SCORE People - UCLA G. Oppenheimer Center for Neurobiology of Stress and Resilience

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Pierre Baldi, PhD

Distinguished Professor, Department of Computer Science, School of Information and Computer Sciences, UCI; Director, Institute for Genomics and Bioinformatics; Associate Director, Center for Machine Learning and Data Mining

SCORE Subcontract PIAddress 4038 Bren Hall University of California, Irvine (UCI) Irvine CA 92697-3435 United StatesPhone: (949) 824-5809Email: pfbaldi@uci.edu

Pierre Baldi has been the Founding Director of the UCI Institute for Genomics and Bioinformatics (IGB) and its Bioinformatics Laboratory for the past 18 years, with a primary appointment in the UCI Department of Computer Science and a joint appointment in the Departments of Biological Chemistry in the School of Medicine, in the Department of Developmental and Cell Biology in the School of Biological Sciences, and the Department of Statistics in the School of Information and Computer Sciences. He has expertise in statistics, machine learning (deep learning), and bioinformatics and their applications to big data problems in genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, systems biology, computational neuroscience, and biomedical imaging. His laboratory has produced and maintained datatabases, programs, and web servers that are widely used by the scientific community including the ChemDB database of small molecules, the SCRATCH suite of protein feature predictors, the Cyber-T program for the differential analysis of gene expression data, and the MotifMap system for charting transcription factor binding sites on a genomewide scale and for supporting gene regulatory mechanisms inferences. Through the IGB and his laboratory, he is also directly responsible for the informatics infrastructure and analysis for all the high-throughput data produced by the UCI Genomics High-Throughput Facility. His laboratory has designed entire pipelines for analyzing high-throughput sequencing data [see, for instance: M. Zeller, C. Magnan, V. R. Patel, P. Rigor. L. Sender, and P. Baldi. A Genomic Analysis Pipeline and Its Application to Pediatric Cancers. IEEE/ACM Transactions on Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, 11, 5, 826-839, (2014)]. He has mentored over 40 graduate students and postdoctoral fellows and for 10 years and was the PI and Director of the NIH-NLM sponsored T32 BIT (Biomedical Informatics Training) grant at UCI.

Publications

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/myncbi/pierre.baldi.1/bibliography/48012401/public

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Lin Chang, MD

Director, Functional GI Disroders Program, UCLA G. Oppenheimer Center for Neurobiology of Stress and Resilience; Vice-Chief, Vatche and Tamar Manoukian Division of Digestive Diseases, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA

SCORE MPI, SCORE Co-Lead Project 1, SCORE Co-Lead Leadership Administrative Core, SCORE Co-Lead Core Career Enhancement CoreAddress 10833 Le Conte Avenue Center for Health Sciences 42-210 MC:737818 Los Angeles CA 90095 United StatesPhone: (310) 206-0192Phone: (310) 206-6279Fax: (310) 825-1919Email: linchang@mednet.ucla.edu

Lin Chang is a gastroenterologist and physician scientist who serves as Co-Director of the G. Oppenheimer Center for Neurobiology of Stress and Resilience, an interdisciplinary center with a research and clinical focus on the interactions of pain, stress and emotions in health and disease. She has served as Co-Director of the Administrative Core of our Center’s NIH Specialized Centers of Research (SCOR), which has been funded for the past 16 years. Our SCOR has focused on sex differences in brain-gut interactions mainly with regard to irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). She has served as PI of one of the projects for each cycle. For this SCORE renewal, she will serve as Multi-PI, Co-Lead of Project 1, Co-Lead of the Career Enhancement Core (CEC), and Co-Lead of the Administrative Core. As Co-Lead of the CEC, she will oversee the collaboration with the pilot and feasibility programs to provide seed grant funding, oversee the recruitment and mentoring of young investigators, and organization of educational conferences. She has been performing clinical and translational research studies, including clinical treatment trials for 25 years. Her research has focused on brain-gut interactions, specifically pathophysiologic mechanisms, clinical symptoms, health outcomes, and treatment in IBS. She has mentored 3 gastroenterology research fellows on the UCLA Gastroenterology T32 training grant in addition to 10 clinical GI fellows, 11 medical residents, 3 post-docs, 8 visiting scientists, 10 medical students, and 5 pre-med students. Her leadership positions include Vice-Chief of the Division of Digestive Diseases at UCLA, Program Director of the UCLA GI Fellowship Program, Clinical Research Councilor of the AGA Governing Board, President of the American Neurogastroenterology and Motility Society (ANMS), member of the Rome Foundation Board of Directors. She currently serving a 4-year term on the NIH Clinical, Integrative and Molecular Gastroenterology Study Section and FDA GI Advisory Committee.

Publications

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/myncbi/lin.chang.1/bibliography/40548865/public

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Benjamin Ellingson, PhD

Director, UCLA Brain Tumor Imaging Laboratory (BTIL); Co-Director, Center for Computer Vision and Imaging Biomarkers; Professor, Department of Radiology at David Geffen School of Medicine

SCORE Co-Lead Project 3Address 924 Westwood Blvd Ste # 615 Los Angeles CA 90095-7319 United StatesPhone: (310) 481-7572Email: bellingson@mednet.ucla.edu

As Director of the UCLA Brain Tumor Imaging Laboratory and Co-Director of the UCLA Center for Computer Vision and Imaging Biomarkers (CVIB) his research focuses on the development, testing, validation, and implementation of advanced MR and PET imaging biomarkers for brain pathology and response evaluation in clinical trials. He possess a broad background in biomedical engineering, image processing, MR and PET imaging physics, functional and molecular imaging, bioelectronics, medical instrumentation, and statistical parameter mapping. He has been co-author on more than 100 peer-reviewed original research articles relating to advanced neuroimaging and medical imaging physics. He has wide-ranging experience in designing and implementing multicenter neuroimaging trials. This includes trials in primary and metastatic brain cancers; neurotrauma including traumatic brain injury (TBI), traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI), and degenerative spinal disease; psychiatric diseases including schizophrenia; epilepsy, tuberous sclerosis complex, and other neurodegenerative diseases; and chronic pain syndromes including cervical spondylotic myelopathy, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), chronic headaches, and urological chronic pelvic pain syndrome (UCPPS). He is also the principal investigator for the imaging core in numerous industry-funded therapeutic clinical trials in brain tumors, chronic pain, epilepsy, and schizophrenia.
In this proposal, he will be Co-Lead of Project 2 and will be responsible for the design and analysis of all brainstem and brain MRI experiments, including optimization of protocols for both 3T and 7T imaging. His laboratory will post-process anatomic and diffusion MR imaging data, and work closely with Neuroimaging and Bioinformatics Core to identify sex-related differences in the brain and brainstem within IBS patients and the association with clinical symptoms and gut microbial parameters.

Publications

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/myncbi/1t5OXTmr85Skz/bibliography/50293169/public/

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Arpana Gupta, PhD

Co-Director, Neuroimaging and Bioinformatics Core, G. Oppenheimer Center for Neurobiology of Stress and Resilience; Assistant Professor, Vatche and Tamar Manoukian Division of Digestive Diseases, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA

Arpana Gupta is an Assistant Professor and Director of the Neuroimaging Core at the UCLA G. Oppenheimer Center of Neurobiology of Stress and Resilience (CNSR); where she specializes in research that investigates the interactions between environmental and biological factors in shaping neurobiological phenotypes associated with stress-based diseases such as obesity and metabolic syndrome. Her current program of research, broadly defined, is based on developing a model that aims to understand the bidirectional interaction of the brain with those in the periphery (immune cells, gut microbiota-related metabolites), and the modification of these interactions by vulnerability or protective factors (adverse life events, sex, race, socioeconomic status [SES], resilience, diet) related to obesity and ingestive behaviors.…More

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Margaret Heitkemper, PhD

Professor and Chair, Department of Biobehavioral Nursing and Health Informatics; Adjunct Professor, Division of Gastroenterology; Director, Center for Research on Management of Sleep Disturbances, University of Washington

I am a Professor at the UW School of Nursing and an Adjunct Professor in the Division of Gastroenterology at the UW School of Medicine. My research program has focused on elucidating the mechanisms associated with abdominal pain in women with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), a common gastrointestinal (GI) function and pain condition. In addition, I led a subcontract for the study of IBS in children NR013497 and am currently a collaborator on a recently funded clinical study of FODMAPS and behavioral interventions for parents of children with IBS (Shulman, PI).…More

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Jonathan Jacobs, MD, PhD

Assistant Professor-in-Residence, Vatche and Tamar Manoukian Division of Digestive Diseases, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA

SCORE Co-Lead Data Processing and Analysis CorePhone: (310) 825-9333Email: JJacobs@mednet.ucla.eduWebsite: Jacobs Laboratory

Dr. Jacobs’ research program focuses on characterizing host-microbiome interactions in patients with gastrointestinal, metabolic, and inflammatory disorders using a combination of human association studies and animal models, including humanized gnotobiotic mice. This evolved initially from several translational microbiome studies he performed investigating the mucosal microbiome and metabolome of inflammatory bowel disease patients compared to healthy family members or unrelated controls, stratified by genetic traits. These studies required the development and refinement of efficient pipelines for 16S ribosomal RNA sequencing, metabolomics, and bioinformatics analysis of multi’omics datasets. He established the Microbiome Core for the UCLA Microbiome Center to offer a range of microbiome-related services to the local research community. This core became affiliated with the UCLA Specialized Center of Research (SCOR) in Neurovisceral Sciences and Women’s Health led by Emeran Mayer and Lin Chang. Through this collaboration, his laboratory assumed responsibility for sample processing, 16S ribosomal RNA sequencing, and bioinformatics analysis for initial SCOR studies on sex differences in the brain-gut-microbiome axis of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) patients and healthy controls, and their relationship to symptom severity and psychological parameters. This research led to a publication in Microbiome linking microbiome features to brain structural parameters and unpublished work was presented at last year’s Digestive Diseases Week showing that the gut microbiome predicts response of IBS patients to cognitive behavioral therapy.

The current proposal would build upon these collaborations to establish a unique research program within the UCLA Center for Neurovisceral Sciences and Women’s Health dissecting sex differences in brain-gut-microbiome pathways underlying IBS. He serves as co-lead of the Data Processing and Analysis Core, with primary responsibility for microbiome analyses across all three projects and joint responsibility with his co-Leads, Jennifer Labus and Arpana Gupta, for integrative bioinformatics analyses bridging the microbiome, metabolome, neuroimaging, and clinical parameters. This exciting research would draw upon his extensive background in microbiome bioinformatics and experience as Director of the UCLA Microbiome Core.

Publications

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/myncbi/browse/collection/48438874

Swapna Joshi, PhD

Adjunct Assistant Professor, Center for Systems Biomedicine; G. Oppenheimer Center for Neurobiology of Stress and Resilience; David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA

Dr. Joshi is an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the G Oppenheimer Center for Neurobiology of Stress and Resilience (CNSR) at UCLA. She has worked with Dr. Chang (co-director of grant) on pathophysiologic mechanisms of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) for the past 8 years. Her research focuses on bioinformatic analysis to study brain-gut-microbiome axis in IBS. Her research aims at understanding molecular mechanisms that mediate environmental effects on disease phenotype.…More

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Lisa Kilpatrick, PhD

Assistant Researcher, Vatche and Tamar Manoukian Division of Digestive Diseases, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA; Oppenheimer Center for Neurobiology of Stress

Lisa Kilpatrick’s research has focused on brain signatures related to brain-body dysregulation in stress-sensitive disorders, including irritable bowel syndrome. In addition, she has a long-standing interest in the influence of sex on these signatures, and she regularly attends and contributes to the annual meeting of the Organization for the Study of Sex Differences. The exploration of sex differences in the mechanisms of treatment response is an important step towards optimizing cost-effective treatments for both men and women.…More

Jason Kutch, PhD

Director, The Applied Mathematical Physiology Laboratory (AMPL); Associate Professor, Division of Biokinesiology and Physical Therapy, University of Southern California

Dr. Kutch's laboratory is addressing the problem of chronic pelvic pain from a unique systems neuroscience perspective. He has a background in motor systems neuroscience, and have developed and published several non-invasive approaches to understanding muscle control in humans. They recently developed and published a new multimodal approach – including electromyography (EMG), functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) – for revealing neural mechanisms of involuntary control of pelvic floor muscles.…More

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Jennifer Labus, PhD

Director, Biostatistics and Bioinformatics Core, G. Oppenheimer Center for Neurobiology of Stress and Resilience; Adjunct Professor, Vatche and Tamar Manoukian Division of Digestive Diseases, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA

SCORE Co-Lead Project 3, Co-Lead Data Processing and Analysis CoreAddress 10833 Le Conte Avenue Center for Health Sciences 42-210 MC:737818 Los Angeles CA 90095 United StatesPhone: (310) 206-0738Email: jlabus@ucla.edu

Dr. Labus is an Adjunct Professor in the Vatche and Tamar Manoukian Division of Digestive Diseases in the Department of Medicine at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). She is the Director of the Integrative Biostatistics and Bioinformatics Core in the G. Oppenheimer Center for Neurobiology of Stress at UCLA and the UCLA Microbiome Center.
Dr Labus is an applied statistician with expertise in biostatistics, bioinformatics, treatment-outcome research, pain neuroscience, multimodal brain imaging, microbiome, metabolomics, and multi-omics integrative analysis. Her current research focused is on determining biological markers of disease, including chronic pain, obesity and Alzheimer’s disease. Using state-or-the-art computational, biostatistical, and bioinformatics approaches, she assesses the interaction between various levels of biological data (e.g., microbiome, metabolomics, immune markers, multimodal brain imaging data) with clinical data. The overall goal of her systems-based approach is to identify and target the key regulators of multi-omics-biological disease-interaction networks in order to understand the underlying pathophysiological mechanisms and provide new targets for treatment.
Dr Labus has made seminal contributions to mapping neural networks underlying visceral pain and elucidating brain-gut –microbiome axis in humans. As a result, she was the recipient of the 2011 Master’s Award for Outstanding Achievement in Basic or Clinical Digestive Sciences, American Gastroenterology Association. Dr Labus has been the recipient of a K08 Career Development award, Effective connectivity of central response in irritable bowel disorder, from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK). She has served as the primary investigator on two grants funded by the National Institute of Childhood Health and Human Development (NICHD): R01HD076756 Profiling vulvodynia subtypes based on neurobiological and behavioral endophenotypes and R21HD086737 Deriving novel biomarkers of localized provoked vulvodynia through metabolomics: A biological system-based approach. Labus is a co-investigator on several NIH funded grants, international research collaborations, and is actively involved in mentoring graduate students and postdoctoral fellows.

Publications

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/myncbi/1TAcC6itlmG/bibliography/44260598/public/

Jeffrey Lackner, PsyD

Chief of the Division of Behavioral Medicine, Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at the University at Buffalo

SCORE Consultant Project 3Address Behavioral Medicine Clinic DK Miller Bldg, 462 Grider Street Buffalo New York 14215 United StatesPhone: (716) 898-5671

I am Professor of Medicine and Chief of the Division of Behavioral Medicine whose clinical, research, and educational activities focus on the interplay of health and behavior. Since its founding in 1994, the division’s clinical arm provide brief, state-of-the-art treatment for patients with painful medical disorders. These disorders include irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), low back pain, pelvic pain, arthritis, fibromyalgia, non-cardiac chest pain, temporomandibular disorder (TMD) and benign headaches such as migraine and tension headaches. A unique feature of our clinical services is the use of evidence-based treatment protocols that help patients gain control of symptoms that have not adequately responded to standard medical therapies. Because our clinicians are active researchers, patients receive cutting-edge treatments often times before they are more broadly disseminated. Our clinical work emphasizes a collaborative approach that recognizes that each patient is unique and presents with specific problems and not simply a diagnosis or set of symptoms.

My research focuses on developing and testing novel and safe treatments for chronic pain disorders, understanding their “active ingredients”, identifying patients for whom they are most effective, and their real world value. With NIH support since 1999, my research has influenced clinical practice guidelines and established me as an internationally recognized authority in the behavioral treatment of chronic pain disorders particularly IBS.
Division research provides valuable scholarly experiences for trainees in the UB medical school, school of public health, and the College of Arts and Sciences. We are pleased to offer these educational opportunities to qualified students at other local and international educational institutions as well. Trainees learn to design, write, conduct and analyze quality research projects with the goal of co-authoring at least one empirical study for publication. The academic skills students learn during research rotation support their professional development whether they progress to careers as independent researchers or academically-oriented clinicians who depend on critical thinking and a scholarly approach to healthcare delivery.
As part of the division’s Clinical Research Consulting Lab, I routinely assist faculty and mentor residents and fellows in research design and methods and consult with industry partners seeking ways to harness the science of behavior change to gain a competitive edge for product development, strategy, and evaluation.

Cathy Liu

Programmer Analyst, G. Oppenheimer Center for Neurobiology of Stress and Resilience, Vatche and Tamar Manoukian Division of Digestive Diseases, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA

Cathy Liu is a programmer analyst and has been a part of CNSR for over 20 years. Ms. Liu is part of the center’s neuroimaging database team and manages the PAIN repository database, clinical study databases and provides the interface with repository scans.More

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Eileen Liu

Public Administration Analyst, G. Oppenheimer Center for Neurobiology of Stress and Resilience, Vatche and Tamar Manoukian Division of Digestive Diseases, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA

Eileen Liu is a study coordinator for CNSR and has worked on multiple studies. She is an integral member of CNSR with years of experience in recruitment and clinical research.More

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Emeran A. Mayer, MD

Director, UCLA G. Oppenheimer Center for Neurobiology of Stress and Resilience; Vatche and Tamar Manoukian Division of Digestive Diseases, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA

SCORE MPI, SCORE Co-Lead Project 3, SCORE Co-Lead LAC, SCORE Co-Lead CECAddress 10833 Le Conte Avenue Center for Health Sciences 42-210 MC:737818 Los Angeles CA 90095 United StatesPhone: (310) 206-0192Phone: (310) 206-6279Fax: (310) 825-1919Email: emayer@mednet.ucla.edu

Emeran Mayer is the director of the G Oppenheimer Center for the Neurobiology of Stress and Resilience (CNSR) at UCLA and co-director of the P30 funded CURE Digestive Diseases Research Center at UCLA. The CNSR is a NIH-funded, interdisciplinary and translational research center focused on brain gut microbiome interactions in 4 areas: Functional GI Disorders, Inflammatory Bowel Disorders, Ingestive Behavior/Eating Disorders, Chronic Visceral Pain Disorders. Within the CNSR, he has been the PI of a P50 SCOR grant from ORWH/NIDDK on sex-related differences in brain gut interactions with an emphasis on the effects of early adverse life effects on adult stress responsiveness and related brain circuits for the past 15 years. This grant has been successfully renewed over a total of three 5 year funding cycles under hisleadership. He is also the Co-PI of a UO1 grant focused on studying mechanisms of chronic pelvic pain (MAPP), now in its third 5 year funding cycle, and he leads the neuroimaging efforts within the consortium. Under his leadership, CNSR investigators have done pioneering work in applying psychophysiological and advanced brain imaging techniques to study the response of the brain to visceral stimuli in rodent models and human subjects with persistent visceral pain disorders, including IBS, IBD, IC/PBS and vulvodynia, to identify sex related differences in these brain responses, and to evaluate the effectiveness of pharmacologic and mind-based (including cognitive behavioral therapy) therapeutic approaches to some of these disorders. During the last 5 years, they have expanded their research efforts into the role of the gut microbiome in bidirectional brain gut interactions. They have pursued studies looking at the effect of altered autonomic nervous system output to the gut in altering gut microbial composition and function, and have been testing the hypothesis that gut microbial metabolites and inflammatory mediators in vulnerable patients can lead to neuroplastic changes in the central nervous system manifesting in persistent visceral hypersensitivity, cognitive decline and symptoms of autism spectrum disorders.

Publications:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/myncbi/emeran.mayer.1/bibliograpahy/40552943/public

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Bruce Naliboff, PhD

Director, Pain Research Program, UCLA Oppenheimer Family Center for Neurobiology of Stress; Vatche and Tamar Manoukian Division of Digestive Diseases, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA

My research has focused on psychological and psychophysiological mechanisms of stress and pain, including sex differences, utilizing a variety of methodologies and with particular emphasis on visceral pain disorders such as IBS. The development and assessment of nonpharmacological treatments targeted at chronic pain has also been a significant focus of my research. These include cognitive behavioral therapies as well as alternative medicine treatments of yoga and meditation.…More

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Andrea Rapkin, MD

Professor, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, at the David Geffen School of Medicine, UCLA; Director, UCLA Pelvic Pain Clinic

I am a Professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Director of the Pelvic Pain Clinic and the Vulvodynia research program and the PMDD research program at the University of California, Los Angeles. As an internationally recognized leader in the study of chronic pelvic and vulvar pain and hormonally mediated mood disorders I have authored or co-authored over a 120 articles, chapters, books, and reviews in this area.…More

SCORE Significant Contributor Project 1Address UCLA Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology Box 951740, 27-139 CHS Los Angeles CA 90095-1740 United StatesPhone: (310) 794-7274Fax: (310) 206-3670Email: obgyn@mednet.ucla.edu

I am thoroughly versed in the literature and have very substantial clinical experience and a well-defined track record in the research and treatment of vulvodynia, pelvic pain, menstrually related mood disorders and menopause. I initiated one of the first multidisciplinary pelvic and vulvar pain clinics in the country. My goals were to offer comprehensive and innovative clinical care and access to current research studies for women suffering from complex chronic pelvic and vulvar pain disorders. Our UCLA site is also one of five research centers participating in the National Vulvodynia Patient Outcomes Registry thus far resulting in 4 publications with 1 under review.

I have collaborated with the investigators at the G Oppenheimer Center for Neurobiology of Stress and Resilience at UCLA for many years. If this proposal is funded, I will assist Drs. Chang and Gupta and their co- investigators with the conceptual and methodical aspects of the protocol concerning hormonal assessment and interpretation of menstrual cycle phase and post menopausal status and hormonal effects on GI symptoms, brain-gut microbiome, and gut transit. I will participate in the analysis and interpretation of all data and preparation and presentation of abstracts, manuscripts and reports. Given my clinical investigative experience working with this field, I believe I am well-equipped to be a significant contributor of the proposed research.

Publications

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/myncbi/1r534_s8lyeQb/bibliography/40455311/public/

Melenie Rosales

Administrator, G. Oppenheimer Center for Neurobiology of Stress and Resilience, Vatche and Tamar Manoukian Division of Digestive Diseases, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA

Melenie Rosales has worked at UCLA for 19 years and been the center administrator for CNSR for the last 5 years. She has a BS in Molecular, Cellular, Developmental Biology from UCLA and an AA in Accounting.More

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Suzanne Smith, NP

Nurse Practitioner, G. Oppenheimer Center for Neurobiology of Stress and Resilience, Vatche and Tamar Manoukian Division of Digestive Diseases, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA

Suzanne R Smith is a Nurse Practitioner in the Department of Medicine, Vatche and Tamar Manoukian Division of Digestive Diseases, at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. She has been involved in mind-brain-body research at the G. Oppenheimer Center for Neurobiology of Stress and Resilience at UCLA since 2005. She worked with critically ill children and their families for many years prior to joining the center.…More

Jean Stains, RN

Nurse Coordinator, G Oppenheimer Center for Neurobiology of Stress and Resilience, Vatche and Tamar Manoukian Division of Digestive Diseases, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA

Jean has been with OCNSR for 20 years and has extensive experience in research, as well as many other areas of nursing. She has managed numerous human physiology studies for the Center. Her current focus is in brain imaging, looking for biomarkers in chronic pain syndromes such as IBS, extensive phenotyping of persons with chronic pain syndromes and studying the effects of behavioral therapies, such as MBSR (mindfulness based stress reduction training) to improve quality of life in these individuals.More

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Priten Vora

Programmer Analyst, G. Oppenheimer Center for Neurobiology of Stress and Resilience, Vatche and Tamar Manoukian Division of Digestive Diseases, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA

Mr. Vora is a programmer analyst at CNSR with experience in computer science, programming, and organization of large-scale neuroimaging data sets from multi-site studies. He is part of the CNSR Neuroimaging core.More

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Pierre Baldi, PhD

Distinguished Professor, Department of Computer Science, School of Information and Computer Sciences, UCI; Director, Institute for Genomics and Bioinformatics; Associate Director, Center for Machine Learning and Data Mining

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Lin Chang, MD

Director, Functional GI Disroders Program, UCLA G. Oppenheimer Center for Neurobiology of Stress and Resilience; Vice-Chief, Vatche and Tamar Manoukian Division of Digestive Diseases, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA

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Benjamin Ellingson, PhD

Director, UCLA Brain Tumor Imaging Laboratory (BTIL); Co-Director, Center for Computer Vision and Imaging Biomarkers; Professor, Department of Radiology at David Geffen School of Medicine

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Arpana Gupta, PhD

Co-Director, Neuroimaging and Bioinformatics Core, G. Oppenheimer Center for Neurobiology of Stress and Resilience; Assistant Professor, Vatche and Tamar Manoukian Division of Digestive Diseases, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA

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Margaret Heitkemper, PhD

Professor and Chair, Department of Biobehavioral Nursing and Health Informatics; Adjunct Professor, Division of Gastroenterology; Director, Center for Research on Management of Sleep Disturbances, University of Washington

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Jonathan Jacobs, MD, PhD

Assistant Professor-in-Residence, Vatche and Tamar Manoukian Division of Digestive Diseases, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA

Swapna Joshi, PhD

Adjunct Assistant Professor, Center for Systems Biomedicine; G. Oppenheimer Center for Neurobiology of Stress and Resilience; David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA

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Lisa Kilpatrick, PhD

Assistant Researcher, Vatche and Tamar Manoukian Division of Digestive Diseases, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA; Oppenheimer Center for Neurobiology of Stress

Jason Kutch, PhD

Director, The Applied Mathematical Physiology Laboratory (AMPL); Associate Professor, Division of Biokinesiology and Physical Therapy, University of Southern California

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Jennifer Labus, PhD

Director, Biostatistics and Bioinformatics Core, G. Oppenheimer Center for Neurobiology of Stress and Resilience; Adjunct Professor, Vatche and Tamar Manoukian Division of Digestive Diseases, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA

Jeffrey Lackner, PsyD

Chief of the Division of Behavioral Medicine, Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at the University at Buffalo

Cathy Liu

Programmer Analyst, G. Oppenheimer Center for Neurobiology of Stress and Resilience, Vatche and Tamar Manoukian Division of Digestive Diseases, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA

Eileen Liu

Public Administration Analyst, G. Oppenheimer Center for Neurobiology of Stress and Resilience, Vatche and Tamar Manoukian Division of Digestive Diseases, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA

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Emeran A. Mayer, MD

Director, UCLA G. Oppenheimer Center for Neurobiology of Stress and Resilience; Vatche and Tamar Manoukian Division of Digestive Diseases, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA

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Bruce Naliboff, PhD

Director, Pain Research Program, UCLA Oppenheimer Family Center for Neurobiology of Stress; Vatche and Tamar Manoukian Division of Digestive Diseases, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA

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Andrea Rapkin, MD

Professor, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, at the David Geffen School of Medicine, UCLA; Director, UCLA Pelvic Pain Clinic

Melenie Rosales

Administrator, G. Oppenheimer Center for Neurobiology of Stress and Resilience, Vatche and Tamar Manoukian Division of Digestive Diseases, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA

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Suzanne Smith, NP

Nurse Practitioner, G. Oppenheimer Center for Neurobiology of Stress and Resilience, Vatche and Tamar Manoukian Division of Digestive Diseases, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA

Jean Stains, RN

Nurse Coordinator, G Oppenheimer Center for Neurobiology of Stress and Resilience, Vatche and Tamar Manoukian Division of Digestive Diseases, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA

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Priten Vora

Programmer Analyst, G. Oppenheimer Center for Neurobiology of Stress and Resilience, Vatche and Tamar Manoukian Division of Digestive Diseases, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA

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