Speakers Profile

Epifanio Bagarinao

Associate Professor, Brain & Mind Research Center, Nagoya University, Japan

Epifanio Bagarinao is currently an associate professor of the Brain and Mind Research Center, Nagoya University in Japan. His research includes investigating the effects of healthy aging in the brain's structure and function. He is also actively involved in the development and applications of real-time functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Prior to joining Nagoya University, he was a research associate at the Systems Neuroscience and Pain Lab in the Division of Pain Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine,where he did research on the development of a real-time fMRI system and its application to pain management. He was also actively involved in the analysis of neuroimaging datasets from different pain-related studies including the use of machine learning algorithms to detect chronic pelvic pain and analysis of resting state functional MRI to characterize neuropathic pain. Previously, he also worked at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology in Japan and did research on topics related to real-time fMRI, advance medical applications of grid technology, pattern classification using support vector machines, and the use of nonlinear dynamics theoretic approach to time series analysis.

Annabel Chen Shen-Hsing

Professor of Psychology, CRADLE, LKCMedicine, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

Dr. SH Annabel Chen is a clinical neuropsychologist, Professor of Psychology at the School of Social Sciences, LKCMedicine and Acting Director of the Centre of Research and Development in Learning (CRADLE), at the Nanyang Technological University. After obtaining her PhD in Clinical Rehabilitation Psychology from Purdue University and completing a Clinical Psychology Internship at West Virginia University School of Medicine, she continued with a post-doctoral residency in Clinical Neuropsychology at the Department of Neurology, Medical College of Wisconsin. Her research interests in clinical applications of advanced neuroimaging led her to further pursue post-doctoral research at the Department of Radiology at Stanford University School of Medicine. Her Clinical Brain Lab applies neuropsychological principles to understand disturbance in brain and behavior using neuroimaging techniques, such as fMRI, diffusion MRI, Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS), and electroencephalography (EEG). Apart from focusing on cerebellar contribution in higher cognition and optimizing cognition in aging neuroscience, her most recent research development involves deception neuroscience, affective neuroscience in learning and translating neuroscience for education.

Hans Ludwig Damian

St. Luke's Medical Center Institute for Neurosciences, Philippines

Hans Damian is a graduate of the University of the Philippines College of Medicine in 1990. He completed his residency in neurology and fellowship in clinical neurophysiology and neuromuscular diseases at the University of Chicago. He is currently the Head of the Section of Neurology, St Luke's Medical Center in QC and Head of the Clinical Neurophysiology Laboratory at St Luke's Medical Center in BGC. He is current Chairman of the Clinical Neurophysiology Society of the Philippines. Fields of interest and specialization include EMG/NCV, Evoked Potentials, Autonomic Testing, Intraoperative Monitoring, Nerve and Muscle disease and Neuroimmunology. He recently initiated and runs the first repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) program in the Philippines at SLMC-BGC.

Jacqueline Dominguez

St. Luke's Medical Center Institute for Neurosciences, Philippines

Dr. Dominguez is an Associate Professor and Head of the Memory Center at the Institute for Neurosciences, St. Luke’s Medical Center - BGC. She trained as a visiting fellow under Prof. John Morris at the Washington University Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center. In 2005, she established the Marikina Memory and Aging Project (MMAP), a longitudinal cohort of 1,400 elderly to determine the burden of disease of dementia, determine risk and protective factors for cognitive impairment, and develop non-pharmacological preventive and early interventions. This cohort is part of COSMIC, an international consortium of longitudinal cohort studies, to study common risk factors for dementia and cognitive decline. Dr. Dominguez is active in pursuing advancements in the early detection of Alzheimer’s Disease and testing clinical applications of established AD biomarkers. As an anthropologist, she is keen on the underpinnings of culture and dementia. Her research interest is on care interventions that are culturally appropriate and sustainable at the community level including ballroom dance. Dr. Dominguez is an active member of the executive committee of the Asian Society Against Dementia (ASAD) which fosters collaborations in the region. She has on publications epidemiology, genetics of familial FTD and imaging.

Alicia Goodwill

Research Scientist, CRADLE, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

Alicia obtained her PhD in 2016 from Deakin University in Australia, where she investigated the effects of non-invasive brain stimulation on neuroplasticity and skill acquisition in older adults and people with chronic stroke. Following this, she undertook postdoctoral work at Australian Catholic University in neuropsychology and preventative factors for cognitive decline. She has used a range of techniques to modulate and measure neural activity including transcranial direct-current stimulation and transcranial magnetic stimulation. Her current research interests are optimising brain health and plasticity in midlife and older adults both experimentally (via non-invasive brain stimulation) and through lifestyle intervention.

Ha Thi Thanh Huong

Lecturer, Biomedical Engineering Department, International University, Vietnam National University in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Huong Ha obtained her Ph.D. in Neuroscience from Stanford University in 2018. While at Stanford, she worked with supervision from Prof. John Huguenard and Prof. Craig Garner to understand the molecular mechanisms and network deficits associated with autism and epilepsy using genetic manipulation, microscopy, electrophysiology, biochemistry and EEG techniques on hippocampal cell culture and mouse models. Her major dissertation work led to a significant understanding of the interplay roles between zinc and Shank proteins on AMPAR development. Upon returning to Vietnam, she was struck when recognizing how rapidly the population is aging, how relevant mental illnesses are among the population, and how outdated, inadequate the whole mental healthcare system is. This recognization motivated her to establish the first neuroscience research group in Vietnam, named Brain Health Lab. The first main research goal is to develop novel, efficient and accurate methods to diagnose and monitor neurodegenerative disorders and all stress-related illnesses. Our lab is also interested in understanding the risk factors that influence the rate of disease progression for all brain aging- or stress-induced conditions in order to design appropriate intervention programs. We employ an interdisciplinary approach, using a wide range of toolkits such as molecular techniques, EEG, fNIRS in combination with machine learning analysis.

Eric Tatt Wei Ho

Assistant Professor, Center for Intelligent Signal and Imaging Research, Department of Electrical & Electronic Engineering, Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, Malaysia

Eric Ho Tatt Wei is a senior lecturer at Universiti Teknologi Petronas, as well as Malaysia's Representative on the Council for Training, Science & Infrastructure of the International Neuroinformatics Coordinating Facility (INCF). He received his MSc and PhD degrees in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University, USA. His research interests are in the application of deep learning to neuroimaging analysis and brain networks.

Shohei Kato

Professor, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering, Nagoya Institute of Technology, Japan

Shohei Kato received the B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in Engineering from Nagoya Institute of Technology, Japan, in 1993, 1995, and 1998, respectively. He joined the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at Toyota National College of Technology as a Research Associate from 1998 to 1999 and as a Lecturer from 1999 to 2002. He joined the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Nagoya Institute of Technology as a Lecturer from 2002 to 2003, as an Associate Professor from 2003 to 2015, and as a Professor since 2015 to present. His current research interests include computational intelligence in robotics, artificial life, reasoning under uncertainty, Kansei engineering, and computer engineering in medicine and biology.

Manuel Mariano

St. Luke's Medical Center Institute for Neurosciences, Philippines

Dr. Mariano is a neurosurgeon. He is a Member of the Board of Trustees of the St. Luke's Medical Center College of Medicine. In 1996, he pioneered Minimally Invasive Neurosurgery, including neuroendoscopy and gamma knife radiosurgery. He was the Director of the St. Luke's Institute for Neurosciences during which he promoted the acquisition and use of neurotechnologies in the diagnosis and management of neurologic disorders in the Institute. He is past president of the Asian Society of Neuroncology (ASNO). His special interest is in neurovascular surgery and surgical neuroncology.

Toshiharu Nakai

Professor, Graduate School of Engineering, Nagoya Institute of Technology, Japan

Toshiharu Nakai, received his PhD degree in bioimaging from the Graduate School of Kyoto University, School of Medicine, Japan in 1992. After post-doctoral researches in Lucas MRS/MRI Center at Stanford University, he started basic neuroimaging studies using fMRI. He is recently attempting to evaluate the early change of brain activity during cognitive training using neuroimaging techniques and initiated the joint project with NTU/NUS, which has been expanded as BrainConnects. He is a member of International Societies for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine(ISMRM), Organization for Human Brain Mapping (OHBM), International Neuroinformatics Coordination Facility(INCF) and IEEE (BME /senior member). He is also a visiting researcher of Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine.

Angelito A. Silverio

Department of Electronics Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Santo Tomas, Philippines

Engr. Angelito A. Silverio, got his PhD in Microelectronics Engineering and Applications from Chung Yuan Christian University, Taiwan, ROC. His research focused on biomedical engineering applications involving CMOS system on chip circuit design. At present he is connected to the Department of Electronics Engineering of the University of Santo Tomas and is a resident researcher at the UST Research Center for Natural and Applied Sciences. His research interests include biomedical electronics, low power systems for assistive and diagnostic applications.

Yu Sun

Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Zhejiang University

After completing his Dual-Ph.D training at SJTU and Lboro, Dr. Sun was initially a post-doc fellow then senior research fellow at the Singapore Institute for Neurotechnology (SINAPSE) NUS. Since Nov. 2017, he has joined the Department of Biomedical Engineering, Zhejiang University. Dr. Sun’s research emphasis has been placed on the integration of the neural engineering, cognitive sciences, and neuroergonomics in service of insights into functions of the brain, cognition, and behaviour. In particular, his research work on multimodal brain connectome, passive brain-computer interface, brain state monitoring, and temporal brain network analysis has led to more than 40 journal articles in the prestigious journals and 40 conference proceeding papers. Dr. Sun is a recipient of the Best Poster Award of IEEE LSGCC 2013 and the Best Paper Award Finalist of IEEE NER 2017. Since 2016, he has served as an Associate Editor of the journal Medical & Biological Engineering & Computing.

Atsunobu Suzuki

Associate Professor, Department of Psychology, The University of Tokyo, Japan

Atsunobu Suzuki is an experimental psychologist. After completing his doctoral degree at the University of Tokyo, he went to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign as a postdoctoral fellow of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, where he was engaged in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies examining face processing in younger and older adults. Having continued his postdoctoral research at the University of Tokyo, he joined the Nagoya University as an assistant professor. He is now an associate professor of the Department of Psychology at the University of Tokyo. His research interest is focused on social-affective cognitive processes (e.g., emotion perception from faces, learning and reasoning about others’ characters, and affect-based decision making). He is also interested in the effects of aging on these mental processes. Although his primary research method is behavioral experimentation with healthy adults, he has also been involved in studies using neural and physiological measures (e.g., fMRI) and those with clinical populations (e.g., Parkinson’s disease).

Roy Allan Torcuator

St. Luke's Medical Center Institute for Neurosciences, Philippines

Dr. Torcuator is Clinical Associate Professor IV of the St. Luke's Medical Center-William Quasha College of Medicine. He is also the Head of the Comprehensive Brain Tumor Service at St. Luke's Medical Center-BGC. Dr. Torcuator completed his clinical neuro-oncology fellowship at the Hermelin Brain Tumor Center-Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, Michigan and Image Guided Neurosurgery and Neuro-oncology Fellowship at the Brigham and Women's Hospital-Harvard Medical School, Department of Neurosurgery. He was senior staff neuro-oncologist Henry Ford Hospital. He is currently the training officer for neurosurgery residency program as well program director for the neuro-oncology fellowship at St. Luke's Medical Center.

He has published and is actively involved in brain tumor research particularly gliomas, radiation necrosis, radiosurgery and image-guided neurosurgery.

Hirohisa Watanabe

Professor, Brain & Mind Research Center, Nagoya University, Japan

Hirohisa Watanabe is a graduate of Mie University School of Medicine in 1993. Presently Dr. Watanabe is the Professor and Chairman of Fujita Health University. Dr. Watanabe received his neurological training at Nagoya Daini Red Cross Hospital and Nagoya University Hospital. Dr. Watanabe was certified as a neurologist by the Japanese Society of Neurology and is currently a Delegate of the Japanese Society of Neurology, Executive committee member of the Movement Disorders Society Asia Oceania Section, Delegate of the Japan Society of Neurovegetative Research, Delegate of the Japanese Society of Neurological Therapeutics, and Corresponding active of American Academy of Neurology.

Chiao-Yi Wu

Research Scientist, CRADLE, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

Chiao-Yi Wu is a research scientist at the Centre for Research and Development in Learning (CRADLE) at the Nanyang Technological University. She obtained her PhD in Psychology from Nanyang Technological University and worked as a post-doctoral researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Germany before joining CRADLE. She is a cognitive neuroscientist with expertise in the neurobiology of language and reading. She uses functional neuroimaging techniques, such as functional magnetic resonance imaging and functional near-infrared spectroscopy, to investigate the neural basis of language, reading, and learning in a wide range of population across age and language background.

Fan-Pei Gloria Yang

Center for Cognition and Mind Sciences, National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan

Fan-Pei Gloria Yang is an associate professor and the founding director of Center for Cognition and Mind Sciences at the National Tsing Hua University. She integrated diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and fMRI approaches to study patients’ neural connectivity, and expanded her research methods to magnetoencephalography (MEG). Her current research interest is to study the neural basis for metaphor, neural plasticity, interactions of language and other cognitive functions in healthy adults, patients, elderly and bilinguals with multimodal imaging methods.