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Mentor Areas

Dr. Alexander-Bloch's lab investigates normal brain development and the altered developmental trajectories that lead to mental illness, by integrating neuroimaging, genomics and clinical information. The goal is to translate complex genetic and environmental psychiatric risk factors into neurobiological mechanisms. Current projects include: 1) statistical modeling of brain MRI morphological features across human lifespan; 2) the influence of common and rare genetic variants on brain development and cognition; 3) analysis of clinically-acquired brain MRI at CHOP; 4) analysis of physician notes from electronic health record using natural language processing. Research projects are available within the scope of each of the above projects.

Description:

The Brain-Gene Development lab is currently accepting undergraduate students to assist with research on clinically acquired brain scans. The anticipated responsibilities of undergraduate volunteers include:

  • Rating and annotating clinical radiology impressions of brain MRIs
  • Creating and refining protocols for cohort identification
  • Quality control of brain MRIs
  • Collaborating with fellow students and lab members in advancing team objectives

By the end of the rotation, students can be expected to:

  • Confidently read radiology reports of brain MRIs and rate imaging pathology
  • Become familiar with medical terminology associated with imaging pathology and neuroanatomy
  • Garner valuable experience in clinical research and psychiatry 

If interested, please contact Matt Buczek (buczekm@chop.edu).

Preferred Qualifications

Experience with data analysis in R, Python or Matlab would be beneficial but not required.

Project Website

Learn more about the researcher and/or the project here.
Brain-Gene Development Lab

Details:

Preferred Student Year

Second-Year, Junior, Senior

Academic Term

Fall, Spring, Summer

I prefer to have students start during the above term(s).

Volunteer

Yes

Yes indicates that faculty are open to volunteers.

Paid

No

Yes indicates that faculty are open to paying students they engage in their research, regardless of their work-study eligibility.

Work Study

No

Yes indicates that faculty are open to hiring work-study-eligible students.