Bernardino Ghetti, MD
Mary Guerriero Austrom, PhD
Merrill D. Benson, MD
Malaz Boustani, MD
Ulrike Dydak, PhD
Martin R. Farlow, MD
Tatiana Foroud, PhD
Sujuan Gao, PhD
Ann Marie Hake, MD
Kathleen Hall, PhD
Hugh Hendrie, MD
Siu Hui, PhD
David Kareken, PhD
Debomoy Lahiri, PhD
Brandy Matthews, MD
Leticia Miravalle, PhD
Jill Murrell, PhD
Kimberly Quaid-DeCordon, PhD
Greg Sachs, MD
Andrew Saykin, PsyD
Changyu Shen, PhD
Li Shen, PhD
Salvatore Spina, MD
Frederick Unverzagt, PhD
Ruben Vidal, PhD
Joanne Wojcieszek, MD
Karmen Yoder, PhD
Qi-Huang Zheng, Ph.D
| Mary Guerriero Austrom, PhD |
||
|
Dr. Austrom is Professor of Clinical Psychology in the Department of Psychiatry. She is the Wesley P. Martin Professor of Alzheimer Disease Education. She is a member of the graduate faculty, an adjunct professor in the School of Nursing, and an affiliated scientist at the IU Center for Aging Research. Dr. Austrom is a co-investigator and leader of the Education and Information Transfer Core for the Indiana Alzheimer Disease Center. In this role, Dr. Austrom is responsible for developing and delivering educational programs to clinical, scientific and lay audiences, as well as providing outreach opportunities for the center to the provider and lay community. Dr. Austrom's research and clinical interests include aging, late life transitions and adjustment to retirement. She is also interested in non-pharmacological interventions for dementia patients and their caregivers, and the stress and grief associated with caring for someone with dementia. She often consults with long term care and assisted living facilities about how to provide best practice care for dementia patients. She has published over 100 articles, chapters and abstracts and regularly speaks to groups nationally and internationally about her work. Dr. Austrom travels, knits, and reads, and she enjoys all things Italian, especially her family. |
|
| Merrill D. Benson, MD |
||
|
Dr. Benson is professor in the Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine at Indiana University. His research focus is amyloidosis, with particular emphasis on the systemic forms including Primary, Secondary and Hereditary Amyloidoses. Dr. Benson’s interests include clinical studies of patients with all forms of amyloidosis, in addition to basic studies in pathology, biochemistry, genetics, and molecular biology. Current research projects include studies on regulation of gene expression, synthesis and metabolism of plasma proteins, and tertiary structure of proteins. Studies of Alzheimer disease include DNA testing and structural characterization of amyloid plaque proteins. These studies have lead to interest in other late-onset neurodegenerative diseases. Transgenic animal models are being used to study pathogenesis of human disease. |
|
| Malaz Boustani, MD |
||
|
|
Dr. Boustani's main research interest relates to improving the quality of life of patients with dementia syndromes by designing a system-based approach across settings of care including the community, primary care, hospital, and long-term care. He is currently conducting multiple research studies on dementia care funded from the NIH, not-for profit organizations, and PHARMA.
|
|
| Ulrike Dydak, PhD |
||
|
Dr. Dydak is assistant professor and MR spectroscopist in the Department of Radiology at Indiana University. Dr. Dydak's research interest is to develop and improve magnetic resonance spectroscopy methodology and expand functionalities in 1H MRS to other nuclei. Her main focus thus far has been on combining the method of parallel imaging with the advantages of the high field strength of 3T to reduce scan times to 1-5 minutes, while keeping spatial resolutions on the order of 1cc. Such techniques finally allow for a metabolic assessment with larger anatomical coverage. Alternatively, the short scan times may be used to assess the dynamics of metabolic changes. Her second focus has been on the translation of new methodology into a wide range of clinical applications, while being actively engaged in training and education of MRS methods for clinical use. Dr. Dydak's interests also include the development of whole brain high-resolution MR spectroscopic imaging and its application in the research of toxicology, chemotherapy, alcohol research and psychiatric diseases. Translating the methodology of phased-array acquisition and parallel imaging to 31P MRS, her group currently investigates the possibilities of assessing response to radiation treatment in liver cancer. To enable better communication and sharing of experience among new clinical users of MRS, Dr. Dydak is collaborating with the Departments of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering at Purdue to create SpectroHUB, a web portal for clinical spectroscopy, hosting a large database of sample MRS data, a user forum, web-based visualization and processing tools, educational and training material as well as links to relevant information regarding MRS and other databases. |
|
| Martin R. Farlow, MD |
||
|
Dr. Farlow is also associate co-director of the Indiana Alzheimer Disease Center He has been involved in research and clinical care of patients with neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer disease and other dementing conditions. Dr. Farlow has published in both clinical and basic science areas of AD and related dementias with emphasis on investigational drug trials, molecular genetics, and biological markers for AD. He has been the Clinical Core Leader of the Indiana ADC since its inception in 1991 and prior to that time he was Director of the Center for Alzheimer's disease and related Disorders. Dr. Farlow serves as Vice-Chairman for Research in the Department of Neurology. He is a member of the Indiana Governor's Task Force on AD and a frequent lecturer locally and nationally. Dr. Farlow is the Principal Investigator of the Indiana site of the AD Cooperative Study Unit investigating novel treatments of AD and the Alzheimer Disease Neuroimaging Initiative.
|
|
| Tatiana Foroud, PhD |
||
|
Dr. Foroud is the P. Michael Conneally Professor at the Indiana University School of Medicine. She is also director of the Division of Hereditary Genomics in the Department of Medical and Molecular Genetics. In Dr. Foroud’s laboratory, the central focus of research is the mapping of Mendelian and complex inherited diseases. Recently, she has been involved in the localization of genes for several Mendelian (single-gene) disorders including: the autosomal dominant disorders familial primary pulmonary hypertension and multiple system tauopathy with presenile dementia. In the past, Dr. Foroud has been involved in linkage of the autosomal recessive disorder ataxia-telangiectasia as well as studies in the autosomal dominant prion disease Gerstmann-Sträussler-Scheinker disease and the autosomal recessive disorder limb-girdle muscular dystrophy. In addition, her laboratory is actively involved in linkage studies in non-Mendelian disorders. These disorders, such as Parkinson's disease, osteoporosis and alcoholism, are typically quite common and while family studies indicate a genetic component to disease susceptibility, it is also clear that a single gene is unlikely to account for all the observed genetic effect. Rather, these disorders are termed complex diseases because multiple genes are believed to be acting together in an additive, multiplicative or epistatic fashion. In order to study the genetics of these disorders, it is necessary to collect large samples of families with multiple individuals affected with the disease. Her laboratory is involved in several large collaborative efforts to analyze data from families with alcoholism, bipolar manic-depressive illness, Parkinson's disease and osteoporosis. Genome screens are underway in each of these disorders and suggestive regions for possible genes are being identified. |
|
| Sujuan Gao, PhD |
||
|
Dr. Gao is professor of biostatistics at the Indiana University School of Medicine. Dr. Gao has conducted research in various statistical areas including the variance components model and its use in sampling surveys, multivariate failure times and inferences for skewed data. However, the following areas represent his long-standing interest in statistical research: analysis of complex survey data; analysis of correlated data; and analysis of data with missing values. She has worked with various research groups in the medical school. Her major collaborative research areas include Alzheimer's disease and dementia, the impact of cochlear implant in deaf children, and shock wave lithotripsy and its impact on kidney stone treatment. She is the leader of the Data Management and Statistics Core of the Indiana Alzheimer Disease Center. She is also the Biostatistics Core leader for a NIH program project on “Strategies for Improved Shock Wave Lithotripsy”. She completed a R01 research project from NIH to develop new statistical methods in analyzing longitudinal data with missing values with applications to dementia studies. Her independent research has expanded from statistical research to epidemiologic research in aging populations. She has been the principal investigator of a five-year project entitled “selenium levels and cognitive decline in rural elderly Chinese” funded by NIH. This project is a longitudinal epidemiologic study aimed at testing the hypothesis that long-term low selenium exposure is associated with greater cognitive decline. |
|
| Ann Marie Hake, MD |
||
|
Dr. Hake is currently an Associate Professor of Clinical Neurology at the Indiana University Center for Alzheimer's Disease and Related Disorders. She is also an Affiliated Scientist at Indiana University Center for Aging Research. She is on staff at Indiana University Hospital, Wishard Outpatient Neurology Clinic, Richard L. Roudebush VA Medical Center, Community Hospitals, St. Francis Hospital and the Indiana Heart Hospital. Dr. Hake has been involved in numerous research projects investigating treatment for Alzheimer's disease and is currently involved in Phase 3 Studies in patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer's Disease who are Apolipoprotein ε4 Non-Carriers. She serves on the steering committee for Indianapolis Discovery Network for Dementia and has chaired the research committee since 2007 |
|
| Kathleen Hall, PhD |
||
|
Dr. Hall is associate professor of psychiatry in the Department of Psychiatry at the Indiana University School of Medicine. She is also an affiliated scientist with the Regenstrief Institute, a collaborating institution with the IU School of Medicine. Dr. Hall is part of an interdisciplinary research team that conducts comparative longitudinal psychiatric epidemiological studies of Alzheimer's disease. Currently they have projects involving random samples of elderly African Americans in Indianapolis, Yoruba Africans in Nigeria, and rural Kenyans of the Vihiga district of Kenya. They continue to analyze data collected from projects in study sites in China, Jamaica, and Northern Manitoba, Canada (Cree Indians compared to non Indians). Her research focuses upon prevalence and incidence rates, as well as an array of putative risk factors both genetic and environmental.
|
|
| Hugh Hendrie, MD |
||
|
Dr. Hendrie is a professor of psychiatry at Indiana University (IU) School of Medicine. He is the co-director for the center for Alzheimer Disease and Related Neuropsychiatric Disorders at the IU Center for Aging Research.
His research focuses on aging-related psychiatric disorders, epidemiology of dementing disorders and depression, with special interest in diverse populations.
|
|
| Siu Hui, PhD |
||
|
|
|
| David Kareken, PhD |
||
|
Dr. Kareken is associate professor and director of neuropsychology in the Department of Neurology, at Indiana University. His research laboratory uses functional neuroimaging techniques to study the human olfactory system and its role in health and disease. He is also interested in how the chemical senses can be used to study appetitive drive, both for natural rewards and for drugs of abuse. |
|
| Debomoy Lahiri, PhD |
||
|
|
Dr. Lahiri has been working on the projects related to the origin and biogenesis of the Alzheimer's amyloid plaque, and the general areas of gene regulation of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Presently, he is involved in two projects: one studying the transcriptional control of the gene encoding the beta-amyloid precursor protein to determine its role in the pathogenesis of AD, and other studying the translational and post-translational processing of beta-amyloid precursor protein and other neuronal proteins (such as synaptophysin, tau) in the presence of various cholinergic agents using the cell culture as a model system. Understanding this process has direct relevance for therapy of AD and might suggest the possibility that cholinergic agents might regulate the cellular processing of beta-amyloid precursor protein, thereby controlling the process of amyloidogenesis. He is also involved with Dr. John Nurnberger, Jr. in determining the role of G-proteins (alpha-subunit) in bipolar affective disorder. He plans to complement his interest of neurodegeneration with that of programmed cell death (apoptosis). Apoptosis influences early development and later refinement in adult tissues. Specially, he is examining the hypothesis that neuronal apoptosis results from the activation of an endogenous genetic program in an in vitro model of naturally occurring neuronal death. His model system is based on characterizing the expression of neuronal genes in sympathetic neurons which undergo programmed cell death after deprivation of nerve growth factor.
|
|
| Brandy Matthews, MD |
||
|
Dr. Matthews’ areas of research interest include the clinical presentation of frontotemporal dementia and related disorders, social and emotional cognition in the context of neurodegenerative disorders, and the neuroscience of music. She is also interested in systematic assessment of education in neurobehavior across disciplines including neurology, psychiatry, and geriatric medicine. She began her investigations as a neurology resident at Mayo Clinic under the supervision of Behavioral Neurologist Brad Boeve, MD. Her early research suggested that patients with very early frontotemporal dementia may have deficits in social cognition as evidenced by performance on “theory of mind” neuropsychological tests used in the study of autistic spectrum disorders. She was subsequently the recipient of a National Institutes on Aging training fellowship in dementia research and worked with Bruce Miller and colleagues at University of California San Francisco on the Program Project Grant “Frontotemporal Dementia: Genes, Images, and Emotions.” This experience allowed her to secure independent funding from the GRAMMY Foundation for her project “MEANING: Musical Emotion and Affect Naming In NeurodeGeneration.” Her data preliminarily suggests that understanding emotion in music may be preserved even as language degenerates as a consequence of dementia. She continues to explore brain behavior relationships as a member of the Clinical Core of the Indiana Alzheimer’s Disease Center (IADC) in an attempt to further efforts to diagnose frontotemporal dementia and related disorders earlier and more accurately. Likewise, as Associate leader of the IADC Education Core and Associate Program Director of the IU Neurology Residency Program, she has designed and implemented a behavioral neurology and dementia curriculum in an effort to better inform trainees and encourage them to pursue careers in behavioral neurology. |
|
| Leticia Miravalle, PhD |
||
|
Dr. Miravalle is a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at Indiana University School of Medicine (IUSM). She is also an Associate Director of the Molecular Pathology Laboratory at Clarian Pathology Laboratory. Dr. Miravalle received graduate training at New York University School of Medicine and did her PhD thesis in Pathology at the National University in Argentina. She received postgraduate training at the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at IUSM after which she received training in Clinical Cytogenetics and Clinical Molecular Genetics at the Department of Medical and Molecular Genetics at IUSM. Dr. Miravalle is Board certified in Clinical Cytogenetics by the American Board of Medical Genetics and is board-eligible in Clinical Molecular Genetics. Dr. Miravalle's research has focused on the characterization of the biochemical properties of amyloid peptides in neurodegenerative diseases and the genetic defects associated with familial forms of neurodegenerative diseases. Her training in clinical cytogenetics and molecular genetics allows her to provide diagnostic services and to serve as a consultant in the management of patients and families referred for congenital or acquired cytogenetic or genetic abnormalities.
|
|
| Jill Murrell, PhD |
||
|
Dr. Murrell is associate professor in the Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine and Medical and Molecular Genetics at Indiana University School of Medicine.
Her research focus is genetics of neurodegenerative diseases. Dr. Murrell is collaborating on several projects that examine genetic causes or risk factors of Alzheimer Disease, Frontotemporal Dementia, Bipolar Disorder, Depression and Cognitive Decline in Aging. She leads the genetic studies for the Indianapolis-Ibadan Dementia Study, which examines risk factors for dementia in elderly African-Americans living in Indianapolis and elderly Yoruba living in Ibadan, Nigeria. In addition, Jill is a consultant for genetic studies done in the elderly in China. For the Indiana Alzheimer Disease Center, Dr. Murrell's responsibilities include genotyping Apolipoprotein E, a risk factor for Alzheimer Disease and examining familial cases for mutations in genes causing dementia. Recently, she has developed and directed a graduate course entitled "Translational Neuroscience of Neurodegenerative Diseases". The aim of the course is to show the human side of disease to students who work at the laboratory bench and who otherwise would not receive this exposure. Dr. Murrell also serves as a member of the Medical Advisory Council for the Association for Frontotemporal Dementias.
|
|
| Kimberly Quaid-DeCordon, PhD |
||
|
Dr. Quaid is a faculty Investigator for the Indiana University Center for Bioethics and a Professor of Medical and Molecular Genetics at the Indiana University School of Medicine. She is also the Co-Director of the Master Program in Genetic Counseling in the Department of Medical and Molecular Genetics as well as the Director of the Predictive Testing Program. Dr. Quaid received her B.A. in Psychology from Brown University in Providence, RI as well as her M.A. and Ph.D. in Psychology from the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MA. Dr. Quaid has held academic positions in the Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and in the Department of Psychiatry at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore, where she was the coordinator of one of the first programs in the world to offer genetic testing for Huntington Disease to presymptomatic subjects at risk for the disease. She moved to Indiana University in 1990, where she is Director of the Predictive Testing Program, which provides genetic counseling and testing for individuals affected with or at risk for Huntington Disease, Alzheimer's Disease, Gerstmann-Sträussler-Scheinker disease, and other autosomal dominant disorders. Dr. Quaid currently teaches a campus-wide course in research ethics. She chaired the IUPUI Ethics in Research Committee charged with investigating allegations of scientific misconduct from 1998-2003 and was a member of the IUPUI/Clarian IRB from 2002 to 2006 and well as a member of review board of the General Clinical Research Center at IU School of Medicine. She served as Chair of the Ethical, Legal and Social Implications Study Section of the National Human Genome Research Institute of NIH from 2005-2007. She has authored or co-authored over 35 books, book chapters and peer reviewed publications.
|
|
| Greg Sachs, MD |
||
|
Dr. Greg Sachs is Professor of Medicine and Chief of the Division of General Internal Medicine and Geriatrics at the Indiana University School of Medicine and Investigator in the IU Center for Aging Research and the Regenstrief Institute, Inc. Dr. Sachs received his B.A. from the University of Chicago in 1981 and his MD from Yale University in 1985. He trained in internal medicine at the University of Chicago, staying on to complete a combined three-year geriatrics and clinical ethics fellowship under the mentorship of Dr. Christine Cassel. Dr. Sachs joined the University of Chicago faculty in 1990 and became the founding Chief of the new Section of Geriatrics there in 2000, serving in that role until his move to IU in the summer of 2007. Dr. Sachs's research and writing have focused on ethical issues in geriatrics, especially ethical issues involved in research on people with dementia, care of comorbid medical conditions in people with dementia, and care at the end of life. Dr. Sachs has been the recipient of grants from the John A. Hartford Foundation, Donald W. Reynolds Foundation, Alzheimer's Association, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Retirement Research Foundation, Greenwall Foundation, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, and the National Institute of Aging. His work has been published in leading journals such as JAMA, New England Journal of Medicine, Annals of Internal Medicine, Neurology and Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. In 2001, Dr. Sachs received the Outstanding Scientific Achievement for Clinical Investigation Award from the American Geriatrics Society (AGS) and was a Medical Honoree of the national Alzheimer's Association. Dr. Sachs currently serves on the Board of Directors of AGS and the editorial board of JAGS. Dr. Sachs sees patients in the Healthy Aging Brain Center, an affiliated site of the Indiana Alzheimer Disease Center, located within the Center for Senior Health at Wishard Hospital
|
|
| Andrew Saykin, PsyD |
||
|
Dr. Saykin is Raymond C. Beeler Professor of Radiology at the Indiana University School of Medicine. He also directs the Indiana University Center for Neuroimaging. Dr. Saykin's leads an NIH- and foundation-sponsored research program, which focuses on the use of brain imaging and genomic methods to study mechanisms of memory dysfunction and treatment response in neurological and psychiatric disorders. Current projects examine advanced imaging methods for early preclinical detection of Alzheimer's disease (NIA R01 AG19771), the neural basis of cancer chemotherapy-induced cognitive changes (NCI R01 CA101318), and alterations in brain activity and connectivity in schizophrenia (U54 EB005149). Each project includes a component examining genomic correlates of brain imaging phenotypic markers. |
|
| Changyu Shen, PhD |
||
|
Dr. Shen is assistant professor of medicine in the Division of Biostatistics at Indiana University. |
|
| Li Shen, PhD |
||
|
Dr. Shen is assistant professor of radiology in the Department of Radiology at the Indiana University School of Medicine. He is also associate investigator in the Stark Neurosciences Research Institute at the IU School of Medicine. Work in Dr. Shen’s laboratory focuses on research and training in medical-image computing, computational biology, and bioinformatics. He studies cutting-edge computational and informatics methods and turns them into practical tools that can help investigators better understand computer-generated digital data (e.g., 1-D sequences, 2-D images, and 3-D shapes) in practical applications. In particular, he is currently working on various neuroimaging and genomics projects. In these projects, he applies, extends or develops state-of-art software tools for analyzing structural and functional neuroimaging data as well as genomic and other related biomarker data. The ultimate goal is to improve early diagnosis and understanding of disease processes and treatment response for brain disorders such as Alzheimer's disease and schizophrenia, as well as the cognitive effects of cancer chemotherapy. |
|
| Salvatore Spina, MD |
||
|
Dr. Spina is an assistant research professor in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at Indiana University School of Medicine and the new Neuropathology Core Leader of the Indiana Alzheimer Disease Center (IADC). He received his medical degree at the University of Catania, Sicily, Italy and completed his residency in neurology at the University of Siena, Italy. In 2004, he joined the IADC, as a postdoctoral fellow, where is has been trained in neuropathology of neurodegenerative dementia under direct supervision of Dr. Bernardino Ghetti. Dr. Spina’s scientific interest focuses on the study of clinicopathological correlations in Alzheimer’s disease, frontotemporal dementia (FTD) and prion diseases. His major contributions to the advancement of science are the characterization of the clinical, neuropathological and genetic findings in inherited FTD. Dr. Spina has been among the first scientists to describe the effects of mutations in the Progranulin gene and in the Valosin-containing protein gene on behavioral and cognitive functioning of individuals affected by familiar FTD. He is also the author of a seminal paper published in the journal Brain on the natural history of neurodegeneration in one of the largest known families affected with FTD associated with Tau gene mutation. More recently, Dr. Spina has been among the coauthors of a paper highlighting the neuropathological findings of a newly identified form of sporadic FTD syndrome, mainly affecting the white matter of the brain. His scientific contributions have been judged to be in the top 5 %, and selected for the Scientific Topic Highlights session on Dementia and Behavioral Neurology of the American Academy of Neurology meetings. Dr. Spina has recently been honored by the European Confederation of Neuropathological Societies and the Hellenic Society of Neuropathology with the Best Young Investigator Award, Athens, Greece, 2008. |
|
| Frederick Unverzagt, PhD |
||
|
Dr. Unverzagt has research interests in clinical assessment of memory loss and dementia. He is the principal investigator of an National Institute of Aging-funded observational study of the risk factors for progression of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) in a primary care cohort. He is also the site-PI for the ACTIVE study (Advanced Cognitive Training for Independent Vital Elderly), a multi-center, randomized-controlled trial of the effectiveness of cognitive interventions in helping older adults forestall decline in activities of daily living. Dr. Unverzagt is co-investigator in large cross-national, community-based studies of the prevalence, incidence, and risk factors for cognitive decline, MCI, and Alzheimer disease in the US, Nigeria, Kenya, Jamaica, and China. He has adapted cognitive and clinical assessment techniques for use in these cross-national studies and developed training programs for their use. He is also co-investigator for the NIA-funded Indiana Alzheimer Disease Center, one of 32 such research centers in the US. In that capacity, he has been involved in the longitudinal assessment of large families affected with genetically-determined neurodegenerations including: early onset Alzheimer disease, Gerstmann-Sträussler-Scheinker disease (an inherited prion diesase), and multiple system tauopathy with presenile dementia. Dr. Unverzagt also has interest in studying cognitive dysfunction in breast cancer patients. He has assembled and validated a sensitive battery of tests and adapted these tests for telephone-based administration in a large American Cancer Society study of quality of life in breast cancer survivors. |
|
| Ruben Vidal, PhD |
||
|
Dr. Vidal is an Associate Professor at the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at Indiana University School of Medicine. He received graduate and postgraduate training at New York University School of Medicine and discussed his PhD thesis in Pathology at the National University in Argentina. Research in the laboratory of Dr. Vidal is focused on the molecular mechanisms by which deposition of a protein with an abnormal conformation causes neurodegeneration. Dr. Vidal studies the pathogenesis of Alzheimer disease (AD), familial British and Danish dementia (FBD and FDD), prion diseases, hereditary ferritinopathy (HF) and other neurodegenerative disorders in which the main biochemical event leading to brain degeneration involves the abnormal deposition of proteins in the brain parenchyma or in cerebral vessel walls. These are disorders of protein conformation leading to aggregation in which a protein that is present in body fluids as a soluble precursor deposits, producing organ dysfunction and cell death. In most cases, such as in AD, the abnormal protein is deposited as amyloid fibrils. Amyloid fibrils are composed of self-assembled, low molecular weight mass peptides adopting beta-pleated sheet structure, the conformation responsible for their physicochemical properties and tinctoreal characteristics. To accomplish his goals Dr. Vidal employs a multidisciplinary approach in which he uses a variety of modern methodologies including molecular cloning, protein biochemistry, recombinant protein expression, cell transfection and transgenic animal models. Transgenic models are particularly important since they allow therapeutic approaches to be tested. Research efforts in the laboratory of Dr. Vidal are funded by grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIA and NINDS), the American Federation for Aging Research (AFAR), the Alzheimer's Association (AA), and the American Health Assistance Foundation (AHAF).
|
|
| Joanne Wojcieszek, MD |
||
|
|
|
| Karmen Yoder, PhD |
||
|
Dr. Yoder is assistant professor of radiology in research and imaging sciences at the Indiana University School of Medicine. She is also associate investigator in the Stark Neuroscience Research Institute at the IU School of Medicine. Dr. Yoder’s interests are in the area of in vivo neurochemistry of CNS disorders and cognition using positron emission tomography, or PET. Dr. Yoder focuses on using quantitative PET techniques to study in vivo neurochemical processes in humans and in animal models of abnormal brain function. Tracers of interest include [11C]raclopride (dopamine D2 antagonist used to study striatal dopamine function), [18F]fallypride (DA D2 antagonist, permits study of extrastriatal DA systems), [11C]PIB (marker for amyloid deposition), and [11C]DAA1106 (binds to the peripheral benzodiazepine receptor, a marker of neuroinflammation). Dr. Yoder and her collaborators were the first to directly demonstrate that human striatal dopamine (DA) levels change during positive and negative prediction error conditions, confirming previous electrophysiology studies in animals. They have also shown that cognitive state affects striatal DA D2 receptor availability. Recently published work described a method for quantitating alchohol-induced changes in DA levels that does not require subjects to have anatomically identical responses. Dr. Yoder has extramural and intramural funding for several projects, which include: determination of the test-retest reliability of a spatially independent method for quantitating human striatal DA responses to alcohol; evaluating the extrastriatal DA system in alcoholics; and assessing the extrastriatal DA response to motor and cognitive tasks in healthy humans. Additional pilot studies will compare striatal DA tone between chronic cannabis users and healthy controls, and will examine if naltrexone (a drug used to treat alcoholism) affects the DA system in alcoholics. Upcoming studies will characterize the DA response to negative prediction error in social drinkers and alcoholics, test the effects of naltrexone on DA prediction error response in alcoholics, and assess the DA system in fibromyalgia. Dr. Yoder works closely with Dr. E. Morris on development of methods that will recover the temporal dynamics of neurotransmitter release using PET (ntPET), and with Dr. D. Kareken, who studies DA with respect to sensory cues involved in addictive processes. Dr. Yoder is also helping to develop several collaborative projects within the Center for Neuroimaging, including: determining the role of DA in metacognition in schizotypal syndromes; discerning the roles of neuroinflammation and amyloid deposition in traumatic brain injury (TBI) in humans and in animal models of TBI; and development of small animal PET imaging paradigms to longitudinally assess neuroinflammation and amyloid deposition in transgenic mouse models of neurodegenerative disorders. |
|
| Qi-Huang Zheng, Ph.D |
||
|
Dr. Zheng is associate professor of radiology and PET radiochemist/synthetic organic chemist in the Department of Radiology at the Indiana University School of Medicine. In his laboratory, Dr. Zheng’s has been investigating the design, synthesis and biological evaluation of new radiopharmaceuticals (brain, tumor and heart imaging agents) for use in biomedical imaging techniques in positron emission tomography (PET) to study brain, cancer and cardiovascular diseases. His research interests range from PET radiopharmaceutical chemistry to synthetic organic chemistry and biologically active natural product chemistry. His current research activities focus on the development of novel and potent enzyme-based and/or receptor-based PET carbon-11 and fluorine-18 radiotracers for the qualitative and quantitative assessment of physiologic changes in vivo, from initial evaluation in cell and animal models to evaluation in clinical trials. The neuroimaging tracers produced in this laboratory include [11C]PIB (ß-amyloid); [11C]DAA1106 and [11C]PBR28 (peripheral benzodiazepine receptor); [11C]ß-CFT and [11C]ß-CIT (dopamine and serotonin transporters); [11C]Raclopride, [11C]Fallypride and [18F]Fallypride (D2 receptor); and [11C]DTBZ (vesicular monoamine transporter). A series of PET cancer imaging agents that target either enzymes or receptors have been synthesized in this laboratory, including radiolabeled matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) inhibitors for MMP enzymes, radiolabeled O6-benzylguanine derivatives for human DNA repair protein alkylguanine-DNA alkyltransferase (AGT), radiolabeled ganciclovir and penciclovir analogs for herpes simplex virus thymidine kinase (HSV-tk) gene, [11C]Choline for phosphatidylcholine, and radiolabeled quinazoline derivatives like [11C]Iressa for epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFr). The heart imaging agents available in this laboratory include [11C]HED (cardiac sympathetic innervation); [11C]Neostigmine, [11C]Edrophonium and [11C]Pyridostigmine (acetylcholinesterase); and [11C]Hemicholinium-15 and [11C]Hemicholinium-3 (high-affinity choline uptake). |
|


























