IQ - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Accountant
- Administrative Staff Member
As the Accountant for the Department of Biomedical Engineering and the Institute for Quantitative Health Science & Engineering, Abbey is the fiscal officer for department accounts and works very closely with the Chief of Staff on department financial planning, budgeting, and reporting. In her role, Abbey tracks faculty salary savings and processes the annual savings return (among many other transactions), and is the point of contact for new Pcard requests, training and questions.
Job Titles:
- Professor in the Departments of Computational Mathematics
Adam Alessio is a professor in the departments of Computational Mathematics, Science, and Engineering (CMSE), Biomedical Engineering (BME), and Radiology. He is currently serving as the Interim Chair of the Department of Biomedical Engineering His research is focused on non-invasive quantification of disease through advanced imaging algorithms and integrated data analysis.
Prior joining MSU, Dr. Alessio was a professor of Radiology at the University of Washington. He received his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering at the University of Notre Dame and post-doctoral training in nuclear medicine physics at the University of Washington. He is the author of over 70 peer-reviewed publications, holds 6 patents, and has grant funding from the National Institutes of Health and the medical imaging industry to advance non-invasive cardiac and cancer imaging.
Dr. Alessio's research group solves clinically motivated research problems at the intersection of imaging and medical decision-making. Current efforts center on translational medical research projects for topics including machine learning for quantitative diagnostics, cardiac perfusion estimation, quantitative PET and CT imaging, radiation dose optimization, and system modeling.
Aitor Aguirre is an associate professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering. He joined MSU from the University of California, San Diego, where he focused on large-scale metabolomics and functional genomics applied to human cardiac regeneration, development and disease states.
Dr. Aguirre obtained his B.S. in Biology and M.S. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of the Basque Country, Spain. He obtained his Ph.D. in Material Science and Tissue Engineering at the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia and the Technical University of Catalonia. He subsequently worked at the Salk Institute as a postdoc in 2011, where he made seminal contributions to our understanding of the genetic mechanisms of cell dedifferentiation, cardiac regeneration, and human development.
Ana I. Vazquez is an associate professor of epidemiology and biostatistics and is a member of the QuantGen group.
Her areas of interest include the development and use of genomic-based statistical methods for human health, the genetic architecture of complex traits, and the investigation of the effects of obesity on the risk of disease.
Dr. Vazquez completed her postdoctoral work in the Section on Statistical Genetics and Office of Energetics at the University of Alabama after graduating with an M.S. and Ph.D. in quantitative genetics and a certificate in bioinformatics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Executive Committee
- Director, Facilities Planning and Space Management
Christina Chan is the George Bissell Professor of Chemical Engineering, with joint appointments in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and the Department of Computer Science and Engineering.
Since joining the faculty of MSU in 2002, she has published more than 130 journal articles, reviews, and book chapters. She was elected to the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering's College of Fellows in 2012 and invited to the National Academy of Engineering "Frontiers in Engineering."
Dr. Chan is a recipient of the AIChE Area Forum 15D/E Engineering Fundamentals in Life Science Award, Beal Outstanding Faculty Award (formerly University Distinguished Faculty Award), Withrow Distinguish Scholar Award, and Withrow Award for Excellence in Teaching. She serves on the editorial boards of Scientific Reports, Biotechnology and Bioengineering Journal, and is section editor and associate editor of several journals including BMC Systems Biology and Plos One.
Dr. Chan earned her B.S. in chemical engineering from Columbia University and her M.S. and Ph.D. in chemical and biochemical engineering from the University of Pennsylvania. She also spent eight years at DuPont prior to returning to academia and taking a post-doctoral position at the Center for Engineering in Medicine at the Harvard Medical School.
Job Titles:
- Administrative Staff Member
- Director
- Member of the Executive Committee
Dana Spence is a professor of biomedical engineering and chemistry. He leads a research group whose interests lie at the interface of analytical chemistry, bioengineering, pharmacology, and hematology.
Dr. Spence earned his B.S. in chemistry from Grand Valley State University and his Ph.D. in chemistry at Michigan State University. He previously held faculty appointments in chemistry at Saint Louis University and Wayne State University.
Job Titles:
- External Engagement Consultant
Job Titles:
- Member of the Executive Committee
- Assistant Vice President, Office of the Senior Vice President for Research and Innovation
Job Titles:
- Advanced Molecular Imaging Facility Director
Dr. Christiane Mallett is the IQ Advanced Molecular Imaging Facility Director. She has over 10 years of experience with preclinical imaging. Her work has focused on developing and applying MRI and PET/MRI techniques for measuring disease progression and treatment in rodent models of disease. She has extensive experience in experimental design, image acquisition and training users on all imaging systems.
Job Titles:
- Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering
Dr. Debajit Saha is an Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering. Dr. Saha joined MSU in 2019 Fall after pursuing his doctoral and postdoctoral training at Washington University in St. Louis. Previously, Dr. Saha received his master's degree from Indian Institute of Technology Bombay and bachelor's degree in Physics from Jadavpur University, India.
Dr. Saha's work encompasses systems neuroscience and neural engineering. His previous works on identifying neural rules of learning and decision making in olfactory sensory system have been published in several high-impact journals (Saha et al. Nature Neuroscience 2013, Nature Communications 2015, 2017). Dr. Saha is also working on developing Insect Brain-Based chemical sensors for medical, environmental and public safety applications.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Executive Committee
- Associate Dean, College of Natural Science
Job Titles:
- Associate Chair of Research
Erik Shapiro is Associate Chair of Research and a professor in the Department of Radiology. His Molecular and Cellular Imaging Laboratory (MCIL) develops and uses magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and x-ray computed tomography (CT) for molecular and cellular imaging of biological phenomena, regenerative medicine, and early detection of disease.
Dr. Shapiro graduated from the State University of New York at Binghamton with a degree in chemistry and holds a master's degree and Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Pennsylvania. He conducted his post-doctoral work in molecular imaging at the National Institutes of Health.
Erin Purcell is an associate professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering where she leads the Regenerative Electrode Interface Lab.
Her research is focused on improving the integration of electrodes implanted in the brain with the cells they interface. These devices are used in research settings to understand brain function and in the clinic to treat neurological disorders.
George Mias is a Jean P. Schultz Endowed Biomedical Research Fund Faculty Awardee and is chief of the Systems Biology Division in the Institute for Quantitative Health Science and Engineering.
He studied physics as both an undergraduate and graduate student at Yale University while concentrating on statistical physics, quantum dynamics, and critical phenomena. Dr. Mias was a lecturer/assistant in instruction at Yale University before changing fields and becoming a postdoctoral scholar in genetics at Stanford University. He received an NIH Pathway to Independence Award from the National Human Genome Research Institute.
Dr. Mias currently leads an interdisciplinary team that explores the integration of existing and developing omics technologies and their application in systems precision medicine.
His team uses both experimental and computational approaches to monitoring individuals transitioning through various physiological states, from health to disease (asthma, leukemia, immune disorders), toward implementation of a universal approach for individualized wellness.
One of their key tools is MathIOmica, a software program that provides a user-friendly framework for handling downstream analysis and visualization that is generalizable to multi-modal omics.
Job Titles:
- Administrative Staff Member
- Chief of Staff
- Member of the Executive Committee
As the Chief of Staff, Heather oversees the administrative functions for the Department of Biomedical Engineering and the Institute for Quantitative Health Science & Engineering. These responsibilities include but are not limited to, supervision and oversight for the areas of Human Resources, Finance, Research Administration, Graduate Education Administration, and Communications and Technology. Heather serves as a member of the IQ leadership team and the Brews & Views planning committee. She is also your first point of contact for faculty and staff human resources (including visa questions/actions), internal funding requests and cost-share commitments, and any other questions or concerns with the administrative functions of the units.
Job Titles:
- Associate Professor in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive
Jens Schmidt is an Associate Professor in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Biology within the College of Human Medicine. At MSU, Schmidt's laboratory will use a combination of cell biological and biophysical approaches to explain how human cells maintain their genomic integrity, which is an important barrier for cancer formation.
He received his undergraduate degree in Biochemistry from the Freie Universität Berlin, Germany, and his Ph.D. in Biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he studied the molecular mechanisms of chromosome segregation with Dr. Iain Cheeseman. Dr. Schmidt went on to complete his postdoctoral work with Dr. Tom Cech in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Colorado Boulder. During this time he studied the recruitment of telomerase to telomeres, a pathway critical for cancer cell survival, using genome editing and single molecule live cell imaging approaches.
Job Titles:
- Unit Human Resources Coordinator
Jon works with IQ faculty (and their lab personnel) and MSU's Sponsored Programs Administration to coordinate research funding through all phases of the process: identifying and responding to funding opportunities, finalizing awards, and ensuring compliance with award provisions. This includes but is not limited to review of solicitations, budget development and revision, contact with collaborators, transaction review, and assistance with reporting requirements. As part of this process, he ensures that effort for faculty and their lab personnel is associated with relevant accounts. Additionally, he helps faculty monitor other research funding such as gifts and start-up accounts. Jon works closely with his counterpart Lisa Parker who provides similar support for IQ faculty, which allows them to provide backup support for each other when necessary.
Dr. Pawelec is an assistant professor within the Department of Radiology, investigating ways in which to utilize medical imaging to track biomedical devices post-implantation. With a background in materials science, she received her BS from MSU and her PhD from the University of Cambridge, focusing on the formation of defined porosity within biomedical structures using freeze-drying. Dr. Pawelec has also contributed to the scale up and translation of novel biomedical devices and at the University of Michigan and as an entrepreneur-in-residence within Spartan Innovations (MSU Foundation).
Kurt R. Zinn is the Hickman Family Endowed Chair of Oncology. He is a professor in Radiology (College of Human Medicine), Biomedical Engineering (College of Engineering), and Small Animal Clinical Sciences (College of Veterinary Medicine) and was hired in 2017 as part of the MSU Global Impact Initiative. Dr. Zinn conducts research in the field of molecular imaging, including as part of cancer diagnosis and therapy. Neuroimaging of drug delivery to the brain is also a research focus.
With experience in more than 12 prior Phase 1 clinical trials, he now conducts clinical trials in both veterinary and human medicine, with a focus on targeted radiation therapy for cancer using alpha-particle emitting radionuclides, including radionuclides that will be available from FRIB. Dr. Zinn is also the Director of Nuclear Medicine and has established a radiopharmacy at MSU that manufactures research and clinical doses of radiopharmaceuticals.
Dr. Zinn received the Distinguished Investigator Award from the Academy of Radiology Research in 2015. He holds a B.A. in chemistry, a DVM in veterinary medicine, an M.S. in chemistry, and a Ph.D. in biochemistry, all from the University of Missouri-Columbia.
Lauren is our Office Manager and her role assists the IQ administrative team across areas of IT, onboarding, and finance. She focuses on Intranet development and maintenance, which includes ensuring all content is up to date and relevant, as well as auditing all processes found on the intranet to ensure functionality. Additionally, she assists IQ's financial team with account review and financial document processing. Lauren works in IQ's Business Office and there she can assist you with getting a vendor badge, visitor parking pass, or booking a conference room. She is the point person for all travel including conference registration and expense reimbursement processing.
Lisa works with IQ faculty (and their lab personnel) and MSU's Sponsored Programs Administration to coordinate research funding through all phases of the process: identifying and responding to funding opportunities, finalizing awards, and ensuring compliance with award provisions. This includes but is not limited to review of solicitations, budget development and revision, contact with collaborators, transaction review, and assistance with reporting requirements. As part of this process, she ensures that effort for faculty and their lab personnel is associated with relevant accounts. Additionally, she helps faculty monitor other research funding such as gifts and start-up accounts. Lisa works closely with her counterpart Jon Wakeman who provides similar support for IQ faculty, which allows them to provide backup support for each other when necessary.
Job Titles:
- Assistant Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering
Masako Harada is an assistant professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering who was recruited from Stanford to join IQ. The ultimate goal of her research is to translate basic scientific findings into clinical applications.
Dr. Harada received her undergraduate degree in molecular genetics from King's College London. She earned her Ph.D. in experimental oncology from Karolinska Institute in Sweden and conducted her postdoctoral training in cancer chemotherapy at Stanford University.
Matthew Bernard is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pharmacology & Toxicology. He joined MSU from Bristol-Myers Squibb where he worked as a Senior Research Investigator in Drug Safety Evaluation, performing investigative Immunotoxicology research on small molecules and Biologics. Dr. Bernard is currently the Director of the MSU Flow Cytometry Core Facility that operates out of both the IQ and BPS buildings.
Dr. Bernard obtained his B.S. in Biochemistry at the State University of New York (SUNY) Geneseo. He obtained his Ph.D. in Microbiology & Immunology at the University of Rochester School of Medicine & Dentistry and subsequently worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the La Jolla Institute for Allergy & Immunology (LIAI). He has broad knowledge in designing and conducting applied research studies in Immunopharmacology and Immunotoxicology in a GLP environment. Dr. Bernard has specialized in immunoassay development, validation, and implementation for pharmacology and toxicology endpoints, including having over 15 years of flow cytometry experience. He has extensive experience developing flow cytometric assays and applications, including validating immunophenotyping panels, pharmacodynamic assessments, receptor occupancy evaluation, as well as assays to assess intracellular cytokines, phosphorylated protein expression, transcription factor, proliferation, cell cycle, and viability. As the Director of the MSU Flow Cytometry Core Facility, Dr. Bernard strongly supports the mission of the Core, to provide investigators with access to state-of-the-art cell sorting and analytical flow cytometry services, as well as training and expertise in experimental and data analysis techniques.
Job Titles:
- Associate Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Molecular
Michael Bachmann is an associate professor in the Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics. Prior to being recruited by MSU, Dr. Bachmann worked in the laboratory of Dr. Christopher Contag at Stanford University where he advanced bioluminescence imaging methodology and applied it to a number of animal models of human disease, including cancer and infection.
His goal as a molecular virologist and cancer biologist is to advance our understanding of the molecular pathogenesis of HIV/AIDS infection, cancer and transplantation. He is focusing on combining bioluminescence imaging with molecular genetic screens to study how the immune system interacts with cancer cells and mismatched transplants and how it could possibly be modulated for the benefit of patients.
Dr. Bachmann studied medicine in Frankfurt and Mainz, Germany, as well as the Hammersmith Hospital in London, U.K. His graduate studies were in the laboratory of Dr. James I. Mullins in the Department of Cancer Biology at the Harvard School of Public Health.
Job Titles:
- Administrative Staff Member
- Department Technician
Job Titles:
- Administrative Staff Member
- FACILITY MANAGER
Paula reports to the Institutional Space Planning and Management (ISPM) office overseeing multiple interdisciplinary campus research buildings on behalf of the Provost including IQ and ISTB. Her overall role as a Facility Manager is to lead the ISPM team of facility professionals and ensure the facilities are properly maintained and equipped to support the research needs of multiple departments and colleges. She works with her department to track faculty space use and assignments, building furniture and fixture assessments and represent ISPM on all new construction and space alterations. Her daily focus includes tracking the maintenance and repair needs for all university owned fixed building equipment including autoclaves, glasswashers, cold rooms, and fume hoods, and communicate critical building service impacts to the occupants. She conducts new occupant building orientation tours and fixed lab equipment training. She works with the IQ administrative staff in conference room management, space use management and special event planning and coordination. She also serves as the department liaison with our campus partners including EHS, MSU Police and IPF custodial services, building trades, MSU surplus and recycling and act as the building Emergency Action Plan coordinator.
Job Titles:
- Administrative Staff Member
- COMMUNICATIONS CONSULTANT
Job Titles:
- Administrative Staff Member
- ACADEMIC PROGRAM COORDINATOR
- Academic Program Coordinator for Biomedical Engineering
Tiffany is the Graduate Education Coordinator for the Biomedical Engineering Graduate Program. She handles all things graduate student related. Her responsibilities include but are not limited to, providing support to the Associate Chair of the Graduate Program, assisting with graduate student recruitment, admissions, enrollment, payroll, graduation, and facilitating student questions and requests. Additionally, Tiffany is the point of contact for all graduate students working in the Institute for Quantitative Health Science & Engineering.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Executive Committee
- Associate Dean, College of Engineering
Job Titles:
- Member of the Executive Committee
- Senior Associate Dean, College of Human Medicine
Xuefei Huang is a professor in the Departments of Biomedical Engineering and Chemistry. The multi-disciplinary approach of his group interfaces biology, chemistry, and engineering to develop next-generation tools for diagnosis and treatment of diseases.
Prior to joining MSU in 2008, Dr. Huang held appointments at the University of Toledo and Columbia University. He is a graduate of the University of Science and Technology of China and earned his Ph.D. from Columbia University.
Zhen Qiu is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, Institute for Quantitative Health Science and Engineering, Michigan State University, MI. His research interests include biomedical optics, MEMS/MOEMS, multi-modal targeted imaging, wearable, and implantable medical devices, ultrafast laser applications.
Dr. Qiu received his Bachelor degree from the Department of Precision Instruments, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, and the Ph.D. degree from the Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI. He finished his post-doctoral training in the School of Medicine, Stanford University, CA.