INVESTIGATORS

Biree Andemariam, MD

Anita Bhandari, MD

Dr. Bhandari is a pulmonologist at Connecticut Children's Medical Center.

Nathan Hagstrom, MD

Dr. Hagstrom is the director of the Hematology/Oncology Department at Connecticut Children's Medical Center.

Greg Huber, PhD

Dr. Huber works on problems in biological physics with an emphasis on the interplay of statistical mechanics, biomechanics, and fluid dynamics. Many intriguing elastic problems are presented by mechanics at the cellular scale, but the area of membrane mechanics and dynamics is also the focus of much medical research. He has modeled biological membranes under conditions of high curvature, either due to mechanical forcing or due to the presence of integral membrane components (lipids, cholesterol, proteins). His research concerns how the properties of the red blood cell membrane are altered due to the distortions produced by both sickle cell disease and sickle cell trait.

Robin Leger, RN, MS, PhD

Robin is an assistant professor in the Department of Community Medicine, and a research facilitator with in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, part of the New England Musculoskeletal Institute. Robin’s career has focused on the care, education and research of chronic illnesses and disabilities across the lifespan particularly in the areas of spina bifida and sickle cell diseases.

George Lykotrafitis, PhD

George Lykotrafitis is Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Connecticut. He is also adjunct faculty of the Biomedical Engineering Program at UConn. Prior to his current appointment, he was Postdoctoral Associate at the Department of Materials Science of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He received his PhD and MS degrees in Mechanical Engineering from the California Institute of Technology and his BS in Physics from the University of Athens, Greece. His current research interests focuses on the biomechanical and chemomechanical properties of abnormal erythrocytes. He combines atomic force microscopy, optical methods, and multiscale molecular dynamics approaches to study at the cellular and molecular level the structure, viscoelasticity, and cytoadherence of red blood cells from patients with sickle cell disease. Dr. Lykotrafitis has received the Hetenyi Award for the best paper published in Experimental Mechanics in 2006.

Oluwanisola Odesina, BS

Victoria Odesina, PhD

Emily O'Hara, MS

Farzana Pashankar, MD

Jill Popp, PhD

James Santanelli, MPH

James Santanelli is the Study Coordinator for all sickle cell disease related research projects at the Connecticut Children's Medical Center: Pain Relief Program. Jim graduated from Southern Connecticut State University with Honors and recieved a BS in Bioloy with a minor in Chemistry. While at SCSU Jim was a research assistant for the Center for Coastal and Marine Studies working on several projects aimed at assessing and evaluating the contamination and pollution of many estuarine water bodies along the Connecticut coast. Shortly after graduating Jim earned his MPH from the YALE School of Public Health in Chronic Disease Epidemiology. While at YALE Jim interned at the Connecticut Emerging Infections Program (EIP) as well as the Connecticut Department of Public Helath: Environmental Health Division.

Michael Stevens, PhD
Dr. Michael C. Stevens directs two complementary programs of research. He leads the Clinical Neuroscience and Development Laboratory (LINK), which uses neuroscience research techniques to understand the neurobiological substrates of psychiatric illnesses that develop in childhood and adolescence. He also is the director of Child and Adolescent Research for The Institute of Living at Hartford Hospital. In this role, Dr. Michael C. Stevens is responsible for overseeing and contributing to all pediatric psychiatric research at the OLIN Neuropsychiatry Research Center.

Roger Thrall,

Daniel Weisberg, BS

William Zempsky, MD

Dr. Zempsky is a Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine and the Head of the Division of Pain Medicine at Connecticut Children’s Medical Center. Dr. Zempsky received his undergraduate degree from Cornell University. He graduated from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and completed a pediatric residency on the Harriet Lane Service at Johns Hopkins Hospital. He also completed a pediatric emergency medicine fellowship at the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh. Dr. Zempsky has lectured nationally and internationally on the pediatric pain management focused on an efficient systemic approach to pain relief. He has published numerous research papers, articles and chapters this area. He is a renowned expert in the area of transdermal drug delivery for local anesthesia. His research interests include pain in children with sickle cell disease, developing systematic approaches to pain management, and transdermal drug delivery. Dr. Zempsky is the lead author on the American Academy of Pediatrics policy statement concerning pain management in emergency medical systems for children. Dr. Zempsky is a pain consultant for both the Brighton Collaboration, an international group of investigators focused on vaccination side effects, and the FDA. In 2008 Dr. Zempsky received 2 major awards, the prestigious Donaghue Investigator Award to carry out his research in sickle cell pain, as well as the Mayday Pain and Society Fellowship to enhance his abilities in pain advocacy. Dr. Zempsky also holds a 4 year Career Development Award from the National Institutes of Health.