People
Director
Kenneth A. Weber II, DC, PhD
Dr. Weber is an Assistant Professor of Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine. Dr. Weber's research seeks to make medical imaging more quantitative by developing markers that track sensory and motor function including pain using machine-learning and advanced brain, spinal cord, and musculoskeletal imaging techniques.
Scientist
Christine Law, PhD
Dr. Law is a Research Scientist in the Division of Pain Medicine and oversees MRI sequence development, acquisition, and analysis. Dr. Law's research seeks to improve brain, spinal cord, and musculoskeletal MRI.
Merve Kaptan, PhD
Dr. Kaptan is a researcher with a background in psychology and neuroscience. Her research focuses on corticospinal and spinal fMRI, focusing on methodological innovation and quantitative MRI to improve imaging of the cervical spinal cord for neurological and chronic pain disorders.
Dario Pfyffer, PhD
Dr. Pfyffer's research applies multimodal imaging techniques, including simultaneous spinal cord-brain functional MRI, and psychophysical tasks in the scanner to investigate aberrant sensory and motor processing along the neuroaxis in various chronic pain conditions, such as fibromyalgia, and neurologic disorders. His research goals also include development of structural and functional neuroimaging biomarkers for improved spinal cord injury diagnosis and prognosis of clinical outcomes, including neuropathic pain.
Denna Dashti, DC, MSc
Dr. Dashti is a chiropractor with academic foundations in neuroscience and exercise science and research interests in brain and musculoskeletal health. Her main goal is bridging clinical care with innovation research and enhancing personalized therapeutic interventions.
Postdoctoral Researchers
Joel Fundaun, DPT, PhD
Dr. Fundaun is a researcher and physical therapist specializing in neuropathic pain and neural injury. His work integrates clinical phenotyping, neuroimaging, and human biosamples to ultimately improve the diagnosis and treatment of chronic pain.
Yiyu Wang, PhD
Dr. Wang's research combines computational models and neuroimaging techniques to characterize the neural architecture underlying the complex human experiences in emotion and pain. Dr. Wang currently focuses on using deep learning and foundation models to improve chronic pain clinical assessment in an interpretable way to enhance our understanding of pain.
Eddo Wesselink, PT, MSc, PhD
Dr. Wesselink's research focuses on muscle health in individuals with musculoskeletal disorders and diseases. By integrating advanced medical imaging with computational and machine-learning approaches, he aims to develop quantitative markers of muscle health and function to improve clinical decision-making and outcomes.
Thomas Fermor, DC
Dr. Fermor is a chiropractic resident at the Palo Alto Veterans Affairs Health Care system eager to contribute to the growth of chiropractic care in the integrated health care system. He is determined to provide neuromuscular skeletal pain management through non-pharmaceutical, evidence-based, and patient-centered approaches, while concurrently contributing to expanding chiropractic research.
Chisondi Warioba, PhD
Dr. Warioba’s expertise is in developing machine learning algorithms and statistical models for analyzing high-dimensional neuroimaging data to evaluate cross-species functional connectivity alterations and therapeutic responses in hyper-acute ischemic stroke. Dr. Warioba currently focuses on developing brain biomarkers in pain through human and animal MRI studies as well as investigating spinal cord and neurological injury using large-scale datasets and collaborative neuroimaging approaches.
Nazrawit Berhe
Nazrawit is a Clinical Research Coordinator Associate and planning to attend medical school. Nazrawit aims to bridge gaps in healthcare access and make a meaningful impact on those who cannot afford essential medical services.
Staff
Teresa Indriolo
Teresa is a Clinical Research Coordinator Associate and has a strong interest in pain psychology and its intersection with substance use and social disparities. She is working towards attending graduate school to deepen her understanding of pain mechanisms in the hopes of improving treatments for those struggling with chronic pain.
Diana Deering
Diana is an Administrative Associate in the Division of Pain Medicine. Diana keeps the Neuromuscular Insight Lab running smoothly.
Sandrine Bédard, MSc
Sandrine is a biomedical engineering PhD student at Polytechnique Montréal training with Dr. Julien Cohen-Adad at NeuroPoly. Sandrine's research includes spinal cord image processing, developing new methods for the Spinal Cord Toolbox, and improving spinal cord functional MRI.
Kerem Ozkan
Kerem is a high school student at Redondo Union High School passionate about human biology and biomedical engineering. Through research, he aims to enhance the body's regenerative processes and improve medical technology, with the goal of making healthcare more accessible to all.
Students
Sidharth Sreedar
Sidharth is a chiropractic student at Life West Chiropractic College learning clinical knowledge to address disparities in health situations. Sidharth volunteers at his nonprofit, researches human health, and is passionate about manual therapy.
Chastin Chung
Chastin is a Translational Research and Applied Medicine MS student at Stanford. Chastin has a background in clinical stroke research and currently focuses on brain biomarkers for pain related to neurological injury or disease states.
Bhargavi Vatte
Bhargavi is an undergraduate student at Case Western Reserve University, majoring in neuroscience and minoring in chemistry. Dedicated to developing preventative care techniques and improved treatment strategies, Bhargavi seeks to expand her experience in the fields of neuroscience and medical imaging, while continuing her mission to make healthcare more accessible.
Lindsay Lee
Lindsay is an undergraduate student at Stanford, majoring in human biology with a concentration in chronic disease and preventive care. Passionate in quality of care and community intervention, Lindsay hopes to bridge the gap between scholarship, health, and wellbeing.
Bianca Lorraine Garcia Osterling
Raine is an undergraduate student at Stanford, majoring in Mechanical Engineering, minoring in Computer Science, and pursuing a Notation in Science Communication with a focus on biomedical applications. Passionate about the intersection of design, health, and technology, Raine hopes to contribute to our understanding of how engineering tools can advance the study of movement and muscle function.
Alumni
Valeria Oliva, PhD
Dr. Oliva is a Principal Investigator at the Center for Behavioral Sciences and Mental Health in the Istituto Superiore di Sanità. Her research focuses on investigating the neural mechanisms underlying non-pharmacological pain modulation, including techniques such as distraction, mindfulness, and exercise, using brain and spinal cord fMRI.
Dean Dennis, DC
Dr. Dennis is a staff chiropractor at the VA Clinic in Monterey, CA, with clinical and research interests in muscle health, imaging, and chronic pain. As Stanford’s first chiropractic research intern, he contributed to computer vision projects analyzing MRI data to study muscle asymmetry and fat infiltration in pain conditions.