Colleen A. Hanlon, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Fellow, Porrino Neuroimaging Lab

Dept. of Physiology & Pharmacology
Wake Forest University School of Medicine
Medical Center Boulevard
Winston-Salem, North Carolina 27157-1083
Phone: (336) 716-8102
Fax: (336) 716-8501
Email: chanlon@wfubmc.edu

Education:

Duke University, Dept. of Neurobiology, Ph.D.  2005

-Dissertation: Imaging Dynamic Neural Systems involved in Motor Control: Insight into Parkinson’s Disease and Stroke
-Committee: Martin J. McKeown, M.D., BSEng, FRCP(C);
Michael J. Platt, Ph.D.
Miguel AL Nicolelis, M.D., Ph.D.
Xuemei Huang, M.D., Ph.D.
Mark Williams, Ph.D.

University of Florida, Interdisciplinary Studies, B.S. 2001

            -Concentration: Integrative Neuroscience

Research Interests:

The uniting theme of my current and previous research is the investigation of functional changes in neural systems involved in the progression of and recovery from neurobiologic disease. Of particular interest is how chronic use of pharmacologic agents, both legal and illegal, affects the function of distributed neural systems, over time.

Currently, through funding from the National Institutes of Drug Abuse, I am investigating functional alterations in the striatum and related projection areas as a result of chronic cocaine use and abstinence using PET, fMRI, and DTI in human subjects. 

In addition to investigating the effects of drug abuse, I have also focused on integrating information from multiple functional modalities such as functional MRI, EEG, and EMG to assess the pattern of neurofunctional alterations that occur in movement disorder patients. One goal of these studies was to characterize early neurofunctional markers within dopaminergic systems that occur in Parkinson’s Disease patients and may predict response to pharmacotherapy or targeted surgical intervention.   

I am also involved in several other human neuroimaging investigations at Wake Forest University School of Medicine including the effects of marijuana on neural structure and function as well as pharmacologic imaging in non-human primates at Wake Forest University and in pig models of irritable bowel syndrome in collaboration with North Carolina State School of Veterinary Medicine.

Curriculum Vitae