RESEARCH ASSOCIATE
Adrija Mamidipalli, MD
Adrija was a Research Associate in our lab. Her research focuses on US, CT and MR imaging of liver disease and liver cancer. Her work includes liver imaging data acquisition and analyses, data collection, basic statistical analyses and collage making required for publication and grant proposals. She has several publications and presented abstracts at international conference meetings. She is a member of the Liver Imaging Reporting and Data System (LI-RADS) steering committee and LI-RADS writing and evidence working groups, which focus on standardization, reporting and data collection of CT and MR imaging for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). She is the 2018 Pedal the Cause Captain and Badminton Champion at the Inter College level. She loves to cook, bike and travel.
LAB MANAGER
Alex Schlein
Alex was Lab Manager for LIG from 2016-2021. She studied Physiology and Neuroscience at UCSD and is interested in the associations between T1 and T2 relaxation and tissue properties.
IMAGE ANALYST
Andrew Boehringer
Andrew was an Image Analyst for the Lab. He graduated from Lafayette College in Pennsylvania in Spring of 2017 where he completed a Bachelors of Science in Neuroscience with a minor in Bioengineering and Biotechnology. Andrew has previously worked as an intern at DCN Diagnostics in Carlsbad, CA, at the Yeo Lab of the Sanford Consortium for Regenerative Medicine in La Jolla, CA, and at the National Center for Microscopy and Imaging Research at UC San Diego. Since graduating, he has returned to his native San Diego and joined the Liver Imaging Group in November of 2017. In his spare time, Andrew is an avid soccer player and fan and also enjoys traveling and tasting new foods.
PROFESSOR OF MATHEMATICS
Anthony Gamst, PhD
Anthony C. Gamst, Ph.D., is a professor of mathematics at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), director of the Computational and Applied Statistics Laboratory (CASL) at the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC), and a mathematical statistician with extensive experience in bioinformatics and in the analysis of medical imaging and other forms of high-dimensional data. Dr. Gamst’s research focuses on problems in non-parametric and semi-parametric regression, decision theory, re-sampling, and computation, as well as on problems in data-intensive computing, including: regression, density estimation, and exploratory data analysis over streams; models and estimators for matrix factorization; and on-line analytical processing (of high-throughput data). Dr. Gamst has been collaborating with LIG since 2005.
RESEARCH ASSOCIATE
Atsushi Higaki, MD
Atsushi joined us from Kawasaki Medical School in Kurashiki City, Japan. He is currently working on a project to assess the relationship between radiologist-determined qualitative washout appearance and true washout.
EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT
Beverly Sastri
Beverly joined the Liver Imaging Group as Executive Assistant to Claude Sirlin in 2016 after moving to California from Connecticut. Her background is in marketing and website project management. In addition to supporting Dr. Sirlin, Beverly is the T32 Training Grant Coordinator for the Department of Radiology’s Clinician Scientist Radiology Residents Program (CSRRP). Beverly loves to hike San Diego’s beaches and mountains and says she is never going back to winters in the Northeast.
IMAGE ANALYST
Chetan Potu
Chetan was a Coordinator and Image Analyst with the Lab where he aids in conducting research studies through collaborating with patients and works with clinical image analysis to assist clinicians with screening and characterization. Chetan completed his undergraduate at UC San Diego where he majored in Bioengineering and double minored in Organic Chemistry and General Biology. He is interested in pursuing a career as a physician and directly working with and treating patients. During his free time he enjoys hiking and playing the piano. He is also an avid badminton player who has competed in tournaments around the world. He continues to embrace his passion for the sport by teaching badminton to kids at the YMCA to grow awareness for the sport.
IMAGE ANALYST AND CLINICAL COORDINATOR
Ethan Sy
Ethan was an Image Analyst and Coordinator who joined the lab in April 2016. As a member of the lab, Ethan works with individuals around the world in numerous projects, including LI-RADS and quantitative US. Through the efforts of amazing collaborators, Ethan has become an author in several published papers. As an aspiring physician, Ethan will be departing the lab Summer 2018 for medical school.
SENIOR RESEARCH ASSOCIATE
Guilherme Moura da Cunha, MD
Dr. Moura da Cunha is a Radiologist from Brazil who has been enthusiastic about Liver Imaging since his Residency. He was a part of LIG previously as a one-year post-doc in 2012. After going back to clinical work in a private practice as a liver imaging specialist for 6 years, he has now rejoined the group in 2018 driven by his affection for research. Since then, he has been involved in further developing our work on machine learning applications for liver imaging and to further refine the LI-RADS algorithm. He is currently a member of the LI-RADS Steering Committee, a member of the LI-RADS International Working Group and the Guarantor of Translation Integrity of LI-RADS v2018 to Portuguese.
IMAGE ANALYST
Jennifer Cui
Jennifer is a San Diego native who graduated UC San Diego in 2016 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology and a minor in Psychology. With biomedical, clinical, translational, and environmental research backgrounds, she joined the LIG as an Image Analyst in October of 2016. In addition to image analysis, she also creates clinical collages for presentations and publications and is currently a member of the LI-RADS Writing Group. In the summer of 2018, she will be heading off to Wayne State University School of Medicine in Detroit, Michigan, where she will be bracing the cold to achieve her dream of becoming a doctor.
SENIOR IMAGE ANALYST
Jonathan Hooker
Jonathan was an Image Analyst in Dr. Sirlin’s lab, with a background in physics. He completed his bachelor of science in Physics at California Polytechnic University, Pomona in 2012. Joining Dr. Sirlin’s lab in February of 2013, he began with analysis of research and industry sponsored studies. He has since expanded to working on figures and collages for academic publications, has become an active contributor to LI-RADS, and contributes more broadly to academic publications. Outside of the LIG, Jonathan enjoys cycling and cooking, and indulges in healthy doses of camping and outdoor activities for personal relaxation. He will be leaving LIG to attend Chiropractic School in Spring 2018.
RESEARCH OPERATIONS COORDINATOR
Michelle Balanay, MALT
Michelle was a Research Operations Coordinator for the LIG Lab. She places orders, schedules patients, corresponds and acts as a Coordinator for various on-going Studies. She creates and maintains various databases and surveys for regulatory and tracking purposes. She provides research support to the Primary Investigators of the Liver Imaging Group (LIG). Assists the PI and other investigators with collating data into collages and other graphical representations for various projects. She also designed the LIG logo, created, implemented and maintains the LIG Website and contributes her creative skills towards any Graphic Design needs the Lab may have. She has an MA in Learning Technologies and a BS in Graphic Design. In her free time she enjoys Illustration and Yoga.
IMAGE ANALYST
Robby Lubenow
Work in Progress
RESEARCH DATA ANALYST
Timoteo Delgado, BA
Timo graduated from Reed College in 2016 with a bachelor’s degree in Math and Physics. After completing a senior thesis in electrodynamics, he went on to take additional courses in applied math at Portland State University’s Extended Studies program. Timo’s passion for radiology was initially sparked when he began interning for UCSD Professor of Radiology, Dr. Obrzut, in early 2017, helping to create computer models of a modified gamma camera. As a Research Associate at UCSD Health’s Liver Imaging Group, Timo is excited to apply his training in mathematics and physics in a medical research setting, and work to improve diagnosis for patients with liver disease.
RESEARCH COORDINATOR
Vivian Montes, BA
Vivian was a Research Coordinator for the LIG. Prior to working in San Diego, she worked at the MRI Research Center at UC Los Angeles. She graduated from Cornell University in Ithaca, NY in 2016 with a BA in Biological Sciences and a minor in Global Health. Vivian plans on pursuing a career as a PA to expand quality healthcare to underserved populations. She has completed field experiences in Mexico, Peru, and Tanzania, and her favorite part about health care is the interaction and exchange she has with patients because they are all unique. During her free time she enjoys dancing contemporary, jazz, hip-hop, and cumbia.
POST-DOCTORAL RESEARCH SCHOLAR
Ying Zhen Nancy, MD
Yingzhen Nancy was a physician-in-training who joined the LIG when she realized that she enjoys interpreting imaging studies herself rather than waiting for others to do so. She works primarily with US imaging of liver disease with an emphasis on quantitative techniques and improved access. An erstwhile internal medicine resident, she believes that imaging can augment its value to referring clinicians as well as patients by actively participating in direct patient care and education. Her career goal includes exploring ways to integrate radiology into routine clinical encounters in order to achieve better outcomes and patient satisfaction
Clinical Research coordinator
Ashley Louie
A California native, Ashley grew up in San Francisco and graduated from UCSD in 2016 with a bachelor’s in Psychology. She joined the Gene Yeo laboratory at Sanford Consortium for Regenerative Medicine in 2014, to further understand neurodegenerative diseases and motor neurons using human embryonic stems cells (hESCs) and induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) as model systems. She also worked on the project-- Encyclopedia of DNA Elements (ENCODE) using cells lines derived from liver tissue with hepatocellular carcinoma and cell lines with human immortalized myelogenous leukemia. Ashley joined the Liver Imaging Group as a staff research associate in the Winter of 2017, where she was an image analyst and clinical research coordinator. Ashley enjoys yoga, running around scenic San Diego, and eating breakfast burritos.