About

Staff

Dr. Sabina Berretta

Sabina Berretta, MD -- Director

Dr. Berretta is the director of the Harvard Brain Tissue Resource Center (HBTRC) and the Translational Neuroscience Laboratory at McLean Hospital, as well as an associate professor of psychiatry (neuroscience) at Harvard Medical School. She is responsible for the overall management of the HBTRC, from its mission and vision to its daily procedures. She works closely with leadership at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) NeuroBioBank (NBB) leadership, private foundations and investigators who are interested in requesting tissue from the HBTRC. She also participates in community education activities and family advocacy meetings. She is part of the HBTRC Consensus Diagnosis Team, which conducts thorough analyses of HBTRC donors to rebuild a full picture of their health conditions. Dr. Berretta's research focuses on the pathophysiology of psychiatric disorders, with a particular emphasis on the role of the extracellular matrix in brain disorders and the neural circuits involved in regulating emotion and psychiatric symptoms. She strongly believes that research on brain disorders is not only essential to our knowledge of their pathology and advancement of new therapeutic approaches, but also to our understanding of people impacted by these disorders. Such understanding is critical to combat stigmatization and its socio-economical and legal implications.

Dr. Brad Ruzicka

W. Brad Ruzicka, MD, PhD -- Associate Medical Director

Dr. Ruzicka is the associate medical director of the HBTRC and director of the Laboratory for Epigenomics in Human Psychopathology at McLean Hospital. He is also an assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, associated scientist at the Broad Institute and a clinical fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is responsible for the clinical assessment of brain donors, directs the HBTRC Consensus Diagnosis Team in their efforts to gain an in-depth understanding of donors' diagnoses, and serves as a donation coordinator during off hours. Dr. Ruzicka specializes in the clinical treatment and basic investigation of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder and has longstanding expertise in studying human postmortem brain tissue.

Dr. Torsten Klengel

Torsten Klengel, MD, PhD -- Associate Scientific Director

Dr. Klengel is the associate scientific director of the HBTRC and director of the Translational Molecular Genomics Laboratory at McLean Hospital. He is also an assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. Together with Dr. Ruzicka, he is responsible for the clinical assessment of brain donors and serves as a donation coordinator during off hours. Together with Drs. Berretta and Ruzicka, he is also engaged in QC, technology development and implementation, and collaborations with partners inside McLean, the NeuroBioBank and beyond. Dr. Klengel specializes in translational research with a focus on stress- and trauma related disorders, epigenetics and transcriptomics.

Dr. Anil Vatsavayi

Anil Vatsavayi, MD, MPH -- Clinician

Dr. Vatsavayi is a clinician-researcher at the HBTRC and McLean Hospital. He is also an instructor in Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. Together with Drs. Ruzicka and Klengel he is involved in clinical consensus review of brain donors. He is passionate about developing novel diagnostic tools and therapeutic interventions to manage psychiatric disorders. Dr. Vatsavayi has expertise in deep phenotyping of complex neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative presentations.


Dr. Derek Oakley

Derek Oakley, MD, PhD -- HBTRC Director of Neuropathology

Dr. Oakley is a neuropathologist at the HBTRC and an instructor in pathology at the Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School. He is responsible for the neuropathological assessment of HBTRC brain donors and is part of the HBTRC Consensus Diagnosis Team. His research utilizes patient-derived induced pluripotent stem cells for the study of tauopathies, a class of neurodegenerative disorders pathologically defined by the presence of tau protein aggregates in the brain.

Dr. Oluwarotimi Folorunso

Oluwarotimi (Timi) Folorunso, PhD -- Assistant Director, Outreach and Community Engagement

Dr. Folorunso is the assistant director of HBTRC outreach and community engagement, a research fellow in the Translational Neuroscience Laboratory, and the McLean Mental Health Research Summer Program (MMHRSP) director at McLean Hospital. He is also an instructor in psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. He is responsible for HBTRC K-12 neuroscience outreach activities, building relationships with local communities to communicate HBRTC-related research activities, and establishing programs to increase representation in mental health research and careers. Dr. Folorunso's research focuses on how changes during brain development caused by genetic or environmental factors lead to psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia and autism.

Dr. Kerenne Joseph

Kerenne Joseph, MD -- Clinical Liaison

Dr. Joseph completed her medical studies at Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences of Notre-Dame University of Haiti before moving to the United States. She is also a community health worker and has prior experience in healthcare management. Her position at the HBTRC is Senior Clinical Research Assistant. She will be coordinating brain donations and analyzing health records from brain donors, dissecting human brains, extracting clinical information from medical records, and coordinating the logistics of acquiring brain donations. She is looking forward to this new chapter to learn more about neuroscience research and understanding diagnostic neuropathology. Outside of work, she enjoys spending time with her son, cooking, reading and loves to travel.

Dr. Edouard Pierre-Lys

Jenny Edouard Pierre-Lys, MPH, MD -- Clinical Liaison

Dr. Jenny Edouard Pierre-Lys has a medical degree from Notre-Dame University of Haiti, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, and a master's in public health from Quisqueya University in Haiti. She has many years of experience coordinating and managing HIV/AIDS/MDRTB/Community Health Programs and participated in many research studies related to these fields. She also conducted various Quality Improvement Projects.
As a Clinical Liaison at the HBTRC, Dr. Edouard coordinates the logistics of brain donations, screening, registering potential brain donors, and analyzing their medical health records to extract other clinical information to determine correlation of disease prognostic or predictive factors. She is dissecting human brains and assisting with ‘fixed tissue’ brain dissections.
She is thrilled to work with brain disorders, which studies could lead to better clinical care and treatments, and hopefully a cure. Jenny loves spending time with her family and friends, traveling, cooking, reading, and watching good movies.

Ms. Kay Sullivan

Kathleen (Kay) M. Sullivan -- Program Manager

As the HBTRC program manager, Ms. Sullivan is responsible for the oversight of all HBTRC activities, including acquisition and processing of tissues and clinical records, donor registrations, inventory and facility management, quality control management, and educational outreach. A critical component of her work is ensuring the HBTRC's compliance with NIH and HIPAA regulations, and monitoring all activities to protect the confidentiality of HBTRC donors and their families. Kay also plays a key role in managing tissue requests through the NIH NeuroBioBank portal, interacting with investigators and with her counterparts from the other NeuroBioBank tissue repositories. Kay is a strong supporter of brain donation awareness and participates actively in many HBTRC educational initiatives. In her free time, she enjoys taking road trips throughout the New England area.

Ms. Tori Turpin

Tori Turpin -- Research Project Manager

Ms. Turpin is the Research Project Manager at the HBTRC. Her role involves overseeing daily operations of the brain bank while ensuring privacy and compliance throughout the donation process. Tori is excited to tackle procedural improvement by implementing innovative solutions and to expand the scope of educational outreach at the HBTRC. She is passionate about diversity and inclusivity and aims to foster initiatives that reflect these principles in brain donation. In her spare time, Tori snowboards in the winter, relaxes on the beach in the summer, and travels spontaneously regardless of season.

Dr. Dave Ennulat

David J. Ennulat, PhD -- Database Manager

Dr. Ennulat is the HBTRC database manager, research IT specialist and technical liaison. He is responsible for the administration of the HBTRC database and is involved in all technical aspects of the HBTRC's daily operations, providing guidance, testing, documentation and training to ensure compliance with IT security requirements. A key aspect of Dr. Ennulat's work is preparing and uploading regular data transfers between the HBTRC and the NIH NeuroBioBank.

Ms. Myrtha Constant

Myrtha Constant -- Histologist

Ms. Constant is the HBTRC histologist. She has extensive experience in histology in both clinical and research laboratories. In her role, Myrtha manages the HBTRC Histology Laboratory and oversees all aspects of histological and immunostaining procedures needed for neuropathology. She works closely with Dr. Oakley to generate histological slides for neuropathology reports and also contributes to the preparation of tissue requests for investigators.

Ms. Yuliya Leuchanka

Yuliya Leuchanka -- Clinical Liaison

Ms. Leuchanka is a clinical liaison at the HBTRC. Yuliya regularly speaks with prospective brain donors and their families regarding registration, consent, and inquiries related to the process of brain donation. With a background in accounting, she contributes to handling many administrative components of the brain bank operations. She also addresses many requests from investigators and provides clinical information on donors to enrich researchers’ studies. Yuliya loves travelling and dreams about climbing to Machu Picchu, swimming through the Amazon rainforest, and cuddling with kangaroos in Australia. Meanwhile she practices yoga and takes care of the roses in her backyard garden.

Ms. Catalina Tabit

Catalina Tabit -- Clinical Liaison

Ms. Tabit is a recent graduate of the University of South Carolina where she studied psychology and minored in business administration and Spanish. Catalina is interested in the ways that psychiatric disorders affect the brain and has hopes of becoming more involved with research in the future. In her free time, she love hiking with her dog, trying new restaurants with friends, and traveling.

Ms. Phyllis Oduor

Phyllis Oduor -- Tissue Coordinator

Ms. Oduor is a tissue coordinator at the HBTRC. She is passionate about Neuroscience and aspires to deepen her understanding of NeuroAnatomy through her experience at the Brain Bank. Combining her profound interest in healthcare research and medicine, Phyllis is committed to leveraging her role as a TC to promote Neuroscience research and raise awareness about its clinical significance. She is also looking forward to delving into the intricacies of brain donation and its far-reaching implications in scientific advancement. Ultimately, Phyllis hopes to contribute to the advancement of Neuroscience research, particularly in underserved regions. In her free time, Phyllis enjoys dancing, spending time with friends, or listening to Afrobeats.

Ms. Isabelle Darling

Isabelle Darling -- Tissue Coordinator

Ms. Darling is a tissue coordinator and on-call clinical liaison and dissectionist for the HBTRC. Isabelle created her neuroscience thesis at Bates College on the topic of how childhood trauma predicts differences in cognition and pain processing. Isabelle plans to continue fostering her love of neuroscience and medicine, hoping to eventually expand on her thesis study. Isabelle is also deeply invested in working to provide more equitable, accessible, and destigmatized health care. In her free time, she loves urban sketching, painting, yoga, and longboarding.

Ms. Grace Nyanchoka

Grace Nyanchoka -- Tissue Coordinator

Ms. Nyanchoka is an on-call tissue coordinator at the HBTRC. Grace graduated from Amherst college where she studied Neuroscience. She's had previous experience researching HIV/AIDS, Cancer genetics, and Cancer patient wellness. At the HBTRC, Grace is hoping to nurture her interest in learning more about neurodegenerative diseases and psychiatric disorders, and their effects on the brain. She is also interested in understanding the applicability and process of neuroscience research in modern day science and healthcare. In her free time, Grace enjoys reading, listening to podcasts, dancing, and taking long walks in nature.

Ms. Kiely French

Kiely French -- After-hours Dissectionist

Ms. French splits her time between Harvard Brain and Tissue Resource Center (HBTRC) and the Translational Neuroscience Lab, where she works as a tissue coordinator and research assistant respectively. Kiely has previous biological research looking at the impact of trauma on children’s inflammatory response, which has now fueled her interest in understanding how trauma impacts neurology. Working at HBTRC has greatly aided her understanding of neuroanatomy, which has been incredibly useful to better understand her work in the lab. Ms. French looks forward to continuing her work with HBTRC and becoming more involved with the clinical side of donation. In her free time, Ms. French enjoys collecting sea shells, drawing, and playing rugby.

Mr. Matt Esposito

Matt Esposito -- Histologist Assistant

Mr. Esposito is a Histologist Assistant for the HBTRC.


Former Staff


On-Call Laboratory Team

Each brain donation is promptly received and processed immediately at its arrival at the HBTRC. We do this, to protect the integrity of the precious specimens entrusted to us. A team of dedicated staff is on call 24 hours a day, year-round. Once alerted about an incoming brain donation off hours, they will arrive at the HBTRC laboratories ahead of the delivery to prepare to receive the brain. This highly dedicated team includes the HBTRC staff members and several McLean Hospital researchers.


The On-Call Laboratory Team includes:
Past Members of the On-Call Laboratory Team:

McLean Hospital, Harvard Medical School Affiliate

Basic Neuroscience at McLean Hospital

Harvard Medical School Affiliate