Collaborators

Ben Philpot, Ph.D. (UNC Kenan Distinguished Professor; Associate Director of the UNC Neuroscience Center) — Dr. Philpot’s lab seeks to understand the pathophysiology underlying monogenic neurodevelopmental disabilities, using this information to develop therapeutics to treat these disabilities. The Philpot lab is particularly focused on developing transformative treatments for Dup15q syndrome, Pitt-Hopkins syndrome, and Angelman syndrome. Dr. Philpot is Co-PI of Dr. Shen’s NIH-funded study of cerebrospinal fluid abnormalities (CSF) in neurodevelopmental disabilities.

Kathleen Caron, Ph.D. (UNC Professor and Chair of Cell Biology & Physiology) — Dr. Caron’s laboratory currently uses sophisticated gene targeting approaches to model human disease in mice. With a special emphasis on vascular biology and the lymphatic system, the Caron laboratory has gained valuable insights into the genetic basis and pathophysiology of lymphatic vascular disease, preeclampsia, and sex-dependent cardiovascular disease. Dr. Caron is a Co-Investigator of the Shen lab’s study of CSF abnormalities in neurodevelopmental disabilities.

Yen-Yu Ian Shih, Ph.D. (UNC Associate Professor of Neurology; Director of the Center for Animal MRI) — Dr. Shih's lab is interested in the use of electrophysiology, fiber-photometry, fast-scan cyclic voltammetry, optogenetics, chemogenetics, and electrical microstimulation in MRI environment, with a goal to understand how cellular activity and endogenous neurotransmission affect fMRI signals. His lab also pioneers new MRI methods for studying rodent models of human clinical disorders. Dr. Shih is a Co-Investigator of our study of CSF abnormalities in neurodevelopmental disabilities.

Martin Styner, Ph.D. (UNC Associate Professor of Computer Science and Psychiatry) — Dr. Styner has an extensive background in diffusion tensor imaging, anatomical structure and tissue segmentation, structural brain morphometry, and longitudinal imaging of brain development from birth through adulthood. He also has strong experience in image analysis of human, non-human primate, and rodent image analysis. Dr. Styner oversees medical imaging research projects in the field of neurodevelopment with applications to typical development, autism, fragile X syndrome, and schizophrenia. Dr. Styner is a Co-Investigator of our study of CSF abnormalities in neurodevelopmental disabilities.

Joe Piven, M.D. (UNC Thomas E. Castelloe Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics) — Dr. Piven is Director of the Carolina Institute for Developmental Disabilities (CIDD), a comprehensive program of services, research, and training in neurodevelopmental disabilities. His research has emphasized interdisciplinary collaborations in imaging, behavioral-family, and genetics studies aimed at elucidating the pathogenesis of autistic syndromes. Dr. Piven is the PI of the Infant Brain Imaging Study (IBIS) Network, one of 10 NIH Autism Centers of Excellence in the U.S.

Heather Hazlett, Ph.D. (UNC Assistant Professor of Psychiatry) — Dr. Hazlett is a neuropsychologist whose primary research interests have focused on brain development in autism and fragile X syndrome, using brain MRI scans to conduct studies of brain structure and maturation. Her work involves the use of specialized image analysis tools to examine how brain development in children with autism and related disabilities compares to typical brain development. Dr. Hazlett is UNC site PI of IBIS.

Jessica Girault, Ph.D. (UNC Assistant Professor of Psychiatry) — Dr. Girault’s research utilizes state-of-the-art neuroimaging techniques and laboratory-based behavior assessments to study the dynamic interplay between brain and behavioral development during infancy and early childhood. A major focus of her work is to understand how brain-behavior associations across development are modulated by genetic factors.

Rebecca Grzadzinski, Ph.D. (UNC Assistant Professor of Psychiatry) — Dr. Grzadzinski is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry with an appointment at the Carolina Institute for Developmental Disabilities. Her research examines the behavioral precursors of an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) diagnosis, changes in behaviors over time (e.g., treatment response), and the impact of child and family characteristics on child outcomes. Dr. Grzadzinski’s current research studies social communication skills and their brain correlates in children with Down Syndrome and/or ASD.

Jason Stein, Ph.D. (UNC Associate Professor of Genetics and Neuroscience) — The Stein lab studies how variations in the genome change the structure and development of the brain, and in doing so, create risk for neuropsychiatric illness. The Stein lab uses neural progenitor cells, a modifiable and high fidelity model system, as well as mouse models to understand how disease-associated variants affect brain development.  Dr. Stein collaborates with IBIS and the Shen lab to generate induced pluripotent stems cells (iPCS) donated by individuals with neurodevelopmental disabilities in our MRI studies — enabling the link between in vitro cellular and molecular mechanisms of prenatal brain development (iPSCs) and in vivo postnatal brain development (longitudinal infant MRIs).

Jeff Iliff, Ph.D. (University of Washington Professor of Neurology and Psychiatry) — Dr. Iliff led the team that initially characterized the glymphatic system, the network of perivascular pathways that supports the clearance of wastes from brain tissue during sleep. The Iliff lab is focused on defining the glial and vascular changes in the aging and post-traumatic brain that underlie impairment of glymphatic function and the vulnerability to the development of disorders like Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and chronic traumatic encephalopathy. Dr. Iliff and Dr. Shen have been collaborators since 2019, and Dr. Iliff is the Consultant on Dr. Shen’s NIH-funded study of CSF abnormalities in neurodevelopmental disabilities.

Heather Volk, Ph.D., MPH (Johns Hopkins Associate Professor of Public Health) — Dr. Volk’s lab at Johns Hopkins University seeks to identify factors that relate to the risk and progression of neurodevelopmental disabilities. Her research interests include epidemiology, neurodevelopment, cognition, autism spectrum disorder, environment, prenatal exposure, gene-environment interaction, epigenetics, and air pollution. Dr. Volk is the Co-Investigator of our lab’s study to collect newborn bloodspots to link prenatal factors, immune system, and brain development in autism.

AJ Schwichtenberg, Ph.D. (Purdue University Associate Professor) — Dr. Schwichtenberg’s lab at Purdue University studies early ASD identification, sleep development in ASD, dyadic interactions in families raising children with ASD, sleep and at-risk development, and improving sleep assessment methods. Dr. Schwichtenberg is a Co-Investigator of our study of sleep problems in infants with neurodevelopmental disabilities.