Faculty and Staff
Faculty
Director, Human Imaging Core
Director, Hoglund Biomedical Imaging Center
Associate Director, Frontiers
Director, Alzheimer's Disease Research Center Neuroimaging Core
Professor, Department of Neurology
Dr. Brooks’ research work focused on technique development in MR spectroscopy with a specific focus on biological systems. He designed and patented one of the first techniques for spatially localized spectroscopy to be employed in humans. Since 1991, he has been applying MR imaging and spectroscopy to the study of injury and disease. These studies have shown that biological markers of brain metabolism can predict cognitive function in both normal brain function and in disease. Dr. Brooks’ specific research interests include normal function and recovery from traumatic brain injury. He has published more than 160 peer-reviewed journal articles, 3 patents, and is funded through the Frontiers and ADRC center grants as well as several other research grants. He served as mentor on 5 funded faculty K-awards.
Director, Metabolic Imaging Unit
Director, Magnetic Resonance Science Program
Associate Director, Hoglund Biomedical Imaging Center
Professor, Department of Neurology
Professor, Department of Radiology
Dr. Choi specializes in Biophysical Sciences and Medical Physics, particularly magnetic resonance imaging and spectroscopy technology. Dr. Choi’s expertise and experiences include the development of hardware and software for magnetic resonance systems for clinical and preclinical research, with emphasis on brain metabolism. Dr. Choi's current research focuses on 1) the identification of quantitative, objective biomarkers of the mechanisms in the brain in aging and neurodegeneration, and 2) the quantitative, noninvasive assessment of the effect of lifestyle choices and interventions on the brain with a range of conditions including diabetes, cancers and neurological diseases such as multiple sclerosis, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, stroke and Alzheimer disease. Her research uses advanced noninvasive in vivo magnetic resonance techniques that her team has developed for the detection of antioxidants (e.g., glutathione and vitamin C), and other neurochemicals. She is funded by grants from the Dairy Research Council and the USHBC to investigate the impact of diet on the cerebral antioxidant system. Since 2005 at KUMC, Dr. Choi has been very active in sharing her expertise with a considerable number (over 90) of collaborators and cross-disciplinary investigators in basic science and clinical research at KUMC and the region. Dr. Choi also puts her significant efforts to make HBIC a competitive imaging center by equipping the core with the most current MR metabolic imaging techniques and maintaining the integrity of MR systems for both human and animal studies.
Assistant Professor, Department of Dietetics and Nutrition
Dr. Christifano has experience managing all aspects of large-scale clinical trials including the recently completed Prenatal Autonomic Neurodevelopmental Assessment Trial, utilizing many of HBIC’s neurophysiological assessments. Specifically, Dr. Christifano has experience with pediatric high-density EEG collection and analysis using specialized software (EEGLab, MatLab, Kubios), so that she may guide and train future HBIC users in data analysis methods. Dr. Christifano is also an Assistant Professor in the Department of Dietetics and Nutrition where she is pursuing grants to investigate how diet (e.g., DHA supplementation and infant formula) and lifestyle interventions impact maternal and infant autonomic nervous system function and development. In addition, her lab collaborates with neurocognitive scientists in order to answer questions regarding the impact of dietary interventions on infant health and cognition.
Medical Director, Hoglund Biomedical Imaging Center
Professor, Nephrology and Hypertension
Director of Clinical Trials, Division of Nephrology
Aditi Gupta, M.D., M.S. is a transplant nephrologist at KUMC with over 15 years of clinical experience. Her research interests have developed from her clinical experiences and brings novel imaging protocols to Hoglund and fosters collaborations between different institutes and departments. Her long-term goal is to pursue impactful patient-oriented clinical research in vascular risk reduction to prevent dementia. Having trained in the same program, she had the opportunity to follow patients over the years and struggle with worsening cognitive impairment. Her study on patients with kidney failure noted improvement in cognition and brain alterations after a kidney transplant. Her work focuses on early detection and prevention of cognitive impairment, with emphasis on patient centered outcomes. She is also trained in implementation science to help implement research findings in the real world. She has crossed interdepartmental boundaries, developed multidisciplinary collaborations, and embarked on challenging ‘out of the box’ studies with their successful completion. She maintains significant NIH funding for her work.
Director, Magnetic Resonance Imaging Unit
Director, Magnetic Resonance Technology Program
Associate Director, Hoglund Biomedical Imaging Center
Professor, Department of Radiology
Dr. Lee was trained in Biophysics and Medical Sciences with substantial expertise in developing advanced magnetic resonance technology. His early research aimed to understand the physiological bases and signal source of functional MRI (fMRI), and to develop non-invasive MR techniques for the early detection of neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease by visualizing ß-amyloid plaques and quantifying iron accumulation in the brain. Dr. Lee's research focuses on the developing novel MR techniques to assess brain structure, physiology and metabolism, and their applications to clinical studies to investigate the effects of lifestyle choices in aging and neurodegeneration At present his team works on overcoming the multiple constraints of currently available MR techniques regarding spatial resolution, quantification accuracy and scan time by employing a totally new framework, namely spectral localization by imaging (SLIM)-based MR methods. Dr. Lee’s work is currently funded by NIH grants and leads multi-center clinical research projects. Since joining HBIC in 2005, his leadership role as Director of Magnetic Resonance Technology includes working with about 100 investigators regionally and nationally for clinical and preclinical research. Significant portions of Dr. Lee’s efforts are directed toward making HBIC a highly competitive imaging center by equipping the core with a range of the most current MRI techniques and by developing new imaging capabilities. Dr. Lee is also the key expert at HBIC in all technical aspects of MR systems for their peak performance for all human and animal studies.
Assistant Professor, Department of Neurology
Director, PoweR Of MUSic (PROMUS) Lab, Department of Neurology
Assistant Director, KU Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center Neuroimaging Core
Rebecca Lepping, Ph.D. has nearly 20 years’ experience in clinical and translational research and has been continuously funded on NIH grants since 2007. She is a cognitive psychologist and a trained musician and researcher in the psychological and physiological effects of music. Dr. Lepping’s PROMUS Lab program of research studies why individuals choose to engage with music, and how they use music to regulate their mood states, experience of pain, and other psychological and physiological symptoms. She is also affiliated with various research centers at the University of Kansas Medial Center (KU ADRC, the Kansas Intellectual & Developmental Disabilities Research Center, the KU Frontiers CTSA program, and the Kansas Polycystic Kidney Disease Center). Dr. Lepping has expertise in many imaging techniques including Functional MRI (fMRI), Task-free functional MRI (TF-fMRI), Arterial Spin Labeling Perfusion (ASL), Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI), MR Spectroscopy (MRS), Amyloid and Fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) Positron Emission Tomography (PET), and Event Related Potential (ERP) Electroencephalography (EEG), along with behavioral and psychophysiological measures and imaging data management.
Director, Cognitive Neuroscience Unit
Associate Director, Hoglund Biomedical Imaging Center
Associate Professor, Department of Population Health
Dr. Martin is an Associate Professor of Population Health, Associate Director of Hoglund Biomedical Imaging Center, and the Director of the Cognitive Neuroscience Unit. She is funded by the National Institutes of Health and collaborates on other NIH research and training grants. Across these studies, she applies cognitive neuroscience methods (e.g., fMRI) to understand brain function associated with a variety of health behaviors (e.g., smoking, eating, exercise), cognitive functions (e.g., memory, attention, cognitive control), psychiatric conditions (e.g., autism, depression, addiction), and disease states (e.g., Alzheimer’s, cancer) across the lifespan. In her role at Hoglund Biomedical Imaging Center, she has collaborated with numerous investigators on 75+ research projects in a team science setting to apply cognitive neuroscience expertise to cross-disciplinary translational research in multiple domains including but not limited to gambling, food decision-making, nutritional supplementation (DHA), sleep disorders, binge eating disorders, exercise, low-back pain and depression. In addition, she mentors high school, undergraduate, graduate, and medical students as well as faculty.
Assistant Director, Hyperpolarized MRI
Research Assistant Professor, Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care, and Sleep Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine
Dr. Niedbalski’s research focusses on pulmonary imaging methods, particularly ultra-short echo time (UTE) and hyperpolarized 129Xe MRI techniques. This research is aimed toward technical development of new imaging and analysis methods, as well as the application of these techniques to individuals with pulmonary disease, including asthma, COPD, interstitial lung disease, and pulmonary hypertension. Dr. Niedbalski develops new MRI pulse sequences, including spiral, UTE, and spectroscopic imaging methods, that have been implemented on the Hoglund MRI scanner. Dr. Niedbalski’s research has both pre-clinical and translational components, which includes work on both the 9.4T small animal MRI and the 3T human scanner. Dr. Niedbalski also serves as a point of contact for the Department of Internal Medicine with the aim of facilitating additional investigators, particularly in the pulmonary division, using HBIC resources.
Senior Scientists and Post-Doctoral Fellows
Senior Scientist
Dr. Bartolotti is an expert in functional MRI data analysis, with a cognitive neuroscience background using fMRI, EEG/ERP, and eye tracking methods. Dr. Bartolotti previously served as a post-doctoral Fellow in the Biobehavioral Research on Autism, Intellectual, and Neurodevelopmental disabilities laboratory under Dr. Matthew Mosconi, where he applied novel imaging methods to neurodiverse populations. He joined HBIC as a Senior Scientist in 2021. He develops analysis pipelines, data processing, and data management. He also administers the HBIC research server, Synapse, and the imaging data management platform, XNAT. He is supported in part by grant funding and serves as sub-award PI on grant applications that need fMRI support.
Core Scientist/Manager
Dr. Chauhan joined the core in August 2021. He collaborates with investigators to implement experimental set-ups, design, and manage research studies, data acquisition and analysis, publish results, and prepare grant applications. His responsibilities also include maintaining scanner hardware, quality assurance, and troubleshooting. In line with KUMC’s education goal, Dr. Chauhan is responsible for hands-on training of students and postdocs involved in animal imaging research, under the guidance of core faculty. Dr. Chauhan is an expert at developing protocols, image analysis tools and strategies and has extensive knowledge of MATLAB, Python, and other image analysis tools.
Senior Scientist
Dr. Liao has a background in electrical and biomedical engineering and training in EEG, MEG and signal processing. He has expertise in MatLab Programming and data analysis experience using CTF software, BESA, Python and EEGLab and CarTool. He facilitates HD-EEG study development by consulting with investigators on protocol design. He creates stimulus paradigms using E-Prime or Presentation software and data analysis using acquisition software (Neuroscan, EGI). He consults with study teams implementing current analysis techniques and novel machine learning techniques in EEG and ERP data analysis.
Senior Scientist, Hoglund Biomedical Imaging Center
Senior Scientist, Bioengineering Program, KU
Dr. Sabati earned his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering (with focus on MRI) and has worked and lectured in areas of medical imaging, clinical translational research, and electrical engineering. Dr. Sabati’s research has included single-acquisition whole-body imaging and angiography, MR spectroscopic imaging, vascular and neuroimaging, real-time MRI, image reconstruction, and energy conservation. He joined HBIC in 2022 and is developing novel MR spectroscopic and quantitative MR imaging techniques and their data processing pipelines. He is responsible for protocol optimization of specialized imaging strategies. He also trains imaging users with new MRI sequences and tools and supports them in their studies and grant submissions.
Research Support Personnel
Magnetic Resonance Technologist
Kerry joined HBIC in 2017 and is responsible for the acquisition of research MRI scans.
Benjamin Hess is a research assistant/data analyst in the KU School of Medicine Department of Neurology. Using the knowledge gathered during his Master of Science in Data Analytics and Bachelor of Science in English Education, he enjoys solving tangled data puzzles, thematically analyzing research and communicating his findings to his colleagues and the broader community. He has a deep interest in a wide variety of music and a diverse range of work experiences. In his free moments, he is an amateur mechanic by necessity and an amateur poet by choice. Benjamin is looking forward to a long career examining how music and health interact with each other and what combinations of the two contribute to the best outcomes.
Laboratory Director
Senior Magnetic Resonance Technologist
Frank has been an x-ray and MRI technologist since 1991. He joined HBIC in 2010 and is primarily responsible for the acquisition of research MRI scans, day-to-day operations of the 3T scanner, and overall building maintenance.
Clinical Research Assistant
Senior Research Associate/Human Imaging Core Manager
Vlad serves as the point of contact for all research studies using the Human Imaging Core. He is responsible for initiating new projects, managing ongoing projects, and facilitating interactions between HBIC staff and study teams. He manages software applications, contracts between Hoglund and third-party providers of specialized software, and HBIC’s data management systems. Additionally, he provides cognitive paradigm programming support, data management support, and training of new research personnel.
Jasmine Taylor is a research assistant/data analyst in the KU School of Medicine Department of Neurology. Though new to the profession, she enjoys the professional and academic rigor the neurology, psychology and neuroscience fields provide. Taylor has various research interests, including research that involves the relation between music and cognition. In her spare time, she enjoys conducting personal research for her historical fiction novels, visiting art museums and supporting events rooted in the arts.
Administrative Personnel
jkarungi@kumc.edu
913-588-9067
Administrative Director
Justine received a Bachelors degree in Statistics and Quantitative Economics and has an MBA in Healthcare Administration from Avila University, Kansas City, Missouri. Justine combines her business and administrative skills with her passion for biomedical research. At HBIC, her responsibilities include strategic planning of the Imaging Center, overseeing resource management, as well as directing the day-to-day business operations of the Center. She is happy to be able to use those skills in support of research that will improve healthcare care and quality of life for many people now and in the future.
She is an ardent supporter of professional development and life-long learning and is very passionate about advancing the work of Research Core Facilities. She is focused on using business tools, such as the balanced score card and the Baldrige Model of Excellence to help core facility leaders and managers in strategic planning, streamlining operations and creating efficiencies. Justine is a Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE) and is a Board Member of its Kansas Chapter, the Kansas Association of Healthcare Executives (KAHCE). She is also involved in several institutional and professional leadership and service activities, including serving on the Core Administrators Network Coordinating Committee (CAN-CC) of the Association of Biomolecular Research Facilities (ABRF), the Education and mentoring committees for the ACHE (KAHCE) and the National Council for University Research Administrators (NCURA). She previously served as Vice Chair for KUMC's School of Medicine Administrators' committee.
mthorp@kumc.edu
913-588-9070
Administrative Assistant
Melinda earned her Bachelor's degree in Behavioral Science, with an emphasis in Psychology from Sterling College in 2005 and her Master's Degree in Marriage and Family Counseling from Mid-America Nazarene University in 2014 and holds a Professional Counselor License in the State of Kansas. She joined HBIC in 2009 and currently works as an Administrative Assistant where she assists with the Center’s various administrative functions, including general office administration, processing purchasing requisitions, faculty and staff travel and reimbursements.
Business Analyst
Teresa Otieno is a business analyst at HBIC, where she supports day-to-day administrative duties, including coordinating bills, and performing monthly account reconciliation, supporting budgeting and planning initiatives as well as performing ongoing quality business improvement and making recommendations to HBICs leadership. In the past year since joining HBIC, Teresa has led and participated in special center projects and initiatives. In a recent collaborative project aimed at developing Good Research Practice-Policies and Procedures, Teresa carried out all aspects of the project from conception to execution and feedback with the guidance and support of her colleagues.
Teresa earned her Bachelor’s of Science degree in Geo-spatial Information Systems and has her Master’s in Information Systems and Business Analytics from Park University, Parkville, Missouri. After working as a spatial analyst for various consultants, Teresa decided to take the plunge and transition into the biomedical research industry where she leverages her previous professional and educational expertise in providing business strategies to the center.