ABB Research and Professional Development
The fundamental goal of the destination areas is to address “sticky” problems that require a transdisciplinary approach.
The Adaptive Brain and Behavior area is looking for researchers from wide array of disciplines with interests in brain plasticity particularly as it pertains to decision-making, physical and psychological trauma, and healthy development across the lifespan. Collectively our efforts will help build a better understanding of the brain behavior relationship and improve overall well-being in the world’s diverse communities.
Grant Award Winners
2020-2021 Research Award Winners:
Konark Mukherjee, Stephanie DeLuca (Role of Arachidonic acid in brain development) - $15k
Abstract: Neurodevelopment can be affected by many different factors. Because neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs) impacts quality of life across the lifespan, it is critical to identify mechanisms that could reverse defect in neurodevelopment across different clinical diagnosis. We have demonstrated that intense neurorehabilitative therapy is one such mechanism and yields positive results in children with different NDDs like cerebral palsy, kernicterus and CASK gene mutations.
Recently, several clinical trials have suggested that optimization of the dietary ratio of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) with an increase in ω-6 PUFA called arachidonic acid (ARA) have a positive neurodevelopmental outcome in toddlers as well as in children with autism spectrum disorder and preterm babies. We hypothesize optimization of PUFA in the diet is also likely to have a positive impact on NDDs across different clinical diagnosis. Our long-term goal is to develop synergistic combinations of nutriceuticals and neurorehabilitative therapies that will be beneficial to children with NDDs due to varied etiologies. In this proposal, using a facevalidated mouse model of CASK gene mutation, we plan to test if ARA supplementation improves motor learning and performance. If successful, this project is likely to lead to federally funded clinical trials and scientific projects.
Dr. Earl Gilbert (Early life exercise as a means to an addiction resistant adult brain: neurophysiological and neurochemical mechanisms) - $3500
Abstract: Substance use disorder is characterized by chronic relapse and extreme difficulty in treatment. Intervention during adolescence offers a strategy potentially leading to lifelong changes, creating resilience to addiction. Early-life exercise via wheel running create a stress- and drug-resistant brain in rodents, although mechanisms are not understood. An important aspect of the addiction cycle is learning and remembering the context of drug experience, which is mediated by hippocampal circuitry. After drug exposure, reward centers strengthen connections to the hippocampus, and we seek to understand the effect adolescent exercise has on the development of these connections and the resulting learning of drug-paired contexts. Here, we will compare the activity and dopamine dynamics in the hippocampus in adult mice with lifelong access to a running wheel and locked-wheel controls. We hypothesize that exercising mice will display a resistance to drug reward through decreased dopamine responses and weaker drug context encoding compared to control.
Dr. Angela Scarpa-Friedman (Mental Health Interventions for Autistic Youth in Large Scale Community Systems) - $3500
Abstract: The overall project goal is to reduce outcome disparities in youth with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and co-occurring mental health disorders via an implementation strategy that will underlie decision-making to use evidence-based mental health interventions (EBMHIs) in community service systems. ASD is a lifelong neurological disorder characterized by persistent deficits in social communication and interactions, and restricted, repetitive behaviors, interests, or activities. Youth with ASD are at risk for mental health disorders, but underserved in community systems because of provider and organizational barriers. Dissemination and
Implementation (D&I) science provides implementation strategies to assist in identifying and overcoming such barriers for specific settings. This project will collect pilot data on the infrastructure, governance, barriers, and current use of MH-EBIs for autistic youth in all 40 Virginia community service boards (CSBs). Results will be used for a NIMH proposal that will test the effectiveness of the implementation toolkit on CSB decision-making.
2019-2020 Professional Development Award Winners:
- Julia Basso
- Kasey Stanton
- Alicia Pickrell
- Brittany Howell
- Caroline Hornburg
- Amy Epperley
- Ana Agud
- Carolyn Kroehler
- Rachana Somaiya
- Ubadah Sabbagh
2019-2020 Research Award Winners:
Julia Basso, Dan English, Deborah Good (Identifying neural mechanisms underlying exercise motivation in normal and sedentary rodents) - $20k
Abstract: The leading causes of morbidity and mortality stem not from predetermined factors, but from maladaptive health behaviors people have the ability to change. One primary example is physical inactivity, which is the fourth leading risk factor for global mortality and is a direct contributor to the global epidemic of obesity. The neural mechanisms underlying sedentary behavior in healthy and obese populations are unknown, and constitute a major gap in our understanding of health behaviors. Understanding neural mechanisms that regulate the motivation for exercise would allow us to devise treatments to target sedentary behaviors in both healthy and obese populations. We have previously shown that wheel running in rodents is highly motivating and that running motivation is significantly decreased in a preclinical model of obesity (N2KO mice). Further, we have demonstrated that regions of the motivational circuitry including the medial prefrontal cortex (PFC) regulate the motivation for wheel running. Here, we plan to investigate the neural mechanisms of exercise motivation at the level of neuronal spiking activity and neurochemical concentrations, focusing on prefrontal cortex and dopamine, in both wild type and N2KO mice. Our central hypothesis is that neural activity in the PFC, modulated by dopamine, regulates the motivation for exercise.
Kendra Sewall, Elizabeth Gilbert, Sarah Clinton (Role of early life malnutrition in programming the development of the glucocorticoid stress pathway, brain architecture, and learning) - $20k
Abstract: 154 million children under the age of 5 survive malnutrition yet experience life-long cognitive impairments that can pass on to future generations. Despite these consequences of childhood malnutrition for individuals and society, the physiological mechanisms by which early life malnutrition impacts life-longbrain function are not fully resolved. There are multiple pathways by which malnutrition can impair the brain, but the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal (HPA) axis that regulates glucocorticoid ‘stress’ hormones is particularly well-positioned to contribute to these effects. Early life stress is known to program the HPA axis to cause ‘stress’ hyperreactivity and thus increase exposure to glucocorticoids throughout life, which in turn can reduce neuronal survival to compromise learning. Despite obvious potential for malnutrition to program HPA axis hyperreactivity, which could in turn compromise life-long learning and brain function, the causal role of glucocorticoids in mediating the brain and learning deficits of malnutrition has not yet been experimentally tested. Our proposed studies use a distinctive model system, song learning in birds, to experimentally isolate how malnutrition programs the HPA axis to impact vocal learning and its underlying brain processes by quantifying DNA methylation changes to targets within and beyond the HPA axis.
Matthew Buczynski (Principial Investigator)
Susan Campbell and Liwu Li (Co-Investigators)
Behavioral, Cellular, and Systems Health Effects of E-Cigarette Exposure in Mice
Abstract: Smoking nicotine-containing products is the leading cause of preventable death in the United States. Approximately 15% of Americans smoke cigarettes, and exposure to cigarette smoke causes over 450,000 annual deaths. Electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) are advertised as a less harmful nicotine delivery system and as a more attractive alternative smoking cessation tool. Ecigarettes have become increasingly popular worldwide, and have essentially replaced traditional cigarettes amongst younger demographics, with greater than 50% of users under 35 years of age. However, the effectiveness of e-cigarettes as a smoking cessation tool has not been studied rigorously. Furthermore, while some acute negative health effects have been demonstrated, the long-term consequences of chronic nicotine vapor exposure (CVE) have not been addressed adequately from a multiple organ systems perspective. Thus, this proposal will connect investigators from different departments and backgrounds with distinct areas of expertise (brain, cardiovascular/immune systems, and brain-gut linkage) to determine collectively the adverse effects of CVE in an established rodent model of chronic e-cigarette use on: 1) behaviors associated with nicotine dependence, 2) cardiovascular, pulmonary, and immune cell function, and 3) gastrointestinal microbiome populations. We hypothesize that nicotine e-cigarettes will produce many of the overall adverse health issues that occur during traditional smoking.
Anderson Norton (Principial Investigator)
Martha Ann Bell and Catherine Ulrich (Co-Investigators)
Coherence in Mathematical Development (CMD)
Abstract: We propose the CMD project to address ABB’s theme of “development across the lifespan.” The project brings together an interdisciplinary team of researchers (education, mathematics, and psychology) to study the cognitive and neurological underpinnings of mathematical development. We propose cognitive models that account for the role of working memory, along with the content-specific construct of units coordination, to explain neurological changes that occur during mathematical learning, in general. Specifically, we hypothesize that mathematical development corresponds to a frontal-to-parietal shift in neurological activity, and that this shift is induced by sustained engagement in appropriately cognitively demanding mathematical tasks—as indicated by frontal-parietal coherence. The project team will test related hypotheses and predictions based on cognitive models of students’ mathematics. Results will immediately inform instruction in the participants’ (pre-service elementary school teachers at Virginia Tech) classroom and will generate findings of interest to three research communities whose work on mathematical development needs greater integration. More broadly, they will inform the nature of mathematical development including the design of appropriately cognitively demanding tasks to promote that development. The proposed project would seed a larger proposal to NSF or NIH.
July 2019 Research Award Project Update: Although the research funding period has ended the team continues to analyze and disseminate results from the project. We collected behavioral and EEG data from 12 participants (pre-service teachers enrolled in a math course for future elementary school teachers, at Virginia Tech) and have completed initial analysis. This first round of analysis involved (1) coding behavioral indicators of cognitive demand, as the participants solved fractions tasks and (2) building models of participants' solutions. The models describe the mental actions participants sequence in order to solve the tasks, while accounting for students' abilities to construct and transform units (whole units, like 1, and fractional units, like 1/7), as well as limitations of their working memory. We are finding that the models explain phenomena described in previous research on students' mathematical development and that they elucidate new phenomena. We are also finding that the cognitive demand of tasks increases by ranking of the tasks, as expected. We have submitted findings to the Psychology of Mathematics Education conference and are currently preparing two related manuscripts. Analysis of EEG data has just begun and will be based on the cognitive demand codes. We expect to find that increased demand is correlated with increased frontal lobe activity and increased frontal-parietal coherence.
Eli Vlaisavljevich (Principial Investigator)
Susan Campbell, Wynn Legon (external), and John Rossmeisl (Co-Investigators)
Investigation of Low Intensity Focused Ultrasound (LIFU) for Non-invasive Neuromodulation for the Treatment of Neurological Disorders
Abstract: Current neuromodulation techniques for neurological disorders (epilepsy, central tremor, mood disorders) involve invasive procedures (electrical stimulation, optogenetics, chemogenetics) that are associated with substantial complications or utilize non-invasive methods (transcranial magnetic stimulation, transcranial direct current stimulation) that offer low spatial resolution1-4. Low Intensity Focused Ultrasound (LIFU) has recently emerged as a non-invasive method capable of achieving neuromodulation with high spatial precision. For instance, transcranial LIFU has been used to alter activity in human sensory thalamus5, primary somatosensory cortex6, and motor cortex5, and is reportedly strong enough to alter perception, behavior, and neurophysiological response. However, in spite of this initial promise, the mechanisms of LIFU neuromodulation remain poorly understood. While multiple theories have been proposed, such as non-thermal effects on voltage-gated channels and calcium transients7, recent work has shown conflicting results in vivopotentially due to differences in skull size8. Furthermore, there is a clear lack of understanding surrounding the optimal acoustic parameters for preferentially activating or inhibiting neural activity with LIFU exposures.
Based on the above limitations, there is a significant need to develop new experimental platforms for studying the mechanisms of LIFU neuromodulation and the effects of pulsing parameters on inducing reversible and irreversible changes in neural activity. In this proposal, we investigate the safety and efficacy of LIFU neuromodulation over a wide range of acoustic pulsing parameters in vitro and in vivo. To accomplish these objectives, we will develop a novel experimental platform for studying ultrasound neuromodulation on the cellular level in vitro and perform initial in vivo feasibility studies of ultrasound neuromodulation in a small animal mouse model. Together, this work will result in the development of improved methods for studying the underlying mechanisms involved in LIFU neuromodulation, which is essential to the development and clinical translation of this emerging new technology into a controlled method for targeted, non-invasive neuromodulation. In addition, this study will establish an exciting new collaboration between researchers with expertise in broad areas including focused ultrasound, neurobiology, neurosurgery, veterinary medicine, and cognitive and behavioral neuroscience. Finally, the proposed research is expected to generate key pilot data that will be necessary for pursuing external grant funding on the use LIFU neuromodulation for the treatment of specific neurological disorders, which is the long-term objective of this interdisciplinary project.
July 2019 Research Award Project Update: Our project entitled "Investigation of Low Intensity Focused Ultrasound (LIFU) for Non-invasive Neuromodulation for the Treatment of Neurological Disorders" was focused on the development of in vitro and in vivo Focused Ultrasound (FUS) systems for investigating ultrasound neuromodulation. During the grant period, we were able to successfully design and construct novel experimental platforms for studying FUS neuromodulation on the cellular level in vitro as well as in vivo. Using these systems, our team collected pilot data for FUS neuromodulation on single neurons within brain slices. We are currently organizing this data into a publication showing the capabilities of this new experimental platform that can be used to investigate the mechanisms underlying neuromodulation. In addition, our team is continuing to collaborate on additional in vitro and in vivo studies that aim to develop new FUS neuromodulation systems and test this technology for the treatment of epilepsy and mental health disorders. As part of these efforts, we are currently using the pilot data gathered during this grant period in order to write grants to the Focused Ultrasound Foundation and the NIH for both the mental health and epilepsy applications. We also recently submitted a grant to Virginia Catalyst for developing acoustically transparent implants for cranial vaults, in order to allow for repeated FUS brain treatments guided by ultrasound imaging. All of these grants will leverage the pilot data and the collaborative team established as a result of the ABB seed grant.
- Mike Bowers (Principial Investigator)
Ed Fox and Hongxiao Zhu (Co-Investigators)
The development of an animal model for autism through the merging of neuroscience, statistics, and computer science
- John Chappell (Principial Investigator)
Eric Marvin, Karan Paralkar, and Michelle Theus (Co-Investigators)
Characterizing Vascular-related Blood and CSF Biomarkers to Stratify TBI Patients across Injury Severity (Vascular Biomarkers after TBI) - Pearl Chiu (Principial Investigator)
Sheryl Ball, Brooks King-Casas, and Stephen LaConte (Co-Investigators)
Toward mental health through decision neuroscience - Deborah Good (Principial Investigator)
Fenix Huang, Matthew Kocher-grad student, Katelynn Monti-lab specialist, and Hehaung Xie (Co-Investigators)
Analysis of SNORD116@ locus: an orphan non-coding RNA deleted in Prader-Willi Syndrome - Russell Jones (Principial Investigator)
Bruce Friedman, Shara Grant, Michael Hughes, Alisa Huskey, Kye Kim, Michael Lewis, Tina Savla, and Andrew Smith (Co-Investigators)
Long-Term Neurobehavioral and Psychosocial Adaptions Following the Virginia Tech Shootings: A Ten-year Follow-up - Ben Katz (Principial Investigator)
Sheryll Ball, Brooks King-Casas, and Alec Smith (Co-Investigators)
tDCS-Decision Making - Konark Mukherjee (Principial Investigator)
Stephanie DeLuca and Stephen LaConte (Co-Investigators)
Investigation of dose-response relationship of rehabilitative therapy in neurodevelopmental disorder - Maria Stack-Hankey (Principial Investigator)
Steve Hankey and Craig Ramey (Co-Investigators)
Air Quality, Asthma, and School Absenteeism in Roanoke City Public Schools - Brad White (Principial Investigator)
Rachel Dianna, Inyoung Kim, Thomas Ollendick, and Susan White (Co-Investigators)
A Facial Affect Sensitivity Training Program for Young Children with CU Traits
The Adaptive Brain and Behavior Destination Area encompasses a wide array of disciplines and specialties and our investigators are involved in unique and innovative research.
Search these areas by researcher name or by lab title.
Ball Lab
Research Focus (keywords): decision making, dysfunction, obesity, diabetes
Cognition, Affect, and Psychophysiology Lab (The CAP Lab)
Research Focus (keywords): Early Childhood Development,cognintive neuroscience, Devel. Psych.
Research Focus (keywords): gender and environment, social movements, justice
Bio
Addictive Recovery Research Center
Research Focus (keywords): addiction, recovery, behavioral research
Bowers Lab
Research Focus (keywords): autism, neurodevelopment, language deficits
Chappell Lab
Research Focus (keywords): impact, trauma, blood vascularization, cancer, neurological disorders
Research Focus (keywords): food, health economics, attention deficit hyperactive disorder, consumption behavior
Bio
Chiu Lab
Research Focus (keywords): addiction, recovery, behavioral research, decision making, computational psychiatry, mental illness
Research Focus (keywords): cognitive develoment, learning, memory, computational modeling
Bio
Daniel Lab
Research Focus (keywords): radiology, imaging, nuclear medicine
Research Focus (keywords): obesity, metabolism, clinical physiology, behavior science, diet
Bio
VTCRI Neuromotor Research Clinic
Research Focus (keywords): intensive therapy, children
Measurement of Episodic Memory Lab (MEM Lab)
Research Focus (keywords): human memory, cognitive neuroscience, recognition, hippocampus
The Helmet Lab
Research Focus (keywords): Head Impacts, Helmet Ratings, Brain Trauma
English Lab
Research Focus (keywords): Neural Brain Physiology, Circuits, Synapses
Fox Lab
Research Focus (keywords): neural biology, cellular and molecular wiring, developing brain
Friedlander Lab
Research Focus (keywords): neurology, synaptic plasticity, brain injury
Mind-Body Lab
Research Focus (keywords): emotions, stress, personality, mind-body interactions
Gilbert Lab
Research Focus (keywords): molecular/cellular mechanisms for energy metabolism in skeletal muscle/fat, diabetes
Good Lab - HFNE - College of Ag
Research Focus (keywords): gene expression, body weight, exercise, behavior, Prader Willi syndrome
Social and Decisions Analytics Lab
Research Focus (keywords): Decision Making, Society, Data Analytics
Ramey Lab
Research Focus (keywords): applied statistics, data analysis, health, obesity, child development
Hulver Lab - Center for Transformative Research on Health Behaviors
Research Focus (keywords): metabolism, exercise, obesity, diabetes
Jarome Lab
Research Focus (keywords): neurobiology, learning and memory, gerontology
Stress and Coping Lab
Research Focus (keywords): trauma psychology, behavioral science, depression, PTSD
Research Focus (keywords): aging, cognition, executive function, lifespan
Bio
JK Lifespan Lab
Research Focus (keywords): developmental psychology, neuroscience, health behaviors, lifespan
Research Focus (keywords): neuroscience, astrocytes, injury
Laconte Lab
Research Focus (keywords): Neuroimaging, fMRI, biofeedback
Affective Neurodynamics and Development Lab
Research Focus (keywords): developmental neuroscience, emotion, cognition
Montague Lab
Research Focus (keywords): Neuroimaging, neuroscience, mental health from disease and injury
Dean, College of Science
Research Focus (keywords): statistics, data science, mental health, substance abuse, epidemiology
Mukherjee Lab
Research Focus (keywords): neurodevelopment, synapses, plasticity, psychiatry, behavioral medicine
Onco-engineering lab
Research Focus (keywords): interstitial fluid flow, tumor microenvironment, oncology
Olsen Lab
Research Focus (keywords): neuroscience, astrocytes, neurodevelopment
Parker Lab
Research Focus (keywords): Team performance, stress, clinical setting, medical, nursing, surgical, patient care, human factors
Social and Decisions Analytics Lab
Research Focus (keywords): Decision Making, Society, Data Analytics
Ramey Lab
Research Focus (keywords): psychiatry, behavioral medicine
Social Clinical Affective Neuroscience Lab (SCANLAB)
Research Focus (keywords): clinical psychology, social decisions, autism, social anxiety disorder
The Helmet Lab
Research Focus (keywords): Head Impacts, Helmet Ratings, Brain Trauma
Research Focus (keywords): mental health, marriage, family therapy
Bio
Research Focus (keywords): stress, dimentia, rural health
Bio
Virginia Tech Autism Clinic and Center for Autism Research
Research Focus (keywords): autism, related conditions
Sewall Lab
Research Focus (keywords): neurobiology, animal, urbanizaion, social dynamics
Sontheimer Lab
Research Focus (keywords): glial biology, neuroscience, disease, cancer
Theus Lab
Research Focus (keywords): Brain Injury and Repair
Valdez Lab
Research Focus (keywords): Alzheimer, Aging, Dimentia, Muscular Dystrophy, brain, imaging
Traumatic Nerve Technologies Lab (TNT Lab)
Research Focus (keywords): Cell/tissue injury biomechanics, neurotrama, nerve regeneration
Therapeutic Ultrasound and Non-Invasive Therapies Laboratory
Research Focus (keywords): Non-invasive Tissue Ablation, Acoustically-active Biomaterials, Ultrasonic Neuromodulation, Ultrasound-guided in situ Tissue Regeneration, and Biomedical Technologies for Conservation Applications
Addictive Recovery Research Center
Bickel, Warren
Research Focus (keywords): addiction, recovery, behavioral research
Affective Neurodynamics and Development Lab
Lee, Tae-Ho
Research Focus (keywords): developmental neuroscience, emotion, cognition
Ball Lab
Ball, Sheryl
Research Focus (keywords): decision making, dysfunction, obesity, diabetes
Research Focus (keywords): gender and environment, social movements, justice
Bio
Bowers, Mike
Research Focus (keywords): autism, neurodevelopment, language deficits
Chappell, John
Research Focus (keywords): impact, trauma, blood vascularization, cancer, neurological disorders
Research Focus (keywords): food, health economics, attention deficit hyperactive disorder, consumption behavior
Bio
Chiu, Pearl
Research Focus (keywords): addiction, recovery, behavioral research, decision making, computational psychiatry, mental illness
Research Focus (keywords): cognitive develoment, learning, memory, computational modeling
Bio
Cognition, Affect, and Psychophysiology Lab (The CAP Lab)
Bell, Martha Ann
Research Focus (keywords): Early Childhood Development,cognintive neuroscience, Devel. Psych.
Daniel, Greg
Research Focus (keywords): radiology, imaging, nuclear medicine
Research Focus (keywords): obesity, metabolism, clinical physiology, behavior science, diet
Bio
English, Daniel
Research Focus (keywords): Neural Brain Physiology, Circuits, Synapses
Fox, Mike
Research Focus (keywords): neural biology, cellular and molecular wiring, developing brain
Friedlander, Mike
Research Focus (keywords): neurology, synaptic plasticity, brain injury
Gilbert, Elizabeth
Research Focus (keywords): molecular/cellular mechanisms for energy metabolism in skeletal muscle/fat, diabetes
Good Lab - HFNE - College of Ag
Good, Deborah
Research Focus (keywords): gene expression, body weight, exercise, behavior, Prader Willi syndrome
Hulver Lab - Center for Transformative Research on Health Behaviors
Hulver, Matt
Research Focus (keywords): metabolism, exercise, obesity, diabetes
Jarome, Tim
Research Focus (keywords): neurobiology, learning and memory, gerontology
Kim-Spoon, Jungmeen
Research Focus (keywords): developmental psychology, neuroscience, health behaviors, lifespan
Research Focus (keywords): aging, cognition, executive function, lifespan
Bio
Research Focus (keywords): neuroscience, astrocytes, injury
Laconte, Steve
Research Focus (keywords): Neuroimaging, fMRI, biofeedback
Measurement of Episodic Memory Lab (MEM Lab)
Diana, Rachel
Research Focus (keywords): human memory, cognitive neuroscience, recognition, hippocampus
Friedman, Bruce
Research Focus (keywords): emotions, stress, personality, mind-body interactions
Montague, Read
Research Focus (keywords): Neuroimaging, neuroscience, mental health from disease and injury
Dean, College of Science
Research Focus (keywords): statistics, data science, mental health, substance abuse, epidemiology
Mukherjee, Konark
Research Focus (keywords): neurodevelopment, synapses, plasticity, psychiatry, behavioral medicine
Munson, Jenny
Research Focus (keywords): interstitial fluid flow, tumor microenvironment, oncology
Olsen, Michelle
Research Focus (keywords): neuroscience, astrocytes, neurodevelopment
Parker, Sarah
Research Focus (keywords): Team performance, stress, clinical setting, medical, nursing, surgical, patient care, human factors
Hankey, Maria Stack
Research Focus (keywords): applied statistics, data analysis, health, obesity, child development
Ramey, Sharon Landesman
Research Focus (keywords): psychiatry, behavioral medicine
Research Focus (keywords): mental health, marriage, family therapy
Bio
Research Focus (keywords): stress, dimentia, rural health
Bio
Sewall, Kendra
Research Focus (keywords): neurobiology, animal, urbanizaion, social dynamics
Social and Decisions Analytics Lab
Goode, Brian and Pires, Bianica
Research Focus (keywords): Decision Making, Society, Data Analytics
Social Clinical Affective Neuroscience Lab (SCANLAB)
Richey, John
Research Focus (keywords): clinical psychology, social decisions, autism, social anxiety disorder
Sontheimer, Harald
Research Focus (keywords): glial biology, neuroscience, disease, cancer
Jones, Russel
Research Focus (keywords): trauma psychology, behavioral science, depression, PTSD
Duma, Stefan
Research Focus (keywords): Head Impacts, Helmet Ratings, Brain Trauma
Rowson, Steve
Research Focus (keywords): Head Impacts, Helmet Ratings, Brain Trauma
Therapeutic Ultrasound and Non-Invasive Therapies Laboratory
Vlaisavljevich, Eli
Research Focus (keywords): Non-invasive Tissue Ablation, Acoustically-active Biomaterials, Ultrasonic Neuromodulation, Ultrasound-guided in situ Tissue Regeneration, and Biomedical Technologies for Conservation Applications
Theus, Michelle
Research Focus (keywords): Brain Injury and Repair
Traumatic Nerve Technologies Lab (TNT Lab)
VandeVord, Pam
Research Focus (keywords): Cell/tissue injury biomechanics, neurotrama, nerve regeneration
Valdez, Greg
Research Focus (keywords): Alzheimer, Aging, Dimentia, Muscular Dystrophy, brain, imaging
Virginia Tech Autism Clinic and Center for Autism Research
Scarpa, Angela
Research Focus (keywords): autism, related conditions
VTCRI Neuromotor Research Clinic
Deluca, Stephanie
Research Focus (keywords): intensive therapy, children
Previous Professional Development Award Winners
Rajaram Bhagavathula
Steffi Hofer
Timothy Jarome
John Richey
Kendra Sewall
Alec Smith
Past Professional Development Award Winners
Ana Agud
Susan Campbell
Timothy Jarome
Benjamin Katz
Eric Kaufman
John Richey
