CFMI - Key Persons
Bio:
Dr. Gropman is a child neurologist and clinical geneticist. After completing her residency training in Pediatrics at Johns Hopkins Hospital , she completed fellowships in neurology and Child Neurology at George Washington University and the Childrenà ‚¬ " s National Medical Center , and clinical genetics at the National Human Genome Research Institute. This was followed by a position as a Senior Staff Fellow in the Intramural Research Program at the National Institutes of Neurological Disorders and Stroke in Bethesda, MD where she was funded by a Howard Hughes Medical Institute physician postdoctoral award . During this time she was actively involved in basic research, in the study of genetic pathways involved in neuronal migration disorders, and participated as co-investigator and/or consultant for a number of clinical protocols in the NIH clinical center with the focus on neurologic phenotypes in neurometabolic and genetic disorders. She directed the neurogenetics clinic at the Childrenà ‚¬ " s National Medical Center from 1997. In August of 2003, she joined the pediatrics and neurology faculty at Georgetown University . She currently directs the Neurodevelopmental clinic for the CFMI. Her area of interest is neurological phenotypes in children and adults with genetic and metabolic disorders.
Dr. VanMeter is an Associate Professor in the Department of Neurology at Georgetown University Medical Center and Director of the 3T MRI facility at Center for Functional and Molecular Imaging. He has over 25 years experience in the design and implementation of neuroimaging experiments as well as their data analysis. His graduate work was on the development of automated methods for segmentation of structural MRI images of the brain by tissue class. This was followed by a 2-year position at NIH as a Staff Fellow in the Laboratory of Neuroscience in the National Institute of Aging, where he was on the leading edge of the application of fMRI and PET. In particular, he had a major role in the first study of the neurobiological basis of dyslexia using fMRI (Eden, et al. Nature, 1996) and several other studies examining sensory processing in the auditory and visual domains. Subsequently, he was Director of Research and Development at Sensor Systems, Inc for 5 years during which time I led the development of a commercial software package (MEDx) that was used by 300 labs to analyze structural and functional MRI as well as the subsequent development of one of the first FDA-cleared fMRI clinical analysis packages. Further, he designed and developed the database and data transfer systems used for the MRI data collected in the NIH Pediatric Brain Development project, a longitudinal study utilizing MRI that studied brain development in 500 children at 7 sites across the country. He was PI of an NIH-funded STAART (Studies to Advance Autism Research and Treatment) center grant project, in which a number of MRI-based techniques were used including fMRI, DTI, and MR spectroscopy to investigate the neurobiological basis of autism. The STAART project included scanning over 140 children between the ages of 5 and 18, about half of whom are on the spectrum for Autism Disorder (ASD). Currently, his R01 is applying these same techniques to prospectively identify specific deficits or features of underdevelopment in prefrontal cortex and other reward processing centers that predict alcohol initiation and act as risk factors in escalation of alcohol use in a longitudinal study of adolescents.
My research interests focuses on the study of the developing brain using a variety of MRI techniques. The Adolescent Development Study, of which I am Co-PI, originally focused on risk and consequences of substance abuse has been expanded to examine the effects of violence and gender identity on development. I also have a large number of collaborations that leverage my technical expertise.
Ayichew joined the CFMI Lab in July 2004. He received his Bachelors in Electrical Engineering from Howard University in 2003, where he studied Signal Processing and Control Systems. At the CFMI lab he works with MR Spectroscopy data transfer and analysis using LCModel. In addition, he works with fMRI data acquisition and analysis using MEDX and SPM. He hopes to attend graduate school sometime in the future.
Becky joined CFMI in September of 2006. She works for Dr. Andrea Gropman as the study coordinator and research assistant for the Urea Cycle Disorder Study. She graduated from UVA with a BA in Human Biology and did her thesis research on the use and disclosure of complementary and alternative medicine in children with cancer. Prior to CFMI, she did research at the Integrative Therapies Program for Children with Cancer at Columbia University and at the National Human Genome Research Institute at NIH.
I graduated from the University of Toledo in May 2013 with a B.A. in Marketing and Professional Sales. Received my MBA from Ohio Dominican University in 2015 with a focus in Finance. Currently, I am the Business Manager for CFMI at Georgetown University. In my free time, I love checking out new coffee shops and playing video games!
Job Titles:
- Lab Manager
- Research Scientist
I started at CFMI in March 2019, and have been working as the Senior Research Technician since August 2020. I graduated from UNC Wilmington with a B.S. and M.S. in chemistry. As a chemistry graduate student, I developed two methods to create serotonin-like compounds in one step with enantiocontrol. Writing my thesis for that project required me to understand a little bit about what happens in the blood-brain barrier, and I was hooked on neuro after that! On the side, I am very interested in women's healthcare and improving drug approval processes to investigate the neuro side effects before they make it to market. For fun, I tutor high schoolers in math and science, and spend as much time outside as possible. Cycling, beach volleyball, and being in community bring me joy!
Kyle has been part of the CFMI almost since its inception having started as an assistant to the financial administrator, several years as a research assistant, and later a graduate student under Dr. VanMeter. He continues to be an incredible resource for the CFMI neuroimaging community.
Job Titles:
- System Administrator
- System Administrator for CFMI and Three Other Labs at Georgetown
Marshall is the system administrator for CFMI and three other labs at Georgetown. His primary responsibilities are to recover, maintain, and upgrade the computing infrastructure for CFMI. The other major effort that Marshall is udnertaking on is to developing and implementing a cloud-based model for the center's activities.
Rachael has been working as a research assistant at CFMI since January of 2008. She has coordinated a study on the biphasic effects of alcohol on the brain and continues run the scanner and assist with other internal projects (as well as the projects of other PI's in the DC Metro area) as Authorized User.
Job Titles:
- Professor of Radiology and Director of Medical Physics
Dr. Jiang uses varying neuroimaging techniques to study cognitive function and cognitive impairments. The current research in his lab has been focusing on developing MRI techniques that are sensitive and accurate to detect and assess neural injury at early stages of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease and HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders, with an ultimate goal of developing non-invasive biomarkers that can be used in clinical practice and drug development.