Dr. Jean Chen
PhD Biomedical Engineering
McGill University
jchen at research dot baycrest dot org

Positions

• 2011 – present, Director, Neuroimaging Lab at Baycrest
• 2018 – present, Senior Scientist, Rotman Research Institute, Baycrest
• 2018 – present, Associate Professor, Medical Biophysics, University of Toronto
• 2011 – 2018, Scientist, Rotman Research Institute, Baycrest
• 2011 – 2018, Assistant Professor, Medical Biophysics, University of Toronto

Education

• 2009 – 2011, Postdoc, Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School
• 2005 – 2009, PhD, Biomedical Engineering, McGill University
• 2002 – 2004, MSc, Electrical Engineering, University of Calgary

Dr. Jean Chen is a Full Professor in the Department of Medical Biophysics and Biomedical Engineering at the University of Toronto. She is also a Senior Scientist at the Rotman Research Institute and Tier II Canada Research Chair in Neuroimaging of Aging. In addition, Dr. Chen heads the Chen Lab (Research in Advanced Neuroimaging using MRI). Her research is funded by the CIHR, NSERC and the Heart and Stroke Foundation.

Her educational background includes an MSc (2004) in Electrical Engineering from the University of Calgary, and a PhD (2009) in Biomedical Engineering from McGill University. She completed her postdoctoral work on multimodal MRI of brain aging at the Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Harvard Medical School (2011).

Dr. Chen’s research involves developing techniques for using resting-state functional MRI, cerebrovascular-reactivity mapping, diffusion MRI and simultaneous EEG-fMRI to understand the link between brain metabolism and vascular health, including healthy aging, mild-cognitive impairment, late-life depression, hypertension, diabetes, and stroke.

Zachary Zhong
PhD Candidate
BEng Electrical and Biomedical Engineering, McMaster University.

Zachary’s project focus is on analyzing the relationship between electrophysiological signal and BOLD signal.

Lydia Sun
PhD Candidate
BSc Neuroscience and Statistical Science, University of Toronto

Hannah Van Lankveld
PhD Candidate
BASc Mechanical Engineering, Queen’s University
MEng Biomedical Engineering, University of Toronto

Hannah is a PhD candidate focusing on the brain’s physiological response to photobiomodulation. Hannah holds a Bachelors degree in Mechanical Engineering from Queen’s University, as well as a Masters degree in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Toronto. She also spent two years working as a biomedical engineer at a medical device company before returning to the University of Toronto for her PhD. Her current work specializes in real-time brain stimulation during electroencephalography and BOLD-fMRI recordings, as well as subsequent data analysis.

Joanna Chen
MASc Candidate
BMSc Medical Biophysics, Western University

Joanna is an MASc student focusing on dynamic physiological response to transcranial photobiomodulation (tPBM). Joanna received an Honours Bachelor of Medical Sciences from the University of Western Ontario, specializing in Medical Biophysics. Her current research examines the real-time rise and fall of the BOLD-fMRI response to tPBM.

Jacob Matthews
MRI Specialist
MSc Medical Biophysics, University of Western Ontario
jmatthews at research dot baycrest dot org

Jacob Matthews is the MRI Specialist at the Rotman Research Institute, working within Dr. Chen’s research lab. He received both an Honours Bachelor of Medical Science and a Master of Science in Medical Biophysics from the University of Western Ontario. His Master’s research was conducted out of the Robarts Research Institute and the Brain and Mind Institute, involving laminar functional imaging of auditory cortex using fMRI at 7T. His current work includes consulting on MRI experimental design,  acquisition, and analysis, maintaining the ancillary equipment for MRI research, testing and reporting on newly available MRI technology, and acting as a resource person for the wider Rotman community. He also conducts research within Dr. Chen’s lab.

Dr. Tyler Robinson
Postdoctoral Fellow
PhD Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Louisiana State University
2021-2024

Tyler’s research focuses on brain aging and aging interventions. With the Cranium Lab, he studied microstructure, perfusion, and physiological measures in the healthy aging white matter. His work examined relationships between neurovascular health and microstructural integrity, as well as how these relationships change in advancing age. He has a continuing interest in diffusion MRI and white matter aging, and is currently working to incorporate measures of pathological brain aging from traumatic brain injury and epigenetic age markers into our developing understanding of the mechanisms of decline in the aging brain.

Dr. Seyedmohammad Shams
Postdoctoral Fellow
PhD Bio-electrical Engineering, University of Tehran
2017-2023

Dr. Shams’ research interests lie primarily at the intersection of functional neuroimaging modalities (especially fMRI data and EEG), machine learning algorithms, statistical inferences and the methods of time-frequency analysis. The theme of Dr. Shams’ research is to establish practical algorithms for multi-subject activation detection, identifying functional brain networks, and approximating blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) signal response shape from fMRI data. His research has contributed to the development of algorithms that address the problems in functional neuroimaging in a wide range of applications of computational methods to better understand the function of the brain. Over the last 10 years, he has built ample skills in mathematical methods; including statistical pattern recognition and digital image processing besides methods for preprocessing and processing EEG, structural and functional MRI, that are useful for developing new frameworks to investigate the physiological basis and neural mechanism underlying fMRI.

Dr. Aras Kayvanrad
Postdoctoral Fellow
PhD Biomedical Engineering, The University of Western Ontario
2017-2019

Dr. Ali Golestani
Postdoctoral Fellow
PhD Electrical Engineering, University of Calgary
2013-2016

Dr. Sungho Tak
Postdoctoral Fellow
PhD Biomedical Engineering, Korean Advanced Institute of Science and Technology
2012-2014

Dr. Jordan Chad
PhD Graduate
MSc Theoretical Physics, University of Toronto
PhD Medical Biophysics, University of Toronto
Degree Awarded: 2022

Jordan’s research focused on using diffusion MRI to mathematically model brain microstructure. 

Dr. Zahra Faraji-Dana
PhD Graduate
Medical Biophysics, University of Toronto
Degree Awarded: September 2016

Azin Esmaelbeigi
MSc Graduate
MSc Medical Biophysics, University of Toronto
Degree Awarded: January 2020

Azin is working on quantitative mapping of cerebrovascular reactivity (CVR) using resting state fMRI. She is focusing on healthy elderly to study the effect of age on CVR. She is also interested in looking at the changes in characteristics of physiological hemodynamic response functions during aging. She completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Toronto in Biomedical Physics, minoring in Mathematics. She defended her Masters degree with the Cranium Lab at the end of 2019. 

Don Ragot
MSc Graduate
MSc Medical Biophysics, University of Toronto
Degree Awarded: March 2018

Powell Chu
MSc Graduate
MSc Medical Biophysics, University of Toronto
Degree Awarded: August 2016

Jonathan Kwinta
MSc Graduate
MSc Medical Biophysics, University of Toronto
Degree Awarded: January 2016

Om Batt
Undergraduate Thesis Student
Engineering Science
University of Toronto
2012

Yasha Khatamian
fMRI Engineer
MEng. Biomedical Engineering, McGill University
2011-2016

Annette Weekes
Senior MR Technologist

Ahmad Hussein
Research Assistant
BSc Nanotechnology, University of Waterloo
2018-2022

Nick Teller
Research Assistant
BSc Health Sciences, McMaster University
2020-2022

Shreyas Harita
Research Assistant
MSc Neuroscience, Queen’s University
2018-2019

Abhay Issar
Undergraduate Student, Life Sciences
University of Toronto
2016-2017

Sheliza Halani
Research Assistant
BSc Electrical Engineering, University of British Columbia
2014

Paul Chang
Co-op Student
Biomedical Engineering, University of Waterloo
2021

Jillian Krotz
Co-op Student
Biomedical Engineering, University of Waterloo
2020

Chironjeev Kanjilal
Co-op student
Physics, University of British Columbia
2017

James Ward
Co-op Student
University of British Columbia
2017

Sarah Dyck
Co-op student
Life Physics, University of Waterloo
2017

David Lin
Co-op student
Nanotechnology Engineering, University of Waterloo
2017

Emma Langlois
Co-op student
Life Physics, University of Waterloo
2017

Nicole Yuen
Co-op student
Life Physics, University of Waterloo
2016

Lucy Wei
Co-op student
Biophysics, University of British Columbia
2015

Nathaniel Osachoff
Co-op student
Engineering Physics, University of British Columbia
2015

Kathy Xu
Co-op student
Electrical Engineering, University of British Columbia
2013

Ana Han
Summer Student
Health Sciences, McMaster University

Ana is currently a summer student whose research is on using fixel-based analysis to analyse diffusion MRI data. She is focused on studying the selective degeneration of white matter tracts in aging.

Arjun Patel
Summer Student
Biology & PNB, McMaster University

Arjun is currently a summer student studying white matter microstructure in association with cognition. He is focused on studying diffusion MRI and the use of free water (FW) as a biomarker for cognitive and functional decline. 

Hiba Taha
Summer Student
Neuroscience, University of Toronto
2020-2022

Jigar Lad
Summer Student
BSc Medical Physics, McMaster University
2020

Megan Scarlett
Summer Web Dev Staff
Dalhousie University
2018

William Kim
Summer Student
Physics, Queen’s University
2017

Josephine Tan
Summer Student
Biological and Medical Physics, University of Guelph
2017

Barry Fung
Undergraduate Researcher
Engineering Science, University of Toronto
2014

Lily Lau
Undergraduate Researcher
Engineering Science, University of Toronto
2013

Tim Liu
Undergraduate Researcher
Engineering Science, University of Toronto
2012

Nok Srisaikaew
Visiting Student
Anatomy, Chiang Mai University
2020-2021

Jean Hautier
Visiting Student
Mathematics and Modelisation
2020

Amy Lin
Volunteer
BSc Biochemistry and Neuroscience, University of Toronto
2018-2019

Dan Tran
Undergraduate Student
Neuroscience, McGill University
2017