Appetite Lab Team

At-a-Glance

Recent Members:

Collaborators:


 Susan Carnell, Ph.D.

Susan Carnell, Ph.D., Principal Investigator

[email protected]

 

Abdul Ibrahim, PhD, Post-doctoral Fellow

[email protected]

Dr Abdul Ibrahim received his PhD in Neuroscience from University of Cape Town, South Africa, where he used neuroimaging (MRI & DTI) and neuropsychological testing to investigate the impact of maternal HIV infection on the uninfected neonate brain. In the Appetite Lab, Abdul is interested in understanding the neurobiological basis of appetitive traits and behaviours in children, adolescent and adults using multimodal imaging techniques and psychometric measures.

 
Liuyi Chen, MS

Liuyi Chen, MS, Data analyst

[email protected]

Liuyi received her Master degree in Computer Science from Stevens Institute of Technology. She joined the Appetite Lab in July 2017, where she focuses on analysis of fMRI data on obesity and appetite in children and adults.

 

Shuxian (Sybil) Hua, MSPH, Research Program Coordinator

Sybil received her BEng in Food Science and Engineering from Jiangnan University and an MSPH in Human Nutrition from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Her future plan is to apply to a PhD program to address childhood obesity using mHealth tools. She joined the Appetite Lab as the Research Program Coordinator in Jul 2024 and is particularly interested in studying the food preferences of children and understanding how to prevent eating behaviors that contribute to overweight and obesity. 

 

 
Anahys Aghababian, MS

Anahys Aghababian, MS, Research Coordinator

[email protected]

Anahys received a BA in Psychology from Loyola University, where she took a special interest in health psychology. As the Appetite Lab’s main research coordinator Anahys contributed to projects including an MRI study of weight and eating behavior in children, and studies of behavioral outcomes of bariatric surgery, and health behaviors during the COVID pandemic.

 
Allison Ahn

Allison Ahn, BA, Research Coordinator

[email protected]

Allison received a BA in Psychology from UC Berkeley and hopes to continue her education in clinical psychology. She joined the Appetite Lab as research coordinator in March 2022. She is interested in researching the influences of adverse childhood experiences, culture, and socialization on the development of psychopathology in childhood and adolescence.

 
Sarah Ann Duck

Sarah Ann Duck, BS, Research Program Coordinator

[email protected]

Sarah Ann received a BS in Molecular and Cellular Biology and Psychology from Johns Hopkins University and is currently applying to medical school. She joined the Appetite Lab as the Research Program Coordinator in June 2023. She is interested in researching the eating behavior of children and adolescents and accompanying neural correlates.

 
 
Jenny Sadler, Ph.D.

Jenny Sadler, Ph.D., Post-doctoral Fellow

[email protected]

Dr Jenny Sadler received her PhD in Nutrition from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she worked with Dr Kyle Burger to study eating behavior and brain response to sugar-sweetened beverages. She joined the Appetite lab in July 2020 to conduct research using neuroimaging and behavioral techniques to understand how children learn food preferences and make food decisions. 

 
Gita Thapaliya, Ph.D.

Gita Thapaliya, Ph.D.

[email protected]

Dr Gita Thapaliya received her PhD from the University of Nottingham, UK, where she worked with Professor Sue Francis and Dr Gordon Moran to examine the gut-brain axis in Crohn’s disease using functional MRI. In the Appetite Lab, she is interested in understanding the role of the brain in appetite regulation and eating behavior in child obesity and during healthy development. Current projects include investigations of the shared neurobehavioral underpinnings of obesity and ADHD in children.


 
Elena Jensen, Ph.D.

Elena Jansen, Ph.D.

[email protected]

Dr Elena Jansen received her PhD from the Queensland University of Technology in Australia. Here she developed and validated the Feeding Practices and Structure Questionnaire, which is now being used in multiple countries and languages. Her research investigates how children’s early relationships with their parents, and their home environment, relate to child health and behavioral outcomes – especially the development of child eating behaviors and weight. In the Appetite Lab, Elena is expanding her work into biobehavioral influences on weight. She is especially interested in the contribution of stress and caregivers other than mothers, especially fathers, in the development of children’s eating.

 

Bianca Borsarini, Ph.D., Post-doctoral Researcher

Dr Bianca Borsarini received her PhD in Psychiatric Neuroscience from the University of Geneva, Switzerland, where she worked for the Eating and Feeding Disorders Lab. Her doctoral project involved a multimodal MRI investigation of offspring at risk of Anorexia Nervosa. Currently, she is a Neuroimaging Postdoc for the Neurorehabilitation division at the Department of Clinical Neurosciences in Geneva. In the Appetite Lab, Bianca is interested in expanding her clinical and neuroimaging-based research on eating disorders, eating behavior, obesity and metabolism in children, adolescents and adults, using multimodal imaging techniques and psychometric measures.