Personnel

Dr. Terence Sanger is the director of the Stanford Pediatric Movement Disorders Center.  His research focuses on understanding the origins of pediatric movement disorders from both a biological and a computational perspective. The primary goal of his research is to discover new methods for treating children with movement disorders. Dr. Sanger coordinates the Childhood Motor Study Group (CMSG) and the NIH Taskforce on Childhood Movement Disorders, and he is principal investigator on several research studies at Stanford.  He runs the pediatric movement disorders clinic, and he works closely with the department of Neonatology in the infant follow-up clinic.  His training includes background in Electrical Engineering, Signal Processing, Control Theory, Neural Networks, and Computational Neuroscience. Email: sanger(at)stanford.edu

Stanford Hospital website, Curriculum Vitae PDF, NIH Biosketch PDF

Sara Sherman-Levine is a nurse practitioner and the study nurse for Dr. Sanger’s clinical trials.  She manages human subject board submissions at Stanford and provides support for the other centers.  She manages and communicates with Dr. Sanger’s clinic patients, manages emergency situations, and coordinates the highly complex medical and neurological issues that occur in the patients.  A central purpose of her job is to manage the clinical practice thus allowing Dr. Sanger adequate time for research projects and device development.  Email: sarapnp(at)stanford.edu

Gayla Weng is the administrative assistant and the clinical research coordinator for Dr. Sanger’s clinical trials.  Ms. Weng is the central point of contact for the CMSG and NIH Taskforce.  She manages the budgets, reimbursement, communication, and operations for these groups, as well as for clinical trials. Email: gweng(at)stanford.edu

Rosemary Workman is the laboratory manager and research coordinator for all laboratory-based clinical trials.  She is the central point of contact for all kinematics, electrophysiology, and retraining studies.  She manages our subject database, communication with research subjects and parents, institutional review board applications, and laboratory safety.
Email: rosework(a)stanford.edu

Judy Henderson is a senior speech pathologist and director of the assistive communications clinic at Lucille Packard Children’s Hospital.  In October of 2002, she transitioned to the Department of Neurology as co-director of a research program in assistive communication under Dr. Sanger.  She has pioneered the use of remote tele-medicine for diagnosis and prescription of assistive communication devices, and she was a co-investigator on a grant funded by the NIH to support research on the effect of motor disorders on communication skills.

Rosanne Kermoian is a research scientist who is working with Dr. Sanger to investigate whether Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS) can be used to monitor brain activity in children with movement disorders.

Joan Lerner-Durham is an occupational therapist working with Judy Henderson to provide assistive communication devices to children.  She is an integral part of the communications clinical team and is involved in ongoing research projects.

Abe Ishihara is a graduate student in the department of Aeronautics and Astronautics.  He recently completed his doctoral dissertation research with Dr. Sanger.  He has developed a robotic system to measure whether children with dystonia have difficulty learning new movement tasks.  Experiments using his system are ongoing. Email: jlernerd(at)cruzio.com

Sahana Kukke is a graduate student in the department of BioEngineering.  She has experience in biomechanical measurement, human research studies, and data analysis.  Ms. Kukke is working on a research project to investigate whether abnormal muscle activity slows reaching movements in children with dystonia. Email: sahana.kukke(at)stanford.edu

Johan Van Doornik is a postdoctoral research fellow who is studying whether enhanced reflexes are a cause of stiffness in children with dystonia.  Dr. Van Doornik is also initiating a study to determine whether signals from the motor cortex are responsible for these reflexes.  He has extensive experience in the acquisition and analysis of electromyographic signals (EMG) and he trained in the laboratory of Dr. Thomas Sinkjaer, one of the world leaders in the study of EMG. Email: jvd(at) stanford.edu

Virginia Chu is a Bioengineering graduate student working on models of motor learning and the interaction between task learning and adaptation to changing environments. Email: vwchu(at)stanford.edu