The Johns Hopkins Hospital
600 North Wolfe Street
Phipps 446
Baltimore, MD 21287
Division of Cerebrovascular Neurology
The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Principal Investigator
Dr Michelle C Johansen, MD, PhD
Director
Dr. Michelle Johansen is an Associate Professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in the department of Neurology. Her academic and scientific pursuits in the area of Cerebrovascular Neurology stem from a fervent desire to be an exceptional care provider and clinical researcher. Her research focus is how changes in the heart (cardiac structure and function) impact neurological outcomes, to include ischemic stroke etiology, subclinical infarcts, brain white matter disease, and vascular contributions to cognitive decline. Dr. Johansen was the first research chief resident while training at the University of Virginia where she realized her own passion for clinical research. Her father’s stroke further solidified her resolve to push the bounds of scientific knowledge in this critical area.
Relying on her background in chemistry combined with her PhD in Clinical Investigation from the Bloomberg School of Public Health, Dr. Johansen has already established a relationship between cardiac echocardiogram markers and brain changes, such as stroke. She has found similar predictors of brain health using cardiac measures in large epidemiologic cohort studies, such as the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities study, or the GeneSTAR study. With recent funding from the American Heart Association, and the National Institutes of Health, Dr. Johansen is now using advanced cardiac imaging methods, such as Cardiac CTA and blood-based biomarkers, to diagnose the cause of patient’s strokes and determine the impact of cardiac changes on cognition over time.
Staff & Liaisons
Jing Wang, MHS, BS
Lead Research Coordinator
Jing is the Lead Research Coordinator for the Johansen Lab. Jing received her MHS in Epidemiology from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Prior to joining the Johansen Lab, her research focused on examining the association between environmental/infectious factors and neurodevelopment disorders. She is passionate about clinical/epidemiology research and data analysis. Jing is taking the lead on the DACTs study of left atrial shape and pattern in acute ischemic stroke patients and the NOMINATE study of atrial fibrillation and dementia.
Manasi Prashant, BS
Manasi Prashant is a former Research Assistant in the Johansen Lab. She recently graduated with Honors from Johns Hopkins University with a BS in Neuroscience with a focus in Systems Neuroscience and minored in the Writing Seminars. She is passionate about neurological research, specifically in the areas of neurodegenerative disorders, cognition, dementia, and clinical patient interaction. Manasi is a current first year medical student at UMD, hoping to continue her passion for biology and patient care.
Emma Gootee, MS
Emma Gootee is a former Research Assistant with the Division of Cerebrovascular Neurology at Johns Hopkins University. She was the Lead Research Coordinator for the Johansen Lab and the Cognitive Core Lead Coordinator for the DISCOVERY study. Emma received her MS in Global Health from Kings College London. Emma led a number of projects within the lab which focus on understanding the brain heart connection in acute stroke patients and post-stroke cognitive impairment and dementia. Prior to joining the Johansen Lab, Emma's research focused on brain injury in low- and middle-income countries.
Colin Stein, BS
Colin Stein graduated with honors from Siena College with a BA in Psychology. Upon graduating, he took on several roles in the Department of Neurology of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. At Hopkins, Colin served as a laboratory manager of the Stroke Cognitive Outcomes and Recovery (S.C.O.R.E.) lab under Dr. Argye Hillis and research assistant to Dr. Michelle Johansen. Colin now works with Dr. Edward Huey in the Taub Institute at Columbia University Irving Medical Center, where he manages clinical trials involving pharmacological symptom management of neurodegenerative disease.
Alexandra Walker, MHS
Alex Walker is a Senior Research Program Coordinator in the department of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from Duquesne University and her Master of Health Science in Mental Health at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health. Current projects include examining the feasibility of using electronic communications to augment the care of patients with mood disorders, and investigating how passive data gathered via wearable devices can generate transdiagnostic digital phenotypes to inform the treatment outcome of major mood disorders. She has previously assisted in the neurology department studying language performance over time in conjunction with neuroimaging, longitudinal changes to language processing and emotional prosody following stroke, and FLAIR hyperintense vessel rating to predict deficits and penumbra in acute stroke.
Nicole L. Williams, MS
Nicole Williams is a Project Manager for the DISCOVERY Study Statistical/Cognitive Core (http://discoverystudy.org). She received her M.S. in Clinical Psychology from Loyola University Maryland and is currently a research psychologist at the National Institute of Neurological Disease and Stroke (NINDS). Within DISCOVERY, Nicole has worked since 2020 in training, certification, and quality control monitoring of cognitive assessment examiners. Her research area of interest includes cognitive decline, specifically focused on associations with vascular risk factors. Prior to DISCOVERY, she worked for over 5 years at Johns Hopkins University enrolling acutely decompensated heart failure participants in a study examining cognitive change using an extensive battery of neuropsychological assessments.
Students & Trainees
Jonathan Yao
Jonathan is a current senior majoring in Neuroscience and minoring in Psychology at Johns Hopkins University. Jonathan has been serving the campus community as an EMT for the Hopkins Emergency Response Organization. Before joining Johansen Lab, Jonathan worked for Zhao Labs doing olfactory epithelium research. In his free time, Jonathan enjoys playing the piano for seniors at assisted living centers.
Ana Lopez, BS
Ana Lopez is a 2nd-year medical student at Northeast Ohio Medical University (NEOMED). She graduated from the University of Central Florida in 2020. She is currently working with Dr. Johansen this summer as part of the Medical Student Training in Aging Research (MSTAR) program at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Her research project involves comparing the outcomes and time to treatment of acute ischemic stroke patients treated with endovascular therapy based on the presence of atrial fibrillation.
Nicholas Daneshvari, BA
Nick Daneshvari is currently a 4th-year medical student at Johns Hopkins. He started working with Dr. Johansen in his first year, hoping to explore cerebrovascular neurology. His primary work involved analyzing brain MRIs in order to understand how the volumes of ischemic strokes correlated with various stroke etiologies, in order to potentially aid in acute stroke decision making. He has also assisted with other projects, such as with writing a literature review on reperfusion therapies for acute stroke in patients with comorbid heart disease. Nicholas is currently applying to residency in psychiatry, where he hopes to utilize this neurological background to help understand psychiatric disease.
David Zhao, BA
David Zhao graduated from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in 2024 and is now completing Ophthalmology residency at the Mass. Eye and Ear Infirmary. Through the Scholarly Concentrations program at the school of medicine, he worked on a clinical research project investigating the association between atrial cardiopathy and cerebral microbleeds with Dr. Johansen.
Royce H. Kwon, MS, BA
Royce Kwon is currently a 3rd-year medical student at the University of Hawaii, John A. Burns School of Medicine. He began working with Dr. Johansen in the summer of 2020 as part of the Medical Student Training in Aging Research (MSTAR) program at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. His research project involves looking into how the pre-morbid functional status of an ischemic stroke patient affects their post-stroke recovery, independent of stroke severity.
Sandra Kong, MS, BS
Sandra Kong is a third-year medical student at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. She received her B.S. in Computational Biology and M.S. in Biomedical Informatics at Stanford University. As part of the Scholarly Concentrations program, she investigated cognitive outcomes of congestive heart failure patients with the Johansen Lab. She is currently studying the association of echocardiographic features with long-term outcomes of stroke patients. Outside of lab, she has a vested interest in health equity innovation, quality improvement, and health policy advocacy.
Samantha Lee, MMSc BS, BA
Samantha Lee is a Hopkins Neuroscience and Sociology alumna and recent MSc in Medical Sciences student graduate from Brown University. She is originally from San Jose, CA and loves to row in her free time. Samantha is currently a Project Coordinator at the Hassenfeld Child Health Innovation Institute at Brown University’s School of Public Health running a school-based universal mental health screening program in Rhode Island and Massachusetts public K-12 schools.
As she explores potential career trajectories, she plans to utilize her experience in the Johansen Lab to sculpt her career in medicine and public health.
Mya Watson
Mya Watson is a junior at Johns Hopkins University studying Neuroscience and Applied Mathematics and Statistics. She is originally from South Florida. Mya has a fascination with the intricate relationship between the brain and other vital organs and uncovering the complicated mysteries of the brain. She is passionate about neurology and cognitive neuroscience. In the future, Mya plans to apply to medical school, where she will further cultivate the skills she learns from working in the Johansen Lab.
Daniel Mousavi, BS
Daniel Mousavi is currently a graduate student studying Biomedical Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. He recently graduated with Honors from Johns Hopkins University with a BS in Neuroscience and Molecular & Cellular Biology. Prior to his work on the NOMINATE Study, he worked for 4 years with Dr. Jennifer McQuade at the MD Anderson Cancer Center studying how a high fiber diet affects the gut microbiome of melanoma patients. He is most proud of his work directing Science Olympiad tournaments for Baltimore students, impacting over 10,000 students in 4 years. Daniel is currently applying to medical school. His ultimate goal is to one day serve as a physician for the first human settlements on Mars.
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Adam Kabbaj
Adam Kabbaj is a sophomore at Johns Hopkins University pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Neuroscience. He is intrigued by the potential of neurostimulation techniques to enhance cognitive function and promote recovery in patients with neurological disorders. In addition to his academic pursuits, Adam is an Emergency Medical Technician from New York, where he provides 911 Basic Life Support services. He is deeply committed to community service, spending his free time tutoring children in Baltimore and contributing to local health initiatives aimed at underserved populations.
Kate Petitt
Kate Petitt is a sophomore at Johns Hopkins University studying Neuroscience and Psychology. She is from Tampa, Florida, and is a member of the Hopkins swim team. Kate is extremely interested in studying how the brain influences different behaviors, and she hopes to go to medical school to further her studies. Outside of competitive swimming, Kate stays involved in the Hopkins community through being a learning assistant and through her membership in the Alpha Phi chapter.
Meghna Kommu
Meghna is a junior at Johns Hopkins University studying Neuroscience with minor in applied math and statistics. She is a trained dancer and dance for a Hoppins dance team. She is an advocate at Hopkins Community Connection. In her free time, she loves to paint.