pathology in a mouse model of tauopathy.
Name: Evelyn Yee Fun Lee
Program: Ph.D. in Anatomy and Neurobiology
Advisor: Brian Bacskai, Ph.D.
Research Summary: Evelyn is studying the disruption of slow oscillations in animal models of Alzheimer’s disease using multiphoton imaging and optogenetics.
Name: Songjun William Li
Program: M.D./Ph.D. in Anatomy and Neurobiology
Advisor: Ziv Williams, M.D. and Mark Moss, Ph.D.
Research Summary: Will is studying the neural mechanisms underlying social dynamics and social decision making in mice and monkeys using optogenetics and electrophysiological approaches.
Name: Seh Hong (Chris) Lim
Program: Ph.D. in Anatomy and Neurobiology
Advisor: Jennifer Luebke, Ph.D., and Ki Ann Goosens, Ph.D.
Research Summary: Chris is using optogentics to identify the brain regions that govern the classical conditioning principles (contingency and contiguity) in the fear neural circuitry.
Name: Alexander Lobo
Program: M.S. in Anatomy and Neurobiology
Advisor: First-Year Student
Research Summary: Alexander is a first-year student and is currently in laboratory rotations.
Name: Elizabeth Marco
Program: M.S. in Anatomy and Neurobiology
Advisor: First-Year Student
Research Summary: Elizabeth is a first-year student and is currently in laboratory rotations.
Name: Alan Espinal Martinez
Program: M.S. in Anatomy and Neurobiology
Advisor: First-Year Student
Research Summary: Alan is a first-year student and currently in laboratory rotations.
Name: Anastasia Murati
Program: M.S. in Anatomy and Neurobiology
Advisor: First-Year Student
Research Summary: Anastasia is a first-year student and currently in laboratory rotations.
Name: Nick Nicoletti
Program: M.S. in Anatomy and Neurobiology
Advisor: Jennifer Luebke, PhD
Research Summary: Nick utilizes electron microscopy to study microglial cell infiltration of the synaptic cleft and its relation to tau pathology in a mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease.
Name: Yashar Rahimpour, MS
Program: Ph.D. in Anatomy and Neurobiology
Advisor: Ronald Killiany, Ph.D.
Research Summary: Yashar is using structural MRI techniques such as diffusion in conjunction with functional MRI to study the Default Mode Network and its relationship in the healthy brain, aging brain, and cerebrovascular disease models.
Name: Ruiyi Ren
Program: Ph.D. in Anatomy and Neurobiology
Advisor: Haiyan Gong, M.D., Ph.D.
Research Summary: Ruiyi works to characterize the changes in effective flow area and morphologies in trabecular meshwork when aqueous outflow varies.
Name: David Swain
Program: M.D./Ph.D. in Anatomy and Neurobiology
Advisor: Haiyan Gong, M.D., Ph.D.
Research Summary: David aims to investigate the mechanisms of increased resistance in the trabecular outflow pathway of glaucomatous eyes.
Name: Katherine Szostak
Program: M.S. in Anatomy and Neurobiology
Advisor: First-Year Student
Research Summary: Katherine is a first-year student and currently in laboratory rotations.
Name: Katelyn Trecartin
Program: M.D./Ph.D. in Anatomy and Neurobiology
Advisor: Douglas Rosene, Ph.D.
Research Summary: Katelyn is looking at various inflammatory pathways associated with the white matter pathology observed in the normal aging primate brain.
Name: Alexandra Tsolias
Program: Ph.D. in Anatomy and Neurobiology
Advisor: First-Year Student
Research Summary: Alexandra is a first-year student and currently in laboratory rotations.
Name: Ajay Uprety
Program: Ph.D. in Anatomy and Neurobiology
Advisor: Doug Rosene, Ph.D., and Tara Moore, Ph.D.
Research Summary: Ajay’s research interests include the effects of aging on cognition, learning and memory.
Name: Lauren Zajac, M.S.
Program: Ph.D. in Anatomy and Neurobiology
Advisor: Ronald Killiany, Ph.D.
Research Summary: Lauren is using structural and functional MRI to study changes in the human brain that occur in healthy aging and mild cognitive impairment, a prodromal phase of Alzheimer’s disease. She is focusing on changes that occur within systems that support spatial navigation.
Name: Zannan Zhang
Program: M.S. in Anatomy and Neurobiology
Advisor: First-Year Student
Research Summary: Zhannan is a first-year student and currently in laboratory rotations.