Team

Erin Beck, MD, PhD (she/her)

Principal Investigator

Erin is the principal investigator of the lab. She received her B.A. from Wellesley College and then earned her MD/PhD from Columbia University in the lab of Dr. Brian McCabe. She did her neurology residency at New York Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University and then did a fellowship in neuroimmunology at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke with Dr. Daniel Reich. In her clinical practice she sees patients with multiple sclerosis and other autoimmune disorders affecting the brain and spinal cord.

erin.beck@mssm.edu

Francesco La Rosa, PhD (he/him)

Instructor

Francesco is an Instructor in the departments of neurology and artificial intelligence at Mount Sinai. He obtained his B.S. in Physics and a Master’s degree in Applied Physics at the University of Bologna, Italy. His master thesis was done in collaboration with Fraunhofer Mevis in Bremen, Germany. There, he worked on the automatic segmentation of bones in abdominal CT scans with deep learning methods. He earned his PhD in Electrical Engineering at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland, supervised by Prof. Jean-Philippe Thiran and Dr. Meritxell Bach Cuadra. His doctoral thesis focused on the development of machine learning-based methods for the automated assessment of multiple sclerosis imaging biomarkers using both high and ultra-high field MRI. He now focuses on leveraging novel machine-learning approaches to account for multiple sclerosis lesion evolution over time. Further, he aims at combining imaging biomarkers with clinical and demographic variables to cluster cognitive phenotypes as well as develop risk prediction models for disease progression.

francesco.larosa@mssm.edu

Julia Galasso, BS (she/her)

Clinical Research Coordinator

Julia is a Clinical Research Coordinator in the Beck Lab. She earned her B.S. in Molecular Genetics with a Spanish minor at The Ohio State University. In the Beck Lab, she primarily works on the 7T MRI longitudinal study where she recruits patients with multiple sclerosis and other neuroinflammatory disorders to undergo advanced 7T MR imaging as well as neuropsychological testing. Before coming to the Beck Lab, she worked on eMERGE IV, an NHGRI-funded project focused on the implementation of genetic risk testing in diverse New York City populations. She is driven to conduct research in her future medical career that combines her passions of neurology and genetics, with a focus on novel treatments and improved patient care.

julia.galasso@mssm.edu

Emma Dereskewicz, BA (she/her)

Research Associate

Emma is a Research Associate in the Beck Lab. She holds a B.A. in Neuroscience from Dartmouth College. In the Beck Lab, Emma contributes to the 7T Longitudinal Study and the RADIEMS Cohort Study, where she performs pre-processing and post-processing analyses of MRI data to investigate factors that may predict disability and disease progression in multiple sclerosis (MS). Prior to joining the Beck Lab, Emma worked with Dr. Bryen Jordan at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, where she used mouse models to explore the mechanisms regulating long-term changes in neuronal function. Through her work in the Beck Lab, Emma aims to refine image processing pipelines, leverage ultra-high-field MRI to understand the role of cortical lesions in disease progression, and explore other potential biomarkers of progressive MS.

emma.dereskewicz@mssm.edu

Kamso Onyemeh, MS (he/him)

Associate Researcher

Kamso is an Associate Researcher in the Beck Lab. He received his B.S. in Neuroscience with a Chemistry minor at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He then graduated with a Master’s degree in Biomedical Imaging at Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences, where he worked with advanced imaging modalities including MRI, ultrasound, PET/CT, etc. His master thesis was focused on the localization of acoustic cavitation and cavitation-mediated bioeffects using power cavitation-guided imaging with a linear ultrasound array. Driven by an interest in imaging applications for neurologic disease biomarkers, he now works on the development of a novel 3T MRI technique. Specifically, he validates the performance of the T2* weighted sequence in detecting subpial cortical lesions in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) vs possible MS. He also assists in the recruitment of these patients for 3T MR imaging and neurologic testing.

kamso.onyemeh@mssm.edu

Edward Sizer, MB BCh (he/him)

Postdoctoral Fellow

Edward is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Beck Lab. He earned his medical degree with honors and a master’s in Neuroimaging for Clinical and Cognitive Neuroscience from the University of Manchester, UK. After completing his clinical foundation training in the UK, he joined the Beck Lab, where he focuses on cortical lesion imaging in multiple sclerosis at 3T and the optimization of ultra-high-field spinal cord imaging. As an aspiring neurologist, Edward is particularly interested in spinal cord lesion formation and repair, and in imaging MS-specific pathology in the cortex and spinal cord to better understand and track disease progression.

edward.sizer@mssm.edu

Batuhan Ayci, MD (he/him)

Postdoctoral Fellow

Batuhan is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Beck Lab. He received his M.D. from Istanbul University-Cerrahpasa in Turkey. His current research focuses on the use of ultra-high-field 7T MRI to study advanced imaging markers in multiple sclerosis, including cortical lesions, remyelination, and paramagnetic rim lesions. Prior to joining the lab, he studied paramagnetic rim lesions using conventional and quantitative MRI in Basel, Switzerland. He also works on the venular distribution of lesions in early MS, advanced imaging features in radiologically isolated syndrome, cortical lesion detection using deep learning-based image reconstruction, and paramagnetic rim lesions in the RADIEMS cohort. His work aims to improve the understanding of disease mechanisms in early disease and advance imaging-based biomarkers for MS development, conversion, and progression.

batuhan.ayci@mssm.edu

Phoebe Rust, BA (she/her)

Clinical Research Coordinator

Phoebe is a Clinical Research Coordinator in the Beck Lab. She earned her B.A. in Molecular and Cellular Biology with a secondary in Global Health and Health Policy from Harvard College. In the Beck Lab, she works on the 7T MRI longitudinal study where she recruits patients with multiple sclerosis and other neuroinflammatory diseases to undergo advanced MRI technology and complete neuropsychological evaluations. Before the Beck Lab, Phoebe worked in the Shih Lab at Massachusetts General Hospital where she helped develop a novel rat-morphine model to study the effects of radiation on the addiction pathway as a potential therapeutic treatment for opioid use disorder. By working in the Beck Lab, Phoebe hopes to advance her neurological interests and investigate innovative treatments that improve overall patient care.

phoebe.rust@mssm.edu