Marie VanTubbergen, PhD

Dr. Van Tubbergen joined the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation after completing a post-doctoral fellowship and a period of research projects in this same department. Dr. Van Tubbergen completed her graduate training at Central Michigan University in Clinical Psychology and completed her internship training at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst in the Counseling and Assessment center. Clinical interests focus on the ongoing development and growth of the Pediatric NeuroRehabilitation Program with an emphasis on the outpatient, multi-disciplinary rehabilitation team. Previous research includes the development of adapted techniques and accessible measures for use in neuropsychological assessment. Current interests include development of a concussion management clinic to examine treatment and intervention strategies targeting prolonged post-concussive symptoms. She provides supervision to fellows on the inpatient unit and on intervention rotations through the neurorehabilitation day treatment program.

Kanagaraj Palsamy, PhD (Dr.rer.nat), is a Research Investigator in the Department of Neurology at the University of Michigan Medical School. Dr. Palsamy began as a Postdoctoral fellow at the University of Michigan in 2015. He was promoted to the Research Investigator position in 2021.

Dr. Palsamy earned a Bachelor of Sciences in Agricultural sciences and Master of Science in Biotechnology from Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU). He received his doctoral degree in Developmental biochemistry from Georg August University of Göttingen, Germany in 2015 in disease modeling in zebrafish. He completed his postdoctoral training in the lab of Dr. Jack Parent at the University of Michigan in 2021 studying the mechanisms of brain injury, neuroinflammation, brain regeneration and epilepsy disease modeling in zebrafish.

Palsamy’s current research focuses on understanding injury/TBI induced brain regeneration and how immune cells, especially microglia regulate inflammation and inflammation resolution during regeneration. He is also studying epilepsy disease using the zebrafish model for understanding the pathology and for drug screening, aiming to find the differential regulation that promotes regeneration in zebrafish compared to mammalian brain to develop a strategy to improve brain regeneration in human brain. He uses genetic mutants, CRISPR knock-ins, imaging, and behavioral techniques to understand the mechanisms behind regeneration and epilepsy. Dr. Palsamy’s long-term goal is to find the molecules and mechanisms that can promote brain regeneration/repair in humans.

Dr. Claflin is the Associate Medical Director of Inpatient Rehabilitation and Director of the Stroke Rehabilitation Program. Dr. Claflin joined the University of Michigan faculty in 2013 and has been working to build inpatient and outpatient stroke rehabilitation programming, including leading an effort to achieve Joint Commission certification for the Inpatient Stroke Rehabilitation Program in 2017. As Associate Medical Director, he acts as a liaison to consulting services, works to ensure high-quality resident education during inpatient rotations, and assists with the administration of the inpatient rehabilitation unit.

Dr. Carol Persad is a Clinical Professor in Psychiatry with an Adjunct Professor appointment in Psychology. She is the Director of the Neuropsychology Program in the Department of Psychiatry and the Director of the University Center for Language and Literacy in the Mary A. Rackham Institute.

Dr. Persad trained as a Clinical Psychologist with a specialization in Neuropsychology and has focused both her clinical and research work on understanding cognitive changes that are associated with neurological disorders across the lifespan and the underlying neural pathways. Dr. Persad’s research interests focus more specifically on cognitive changes associated with aging and neurodegenerative disorders. She is currently a co-investigator on a number of grants funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and Dr. Persad has published numerous scientific papers and given dozens of conference presentations. In addition, she is involved in the training of Postdoctoral Fellows in Neuropsychology, as well as interns, practicum students, and undergraduates in both clinical placements and research projects.

Andrea L. Aagesen is a clinical instructor in the Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Department at the University of Michigan. Dr. Aagesen earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in athletic training at Purdue University while competing on the varsity golf team. She earned her Masters of Science degree at Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis, and her medical degree at Midwestern University, Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine, in Downers Grove, Illinois. She completed an internship at Botsford Hospital in Farmington Hills, Michigan. She completed her residency training in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation followed by a sports medicine fellowship through the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Michigan. Dr. Aagesen is a member of the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, American Medical Society for Sports Medicine, and American College of Sports Medicine. Dr. Aagesen provides sports medicine and rehabilitation services at the Burlington Office Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Clinic and provides concussion management at the Michigan NeuroSport Program located in Domino’s Farms. Dr. Aagesen serves as a team physician for Eastern Michigan University. She is board certified in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and has a Certificate of Added Qualification in Sports Medicine. Dr. Aagesen is also a team physician for Eastern Michigan and University of Michigan.

Dr. Kevin He is a core faculty member of the Kidney Epidemiology and Cost Center (KECC) at the University of Michigan. His primary research interests include survival analysis, healthcare provider profiling, risk prediction, data integration, machine learning, statistical optimization, causal inference, and statistical genetics with application in organ transplantation, kidney dialysis, psoriasis, cancer, and stroke. These works are motivated by large and complex datasets such as national disease registries, claims data, high-throughput genomics, epigenomics, and transcriptomics.

He currently holds an R01 as the Principal Investigator focusing on improving statistical methods for profiling healthcare providers. In addition, he has served as the Statistical PI for the Data Analysis for the Quality, Safety, and Oversight of End Stage Renal Disease contracted by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).

Dr. Wu’s research is motivated by biomedical and public health problems and is centered on the design and application of statistical methods that inform health decisions made by individuals or precision medicine. Towards this goal, he focuses on two lines of methodological research: a) structured Bayesian latent variable models for clustering and disease subtyping, and b) study design and causal methods for evaluating sequential interventions that tailor to individuals’ changing circumstances, such as in mobile health studies. He is committed to developing robust, scalable, and interpretable statistical methods to harness real-world, high-dimensional, dynamic data for individualized health. The methods and software developed so far have supported studies in diverse scientific fields, including infectious disease epidemiology, autoimmune diseases, mental health, behavioral health, and cancer.

Dr. Gehring is a Professor Emeritus of Psychology with research interests in cognitive science, neuroscience, and event-related brain potentials. You can learn more about Dr. Gehring and his scholarly work at https://www.billgehring.com/

Dr. Peltier’s research deals with functional MRI data acquisition and analysis. Current areas of interest include: 1) resting-state functional connectivity; 2) real-time fMRI; 3) multivariate and data-driven analysis techniques; and 4) multimodal imaging.

Dr. Sachin Kheterpal is the Kevin K. Tremper Professor of Anesthesiology.

As the Associate Dean for Research Information and Technology at U-M Medical School, Dr. Kheterpal is responsible for establishing the vision and strategy to effectively use information technology (IT) to advance the research mission.