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Jennifer Labus, PhD
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/
10833 Le Conte Avenue Center for Health Sciences 42-210 Los Angeles CA 90095 United States
Jeffrey Lackner, PsyD
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.
Behavioral Medicine Clinic DK Miller Bldg, 462 Grider Street Buffalo New York 14215 United States
Muriel Larauche, PhD
Dr. Larauche research focuses on the modulation of visceral pain and colonic motor function by stress in rodents, with a special interest on the role of ovarian hormones and the gastrointestinal immune system, particularly mast cells. Her research activities also involve the development of new rodent models of visceral pain and stress. Her central hypothesis is that the higher susceptibility of females to visceral pain and constipation is related to sex-specific alterations of the immune (mast cells) and epithelial (ion channels and secretion, tight junctions and permeability) systems related to sex hormones. Dr Larauche intends to test her central hypothesis by pursuing the following specific aims. In Aim 1, she will dissect the role of gonadal hormones and sex chromosome complements in the sex difference in stress-induced visceral hyperalgesia and examine the influence of gonadal hormones on the recruitment and activity of colonic mucosal mast cells. In Aim 2, Dr Larauche will dissect the influence of sex chromosome and gonadal hormones on the sex- specific stress-induced alterations colonic epithelial permeability/secretion in female rats by assessing the modulatory effect of ovarian hormones on epithelial cells via tight junctions proteins modulation/permeability and on ion channels/secretion and on mast cells release of chymase and subsequent increase in angiotensin II leading to a reduction in ion secretion. Together, the proposed studies will enhance knowledge on interactions existing between sex and neuroimmune mucosal functions influencing pain sensitivity and secretion in IBS and enable the candidate to propose new testable hypotheses regarding mechanisms of IBS pain and constipation, in particular regarding differential treatment approaches based on pathophysiology and sex differences
Helen Lavretsky, MD
Dr. Helen Lavretsky is a Professor In-Residence in the Department of Psychiatry at UCLA, a geriatric psychiatrist with research interest in geriatric and caregiver depression, as well as complementary and alternative medicine and mind-body approaches to treatment and prevention of mood and cognitive disorders in older adults. She received the 2001-2007 and 2010-2015 Career Development awards from NIMH and other prestigious research awards. Her current research studies include an NIMH-funded randomized trial of methylphenidate augmentation of citalopram to improve clinical and cognitive outcomes in geriatric depression, and the NCCAM funded study of complementary use of Tai-Chi to improve antidepressant response in geriatric depression, as well as a meditation study for family dementia caregivers, and a study of milnacipran for treatment of pain in older adults with rheumatoid arthritis. She has developed an elective rotation in clinical research for Medical Students at UCLA. After receiving her Medical Degree from the Moscow Medical Institute, Dr. Lavretsky performed her residency in Psychiatry at UCLA-San Fernando Valley Residency Program, followed by the UCLA Fellowship in Geriatric Psychiatry, and the national VA Research Fellowship in Neurosciences. She received her Degree of Master of Science in Clinical Research from UCLA in 2004.
760 Westwood Plaza Rm. 37- 465 Los Angeles CA 90095
Robert Lemelson, PhD
Robert Lemelson, Ph.D. is an Anthropologist and documentary film maker who received his M.A. from the University of Chicago and his doctoral degree from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). He serves as a research anthropologist at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA, and as an assistant adjunct professor in the Department of Anthropology at UCLA.
As an anthropologist and documentary film maker, Dr. Lemelson’s work centers on culture, personal experience, and mental illness in Indonesia and in the United States. He has been creating documentary films in Indonesia since 1997, focusing on the relationship between culture and disorders including obsessive-compulsive disorder, post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), schizophrenia, and Tourette’s syndrome. In 2007 he founded Elemental Productions, an ethnographic documentary film production company.
In addition, Dr. Lemelson is the founder and president of the Foundation for Psychocultural Research, a non-profit foundation supporting research and training in neuroscience and the social sciences. He also serves as a director of the Lemelson Foundation, promoting innovation of socially beneficial and sustainable technologies to meet basic human needs in countries around the world.
In 2007, Dr. Lemelson began the Lemelson/Society for Psychological Anthropology (SPA) student fellows and conference funds program. The program works to encourage graduate students to pursue fieldwork in psychological anthropology and to support faculty conferences fostering new and creative ideas in psychological anthropology.
Matthew Lieberman, PhD
UCLA Department of Psychology 4611 Franz Hall Los Angeles CA 90095
Cathy Liu
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.
10833 Le Conte Ave CHS 42-210 MC737818 Los Angeles California 90095-7378 United States
Eileen Liu
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.
10833 Le Conte Ave CHS 42-210 MC737818 Los Angeles California 90095-7378 United States
Edythe London, PhD
Dr. London received her Ph.D. in Pharmacology from the University of Maryland and her postdoctoral training at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Before coming to UCLA in 2001, she was the Director of the Brain Imaging Center for the National Institute on Drug Abuse, and held faculty appointments at the University of Maryland and Johns Hopkins Schools of Medicine. Dr. London is a Professor-in-Residence in the Departments of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences and Molecular and Medical Pharmacology. Her work focuses on the use of neuroimaging to study neural circuitry underlying self-control and behaviors related to addiction.
760 Westwood Plaza Los Angeles CA 90095
Eileen Luders, PhD
635 Charles E. Young Dr. South Suite 225 Los Angeles CA 90095