Our Host Labs
ALLARD LAB
PI: Dr. Joanne Allard
Location: Howard University - COM
Joanne Allard’s lab at Howard University College of Medicine investigates the neuroprotective mechanisms of physical exercise. Studies utilize multidisciplinary techniques to investigate how age, genetic variants, and diet modify exercise-induced neurophysiological adaptations. Special focus is placed on the role of APOE, the major genetic variant associated with AD in neuronal and glial cell interactions. Projects primarily utilize transgenic mouse models but also include collaborations with clinical faculty to study exercise effects in older adults at increased genetic risk for neurodegenerative disease. Fellows in the Allard lab would focus on automated programming for behavioral assessments, stereological analyses of cell morphology using immunostaining, and proteomic analyses.
HARARI LAB
PI: Dr. Oscar Harari
Location: Ohio State University - NDNARC
Oscar Harari is the inaugural Director of the Neurogenetics Division and the Neurobiology of Aging & Resilience Center at The Ohio State University. His lab is transdisciplinary by nature and is focused on enhancing the understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying the etiology and progression of neurodegenerative diseases, with a particular emphasis on Alzheimer's Disease (AD). His group employs machine learning and data science techniques to interrogate brain high-throughput omics data from tissue homogenates, identifying molecular profiles associated with the etiology and progression of Alzheimer's Disease. Fellows would work on multi-omics analyses to provide new insights into the pathways and molecular changes impacting clinical presentation of neurodegenerative diseases.
KARCH LAB
PI: Dr. Celeste Karch
Location: Washington University - STL
Celeste Karch's lab at Washington University in St Louis aims to understand the molecular drivers of Alzheimer’s disease, frontotemporal dementia (FTD), and other neurodegenerative diseases. The lab uses an innovative combination of functional genomics, proteomics, stem cell models, and mouse models to understand protein kinetics in neurodegenerative disease. Her lab developed a somatic and stem cell collection containing deeply clinically characterized cell lines from individuals carrying genetic drivers of Alzheimer’s Disease, FTD, ALS, and Parkinson’s disease. Fellows would work on analysis across these different systems, incorporating bulk and single-cell transcriptomics and proteomics data.
NWULIA LAB
PI: Dr. Evaristus Nwulia
Location: Howard University - COM
Evaristus Nwulia heads the Sociome, Cognitive, Chemosensory and Neurophysiology (SCCN) lab at Howard University, with the goal of characterizing mechanisms of neural adaptations of humans to environmental exposures. His lab studies longitudinal acquisition of behaviors, social exposures, cognitive and olfactory task performance, biochemical stress and sleep physiology markers, autonomic measures, structural and functional neuroimaging, event-related EEG, and epigenomic markers to link environmental exposures to neuropsychiatric outcomes. The lab also develops sensory neuromodulation devices to study the effects of modulating hubs in brain networks on disease outcomes. Fellow roles include applying deep learning algorithms linking circadian and longitudinal variations in neurophysiological measures and disease outcomes.
COBOS LAB
PI: Dr. Inma Cobos
Location: Stanford University - SOM
Inma Cobos’ lab at Stanford University Medical Center uses state-of-the-art cellular and molecular technologies to advance the understanding of Alzheimer's Disease and related dementias. As a trained physician scientist and neuropathologist, she heads a lab using single-cell and spatial methods to human brain tissue to dissect the contributions of distinct cell types to these diseases. In particular, her lab has identified cell types that are selectively vulnerable to neuropathology and overal survivability in neurological disease Computational Fellows in the Cobos lab would be charged with applying and developing state-of-the-art workflows, algorithms, and machine learning approaches to link multimodal single-cell and spatial data from human tissue to disease-associated phenotypes.
HSIAO LAB
PI: Dr. Elaine Hsiao
Location: University of California - LA
Elaine Hsiao's lab at UCLA studies the interaction between the gut microbiome and the immune system, and how dysregulation of either system can lead to neurodevelopmental, neuropsychiatric, and neurodegenerative conditions. As a pioneer in the field of gut-brain axis research, the Hsiao lab investigates how alterations along the gut-brain-immune axis can increase risk in models of autism, epilepsy, cognitive impairment, Parkinson's Disease, and Alzheimer's Disease. In parallel, the lab is actively testing microbiome-based interventions to treat symptoms of these diseases. Computational Fellows in the Hsiao lab would be analyze microbiome sequencing and phenotyping data, with the goal of identifying associations linked to neurological disease phenotypes in mouse models and human data.
MISIAK LAB
PI: Dr. Magdalena Misiak-Christian
Location: Howard University - COM
Magdalena Misiak-Christian’s lab in the Howard University Department of Physiology focuses on cellular, molecular, and metabolic biology approaches to develop early novel biomarkers for Alzheimer’s Disease (AD), and to better understand the aging process in the brain. Her group is part of the Translational Neuroscience Lab, a joint initiative with clinical researchers to establish libraries of tissues and cultured human primary neural progenitor cells derived non-invasively from participants’ olfactory mucosa. Fellows in the Misiak lab would be involved in transcriptomic and proteomic data design and analysis targeting the selection of prospective, protective factors in the presence of the well-known risk factor for AD – Apolipoprotein E allele 4.
PHATNANI LAB
PI: Dr. Hemali Phatnani
Location: Columbia University - NYGC
Hemali Phatnani’s lab at Columbia University Irving Medical Center and the New York Genome Center interrogates cellular signatures in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), Frontotemporal Dementia, and aging. Her lab pioneered the use of genome-wide spatial approaches to uncover regional changes in cell type signatures through the progression of diseases such as ALS. Currently, her lab profiles human brain tissue, mouse tissue, and stem cell models, with the goal of identifying altered spatial signatures in neurodegenerative diseases and aging. Fellows in the Phatnani lab would work to develop and apply new algorithms for spatial transcriptomics and proteomics analysis, and integration of this data with other large-scale genomics data sets.
GIBSON LAB
PI: Dr. Erin Gibson
Location: Stanford University - SOM
Erin Gibson’s lab at Stanford University School of Medicine studies how glia regulate neural circuits, with a focus on the cellular and molecular mechanisms mediating myelination. Her lab uses cellular and molecular technologies from single cell transcriptomics, metabolomics, and lipidomics to electron and confocal microscopy to investigate myelin dynamics throughout development, aging and disease. Her lab has identified a significant role for the molecular circadian clock in regulating myelin-forming glia and myelination in development, adulthood, and injury, and described a role for myelin processes in sleep regulation. Fellows would work on analyzing sequencing data to understand how changes in circadian clock machinery impact oligodendroglial transcriptomes and metabolomes.
JIANG LAB
PI: Dr. Jenny Jiang
Location: University of Pennsylvania - SOE
Jenny Jiang's lab at the University of Pennsylvania studies dysregulation of the immune system through novel methods in systems immunology. Using high-throughput sequencing, single-cell, and phenotypic cell-cell interaction screening approaches, her lab answers questions about how the immune system changes with age, in autoimmune disease, tumor biology, and neurological disease. In parallel, the lab has also established methods to identify biomarkers for disease progression and prognosis, as well as potential immunomodulatory approaches for therapeutics. Fellows in the Jiang lab would work on immune system genomics and T-cell receptor sequence data, with the goal of extracting key cell type signatures altered in aging and disease.
NARAYAN LAB
PI: Dr. Priyanka Narayan
Location: National Institutes of Health
Priyanka Narayan’s lab at the NIH studies the ways in which genetic and environmental factors alter fundamental cellular pathways to increase susceptibility or improve resilience to neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s disease. The lab’s research combines techniques from biochemistry, genetic screening, genomics, and neurobiology in human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived tissues. Our current focus is on mechanisms of risk and protective variants of the gene APOE, which are the strongest risk and resilience factors for late-onset Alzheimer’s disease. Fellows in the Narayan lab would work on integrating genomics, proteomics, and metabolomics datasets to better understand the cellular pathways specific to risk and resilient APOE variants
WARD LAB
PI: Dr. Michael Ward
Location: National Institutes of Health
Michael Ward’s lab at the NIH focuses on cellular and molecular mechanisms of neurodegenerative disorders. The lab uses a combination of cell biology, proteomic, and functional genomic approaches in iPSC neuron models of ALS/FTD, with a long-term goal of understanding how disease-associated familial mutations lead to neurodegeneration. The lab has discovered lysosome-associated RNA transport, a process that is dysregulated by mutations in the ALS-associated gene ANXA11, and co-discovered the mechanism by which variants in UNC13A lead to its mis-splicing in ALS. Fellows in the lab would analyze data from and help optimize next-generation functional genomic tools in iPSC models, including large-scale optical pooled screens and massively parallel genome editing and phenotyping.
TU LAB
PI: Dr. Tsang-Wei Tu
Location: Howard University
Tsang-Wei Tu’s lab at the Howard University integrates multidisciplinary techniques, including imaging, computational, molecular, and behavioral approaches to understand the mechanisms of brain injury-induced tissue damage and subsequent metabolic disorders associated with neurological diseases. The current research projects fall into two areas: (1) Preclinical MRI of traumatic brain injury (TBI), cardiac arrest, and diabetic retinopathy, (2) High-throughput image analysis of MRI and immunohistochemistry in brain tissue using machine learning approaches. Computational Fellows in the Tu lab would be involved with analysis of imaging data, including MRI and microscopic images, with the ultimate goal of quantifying the critical features of abnormality following TBI and other neurological diseases.
