Soyoung Choi

Soyoung Choi 

Soyoung Choi

Ph.D. Candidate
USC Neuroscience Graduate Program
University of Southern California (USC)
Clinical Research Assistant
Heart Institute, Cardiology
Children's Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA)
Research Assistant
Biomedical Imaging Lab
University of Southern California (USC)

Profile

choisoyo@usc.edu
Curriculum Vitae
Google Scholar

Research Topic

Neurological consequences of chronic anemia: insights from Sickle Cell Disease
Multimodal MR image analysis (T1, diffusion and fMRI).
BrainSuite: Collection of tools for processing, statistical analysis and visualization of anatomical, diffusion and fMRI images.

Funding

National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (1F31NS106828), 2018-2021
National Institutes of Health Predoctoral Training in Interdisciplinary Neurosciences (1T32MH111360), 2016

Professional Affiliations

Organization of Human Brain Mapping (2013-Present)
International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (2013, 2019-Present)
American Society for Hematology (2015, 2019-Present)
Society for Neuroscience (2015)

Current Studies

My current work, under the guidance of Dr. John C Wood at the Heart Institute, Children's Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA), focuses on understanding the neural outcomes of Sickle Cell Disease(SCD). These patients are highly vulnerable to stroke caused by chronic vascular damage and we see 50% of the population with SCD have silent strokes by the age of 8, 25% have a major cerebral accident by the age of 20, and average life expectancy is at 42-28 years. In recent years, SCD has shown large reductions in childhood morbidity and mortality rates but life expectancy rates of SCD patients are still lower by up to 30 years in comparison to the general African American population not affected by SCD. Still, very few efforts have been placed in understanding the disease's effect on the brain. Our lab aims to understand the normal and abnormal patholphysiology of blood in the brain for better diagnosis and treatment of this disease and other blood disorders. This study also involves a large MR imaging protocol with structural, functional, and flow sequences. Additionally we collect neuropsych evalutations and blood labs.

In addition, I am involved in the development of BrainSuite, a multimodal MR imaging analysis tool for anatomical, diffusion and fMRI images under my graduate advisor, Dr. Richard M Leahy at the Biomedical Imaging Group, USC SIPI. For future clinical applications, I aim to ultimately develop methods for easy visualization to aid researchers in interpreting their study outcomes and physicians in their diagnosis on a patient by patient basis.

Past Studies

Under the mentorship of Dr. Hanna Damasio and Dr. Jessica L Wisnowski, at USC Dornisfe Neuoscience Imaging Center (DNI), I studied the chronic secondary effects of anterior temporal lesions in the frontal lobe. The study gave us a comparative analysis between the macrostructural effects through voxel-wise volumetric measures on T1 MRI images and microstructural changes seen in the architecture of myelinated fibers on diffusion tensor images (DTI). In this study, I extended diffusion image analysis to the cortex of the brain to show that we could detect microstructural differences in grey matter tissue by showing overall increased diffusion in regions distal to yet connected to the focal lesion of these patients.

I also conducted a study looking at neurodevelopmental outcomes of premature birth in preadolescents. This study aims to isolate prematurity for differences in neurodevelopmental outcomes in preadolescents who were born prematurely but were otherwise tested normal at birth. My study looks at the structural differences of premature preadolescents and correlates them with metabolic metrics measured through magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS).

I have, and still currently, learn and contribute to engineering challenges of neuro-scientific studies in the development of BrainSuite. Aligned with the needs of the my studies and studies of those I advised on and contributed towards, I worked to bridge the gap between the engineers who developed our acquisition and analysis tools and the biologists’ understanding of the brain and the tools we needed to answer our fundamental questions. I was also involved in the development of the BCI-DNI brain atlas, a high resolution T1-weighted atlas with 95 ROI’s and 76 sulci used in our Surface-Volume Registration (SVReg) algorithm.

Motivation

I have been passionate about the brain, the nervous system, and its functioning since my childhood. When I was young, my father used to run his acupuncture clinic in our living room. I would sit next to him while he treated his patients and he would explain the inter-working of the nervous system. My father used to say, "a headache is not always a problem in the head." He explained that in the body, when there was a problem with a piece of the whole, it could be manifested elsewhere.

Due to our advancements in healthcare which allows us to diagnose newly discovered disorders, prolong patient outcomes, and treat those who would not have survived previously, we are seeing a drastic change in what we know about the human body and its abnormalities. Additionally with the use of drug and radiation therapies, and surgical interventions, more so changes the nature of our knowledge of the human body, which makes it increasingly important to continue scientific research. This evolving relationship between the human body and our technologies makes it a complex balancing act held steady by our expansion of knowledge.

The brain is the most complex and the least discovered part of the human body. I believe that better understanding of the human brain has great potential and can help further the quality of modern healthcare.

Academics

  • Univeristy of Southern California (USC)
     Ph.D. Candidate in Neuroscience
    Entering Class of 2015

  • Univeristy of Southern California (USC)
     Neuroscience BA
    Natural Science, Minor
    Class of 2010

Research Experience

  • Children's Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA)
     Clinical Research Assistant
    Heart Institute, Cardiology
    June 2014 - Current

  • University of Southern California (USC)
     Research Assistant
    Biomedical Imaging Group, Signal and Image Processing Institute
    July 2014 - Current

  • University of Southern California (USC)
     Research Assistant
    USC Dana and David Dornsife Neuroscience Imaging Institution,
    Brain and Creativity Institute
    March 2010 - June 2014

  • Cedars Sinai Medical Center
     Research Volunteer
    Maxine Dunitz Neurosurgical Institute
    June 2007 - December 2007

Publications

Conference Proceedings

Last modified: March 26, 2021