PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/DIRECTOR
Dr. Terence Sanger, M.D., Ph.D.Dr. Terence Sanger is the Chief Scientific Officer of CHOC Children's and Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the UCI School of Engineering. His research focuses on understanding the origins of pediatric movement disorders from both a biological and a computational perspective. The primary goal of his research is to discover new methods for treating children with movement disorders. Dr. Sanger coordinates the Childhood Motor Study Group (CMSG) and the NIH Taskforce on Childhood Movement Disorders. He runs the pediatric movement disorders clinic at CHOC Children's in the department of Neurology. His training includes background in Child Neurology, Electrical Engineering, Signal Processing, Control Theory, Neural Networks, and Computational Neuroscience.
Email: terry[at]sangerlab.net |
RESEARCH ASSOCIATES
Estefania Hernandez-Martin, Ph.DEstefania Hernandez-Martin is a postdoctoral research associate at the Sanger lab. She received her Ph.D. degree in Healthy Science (Summa Cum Laude) from the University of La Laguna in 2018 which focused on neuroimaging techniques in human brain. Estefania's research focuses on signal processing, modeling, multivariate statistics and data interpretation for both electrophysiological and neuroimaging data sets. Moreover, she develops experimental design, setup configuration, data recordings, and data analysis using a variety of algorithms and computational neural networks to build a signal flow model to explain brain behavior.
Email: estefania[@]sangerlab.net |
Jonathan Realmuto, Ph.D.Jonathan Realmuto is a postdoctoral research associate at the Sanger lab. He received his Ph.D. degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Washington in 2017. Jonathan’s research focuses on human-robot interactions arising in wearable and collaborative robotics. Using tools from control theory, optimization, biomechanics and robotics he aims to design wearable robots that restore, assist and augment human mobility and perception.
Email: realmuto[at]sangerlab.net |
CLINICAL STAFF
Jennifer MacLean, MSN, RN, CPNPJennifer MacLean is a nurse practitioner in the pediatric movement disorders clinic at Children's Hospital Orange County and serves as clinical coordinator at SangerLab. She received her bachelor's and master's degrees from Vanderbilt University. She currently treats pediatric patients with a variety of movement disorders, helps to recruit subjects, and serves as sub-investigator for several Sangerlab research studies. She is predominantly involved in research and clinical management of children with dystonia to optimize their treatment, including those undergoing deep brain stimulation.
Email: jennifer[at]sangerlab.net |
Aprille Tongol, B.A.Aprille is the clinical research study administrator for the Sanger Lab. She received her B.A. in Biochemistry at the University of San Diego. She currently manages human subject board submissions at CHOC and provides support for other study centers. She also coordinates a research project in the Sanger Lab that studies whether wearing a vibrotactile biofeedback device may improve motor function in children and young adults with dystonia, hypertonia or spasticity.
Email: aprille[at]sangerlab.net |
GRADUATE STUDENTS
Maral Kasiri, M.S.Maral Kasiri is a PhD student at Sanger Lab. She received her B.S. with honors in Biomedical Engineering from Tehran Polytechnic University in 2016 and received her M.S. in Biomedical Engineering from USC in 2018. Her focus is on understanding the effects of vibrotactile biofeedback on motor learning in children with neuromuscular disorders. Maral is interested in understanding how the brain controls human movement and how it can be stimulated to improve the movements in people with neuromuscular disorders.
Email: maral.kasiri[at]gmail.com |
Jessica Vidmark, M.S.Jessica Vidmark is a PhD student at Sanger Lab. She received her B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Florida Institute of Technology in 2016 with summa cum laude honors and the Faculty Honors Award. In 2018, she received her M.S. in Medical Engineering from KTH Royal Institute of Technology. Jessica is investigating cerebral connectivity in deep motor regions by studying evoked potentials. Jessica wants to unmask the mechanisms of deep brain stimulation and use her findings to provide the most effective treatment possible for our patients with movement disorders.
Email: jvidmark[at]uci.edu |
RESEARCH STAFF
Jaya NatarajEmail: jayanataraj[at]gmail.com
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ALUMNI
Nasir Bhanpuri Research Associate |
Eric (Won Joon) Sohn Ph.D. Graduate |