eBRAIN Team
Who We Are
Meet our faculty, collaborators, post-docs, staff, and students.
Faculty
I am a physician-scientist specializing in Population Neuroscience of Aging. I am especially interested in the neurobiological drivers of successful aging.
Although older age is typically associated with a seemingly inevitable performance decline, we have evidence that some older adults appear resistant and resilient to the effect of aging. Based on our discoveries, we believe that there are distinct neurobiological characteristics that can explain why some people age better than others and why some people respond to treatment better than others. We also believe that enhancing these neurobiological drivers of resilience can enhance function.
Andrea Rosso, MPH, PhD
Associate Professor, Epidemiology, Clinical and Translational Science Institute
Associate Professor in the Department of Epidemiology and the Clinical and Translational Science Institute. Dr. Rosso is Director of the BEAM (Brain, Environment, Aging, and Mobility) lab, with expertise analyzing functional near infrared spectroscopy during dual task conditions, and assessing the ecological validity of laboratory-based dual tasks. Dr. Rosso was awarded the CTSI KL2, a NIA K01 award, and a R21 to advance her work on overcoming environmental challenges to moving in older adults.
I am new faculty in Epidemiology at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health and a University of Pittsburgh Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center REC Scholar working with the Outreach, Recruitment, and Engagement (ORE) Core. I integrate epidemiology, biostatistics, neuroscience/neuroimaging, and psychology to study vascular contributions to cognitive impairment and dementia (VCID), including Alzheimer’s disease (AD), using a Population Neuroscience framework. I have been funded by NIH through prior T32 and F31 awards. My research focuses on identifying promoters of cerebral small vessel integrity to prevent AD and related disorders and has included evaluation of growth factors, physical activity, and vascular risk factor reduction. I am presently applying a population neuroscience approach to evaluate whether there are sex differences in the cerebral small vessel disease-to-AD pathophysiological cascade. My aim is to gain insight into gender/sex-specific intervention targets to reduce AD and promote brain health equity.
Collaborators
Howard Aizenstein, MD, PhD
Endowed Chair, Geriatric Psychiatry
Professor, Bioengineering and Clinical and Translational Science
Dr. Aizenstein is the Charles F. Reynolds III and Ellen G. Detlefsen Endowed Chair in Geriatric Psychiatry and Professor of Bioengineering and Clinical and Translational Science. Dr. Aizenstein’s research interests includeCognitive and affective neuroscience of aging; Multimodal neuroimaging methods.
Nicolaas Bohnen, MD, PhD
Professor, Radiology, Neurology
Dr. Bohnen is Director of the University of Michigan Functional Neuroimaging, Cognitive and Mobility Laboratory. Dr. Bohnen’s clinical interests are in molecular imaging of Parkinson disease.
Robert M. Boudreau, PhD
Assistant Professor, Epidemiology
Dr. Boudreau is the Director of the Biostatistics Core in the Center for Aging and Population Health, University of Pittsburgh…
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Dr. Boudreau has over 25 years of experience providing expertise in longitudinal data analysis, mixed, hierarchical and trajectory modeling and has previously collaborated with Dr. Rosano on several projects including Dr. Rosano’s recently closed R01 on neural correlates of resilience. Dr. Boudreau has extensive experience with analysis of large multi-dimensional clinical and neuroimaging data, as well as expertise in data reduction methodologies and longitudinal modeling.
Lana Chahine, MD
Assistant Professor, Neurology
Dr. Chahine is a Movement Disorders Neurologist whose research and clinical practice focus on Parkinson’s disease and other movement disorders. Dr. Chahine’s research interests include epidemiology and clinical/biomarker characterization of Parkinson’s disease and its prodrome.
Mary Ganguli, MBBS, MD
Professor, Psychiatry, Epidemiology, and Neurology
PI on the parent MYHAT study, Dr. Ganguli works with MYHAT coordinator to ensure that recruitment and assessments for the proposed U01 study are integrated with MYHAT at both operational and scientific levels, and that MYHAT data quality standards are maintained in the process.
Theodore Huppert, PhD
Associate Professor, Radiology and Bioengineering
Dr. Huppert is a recognized expert in development and use of near-infrared technology; he has developed several tools including statistical analysis methods, image reconstruction, and group-level models for fNIRS analysis.
Rajesh Narendran, MD
Professor, Radiology
Dr. Narendran has several years’ experience in PET imaging of the dopaminergic system and with the proposed radioligand DTBZ. Dr. Narendran has well established relations with the PET team to supervise the PET acquisition and quality control of the images and analyses pipelines, for several ongoing studies, including those for which he is a coinvestigator.
Enrico M. Novelli, MD, MS
Associate Professor, Medicine
Associate Professor of Medicine in the Division of Hematology/Oncology and is Director of the UPMC Adult Sickle Cell Disease Program. Dr. Novelli’s main areas of interest are sickle cell disease and disorders of hemostasis.
Mark Redfern, PhD
Professor, Bioengineering, Physical Therapy, and Otolaryngology
Dr. Redfern is an expert of biomechanics, human balance and postural control; particularly related to aging and fall prevention.
Beth Snitz, PhD
Associate Professor, Neurology
Co-Associate Director, Clinical Core, Alzheimer Disease Research Center
Dr. Snitz is a clinical neuropsychologist with research expertise in cognitive aging and Alzheimer’s disease. She is the PI of the R01 ‘‘Alzheimer neuroimaging-biomarkers in pre-clinical cognitive decline from a population-based study” in MYHAT.
Patrick Sparto, PT, PhD
Associate Professor, Physical Therapy
Dr. Sparto has extensive experience with cutting-edge measurements of sensorimotor integration, and its relation with central nervous system resources.
Stephanie Studenski, MD, MPH
Professor, Geriatric Medicine
Dr. Studenski’s has decade long experience in mobility and neurological diseases in older adults, she and Dr. Rosano have worked closely to develop and lead the NIA funded U13 conference series “aging, CNS and Mobility”.
Post-Docs
Emma Baillargeon, PT, DPT, PhD
Postdoctoral Associate, Epidemiology
Jim Hengenius, PhD
Postdoctoral Associate
“Jim is interested in developing novel multimodal neuroimaging methods…”
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Jim Hengenius is a postdoctoral associate performing neuroimaging analysis on the MOVE-MYHAT study. He obtained his PhD in computational biology from Purdue University and previously trained as a postdoc with the Ermentrout group in the Pitt Department of Mathematics. Jim is interested in developing novel multimodal neuroimaging methods and using these methods to inform dynamical systems modeling. In his free time, he enjoys reading speculative fiction, playing the saxophone (poorly), and spending time with his two cats, Mae Borowski and Mehitabel.
“Ultimately, I want to leverage what we learn from observational studies…”
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Human Development and Family Studies,
The Pennsylvania State University
I am interested in how measures of central nervous system integrity and function, such as cognition, energy, and dopaminergic signaling, are related to mobility in older adults. Ultimately, I want to leverage what we learn from observational studies to help design effective interventions to maintain older adult mobility and everyday function. Outside of work, I have a passion for baking and am slowly working my way through the 1,001 Movies You Must See Before You Die list.
Students
Wesley DeHaven
MPH Student, Epidemiology
Emily Heilbrunn
PhD Student, Epidemiology
Zack Hubbard
MPH Student, Epidemiology
Former Trainees and Scholars
Nemin Chen, MPH
PhD Student, Epidemiology
Ayushi Divechi, MPT, MPH
Clinical Reseach Coordinator, Burke Neurological Institute
Erica Fan, MPH
Research Analyst, University of Pittsburgh
Jason D. Flatt, PhD, MPH
Assistant Professor, Social and Behavioral Program, University of Nevada, School of Public Health
Tim Hughes, PhD
Assistant Professor, Wake Forest School of Medicine
Megan Olson Hunt, PhD
Associate Professor of Statistics in the Mathematics and Statistics Unit, University of Wisconsin-Green Bay
Dana Jorgensen, MPH, PhD
Senior Manager of Epidemiology, Health Economics and Outcomes Research at Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Raj Kumar, PhD, MPH
Postdoctoral Fellow at the Brain Injury Research Center at Mount Sinai
Alina Lesnovskaya
PhD Student, Epidemiology
Maria Ly, MD, PhD
MD/PhD Candidate, Epidemiology
Karen Nunley, PhD
Team Lead Chronic Disease Epidemiologist, State of Texas at Texas Dept of Health and Human Service
Anne Ritter, DrPH, MPH
US Army Medical Research and Development Command
Beth Shaaban, PhD, MPH
Postdoctoral Fellow, Epidemiology
Stephen F. Smagula, PhD
Assistant Professor, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
Qu (Teresa) Tian, PhD, MS
PhD Epidemiologist at NIH
Vijay Venkatraman, PhD
Imaging Scientist at National Institutes of Health
Staff
