Principal Investigator

Dr. Beth Costine-Bartell, PhD

Assistant Professor
Department of Neurosurgery, Harvard Medical School

Assistant in Neuroscience
Department of Neurosurgery, MassGeneral Brigham

Co-Chair Subcommittee on Animal Resources
Executive Committee on Research, Massachusetts General Hospital

After my postdoctoral fellowship in basic neuroscience studying the effect of steroids on GABAergic signaling in the hypothalamus (Dr. Leslie P Henderson, PhD, Dartmouth Medical School), I had the unique experience of spending several years training with a pediatric neurosurgeon specializing in abusive head trauma (Dr. Ann-Christine Duhaime, MD), a pediatric anesthesiologist (Dr. Carter Dodge, MD), a pediatrician specializing in child abuse (Dr. Alice Newton, MD), a pediatric neurologist (Dr. Kevin Staley, MD), and a forensic pediatric neuropathologist (Dr. Declan McGuone, MD) learning hands on skills in anesthesia and surgery, participating in neurosurgery trauma conferences, enrolling patients in TRACK-TBI, and performing autopsies, including infant homicide cases from abusive head injury, at the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, New York City. I have spent 30 years in large animal models with the last 16 years in large animal models of traumatic brain injury.

Staff

Dr. Nelson Marquez, DVM, Research Technologist

Surgeon, Anesthesia

Manager of “Changes in the Ionic Basis of GABAergic Inhibition that Contribute to Post-Traumatic Epilepsy” Surgical Core

Dr. Alexandra Hochstetler, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow

Co-mentored with Maria Lehtinen, Boston Children’s Hospital
Surgeon, Anesthesia
Manager of “Gene Therapy of Intraventricular Hemorrhage-Induced Hydrocephalus”
Project director, Acute cation-chloride co-transporter disruption following severe TBI in the developing gyrencephalic brain, “Identifying potential therapeutic targets for abusive head trauma“

Benjamin Baskin, Research Technician

ICU Team lead, On Call Veterinary Technician, Surgeon, Anesthesia
Manager of “Identifying potential therapeutic targets for abusive head trauma” Surgeries and Intensive Care Unit
Project director of measuring areas of subarachnoid hemorrhage and subdural hemorrhage, “Identifying potential therapeutic targets for abusive head trauma”
Project director of “Long-term histopathological changes after Traumatic Brain Injury in swine that did or did not develop Post-Traumatic Epilepsy” for a Biofidelic Model of Post-Traumatic Epilepsy.

Tawny Stinson, Research Technician

ICU Team Lead, On Call Veterinary Technician, Surgeon, Anesthesia
Project director of tissue damage analysis “Identifying potential therapeutic targets for abusive head trauma”
Project director of biomarkers of cardiac injury, “Identifying potential therapeutic targets for abusive head trauma”

Krystal Qiao, Research Technician

ICU Team Lead, Anesthesia
Project director of convulsion screening, “Changes in the Ionic Basis of GABAergic Inhibition that Contribute to Post-Traumatic Epilepsy“
Manager of Internships

Postbaccalaureate students

Mariana I. Gonzalez Rodriguez, Boston University School of Medicine

ICU Team Lead

Inventory manager, histological damage analysis, convulsion screening

Veronica Rodrigues Sendao, Boston University School of Medicine

ICU Team Lead

Inventory manager, histological damage analysis, convulsion screening

Undergraduate Interns

Aarush Patnala, Tufts University

ICU Team Lead
Project director of EEG and spreading depolarization analysis “Identifying potential therapeutic targets for abusive head trauma”
Project director of machine learning to identify epileptic behaviors, “A Biofidelic Model of Post-Traumatic Epilepsy“.
Biomarkers of cardiac injury

Trevor Kim, Tufts University

Histologic damage analysis, convulsion screening, intensive care assistant

Mark Mousad, Tufts University

Histologic damage analysis, convulsion screening, intensive care assistant

Andrew Schwalb, Tufts University

Measuring areas of subarachnoid hemorrhage and subdural hemorrhage, convulsion screening, intensive care assistant, machine learning to identify epileptic behaviors

Our Team