COREY MCMILLAN, PHD
PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
The overall mission of Dr. Corey McMillan's Bioinformatics in Neurodegenerative Disease (BiND) Lab, housed within the Penn FTD Center, is to use multimodal and bioinformatic approaches to improve our understanding of the biological basis of neurodegenerative conditions. Corey McMillan's lab aims to develop robust biomarkers that can be used to better diagnose neurodegenerative diseases, accelerate drug discovery of disease-modifying agents, and to define essential clinical trial endpoint measures. His clinical-translation research program focuses on two classes of neurodegenerative proteinopathies including the misfolded tau protein that contributes to Alzheimer’s disease (AD), primary age-related tauopathy (PART), and frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD), as well as the TDP-43 protein that contributes to a spectrum of FTLD and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). His lab emphasizes biologically-grounded hypotheses with novel analytic and multimodal approaches integrating MRI and PET imaging modalities with genomics and clinical datasets. Corey is also affiliated with several research centers at the University of Pennsylvania including Penn Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, Penn Institute on Aging, Penn Institute for Biomedical Informatics, Penn Neurodegeneration Genomics Center, and MindCORE.
Anil Wadhwani MD, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
Anil Wadhwani, MD, PhD is a resident physician in the Department of a Neurology and a post-doctoral fellow in the Penn Bioinformatics in Neurodegenerative Disease (BiND) Lab. Anil studies genetic and epigenetic factors that contribute to the spread of tau between brain regions. He is also particularly interested in patients that are cognitively resilient despite having brain pathology. Prior to this, Anil completed medical school and graduate training at Northwestern University where he modeled genetic risk factors for neurodegenerative and neurodevelopmental diseases using gene editing techniques in patient-derived induced pluripotent stem cells. His work has been supported by NIH-funded pre-doctoral (F30) and post-doctoral (R25) awards. In the clinic, Anil hopes to apply his scientific expertise to identify novel treatments for patients with the most severe disease.
Barbara Spencer PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
Barbara joined the FTD Center as a postdoctoral fellow after completing her PhD in Neurosciences at UC San Diego. By examining genetic risk across TDP-43 proteinopathies, she aims to improve our understanding of the neuropathological and clinical heterogeneity of these neurodegenerative diseases.
Brian Nelson BS
Data Management Systems
Brian joined the FTD Center in 2018 after working at the Pennsylvania SBDC in the Wharton School of Business as their Information Systems Officer. Brian manages the Integrated Neurological Disease Database (INDD) and oversees the Center’s REDCap and Qualtrics data collection services, and maintains cluster computing resources. Brian has another life as a church organist, amateur composer, and 5k runner.
Hamsi Radhakrishnan PhD
Neuroimaging Data Engineer
Hamsi Radhakrishnan received her PhD from the University of California, Irvine, where she was mentored by Dr. Craig Stark. Her thesis focused on using diffusion MRI to study gray matter microstructure in aging and Alzheimer’s Disease, in both human and animal models. She then moved to Philadelphia for a postdoctoral fellowship studying brain changes during development and adolescence with Dr. Ted Satterthwaite at the University of Pennsylvania. Here, she benchmarked the feasibility of diffusion spectrum scans accelerated by compressed sensing methods. She now works both in the Penn Frontotemporal Degeneration Center and the Penn Memory Center, where she develops multi-modal pipelines and analysis tools to identify unique biomarkers of frontotemporal degeneration and Alzheimer’s disease. When not in lab, she enjoys reading, playing weird board games, live music, and making exclusively bad art.
Lyles Clark PhD
Assistant Director, Penn Frontotemporal Degeneration Center
Lyles joined the FTDC after earning a PhD in Neuroscience from the University of Pennsylvania where they studied brain injury-induced changes in hippocampal neurogenesis and inflammation. Now, Lyles manages data access requests, maintains data documentation, and coordinates the Neuroimaging in ADRD training grant. When they're not thinking about brains, Lyles enjoys reading, woodworking, and playing the cello.
Lasya Sreepada
Bioengineering PhD Student
Lasya is a Bioengineering PhD student on the NIH T32 grant for Neuroimaging in ADRD and is advised by Drs. Corey McMillan and Dave Wolk. Her research focuses on deciphering heterogeneity and atypicality in Alzheimer's Disease by applying bioinformatics and AI approaches to neuroimaging and epigenetic data. Lasya received her Bachelors in Neuroscience from Yale University.
Melanie Matyi PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
Melanie joined the FTD Center as a postdoctoral fellow after completing her PhD in Clinical Psychology at the University of Delaware. She conducted research focused on the neural mechanisms of emotion processes associated with neuropsychiatric disorders. Leveraging neuroimaging approaches, she aims to understand how brain network connectivity contributes to the neuropsychiatric symptoms of bvFTD.
Mohammed Saqib
Bioengineering PhD Student
Mohammed Saqib is a bioengineering PhD candidate coadvised by Dr. Corey McMillan and Dr. Sandhitsu Das. His current project is the development of new biomarkers for FTD variants using laminar MRI methods. He previously researched at NIH with MRI connectivity and morphometry methods for neurodegenerative and neurological disorders.
Nadia Dehghani PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
Nadia Dehghani joined the FTDC in August 2023 as a Postdoctoral Researcher mentored by Dr. Corey McMillan. Her Ph.D. studies were mentored by Dr. Rita Guerreiro and Dr. José Brás. Nadia’s work broadly explores the genetics of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias, with a specific interest in disentangling how different pathologies can be predicted through the development of polygenic risk scores.
Christopher Olm PhD
Neuroimaging Data Engineer
Chris joined the BiND lab after completing his PhD in Bioengineering at the University of Pennsylvania, studying structural and functional MRI (in particular arterial spin labeling) in FTLD. As a Neuroimaging Data Engineer, he manages, processes, and analyzes neuroimaging data. Outside of the lab, he enjoys running, fixing guitars, and playing electric bass in a band.
Rory Boyle PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
Rory joined the Penn FTD Center in February 2024 as a Postdoctoral Researcher. He completed his PhD in Cognitive Neuroscience in Trinity College Dublin, Ireland where he was mentored by Prof. Robert Whelan. He then completed 2 years of postdoctoral research in Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School where was mentored by Dr. Rachel Buckley. His PhD and initial postdoctoral research focused on the modelling of cognitive reserve and resilience in normal aging and preclinical Alzheimer’s disease and the investigation of neural mechanisms of reserve and resilience using functional connectivity. Rory aims to understand how structural and social determinants of health influence brain network function and how this affects resilience and vulnerability to neurodegenerative disease.
Ting Shen PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
Ting joined the FTD Center as a postdoctoral research fellow in January, 2022. She received her Ph.D. in Neurology with a minor in Biomedical Engineering from the Zhejiang University, China. Ting’s current research interests lie in identifying subtypes with distinct disease progression patterns of ALS-FTD spectrum, for a better understanding of the heterogeneity of these neurodegenerative diseases. She additionally works on using integrative imaging transcriptomics approaches to identify gene expression patterns correlated with cortical thickness changes in bvFTD patients.
Hao Xu
Bioengineering PhD Student
Hao Xu is a Bioengineering PhD student co-supervised by Dr. Wanding Zhou and Dr. Corey McMillan. Her current research project focuses on DNA methylome analysis in the brain regions using machine learning and bioinformatics techniques. Before she joined the center, Hao received her Bachelor's degree in Computer Science from McGill University.
Lab Alumni
KATERINA PLACEK
NEUROSCIENCE GRADUATE GROUP PHD CANDIDATE
MARISSA MARONI
NEUROSCIENCE GRADUATE GROUP PHD CANDIDATE
Marissa Maroni is a graduate student in the the Neuroscience Graduate Group at the University of Pennsylvania. Previously, Marissa graduated from Bridgewater State University with a BS in Biology. Her research interests are in understanding how biological age can impact tau pathology.
LAURA HENNESSY
MASTERS IN GENETIC COUNSELING CANDIDATE
Laura earned a BS in biology from the University of the Sciences in 2014 and went on to work in a research lab utilizing animal models to study genetic modifiers of motor neuron disease. In 2017 she transitioned to the clinical side of research and took a position at the Penn FTD Center under Dr. Corey McMillan. There she acted as the site coordinator for the CReATe consortium which bolstered her interest in pursuing a career in genetic counseling. In 2019 she enrolled in the Masters in Genetic Counseling Program at Penn, where Dr. McMillan advises her thesis project investigating complex family history patterns in ALS. After graduation she hopes to continue to serve the ALS and FTD community as a genetic counselor.
HAYLEY DONALDSON
RESEARCH SPECIALIST
Hayley Donaldson joined the BiND Lab in June 2019 as a Research Specialist. She is the coordinator for the Image ALS study. Hayley graduated from Lehigh University with a dual degree in Neuroscience and Spanish and completed an MS in Biomedical Sciences at Rutgers University. She has a strong interest in neurodegenerative diseases and hopes to further her knowledge and understanding of ALS and related disorders prior to applying to medical school.
LUIS ROSARIO
RESEARCH SPECIALIST
Luis joined the BiND Lab as a Research Specialist in June 2019. He primarily works as the coordinator for the CReATe (Clinical Research in ALS and Related Disorders for Therapeutic Development) consortium study. He obtained his BA in Cognitive Neuroscience with a minor in Chemistry from the University of Pennsylvania. While at Penn, Luis also worked at both the Brannon Lab and the Lurie Family Foundations MEG Imaging Center at CHOP. In the future, Luis hopes to pursue medical school to continue his study in neurology.
ISABEL WINGERT
NEUROIMAGING DATA ANALYST
Isabel is a Neuroimaging Data Analyst working jointly between the Penn Frontotemporal Degeneration Center (FTDC), Penn Alzheimer Disease Center (ADC), and the Penn Image Computing and Science Lab (PICSL). Isabel holds her bachelor’s degree from Drexel University in Biomedical Engineering, with a concentration in Neuroengineering and an additional interest in neuroimaging. She is focused primarily on the pathology of neurodegenerative diseases and injuries. Her interest in neuroimaging stems from experience in assessing amyloid and tau uptake in cortical and reference regions in both healthy and impaired populations. It is her hope that by gaining as much experience in the field of neuroimaging of degenerative diseases, she will be at the best of her ability to help others make health-informed decisions for themselves, and to make the diseases nothing more than a distant memory. In her spare time, you can find her either jogging along the Schuylkill River Trail, spotting dogs around the city, or playing video games with her three brothers.
Pilar Ferraro
Pilar Ferraro is currently a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Magnetic Resonance Research Centre on Nervous System Diseases, DiNOGMI Department, University of Genoa (Unige).