Brian Gold, PhD, is the director of the CNA lab and a Professor in the Departments of Neuroscience and Radiology. He is also a Co-Director of UK's MRI Center and a Co-Director of the Biomarker Core at UK's Alzheimer's Disease Research Center. Dr. Gold received his PhD in Cognitive Neuroscience from York University in Toronto and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Washington University in St. Louis. His primary areas of training were in neuroscience and cognitive psychology. His research interests include the neural pathways supporting cognitive functions, how these pathways change with aging, and modifiers that slow these age-related changes. Dr. Gold has contributed to seminal articles in the field of cognitive reserve and resilience. Dr. Gold's research has received continuous extramural funding since 2006. He is also actively involved in teaching and professional service, including his role as a reviewer for many journals and NIH study sections.

Christopher Bauer, PhD, is a Scientist III in the CNA Lab. Chris received his bachelor’s degree from Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP) with an honors psychology/biology dual major, and a minor in chemistry. Chris completed his graduate work at West Virginia University (WVU). His dissertation focused on white matter changes in the brain in response to obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) in pediatrics. Chris is proficient in MRI techniques such as diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), structural quantification and functional MRI. His current projects include looking at functional network activation of frontal-parietal and executive control networks in healthy older adults, investigating vascular abnormalities in white matter and its potential association with Alzheimer’s disease (AD), and probing brain processes underlying cognitive reserve. Ultimately, Chris’s long-term goal is to further understand underlying brain plasticity and neural circuitry to help ameliorate neurodegenerative diseases such as AD.

Colleen Pappas, PhD, is a Scientist III in the CNA lab. Colleen received her bachelor’s degree from Central Michigan University in Neuroscience and her PhD from the University of South Florida in Aging Studies. Her research interests include determining underlying biological mechanisms that contribute to cognition in older adulthood and identifying protective and risk factors that impact cognitive aging. In the lab, she is working with neuroimaging data that measures blood-brain barrier integrity.

Neetu, PhD, is a Scientist II in the CNA Lab. Neetu received her bachelor’s in Electronics and Biomedical Engineering from Kerala, India and her PhD in neuroscience from the University of Missouri. Her dissertation focused on examining functional connectivity changes in the brain in response to stress in healthy young adults. Neetu has a strong background in functional MRI, functional connectivity MRI, structural MRI and Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (MRS). Her research interests primarily involve studying how to use imaging technology to better understand the human brain in health and disease. As part of the lab, Neetu will be examining age related changes in functional connectivity and neurometabolite concentrations in the brains of healthy participants and those with MCI that may or may not progress into various types of dementia. Her long-term goal is to work towards discovering and advancing neuroimaging biomarkers that could help predict the onset of MCI/dementia before the manifestation of clinical symptoms, differentiate between the different types of dementias and predict the courses of pathology and treatment response.

Subeksha Khanal, MS, is a Scientist I in the CNA Lab. Subeksha completed her bachelor degree in Computer Engineering from Pokhara University, Nepal. She received her Master’s degree in Computer Science from The University of Southern Mississippi where she focused on performing computer vision tasks. Her thesis focused on performing data collection and image classification task for the binary class using aerial imagery. In the CNA lab she is responsible for neuroimaging data curation, quality control, preprocessing and a number of data analyses.

Ali Eslamian, M.Eng., is a research assistant in the CNA lab and a PhD student in Computer Science at the University of Kentucky. He received his master’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Isfahan University of Technology. His research focuses on exploring AI's potential in healthcare, particularly in medical image processing. Ali contributes to lab research on MRI analysis, developing machine learning models to identify patterns in brain structure and function related to cognitive disorders. 

Jon earned his PhD in psychology from Michigan State University. His dissertation focused cognitive control and working memory, and was completed under the direction of Dr. Susan Ravizza. Jon’s specific project explored the influence of visual working memory representation over the control of attention. As a post-doc in our lab, Jon is investigating the influence of aging on cognitive control.  Primarily, he is working on a study of cognitive flexibility, relating longitudinal changes in BOLD fMRI during tasking switching to measures of structural and functional neural integrity.  

*Now Assistant Professor, Penn State University, State College, PA

Chobok earned his PhD from the Department of Psychology, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, New Mexico, USA, under the supervision of Dr. Jim Kroger. His dissertation explored the neural correlates of cognitive control in conflict regulation and set switching. As a postdoc in the lab, Chobok is conducting fMRI studies designed to test the preferentiality of different prefrontal regions in control processes requiring endogenous and the neurocognitive interface between conflict signaling and working memory.

*Now Associate Professor, Kyungpook National University of South Korea

Zude earned his Ph.D. in Psychology, from South China Normal University, Guangzhou, China. As a postdoc in the lab he has been exploring the brain networks supporting executive function in older adults using a combined fMRI-DTI approach.

*Now Associate Professor, Jiangsu Normal University, China

T.J. Libecap, is a graduate student in the CNA Lab and the MD/PhD Program. He graduated summa cum laude in Neuroscience and Behavioral Biology from Emory University. He conducted an undergraduate thesis on aberrant prefrontal cortex GABAergic circuitry in Rhesus macaque following hippocampal injury. After graduating, T.J. worked in Donna Maney's Bird Brain lab studying neuroendocrine pathways in two species of songbirds: White Throated sparrows and Zebra Finch. T.J.’s research interests in the CNA Lab focus on developing neuroimaging biomarkers of abnormal human aging as a means of better understanding the etiology of Alzheimer’s disease and vascular dementia. T.J. hopes to pursue a career as a physician-scientist so that he can apply his research to improve detection and intervention of neurodegenerative diseases.

*Now finishing MD at The University of Kentucky

Chris completed his dissertation in the CNA lab as part of his MD/PhD degree at UK. He is now a resident in Neurology at the University of Pennsylvania. Chris completed undergraduate degrees in biology and psychology at Washington University, in St. Louis. His PhD topic focused on structural and functional changes in early-stage Alzheimer's disease (AD). Chris explored white matter changes in AD using an MRI technique called diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and functional changes using fMRI functional connectivity approaches. His work involves exploring relationships between these measures. Chris earned a CTSA predoctoral fellowship to   conduct his PhD studies. His long-term goal is to contribute to our understanding AD and related neurodegenerative diseases as a scientist-physician.

 *Now Faculty in the Department of Neurology at The University of Pennsylvania 

After working as a practicing Physical Therapist, Nate is completing a PhD in neuroscience. For his PhD dissertation, Nate has been exploring the role of aerobic   fitness as a positive modifier of age-related neurocognitive changes. His is especially interested in using DTI to study how aerobic fitness may be associated with   cerebral white matter microstructure.

 *Now an Associate Professor, Allied Health Sciences, University of Kentucky

Sara earned her B.S. degree from Warner Pacific College, Portland, OR. As a PhD student, Sara is exploring the impact of hippocampal volume on future memory function and  personality. In the area of personality, she is particularly interested in a potential role for hippocampal volume in experience/sensation seeking. 

 *Now Physical therapist

Beatriz Rodolpho, MS, is a research analyst in the lab. Beatriz received her Master's degree in Biomedical Engineering from the Universidade Nova de Lisboa, in Portugal and completed her Master's degree research at the Biodesign Institute, at Arizona State University. Her Master's degree thesis centered around quantitative three-dimensional morphometric biosignatures of tomographic volumes from Cell-CT imaging for early cancer detection. In the CNA lab, she is responsible for several MRI analyses and for administering a cognitive assessment test to the participants of the study. Beatriz enjoys finding new ways to look at the data and learning more about the effects of aging on the brain.

Stephen Dundon, MS, is a research analyst in the CNA lab. Stephen has bachelor’s degrees in Philosophy from Hanover College and Biosystems Engineering from the University of Kentucky. He received his Master’s degree in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Kentucky where he studied EEG signal analysis in the Neural Systems Lab. His thesis focused on use of multi electrode arrays in detection and localization of sensorimotor rhythm modulation. In the CNA lab Stephen is responsible for data management for multi-site projects and various analyses.

*Now Principal Research Analyst at UK MRI Center