Molly Bright, D.Phil. (Biography and CV)
Principal Investigator
PhD Students
Rebecca Clements
Biomedical Engineering, Northwestern University
Jingxuan Gong
Biomedical Engineering, Northwestern University
Kimberly Hemmerling
Biomedical Engineering, Northwestern University
Hannah Johnson
Biomedical Engineering, Northwestern University
Michelle Medina
Biomedical Engineering, Northwestern University
Masters Students
Zac Zou
Biomedical Engineering, Northwestern University
Undergraduate Students
Interested in joining our lab for BME 399 or 499 credit? Get in touch!
Collaborators
Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language
Stefano Moia
Postdoctoral Fellow, EPFL, Switzerland
Shirley Ryan Ability Lab
Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Northwestern University
Radiology and Biomedical Engineering, Northwestern University
Radiology, Northwestern University
Physical Therapy and Human Movement Sciences, Northwestern University
Biomedical Engineering and Radiology, Northwestern University
Past Members
Post-Doctoral
- Rachael Stickland, PhD (2019–2022)
- Subsequent position in data science at the Turing Institute, London, UK
- Mark Hoggarth, DPT PhD (2019–2022)
- Moved to faculty position at North Central College
- Ranga Deshpande, PhD (2019)
- Subsequent position at Brain and Spinal Cord Lab, MGH/Harvard
Doctoral
- Neha Reddy, PhD – PhD, Northwestern University, 2025
- Thesis: Systems-level sensorimotor mapping with fMRI for applications in brain disorders
- Andrew Vigotsky, PhD – PhD, Northwestern University, 2025
- Thesis: On the Dopaminergic Basis of Offset Analgesia
- Kristina Zvolanek, PhD – PhD, Northwestern University, 2025
- Thesis: Novel functional MRI approaches for mapping cerebrovascular hemodynamics in sickle cell disease
- Jasmine Vu, PhD – PhD, Northwestern University, 2024
- Thesis: Exploring Approaches for Mitigating MRI-Induced Radiofrequency Heating in Patients With Active Medical Devices: Insights From In Vitro Experiments to Clinical Translation
- Stefano Moia, PhD – PhD, Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language, 2021
- Thesis: Cerebrovascular reactivity mapping and its impact on BOLD fMRI of task-induced activity and rest
- Yasser Falah, MBChB, MRCP, PhD – PhD, University of Nottingham, 2019
- Thesis: Developing clinical applications of ultra-high-field perfusion imaging
- Elena Kleban, PhD – PhD, University of Nottingham, 2017
- Thesis: Quantifying venous oxygenation using Frequency Difference Mapping at 7T
Doctoral Rotation
- Natalie Koh, PhD student, Northwestern University Interdepartmental Neuroscience program, WQ19
- Evaluation of an automated pseudo-event detection approach to model HRF variability
Masters
- Noah Northrop, MS Biomedical Engineering, Northwestern University, 2025
- Thesis: Enhancing fMRI Analysis in a Clinical Population through Automated ME-ICA Classification and Motion-Capture Regressors
- Jingxuan Gong, BS/MS Biomedical Engineering, Northwestern University, 2023
- Thesis: Hemodynamic timing in resting-state and breathing-task BOLD fMRI
- Apoorva Ayyagari, MS Biomedical Engineering, Northwestern University, 2020
- Thesis: Understanding noise in spinal cord BOLD fMRI data with a breath-hold paradigm to investigate feasibility of studying vascular reactivity
- Vineet Sharma, MS Biomedical Engineering, Northwestern University, 2019
Staff
- Max Wang, Research Technologist (2022-2023)
Undergraduate
- Claire Shen – BME and Music ’26, Northwestern University, 2023-2025
- NU Summer Undergraduate Research Grant, 2023
- Keira Thompson – Biology and Data Science ’26, Northwestern University, 2023-2024
- Elijah Huang – BME ’24, Northwestern University, 2022-2024
- McCormick Summer Research Award, 2023
- Sameer Faruquee – BME ’24, Northwestern University, 2022-2024
- BME Summer Undergraduate Research Award, 2022
- Airi Portalatin – Neuroscience ’25, Northwestern University, 2024
- WCAS Summer Grant, 2024
- Reem Khalid – Computer Science ’26, Northwestern University, 2023-2024
- NU Bioscientist Summer Research Award, 2023
- Khoi Le – Neuroscience ’25, Northwestern University, 2022-2023
- WCAS Summer Grant, 2022
- NU Summer Undergraduate Research Grant, 2023
- Mia Jeremiah – BME ’26, Northwestern University, 2023
- McCormick Summer Research Award, 2023
- Jingxuan Gong – BME ’23, Northwestern University, 2019–2023
- McCormick Summer Undergraduate Research Grant, 2021
- Summer Undergraduate Research Grant, 2022
- Mapping hemodynamic timing in resting-state and breath-hold fMRI data
- Joshua Dean – BME ’23, Northwestern University, 2021-2023
- McCormick Summer Undergraduate Research Grant, 2021
- Summer Internship Grant Program, 2022
- Charlotte Glanville – BME ’24, Northwestern University, 2022
- Surrogate data for principled selection of data-driven nuisance regressors in Spinal Cord fMRI
- Max Wang – BME ’22, Northwestern University, 2019-2022
- BME Summer Undergraduate Research Award & Northwestern Undergraduate Research Grant, 2020
- Validating a New Spinal Cord fMRI Algorithm
- Harsh Khilwani – BME ’21 Northwestern University, 2020
- MRI Modeling of Brain Physiology coding assignments
- Catherine Chen – BME ’21 Northwestern University, 2020
- MRI Modeling of Brain Physiology coding assignments
- Ana Cornell – BME ’22 Northwestern University, 2019
- McCormick Summer Undergraduate Research Award
- Real-time feedback of hand-grip strength for fMRI studies in spinal cord injury
- Aaron Shoemaker – BME ’19, Northwestern University, 2018
- Design and development of the ANVILgrip – an MRI compatible hand-grip device
- Navdeep Jabble – BMed Sci ’16, University of Nottingham, 2015-2016
- Relating fatigue and cortical perfusion in Multiple Sclerosis