• Dr. Alexander Mark Weber, MSc, PhD (He / Him / His), Assistant Professor (Partner)

  

  Dr. Alexander Mark Weber is an Assistant Professor at UBC in the Department of Pediatrics, Division of Neurology, and an Independent Investigator at BC Children's Hospital Research Institute with the Brain, Behaviour & Development Theme. His research interests focus on developing specific and sensitive quantitative biomarkers of anatomical, functional and metabolic characteristics of brain health in newborns and children.
  Novel neuroimaging applications may further elucidate the underlying pathological mechanisms associated with neonatal encephalopathy, Hypoxic-Ischemic Encephalopathy (HIE), seizures, intercranial hemorrhage, or ischemic stroke. Early recognition and classification combined with brain interventions are key in the prevention or reduction of progressive and chronic lifelong disabilities such as cerebral palsy, epilepsy, and behavioural and learning disorders. Currently, objective neuroimaging markers of treatment responses are urgently needed to accelerate clinical trials and focus our search for effective treatments.

  

• Lydia Sochan (She / Hers / Her), Master's Student in Biomedical Engineering

  

  Lydia was born in the US, but has spent most of her life in Vancouver, BC. She completed her Bachelor of Medical Sciences in Biochemistry at the University of Western Ontario. While at UWO, she worked in two labs—the first working on machine learning models for age-related brain health and the second developing informatics software for mass spectrometry-based proteomics. She started her Master of Applied Science in biomedical engineering at UBC in the fall of 2022. Her research project concerns the relationship between excitatory-inhibitory neurotransmitters and brain criticality (the Hurst exponent). Lydia has also spent her last three summers working clinically with children with various neurodevelopmental disabilities, e.g. autism, ADHD, etc., at the University of Washington. Lydia’s hobbies include cooking and reading.

  

• Gavin Carmichael, Fourth year undergraduate in Integrated Sciences; Thesis project

  

  Gavin was born in Antofagasta, Chile and raised all over. He is in the last year of his undergraduate degree in Integrated Sciences at UBC. Gavin joined the lab in June 2023 to complete his undergraduate thesis. His project involves finding an appropriate quantitative susceptibility mapping (QSM) technique that can accurately measure cerebral venous oxygen saturation (CSVO2) in both superficial and internal cerebral veins of newborns.
  In his spare time, he enjoys reading, volleyball, soccer, travelling, and playing guitar.

  

Alumni

• Olivia Campbell (She / Hers / Her), Master of Engineering Student in Biomedical Engineering

  

  Olivia was born and raised in Toronto, Ontario. She completed her undergraduate degree at UBC with a Combined Major in Life Science, Physics, and Computer Science. She joined the Weber Lab in April 2020 as a co-op student for two terms and stayed on part time as a Research Assistant. In May of 2021, she started her Masters of Applied Science in the School of Biomedical Engineering. Her project involves investigating the fractal nature of the BOLD signal of resting state functional MRI signals, and its clinical and neuroscience applications.
  In her spare time, she enjoys running, hiking, surfing, cross-wording, travelling, and puzzles.

  

• Anna Zhu, MCISc (She / Hers / Her), Master's Student in Biomedical Engineering (Graduated Summer 2023)

  

  Anna was raised in Toronto, Ontario. She completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Toronto with a double Major in Neuroscience and Molecular Biology. Shortly after, she began working in the provincial healthcare sector conducting analysis work. During this time, she also became a technical research assistant at the UHN Toronto Rehabilitation Institute (KITE Research Institute) with the Winter Lab under Dr. Geoff Fernie and Dr. Atena Roshan Fekr. Alongside work, she continued her academic studies and pursued a Master of Clinical Science at Western University. She joined the Weber Lab in May 2021 as a Master’s of Applied Science student in the School of Biomedical Engineering. Her project involves developing and investigating the cerebral metabolic rate of oxygen in newborns using advanced MRI methods such as quantitative susceptibility mapping (QSM) and arterial spin labelling (ASL).
  In her spare time, she enjoys ultimate frisbee, board games, hiking, cooking, and swimming.

  

• Allison Mella (She / Hers / Her), Master's Student in Neuroscience (Graduated Summer 2023)

  

  Allison was born and raised in Edmonton, Alberta. She completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Alberta with a Bachelor of Science with Honors in Neuroscience. Afterwards, she worked as a research assistant for Dr. Lawrence Richer in the Pediatric Autonomic Clinic at the Stollery Children's Hospital. She joined the Weber Lab in September 2021 for her Master's in Neuroscience in the Faculty of Medicine at UBC. Her project investigates the metabolic, functional and structural pathology of Rett Syndrome though using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques of magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS), functional MRI (fMRI) and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI).
  In her spare time she enjoys reading, travelling, hiking and running.
  Thesis: Temporal complexity alterations of resting state fMRI in preterm versus term born infants

  

• Johann Drayne (He / His / Him), Co-op Student

  

  Johann was born and raised in County Antrim, Ireland. He has completed three years of my undergraduate degree in Physics at UBC, with one more to go. Johann joined the Weber Lab in January 2021 as a co-op student. His project involves looking at the connection between sucrose treatment for preterms newborns and their fractal resting state fMRI behaviour.
  In his spare time, he enjoys running, walking, cooking, history, and electronics.