Research Team

Sanjaya Saxena, M.D. is the Director of the UCSD Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder Program and an Associate Professor in the UCSD Department of Psychiatry. Dr. Saxena will be the Principle Investigator for this study. As such he will be responsible for the overall design and coordination of the research, management of staff and allocation of resources. Dr Saxena has over 13 years of experiences conducting functional imaging research studies using PET and MRI in human patients with neuropsychiatric disorders, as well as 15 years of experience treating patients with BDD, OCD, and related disorders. He has published extensively on the neurobiology and treatment of OCD and BDD. Dr. Saxena is board certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology. He has a California medical license and clinical privileges at both UCSD and San Diego VA Healthcare System.

Carl Hoh, M.D. is Associate Professor of Radiology, and Chief, Division of Nuclear Medicine at UCSD. Dr Hoh has been performing quantitative PET research protocols from 1989-present and serves as a Co-Investigator on this project. All PET scans in this study will be performed at the UCSD PET Facility and supervised on-site by Dr. Hoh, who has completed radiation safety training and is licensed by the UCSD Radiation Safety Office to use radioactive isotopes for human subjects. Dr. Hoh is the Nuclear Medicine physician who will be the Responsible User, overseeing all use of radionuclides. Dr. Hoh is board certified by the American Board of Radiology. He has a California medical license and clinical privileges at UCSD. Dr. Hoh has multiple publications on quantitative PET imaging.

Jennifer Sumner, Ph.D. is a post-graduate research fellow who will serve as Staff Research Associate II. Dr. Sumner has conducted the cognitive battery for this study and conducts all neurocognitive testing and analysis of subjects. Dr Sumner received her Ph.D in Clinical Psychology, with an emphasis in clinical neuropsychology, from Brigham Young University. She has had extensive training in neurocognitive assessment of adults and several years of experience doing neuropsychoogical testing and research in patients with anxiety disorders and cognitive impairment. She has also worked on structural brain imaging and cortical plasticity research studies.

Nathasha Moallem is currently a fourth-year undergraduate student at University of San Diego. She assists Dr. Saxena as Research Assistant. She has been working on this study for a year and is the MRI technician. She is also responsible for recruitment of subjects. In addition to working with Dr. Saxena, Ms. Moallem is an intern at Practice and Research: Advancing Collaboration (PRAC) research study led by Ann Garland, Ph.D.