Collaborators Affiliated with the Neuroanesthesia Lab

Andrew Jenkins, PhD, Departments of Pharmacology and Anesthesiology, Emory University. The Jenkins lab seeks to understand how neurosteroids, general anesthetics, sedative and anxiolytic drugs, alter the function of the GABA receptor to mediate clinically useful effects. The Neuroanesthesia Lab collaborates with the Jenkins lab on several projects relating to GABA antagonism and the treatment of sleep disorders.
David Rye, MD, PhD, Department of Neurology, Emory University. Dr. Rye is the Director of the Program in Sleep. His clinical interests include RLS, narcolepsy, REM Behavior Disorder, and intrinsic sleep disorders associated with movement disorders and central dopamine dysfunction. The Jenkins and Garcia laboratories collaborate with Dr. Rye on novel neuropharmacological therapeutics for a heterogenous group of narcolepsy patients.
Glenda Keating, PhD has been working in the Neuroanesthesia Lab since 2013 on in vivo models of EEG monitoring and analysis after emergence from anesthesia. She works in collaboration with the lab of Dr. David Rye on projects related to GABA antagonism and behavioral phenotypes in animal models of sleep disorders. She completed her PhD at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, UK and came to Emory University as an American Academy of Sleep Medicine Postdoctoral Fellow.
Lynn Marie Trotti, MD, MSc, Department of Neurology, Emory University. Dr. Trotti’s clinical research focuses on evaluating novel potential therapies for the primary hypersomnias. Along with Dr. Rye, Dr. Garcia maintains a collaboration with Dr. Trotti on novel neuropharmacological therapeutics for treatment-refractory hypersomnia patients.
William Tyor, MD, Department of Neurology, Atlanta VA Medical Center. Dr. Tyor’s research efforts focus on the role of the immune system in pathological processes of the central nervous system using murine models. The Neuroanesthesia Lab collaborates with Dr. Tyor’s lab on the neurophysiology underlying behavioral changes in animal models of viral encephalitis and HIV-associated dementia.
Jennifer Gooch, PhD, Department of Nephrology, Emory University. Dr. Gooch’s lab is interested in the molecular actions of calcineurin, a ubiquitious calcium-dependent phosphatase that is the targeted of immunosuppression drugs. Calcineurin inhibitors cause a range of side-effects in addition to immune suppression including nephrotoxicity, skin cancers, diabetes, and cognitive dysfunction. Dr. Gooch’s research focus is understanding the mechanism of calcineurin action in order to design better immunosuppressing drugs that avoid these toxic effects.
Maria Alvarado, PhD, Department of Developmental and Cognitive Neuroscience, Yerkes National Primate Research Center. Dr. Alvarado studies the developmental and functional cognitive effects of cortical lesions in Rhesus macaques. The Neuroanesthesia Lab is collaborating with her efforts to characterize the effects of general anesthesia on lesioned and unlesioned primates so as to clarify the physiological cortical pathways playing a role in anesthesia in large-brained mammals.
Suzette Laroche, MD, Department of Neurology, Emory University. Dr. Laroche is Director of ICU EEG monitoring and has collaborations with Dr. Garcia on translational and clinical studies involving GABA antagonism and risk of seizures in the ICU.
Jamie Sleigh, MD, Waikato Clinical School, University of Auckland, New Zealand. Dr. Sleigh is a Professor of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care and is a well-established clinical researcher in the field of EEG and neuromonitoring in anesthesia. He is collaborating with the Neuroanesthesia Lab by collecting data for the JSMF-funded clinical research project.
Matthew Whalin, MD, PhD, Department of Anesthesiology, Emory University. Dr. Whalin is the Director of Neuroanesthesiology at Grady Memorial Hospital, where his primary focus is the management of stroke patients receiving interventions. He is collaborating with the Neuroanesthesia Lab by collecting data for the JSMF-funded clinical research project.
Simon Lee, MD, Department of Anesthesiology, Emory University. Dr. Lee is the Medical Director of the PACU at Emory University Hospital Midtown. His research interests include neuromonitoring under anesthesia and post-operative neurologic recovery. He is collaborating with the Neuroanesthesia Lab by collecting data for the JSMF-funded clinical research project.
Joe Nocera, PhD, Department of Neurology, Atlanta VA Medical Center. Dr. Nocera is a Health Science Specialist in the Atlanta VA Rehabilitation R&D Center of Excellence for Visual and Neurocognitive Rehabilitation. His research interests include interactions between physical function and cognition with particular emphasis on the impact of dual tasking on locomotion and balance control. He is collaborating with the Neuroanesthesia Lab by collecting data for the JSMF-funded clinical research project.
Seyed A. Safavynia, MD, PhD, Department of Anesthesiology, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital – Weill Cornell Medical College. Dr. Safavynia is the recipient of the van Poznak Research Scholarship. He is working with the Neuroanesthesia Lab to develop computational tools to functionally interpret EEG during anesthesia, and use quantitative EEG as an interpretation of brain function during emergence from anesthesia, with a specific interest in characterizing the risk of developing postoperative delirium using intraoperative EEG.
Jennifer Rha, Department of Biochemistry, Emory University. Jennifer is an MD PhD student completing her graduate studies in the laboratory of Dr. Anita Corbett. Her project involving the Neuroanesthesia Lab is to characterize the behavioral and electrophysiological effects anesthesia on the Corbett Lab’s ZC3H14 knockout mouse line. ZC3H14 is an RNA-binding protein linked to developmental cognitive disability in humans.