Brief Biography
I lead an active and successful research group comprising several junior faculty, postdoctoral fellows, clinical fellows, and graduate students. Since my joining UCSF as a faculty member, I have published over 50 peer-reviewed papers, in the most premier journals in my field. I have been a Principal Investigator (PI) on many grants from NIH, on one grant from NSF and on several grants from private Foundations (eg: Whitaker Foundation, Dana Foundation). Currently, I am the PI on three R01 grants from NIH, including being the PI of a sub-contract on a grant from UC Davis. One of these grants has just been competitively renewed for another 5 years, the grant received a score of 152 (9.7%) which qualifies for funding from NIDCD. In addition to managing my research program, I have also been the Director of the Biomagnetic Imaging Laboratory for the past four years. The BIL is a regional resource for research and clinical imaging using magnetoencephalography (MEG) and electroencephalography (EEG). The laboratory provides clinical services for Brain Tumor and Epilepsy patients from Northern California and the Western United States. In patients with brain tumors, we perform functional brain imaging scans using MEG and EEG. These scans provide information about the location and timing of tactile, auditory, motor, visual, speech and language areas of the brain. In patients with epilepsy, we monitor spontaneous brain activity using MEG and EEG and using this data we determine the location and timing of epileptiform activity. We also perform functional brain imaging scans on some epilepsy patients who are candidates for neurosurgery. I oversee all technical aspects of this facility.