The principal goal of the summer program is to provide students with core experience in basic neuroscience with a strong influence of translation to solving important clinical needs. Faculty includes research scientists, physician-scientists, and physicians. Below is an overview of the faculty mentors available to guide students in program labs:
Area of Research/Practice: Investigates the neural, structural, and molecular mechanisms of learning and memory, particularly cognitive impairment in neurodegenerative diseases.
Marie Y. Davis, MD, PhD
Area of Research/Practice: Movement disorders due to genetic causes, such as hereditary ataxias, dystonias, and parkinsonism; Huntington's Disease; Hereditary Spastic Paraplegias.
Richard G. Ellenbogen, MD, FACS (Program Director)
Area of Research/Practice: Molecular Imaging/Targeted treatments of brain tumors, TBI.
Area of Research/Practice: using stem cell-derived cerebral organoids and single-cell techniques to model malignant brain tumors and their interaction with the tumor microenvironment. He is particularly interested in utilizing these methods to develop precision medicine strategies and clinical trials tailored to patients’ individual tumors.
Manuel F. Ferreira, MD, PhD, MBA
Area of Research/Practice: Genetic determinants of aneurysm formation and meningioma.
Patrick Fillingham PhD
Area of Research/Practice: Computational fluid dynamics research for all aspects of neurosurgery with a particular focus on cerebrovascular and cardiovascular disease.
Jeff Herron, PhD
Area of Research/Practice: Translational restorative neurosurgery including BCI technology and “closed loop” deep brain stimulator systems.
Christoph Hofstetter, MD, PhD
Area of Research/Practice: Development of novel minimally invasive motion preserving spinal procedures.
Eric Holland, MD, PhD
Area of Research/Practice: Development of genetically accurate mouse models of gliomas. The biology of these tumors, the way that they respond to current therapy, and the development of new methods for treating them.
Suman Jayadev, MD
Area of Research/Practice: Neurogenetics and neurodegenerative disease. Neuroinflammation and neurodegeneration.
Franck Kalume, PhD
Area of Research/Practice: Dravet Syndrome, Sudden Unexpected Death in Epilepsy.
C. Dirk Keene, MD, PhD
Area of Research/Practice: Development of novel diagnostic and therapeutic strategies for neurodegenerative disease.
Louis Kim, MD
Area of Research/Practice: Patient outcome measures and refinements in surgical and endovascular techniques in aneurysm, AVM, skull-based tumor, and cavernous malformation surgery.
Andrew Ko, MD
Area of Research/Practice: Deep brain stimulation, functional neurosurgery, epilepsy and pain.
Ed Lein, PhD
Area of Research/Practice: Using high-resolution anatomical transcriptome data to understand the molecular and cellular architecture of the mammalian neocortex and hippocampus.
Michael Levitt, MD
Area of Research/Practice: Translational efforts to understand how cerebral aneurysms form, grow and rupture.
Christine Mac Donald, PhD (Program Co-Director)
Area of Research/Practice: Advanced MRI methods applied to traumatic brain injury (TBI) research.
Ashley McDonough, PhD
Area of Research/Practice: How microglia respond to inflammatory stimuli arising from injury or disease and the consequences of microglial activation in the central nervous system at all stages of the life span. Differential responses in microglia localized to white or gray matter regions of the brain and has developed an in vivo/ex vivo model of ischemic injury in white matter that has functional and histological outcomes.
Jeffrey Ojemann, MD
Area of Research/Practice: BCI using surface cortical recordings– electrocorticography (EcoG).
Katherine Prater, PhD
Area of Research/Practice: How microglia, the immune cells of the brain, respond to Alzheimer's Disease.
Jan “Nino” Ramirez, PhD
Area of Research/Practice: Animal models of human conditions including sleep apnea, SIDs, and epilepsy; optogenetics.
Jonathan R. Weinstein, MD, PhD
Area of Research/Practice: Acute management of stroke patients and sees patients in general neurology wards.
Miqin Zhang, PhD
Area of Research/Practice: Nano-particles directed toward brain tumor treatment.