{"id":48,"date":"2021-06-01T15:47:56","date_gmt":"2021-06-01T20:47:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/pbhi\/?page_id=48"},"modified":"2025-11-10T14:18:42","modified_gmt":"2025-11-10T19:18:42","slug":"the-team","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/pbhi\/about-pbhi\/the-team\/","title":{"rendered":"Our Team"},"content":{"rendered":"

Leadership:<\/span><\/span><\/h2>\n

\"\"Rhoda Au (PhD, MBA)\u00a0<\/b><\/h2>\n
Director, Primary Investigator <\/em><\/h5>\n

Rhoda Au is a Professor of Anatomy & Neurobiology, Neurology, Medicine and Epidemiology at Boston University. She also serves as one of the principal investigators of the Framingham Heart Study Brain Aging Program (FHS-BAP<\/a>) and is currently the Director of Neuropsychology. Her work includes using technologies to promote equal opportunity science and to develop and validate multi-sensor digital biomarkers. Her long-term research objective is to enable global solutions that move the primary focus of health technologies from precision medicine to a broader emphasis on precision brain health.<\/p>\n

See full profile on BU School of Medicine website<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Vijaya Kolachalama (PhD)<\/b><\/h2>\n
\u00a0Primary Investigator <\/em><\/h5>\n

Vijaya Kolachalama is an Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine and the Department of Computer Science at Boston University. He is also a founding member of the Faculty of Computing & Data Sciences at BU. Dr. Kolachalama’s research group<\/a><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>is primarily focused on developing advanced machine learning algorithms that have diagnostic relevance. His laboratory is funded by multiple awards from the National Institutes of Health, the American Heart Association, private foundations, and the pharmaceutical industry.<\/span><\/p>\n

See full profile on BU School of Medicine website\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Katherine A. Gifford (PsyD)<\/span><\/h2>\n
Primary\u00a0<\/em>Investigator<\/em><\/h5>\n

Katherine Gifford is an Associate Professor of Anatomy & Neurobiology at Boston University. She is a licensed clinical neuropsychologist with a research focus on the early detection of unhealthy brain aging, such as Alzheimer\u2019s disease and related dementias. Work from her team has included the creation of a new tool to assess subjective cognitive decline that has been validated against multi-modal markers of Alzheimer\u2019s disease. \u00a0Currently, she is focused on expanding early detection efforts through scalable and digital modalities and collaborates with other teams on clinical assessment and diagnosis of dementia.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/h2>\n

Philip Hwang (PhD, MPH)\u00a0\u00a0<\/b><\/h2>\n
Investigator<\/em><\/h5>\n

Phillip Hwang is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Epidemiology at Boston University School of Public Health and the Department of Anatomy & Neurobiology at Boston University School of Medicine. His work is focused on the prevention of Alzheimer\u2019s disease and related dementias (ADRD) through early detection and identification of risk and protective factors. Current research centers on modifiable lifestyle factors such as diet, exercise, and social connectedness, in relation to resilience and risk of ADRD across the life course, as well as projects on the use of digital measures of cognition and behavior in older adults.<\/p>\n

See full profile on BU School of Public Health website<\/a><\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/p>\n

Huitong Ding (PhD)<\/b><\/h2>\n
Research Assistant Professor<\/em><\/h5>\n

Dr. Ding is a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Anatomy & Neurobiology. He was previously a postdoctoral associate at the PBHI lab where he received training in brain aging research and explored the application of advanced analytical approaches to conduct interdisciplinary research in cognitive science. His current research explores cognitive heterogeneity, sex differences, early detection, digital phenotyping of cognitive impairment, and heart-brain connection using inclusive approaches.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

<\/h2>\n

Non-BU Affiliates:<\/span><\/span><\/h2>\n

\"\"Honghuang Lin (PhD)<\/b><\/h2>\n
\u00a0Professor of Medicine, Primary Investigator <\/em><\/h5>\n

Dr. Lin is a Professor of Medicine and Co-director of the Program in Digital Medicine at UMass Chan Medical School. His research is focused on the bioinformatics and statistical analysis of genetics and multi-omics data for cardiovascular disease and Alzheimer\u2019s disease. He is also developing machine learning models for the early diagnosis of diseases using a large collection of blood biomarkers, images, digital data and electronic health records. Dr. Lin was previously an Associate Professor of Medicine at Boston University and still serves as the principal investigator of the Futurizing Brain Health project.<\/span><\/p>\n

See full profile on UMass Chan Medical School website<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

\"\"Ileana De Anda-Duran (MD, MPH)<\/b><\/h2>\n
Research Assistant Professor<\/em><\/h5>\n

Dr. De Anda-Duran is a Research Assistant Professor at the Epidemiology Department at Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. Her research centers on identifying interventions that can impact brain health at the population level and reduce the disproportionate burden of dementia in racial and ethnic minorities. By investigating cardiovascular pathways to healthy cognitive aging and using decentralized technology-based approaches to overcome research barriers, she aims to discover digital measures that may be more sensitive than traditional metrics at identifying individuals who would benefit from CV risk control.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

Postdoctorals:<\/span><\/span><\/h2>\n

\"\"Meysam Ahangaran (PhD)<\/b><\/h2>\n
Postdoctoral Research Associate<\/em><\/h5>\n

Dr. Ahangaran is a Postdoctoral Research Associate at Boston University School of Medicine in the Computational Biomedicine research group. He received a Ph.D. in computer engineering and artificial intelligence. His research mainly focuses on machine learning methods in Alzheimer\u2019s disease using different data modalities such as MRI, cognitive, clinical and neuropsychological data. He works under the supervision of Dr. Vijaya Kolachalama.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

\"\"Matteo Bellitti (PhD)<\/b><\/h2>\n
Postdoctoral Research Associate<\/em><\/h5>\n

Dr. Bellitti is a Postdoctoral Researcher Associate in the Department of Computational Biomedicine at Boston University School of Medicine. His research focuses on bringing machine learning and advanced mathematical techniques to Alzheimer\u2019s disease research. He received a PhD in physics.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

\"\"Francesca Marino (PhD)<\/b><\/h2>\n
Postdoctoral Research Associate<\/em><\/h5>\n

Dr. Marino is a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Department of Anatomy & Neurobiology and received a Ph.D. in epidemiology. Her research focuses on using sensors and wearable devices to identify digital markers of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD). In particular, her work centers on understanding associations between physical activity and other modifiable risk factors with cognitive function among older adults, as well as identifying objectively measured patterns of daily physical activity that are most strongly related to ADRD.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/h2>\n

Maciej Kos\u00a0<\/b><\/h2>\n
Postdoctoral Research Associate<\/em><\/h5>\n

Dr. Kos is a postdoctoral fellow at Northeastern University’s Center for Cognitive and Brain Health and BU\u2019s PBHI. <\/span>He specializes in mHealth, sensing, and behavioral modeling. With a background in computer and behavioral sciences, he combines data-driven and statistical approaches with computational mechanistic modeling and decision-making frameworks to address challenges in health monitoring and cognitive aging. <\/span>Dr. Kos enjoys collaborations on meaningful projects and mentoring students.<\/span>
\nHis work is funded by the NIA K00 Career Award, with previous funding from ACM, Intel, and Google. He holds a Health Informatics Ph.D. from Northeastern.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/h2>\n

Data Team:<\/span><\/span><\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/b><\/h2>\n

Zexu Li (M.S.)<\/b><\/h2>\n
Research Data Analyst<\/em><\/h5>\n

Zexu mainly works on data management and data analysis at the PBHI lab. He received an MS in Data Analytics from Boston University in 2023 and is currently pursuing a PhD in biostatistics. His research is primarily interested in the overlap between genetics and machine learning.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

<\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/b><\/h2>\n

Edward Searls (B.A.)<\/b><\/h2>\n
Research Applications Developer<\/em><\/h5>\n

Edward is responsible for building data infrastructure to support research and promote data accessibility. He graduated in 2021 from Amherst College. He is currently pursuing a Masters in Electrical and Computer Engineering from BU. Edward is interested in all manner of technology and software systems.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

Study Staff:<\/span><\/span><\/h2>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"Alexa Burk (B.S.)\u00a0\u00a0<\/b><\/h2>\n
Project Manager\u00a0<\/em><\/h5>\n

Alexa helps coordinate communication between multiple sites working on a collaborative project that is centered around the optical coherence tomography (OCT) assessment. She also helps to recruit and manage participants in the Digital Phenotyping project. She received her B.S. in Psychology and plans to pursue her MPH.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Meg Low (B.S, B.A.)\u00a0<\/b><\/h2>\n
Research Specialist<\/em><\/h5>\n

Meg manages several projects in the PBHI that incorporate digital technologies, neuropsychological assessments, and blood-based biomarkers. She is passionate about engaging people of all racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic backgrounds in research. Meg is currently pursuing her MPH, and received her B.S. in Health Policy and Management and B.A. in Psychology from Providence College.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/h2>\n

<\/h2>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Meghan Maher (B.A, M.S.)<\/h2>\n

Research Specialist<\/em><\/h5>\n

Meghan supports the Digital Phenotyping Study by facilitating participant engagement and data collection, while also contributing to the Beatitudes Digital Blood Study with Beatitudes Senior Living in Phoenix, Arizona. She has a B.A. in Psychology and an M.S. in Applied Psychology. She is passionate about the intersection of technology and neuroscience and aspires to pursue a Ph.D. in Cognitive Neuroscience.<\/p>\n

<\/h2>\n

<\/h2>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Kaitlyn Anderson (B.S.)<\/h2>\n

Research Specialist<\/em><\/h5>\n

Kaitlyn manages participants in both the Digital Phenotyping and WellSense projects in the PHBI. Her work incorporates\u00a0conducting study visits, administering neuropsychological testing, and supporting participant recruitment.\u00a0Kaitlyn\u00a0earned her B.S. from Cornell University, majoring in both Biology and Communication with a minor in Creative Writing.\u00a0<\/span>She plans to pursue a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/h2>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/a>Stephanie Li (B.S, MPH)<\/h2>\n
Research Specialist<\/em><\/h5>\n

Stephanie Li is currently doing her PhD in Behavioral Neuroscience and she works closely with the Framingham Heart Study in her research. She is interested in utilizing digital technologies to detect early signs of ADRD through digital biomarkers. Currently, she is administering neuropsychological tests to the FHS cohorts as well as working on her own dissertation.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

<\/h2>\n

<\/h2>\n

Student Researchers:<\/span><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n\n
 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n

Isabella Panichi<\/strong><\/p>\n

Undergraduate Research Intern<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\n<\/td>\n		 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n

Wei Yi (Saku) Cui<\/strong><\/p>\n

Undergraduate Research Intern<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\n<\/td>\n		 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n

Owen Tan<\/strong><\/p>\n

Undergraduate Research Intern<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\n <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n

Emerson Kropp<\/strong><\/p>\n

Undergraduate Research Intern<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\n<\/td>\n		<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Lab Alumni:<\/span><\/span><\/h2>\n

Ludy Shih (M.D.) <\/strong>– Investigator<\/em><\/p>\n

Zach Popp (MPH, B.S.) <\/strong>–\u00a0Project Manager<\/em><\/p>\n

Spencer Low\u00a0 (MPH, B.S.) –\u00a0<\/strong>Project Manager<\/em><\/p>\n

Spencer Hardy (MBA)<\/strong> – Project Manager<\/em><\/p>\n

Kristi Ho (B.A)<\/strong> – Project Manager<\/em><\/p>\n

Salman Rahman\u00a0 (B.S.)<\/strong> – Program Coordinator<\/p>\n

Kieffer Christianson<\/strong>\u00a0(M.A.) <\/strong>–\u00a0Senior Research Study Administrator<\/em><\/p>\n

Enejda Senko<\/strong>\u00a0(M.S.) <\/strong>–\u00a0Senior Research Study Administrator<\/em><\/p>\n

Marina Ritchie (M.S.)<\/strong>\u00a0– Senior Research Study Administrator<\/em><\/p>\n

Akwaugo Igwe (B.A)<\/strong> – Research Specialist<\/em><\/p>\n

Sanskruti Madan (MPH, BDS)<\/strong> – Research Specialist<\/em><\/p>\n

Vrushali Dhongade (MBBS, M.S)<\/strong>\u00a0– Graduate Research Intern<\/em><\/p>\n

Christina Nowak (M.S)\u00a0<\/strong>– Graduate Research Intern<\/em><\/p>\n

Melanie Joan\u00a0<\/strong>–\u00a0Graduate Research Intern<\/em><\/p>\n

Omar Albastaki<\/strong> – Undergraduate Research <\/em>Intern<\/em><\/p>\n

Therese Ancheta<\/strong> – Undergraduate Research <\/em>Intern<\/em><\/p>\n

Stephanie Aw\u00a0<\/strong>– Undergraduate Research <\/em>Intern<\/em><\/p>\n

Mariana Castaneda<\/strong> – Undergraduate Research <\/em>Intern<\/em><\/p>\n

Cameron Chan\u00a0<\/strong>– Undergraduate Research <\/em>Intern<\/em><\/p>\n

Alice Galley\u00a0<\/strong>– Undergraduate Research <\/em>Intern<\/em><\/p>\n

Ankita Kumar<\/strong> – Undergraduate Research <\/em>Intern<\/em><\/p>\n

Sophia Long<\/strong> – Undergraduate Research <\/em>Intern<\/em><\/p>\n

Sriman Narain<\/strong> – Undergraduate Research <\/em>Intern<\/em><\/p>\n

Esmeralda Navarro<\/strong> – Undergraduate Research <\/em>Intern<\/em><\/p>\n

Taylor Nelson<\/strong> – Undergraduate Research <\/em>Intern<\/em><\/p>\n

Liliveth Nwanguma <\/strong>– Undergraduate Research <\/em>Intern<\/em><\/p>\n

Emily Oh<\/strong> – Undergraduate Research <\/em>Intern<\/em><\/p>\n

Meha Prabhu<\/strong> – Undergraduate Research <\/em>Intern<\/em><\/p>\n

Maria Salgado <\/strong>– Undergraduate Research <\/em>Intern<\/em><\/p>\n

Regan Shanahan <\/strong>– Undergraduate Research Intern<\/em><\/p>\n

Raiyan Khan<\/strong> – Undergraduate Research Intern<\/em><\/p>\n

Minzae Kim<\/strong> – Undergraduate Research Intern<\/em><\/p>\n

Avery Forster<\/strong>– Undergraduate Research Intern<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Leadership: Rhoda Au (PhD, MBA)\u00a0 Director, Primary Investigator Rhoda Au is a Professor of Anatomy & Neurobiology, Neurology, Medicine and Epidemiology at Boston University. She also serves as one of the principal investigators of the Framingham Heart Study Brain Aging Program (FHS-BAP) and is currently the Director of Neuropsychology. Her work includes using technologies to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18297,"featured_media":0,"parent":40,"menu_order":1,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"page-templates\/no-sidebars.php","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/pbhi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/48"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/pbhi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/pbhi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/pbhi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18297"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/pbhi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48"}],"version-history":[{"count":51,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/pbhi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/48\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1704,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/pbhi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/48\/revisions\/1704"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/pbhi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/40"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/pbhi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}