Research Focus
Dr. Toga's research focuses on neuroimaging, informatics, mapping brain structure and function, and brain atlasing. He has developed multimodal imaging and data aggregation strategies and applied them in a variety of neurological diseases and psychiatric disorders, including neurodegenerative diseases, neurovascular diseases, and ocular diseases. His work in informatics includes the development and implementation of some of the largest and most widely used databases and data mining tools linking disparate data from genetics, imaging, clinical, and behavioral studies, and supporting global efforts in Alzheimer's disease, Huntington's Disease, and Parkinson's Disease. His work also involves measurement of the dynamic brain during development and aging, and as a result of insult.
Learn more about Dr. Toga’s research.


Education
Ph.D. in Neuroscience, St. Louis University
M.S. in Neuroscience, St. Louis University
B.S. in Psychology, University of Massachusetts

Experience

2016 - present: Ghada Irani Chair in Neuroscience

2013 - present: Provost Professor, Departments of Ophthalmology, Neurology, Psychiatry, and the Behavioral Sciences, Radiology and Engineering at the Keck School of Medicine of USC

2013 - present: Director, USC Mark and Mary Stevens Neuroimaging and Informatics Institute

2013 - present: Director, USC Laboratory of Neuro Imaging

2010 - 2012: Associate Vice Provost of Informatics, University of California, Los Angeles

2010 - 2013: Associate Dean, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles

1993 - 2010: Professor, Department of Neurology, University of California, Los Angeles

1993 - 2013: Associate Director, Division of Brain Mapping, Neuropsychiatric Institute, University of California, Los Angeles

1987 - 2013: Director, Laboratory of Neuro Imaging, Department of Neurology, University of California, Los Angeles

Skills
Neuroscience
Research
Management

Research Focus
Dr. Thompson’s primary focus is imaging genetics, the study of how individual genetic differences lead to differences in brain wiring, structure, and intellectual function. He co-founded a worldwide imaging genetics consortium, ENIGMA, which studies 22 brain diseases in 37 countries, and has published the largest-ever neuroimaging studies of schizophrenia, major depression, bipolar disorder, and obsessive-compulsive disorder. Other research pursuits include developing new computational algorithms for neuroimaging, dynamic (4D) brain mapping, creation of a probabilistic atlas of the human brain and cortex, and creation of population-based atlases for Alzheimer’s Disease, Schizophrenia, and other disorders.
Learn more about Dr. Thompson’s research.


Education
1998 – Ph.D. in Neuroscience, UCLA
1993 – M.A. in Mathematics and Philosophy, Oxford University
1991 – B.A. in Greek and Latin Languages, Oxford University

Experience

2010-2013: Professor of Neurology,Professor of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, David Geffen School of Medicine, UCLA

2007 -2013: Professor of Neurology, David Geffen School of Medicine, UCLA

2003-2007: Associate Professor of Neurology, David Geffen School of Medicine, UCLA

1998-2003: Assistant Professor of Neurology, David Geffen School of Medicine, UCLA

1993-1998: Fellow, Howard Hughes Medical Institute

1993-998: Research Grantee, United States Information Agency, Washington, DC

1993-1998: Fulbright Scholar, U.S.-U.K. Fulbright Commission, London, England

My scientific goals are to identify the structural organization of neural networks and then dissect the functional role of specific network circuits to understand how the circuits cooperate to produce animal behavior.

Research Focus
Neuroanatomical substrates for fear memory processing and PTSD


Education
B.S., Neuroscience, University of Pittsburgh, 2007
Ph.D., Neuroscience, University of Pittsburgh, 2012

Experience

Neuroanatomical tract tracing in rodents with classical and multisynaptic viral tracers

Research Focus
Dr. Braskie’s research evaluates how genetic and environmental risk factors for Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) relate to brain structure, function, and connectivity throughout adulthood, with an emphasis on metabolic risk. She primarily studies cognitively intact adults and those with early mild cognitive impairment, studying how AD risk-related biological mechanisms and signaling pathways are associated with brain changes, using relevant blood and cerebrospinal fluid measures, as well as multimodal imaging (structural and functional MRI, diffusion tensor imaging, and PET).


Education
Ph.D. in Neuroscience, UCLA
B.B.A. in Accounting, College of William and Mary

Experience

2019 - present: Assistant Professor of Neurology

2019 - present: Director of Education, Stevens NeuroImaging and Informatics Institute

2013 - 2019: Assistant Professor of Research USC

2011 - 2013: Assistant Researcher UCLA

2009 - 2011: Post doctoral fellow UCLA

2006 - 2009: Post doctoral fellow UC Berkeley

Research Focus
Dr. Duncan’s expertise lies in the development of analytical tools to extract information from biomedical data. Both her Ph.D. and postdoctoral research used EEG data to isolate patterns indicating the onset of epileptic seizures. She has worked on developing algorithms, such as Unsupervised Diffusion Component Analysis, to identify early signs of Alzheimer's disease in patients using structural MRI data. Her recent projects include identifying biomarkers to predict epilepsy following a traumatic brain injury and using Virtual Reality to improve segmentation, a manual error-correction process required to analyze brain imaging data.


Education
2013 - PhD in Electrical Engineering, Yale University
2007 - BS in Mathematics and Polish Literature, University of Chicago

Research Focus
Dr. Jahanshad is part of INI’s Imaging Genetics Center, where she researches genetic influences on brain structure using high-resolution structural and diffusion imaging. She also develops protocols for large-scale meta-analyses of brain structure and connectivity for the ENIGMA consortium. Her work with diffusion imaging involves monitoring the effects of infectious diseases, such as HIV, on the brain.


Education
2012 – Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering, UCLA
2006 – B.A. in Biomedical and Electrical Engineering

Research Focus
Dr. Jann develops analytical tools and clinical translations of functional MRI technology. He studies the relationship between functional connectivity, complexity and metabolism of brain networks. His multimodal approach involves a combination of fMRI, connectivity measures, cerebral blood flow, Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) excitation and inhibition, and Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (MRS). He is also exploring the use of neuromodulation, such as TMS, in the treatment of various neuropsychiatric disorders.


Education
2009 - Ph.D. in the Faculties of Medicine, Science and Veterinary Medicine, University of Bern (Switzerland)
2004 - Dipl. Sc. Nat. in Biology (Neuroscience focus), Swiss Federal Institute of Technology

Experience

2016 - Assistant Project Scientist at the Laboratory of Functional MRI Technology, Ahmanson-Lovelace Brain Mapping Center, UCLA

2013 - 2016: Postdoctoral researcher at the Laboratory of Functional MRI Technology, Ahmanson-Lovelace Brain Mapping Center, UCLA

2010 - 2013: Postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Psychiatric Neurophysiology, University Hospital of Psychiatry, University of Bern, Switzerland

2009 - 2010: Research assistant at the Department of Psychiatric Neurophysiology, University Hospital of Psychiatry, University of Bern, Switzerland

Research Focus
Dr. Kim’s research spans an interdisciplinary cross-section of medical image processing, machine learning and neuroscience, covering both clinical neurology and neuropsychiatry. He studies multicontrast image registration and segmentation as well as surface modeling of both cortical and subcortical structures. One of his current projects involves the prediction of neurodevelopmental outcomes for preterm babies. He is also developing an online neuroimaging data quality control (image QC) system.


Education
2016 - Postdoctoral Fellowship in Imaging of Neurodevelopment, UC San Francisco
2012 - Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering (specialty: brain image analysis), McGill University / Montreal Neurological Institute experience neuroimaging, image processing, machine learning, clinical neuroimaging (preterm newborns, sleep disorders, epilepsy)
2011 - Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering, Montreal Neurological Institute, McGill University
2003 - M.S. in Biomedical Engineering, Hanyang University (Seoul, Korea)
2000 - B.S. in Mechanical Engineering, Hanyang Unversity (Seoul, Korea)

The overarching aim of Dr. Lawrence's research is to improve our understanding of the neural mechanisms underlying neurodevelopmental conditions, with the long-term goal of contributing to personalized medicine approaches for interested individuals. Her work leverages large-scale multimodal neuroimaging data?including diffusion-weighted MRI and resting-state functional MRI?together with advanced imaging and statistical methods. Her primary line of research characterizes the neurobiological underpinnings of brain-based conditions such as autism and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). In her other main branch of research, she investigates typical brain development and moderating factors in large-scale population-based samples.

Research Focus
Structural and functional lateralization of perisylvian language centers; development of diffusion MRI microstructural measures; cortical microstructure and neuroanatomy


Education
2019: Ph.D. in Neuroscience, USC
2010: B.S. in Honors Neuroscience, Brown University

Experience

2011 - 2013: Research Assistant, Developmental Cognitive Neuroimaging Laboratory, Children's Hospital Los Angeles

Education
2019: Ph.D. in Neuroscience, USC
2007: B.A. in Cognitive Science and Neuroscience, University of California, Berkeley

Research Focus
Dr. Pappas aims to understand neuropathology in clinical populations such as stroke and Alzheimer's disease. He uses multi-modal brain imaging methods including functional MRI, diffusion imaging, perfusion imaging, and spectroscopy. Before joining LONI, he conducted post-doctoral research at UC Berkeley studying the neural mechanisms of recovery in stroke patients.


Education
2019: Ph.D. in Clinical Neurosciences, Cambridge University, UK
2015: MSc. in Engineering, University of Florida, USA
2013: Diploma in Engineering, National Technical University of Athens, Greece

Education
Ph.D., Psychology-Behavioral Neuroscience, University of Missouri St. Louis, 2016

Research Focus
Dr. Shao is Assistant Professor of Research Radiology at the USC Stevens Neuroimaging and Informatics Institute, Keck School of Medicine USC. His research focuses on developing ASL sequences with high spatial/temporal resolution. Currently Dr. Shao is working on a novel MR pulse sequence and modeling algorithm to quantify the water exchange rate (kw) across the blood–brain barrier (BBB) without contrast, and to evaluate its clinical utility in a range of neurological disorders including cerebral small vessel disease (SVD), Alzheimer's Diseases (AD), etc. Dr. Shao is also working on high resolution 7T ASL to quantify layer-dependent CBF and obtain concurrent measurement of CBV, BOLD and CMRO2.


Education
2019: Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering, University of Southern California
2016: M.S. in Bioengineering, University of California, Los Angeles
2014: B.S in Engineering Physics, Tsinghua University

Experience

2022 - present: Assistant Professor of Research Radiology, USC Stevens Neuroimaging and Informatics Institute, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California

2021 - present: Junior Fellow, ISMRM

2019 - present: Research Scientist, USC Stevens Neuroimaging and Informatics Institute, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California

2020 - 2021: Trainee representative, ISMRM perfusion study group

Research Focus
Dr. Shi develops cutting-edge image analysis algorithms, which he applies to the study of human brain structure and function. He seeks to more accurately model the brain’s fibers in diffusion imaging using Fiber Orientation Distribution (FOD) reconstruction. He also studies anatomical shape modeling using the Laplace-Beltrami system, in order to create better brain mapping algorithms for use in researching Alzheimer’s Disease, retinopathies, and other disorders.


Education
2005- PhD. in Electrical Engineering, Boston University, Boston, USA.
1999- M.S. in Electrical Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing, China.
1996- B.S. in Electrical Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing, China.

Experience

Assistant Professor, Department of Neurology, UCLA School of Medicine, 2009-2013

PostDoctoral Fellow, Department of Neurology, UCLA School of Medicine, 2005-2009

Skills
Level set algorithms, inverse problems and regularization, statistical signal processing.

Research Focus
Dr. Wang runs the Laboratory of Functional MRI Technology (LOFT), where he develops techniques and clinical translations of arterial spin labeling (ASL) and performs cross-scale and modality complexity analysis of resting state fMRI and electrophysiology data. Dr. Wang leads projects to develop and validate imaging biomarkers of cerebral small vessel diseases (cSVD) and vascular cognitive impairment and dementia (VCID). He also researches electric current mapping of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS). Another current project involves the development of low-dose CT perfusion technology, which may help significantly reduce radiation exposure without compromising image quality.


Education
2010 – M.S.C.E. (Master of Science in Clinical Epidemiology), University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine
1998 – Ph.D. in Biophysics, University of Science and Technology of China
1993 – B.S. in Biophysics, Fu Dan University

Experience

2016 - present: Professor, Department of Neurology, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA

2016 - present: Director of Imaging Technology Innovation, Mark & Mary Stevens Neuroimaging and Informatics Institute, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA

2016 - present: Professor (secondary), Department of Radiology, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA

2012 - 2016: Executive Director, UCLA-Beijing Joint Center for Advanced Brain Imaging

2015 - 2016: Professor-in-Residence (secondary), Department of Radiology, UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine, Los Angeles,

2015 - 2016: Professor-in-Residence, Department of Neurology, UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine, Los Angeles, CA

2011 - 2015: Associate Professor-in-Residence (secondary), Department of Radiology, UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine, Los Angeles, CA

2010 - 2015: Associate Professor-in-Residence, Department of Neurology, UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine, Los Angeles, CA

2011 - 2013: Adjunct Associate Professor, Department of Radiology, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA

2006 - 2010: Research Assistant Professor, Department of Neurology, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA

2003 - 2010: Research Assistant Professor, Department of Radiology, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA