PS 2022 Presenters 22

Assistant Professor of Immunology and Infectious Diseases
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

Click name to read full biography. 

SARS-COV-2 Vaccine Research and Career Path

McLean Hospital

Chief Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Officer

Director, College Mental Health Program

Dr. Pinder-Amaker has over 25 years of experience in college student mental health treatment, administration, and policy. She is the founding director of McLean Hospital’s College Mental Health Program, a unique initiative serving students from over 200 institutions of higher education, providing student-focused treatment; consultation to students, parents, college professionals, and nonprofits; and related research.

Dr. Pinder-Amaker lectures and conducts workshops throughout the country on strengthening continuity of care, and on how to bolster communication between campus- and community-based systems, eliminate barriers to mental health treatment, and better support marginalized students.

Zoom Welcome and Introductions

Understanding Fear and Anxiety

Marisa M. Silveri, Ph.D., has been studying the neurobiology of brain development and consequences of alcohol and drug abuse using preclinical and clinical models for over two decades. Her current work uses non-invasive magnetic resonance techniques to examine brain structure, function, and neurochemistry, focusing on the consequences of alcohol use and abuse.

Dr. Silveri is a recipient of awards from the Research Society on Alcoholism and the College of Problems on Drug Dependence. She has received NIH funding from the NIAAA, including two R01s focusing on the impact of alcohol use on adolescent brain development and the neurobiological consequences of binge drinking in emerging adults.

Virtual Tour/In-person tour of McLean Imaging Center

Julie McCarthy Ph.D.

McLean Hospital

Staff Psychologist, Division of Psychotic Disorders and Assistant Professor of Psychology 

Career Panel 

McLean Hospital

Staff Nurse

Career Panel

McLean Hospital 

Senior Director McLean Southeast

McLean Hospital 

Psychiatrist in charge

Lecturer in Neurobiology

Harvard Medical School

I trained as an anatomist at Aberdeen UK and as a neuroscientist by training at King’s College London and McGill University, Canada. I have conducted postdoctoral research in cancer biology at Harvard Medical School and affiliated teaching hospitals.  In addition, from 2005-2011, I taught Anatomy, Physiology, and Neuroscience to first-year New Pathway medical students and Dental Students at Harvard Medical School (HMS) and I continue to teach Anatomy to 1st-year medical students in the Harvard-MIT Health Sciences and Technology (HST) Students. I have been awarded teaching awards in Anatomy and one in Physiology, the most recent being the 2021 HMS Donald O’Hara Faculty Prize for Excellence in Teaching. My passion for teaching Anatomy extends to teaching other learners including graduate students and postdoctoral fellows in a Division of Medical Sciences Introduction to Gross Anatomy, Massachusetts General Hospital Allied Health Professionals, and reviewing Anatomy with MGH-Spaulding Physical and Medical Rehabilitation Residents (PMR). In recent years I have enjoyed giving a couple of lectures to the Project Success students. I am also an MD advisor/mentor. It is my goal to educate and endure the well-being and growth of those I teach.  This is an important combination that I learned from my parents who were both dedicated educators. I have also participated in social events at the HMS including the yearly Society Olympics which is a wonderful event involving student competition and bonding. 

Anatomy of the Heart Lab 

Director, UDN Coordinating Center

Harvard Medical School

Kimberly LeBlanc is a genetic counselor and the Director of the Undiagnosed Diseases Network (UDN) Coordinating Center in the Department of Biomedical Informatics at Harvard Medical School. The UDN Coordinating Center oversees the activities of the UDN, a network of clinical sites and research cores that evaluate patients with difficult-to-diagnose conditions. As part of the UDN Coordinating Center, Kimberly supervises the direct interactions with participants, including helping participants navigate the UDN application, evaluation, sequencing, and research process. Kimberly also works with investigators from the sites and cores to develop and implement network-wide clinical and participant engagement protocols and research projects. Kimberly is an Assistant Professor in the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences at the MGH Institute of Health Professions and teaches in the Master of Science in Genetic Counseling program. She received her Master’s degree in Human Genetics and Genetic Counseling from the Stanford University School of Medicine.

Strategies for Rare Disease Diagnosis and Discovery – The Undiagnosed Diseases Network Experience

Principle Investigator

Visual Attention Lab- Principle Investigator

Visual Attention Research

Senior Scientist

Microbiologist at Merck Exploratory Science Center 

Overview of Merck Exploratory Science Center (ESC), the office, and  current scientific research projects

Assistant Professor

Medicine in the Division of Sleep Medicine

Sleep

Instructor in Neurology at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School

Ted received a B.A. in Chemistry from Pomona College, Ph.D. in Chemistry from Caltech, and a postdoctoral scholar in Harvard’s Chemistry department. His research culminated in the design of implantable brain probes that mimic neurons, which allows them to seamlessly integrate with brain tissue and evade immune responses. Now, as an Instructor in Neurology at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, he is using these neuron-like electronics in combination with virtual reality experiments to understand how cognitive dysfunction arises from aging and Alzheimer’s disease.

Meet a Neuroscientist - Harvard Brain Science Initiative Seminar

Postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Neurobiology

Alen is a medical doctor and postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Neurobiology at Harvard Medical School working in the field of sleep medicine, more specifically the effects of sleep deprivation on health, finding biomarkers of poor sleep-induced gut oxidation and the gut-brain axis.

He completed his medical education in Split, Croatia in 2018. He was a Student Assistant in the Department for Neuroscience at the School of Medicine in Split, and he worked in the Center for Sleep Medicine at the University hospital. During the study period, he was the president of the Student Council and founded the Society for Neuroscience NeuroSplit. He was heavily involved in various national and international projects, as well as raising the quality of student life by co-founding the Sport, Art, and Science Society, organizing many events related to science and education such as public lectures, workshops, international conferences, and contributing in various other forms. Also, he and his team organized many charity concerts with famous Croatian singers with overall 1000s of participants to raise money to help children and other people in need.

He was the president of the Organizing Committee of two international biomedical conferences: “Practical Knowledge for Students“ and “Nobel Days”. In 2017, they gathered more than 2000 guests from 27 countries and 34 nationalities worldwide and 6 Nobel Laureates who were able to participate in more than 180 workshops, lectures, and other networking activities in Split, Croatia to learn and collaborate. The projects received many national and international awards, including the European Citizen’s Prize from the European Parliament, and gained recognition from the European Commission, and many Croatian institutions.

He attended and spoke at many national and international conferences, published scientific papers, and is the reviewer for the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, the official journal of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. He is also the author of the book “Introduction to Sleep Medicine”, where he writes about the physiology and pathophysiology of sleep and sleep disorders. He did two observership programs in the US (Milwaukee College of Medicine and Froedtert Hospital in Milwaukee, WI, USA; MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, TX, USA), won two Rector's awards at the University of Split (2018, 2019), 2020 Think Global Award (Community Category) and the 2021 Best Young Project Manager in Croatia for organizing projects which have global meaning.

Currently, he is the head of Med&X, a non-governmental organization dedicated to organizing international conferences, facilitating collaboration between biomedical professionals, and helping Croatian students gain valuable international experience. He is also the head of Hot Science Balloon, a networking platform for young scientists and physicians worldwide which organizes interviews with notable scientists, innovators, and Nobel Laureates, as well as publishes summaries of the latest biomedical research papers for the public. He is active on social media where he regularly publishes easily readable summaries of important biomedical papers, as well as runs his biweekly newsletter about sleep medicine.

None of the success stories would not have been possible without a superb team of colleagues, friends, and family.

Meet a Neuroscientist - Harvard Brain Science Initiative Seminar

President & CEO of Digizyme, Inc.

Scientific Visualization