Occupational Therapist and Sensorimotor Physiologist
Professor
Dept of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery
Baylor College of Medicine

Talk Title
Screening for vestibular disorders

Biography
Helen S. Cohen, EdD, OTR, FAOTA, an occupational therapist and sensorimotor physiologist, is Professor, Dept of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery, Baylor College of Medicine, where she founded the vestibular rehabilitation service and does research on screening for vestibular disorders. Education: BS, occupational therapy, Tufts University; EdD, motor learning, Columbia University;
post-doctoral fellowship, vestibular physiology, Mt. Sinai School of Medicine.

Talk Title
Vertigo and motion perception: More than meets the eye?

Biography
Benjamin Crane, MD, PhD, is a professor of otolaryngology, neuroscience, and biomedical engineering at the University of Rochester. He began his training in the laboratory of Joseph Demer using engineering principles to study the vestibular control of eye movement. After receiving his MD-PhD from University of California, Los Angeles he further honed his skills through otolaryngology residency and neurotology fellowship programs at UCLA and Johns Hopkins.

Since joining the faculty at University of Rochester in 2009, Dr. Crane has made significant contributions to the field through his research on human motion perception and visualvestibular integration. He has been continuously funded by NIDCD grants as well as private organizations, and his work has been recognized through numerous awards and accolades. In addition to his clinical and research responsibilities, Dr. Crane is also a dedicated educator and mentor. He splits his time between treating patients, conducting cutting-edge research, and teaching the next generation of clinicians and scientists.

With a passion for improving patient outcomes, Dr. Crane is a true leader in the fields of otolaryngology, neuroscience, and biomedical engineering.

Joseph B. Nadol, Jr., MD, Chair in Otolaryngology
Director of the Jenks Vestibular Laboratories
Mass Eye and Ear

Talk Title
Vestibular dysfunction in patients with sporadic and NF2-related vestibular schwannomas

Biography
B.A. in physics, Northwestern Univ.
M.D. Yale Univ. Medical School
Residency in Neurology, Johns Hopkins Hospital
Fellowship in Otoneurology with David Zee, Johns Hopkins Hospital
Currently hold the Joseph B. Nadol jr. M.D. Chair in Otolaryngology at Mass Eye and Ear
Direct the Jenks Vestibular Laboratories at Mass Eye and Ear
Associate Professor of Otolaryngology and Neurology, Harvard Medical School

Professor
Sensorimotor Neuroscience
Radboud University, Nijmegen, the Netherlands

Talk Title
Natural statistics and multisensory processing in spatial orientation: behavioral modeling and clinical implications

Biography
Pieter Medendorp, PhD, is a full professor of Sensorimotor Neuroscience at Radboud University, Nijmegen, the Netherlands. He holds a MSc degree in Physics and obtained a PhD in Neuroscience (2001). He is a Principal Investigator of the Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour at this university, which is a leading research centre with a strong international reputation, where over 700 researchers work on unraveling the mechanisms of the brain.

His main research interests are directed to how the brain controls perception and action, with a particular focus on the neural computations that underlie spatial orientation, self-motion perception and sensorimotor control, which he studies using modelling, psychophysical and neuroimaging techniques. Patient studies are performed to explain human functioning and understand sensory and sensorimotor disorders. 

William Lambert Richardson Professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Biology
Professor of Pathology
Harvard Medical School

Kenneth J. Ryan, M.D. Distinguished Chair in Obstetrics and Gynecology
Director of Cytogenetics
Brigham and Women’s Hospital

Talk Title
CRISPR-Cas9 Mediated Targeting of a DFNA9 Pathogenic Variant for Gene Therapy in an Auditory and Balance Disorder

Biography
Cynthia Casson Morton received her B.S. from the College of William and Mary and her Ph.D. in Human Genetics from the Medical College of Virginia. She is the William Lambert Richardson Professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Biology and Professor of Pathology at Harvard Medical School, Kenneth J. Ryan, M.D. Distinguished Chair in Obstetrics and Gynecology, Director of Cytogenetics and Past Director of the Biomedical Research Institute at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. She is an Institute Member of the Broad Institute. Dr. Morton is Chair in Auditory Genetics at the University of Manchester, UK. Dr. Morton is certified by the ABMGG in Ph.D. Medical Genetics, Clinical Cytogenetics and Clinical Molecular Genetics.

Her research interests are molecular cytogenetics, hereditary deafness, genetics of uterine leiomyomata and human developmental disorders. She has published over 300 original articles.

Dr. Morton is a past member of the Board of Directors of the ABMGG where she served as Secretary, Treasurer and Chair of the Accreditation Committee. She was Chair of the Molecular Genetic Pathology Policy and Exam Committees of the ABMGG and the American Board of Pathology. She served as Member and Chair of the Board of Scientific Counselors of the NIH/NIDCD, as Member and Chair of the Board of Regents of the NLM, and as Member and Chair of the Veteran's Administration Genomic Medicine Program Advisory Committee. Dr. Morton is currently a member of the Counsel of Scientific Trustees of the Hearing Health Foundation and a Member of the NIH/NDCD Advisory Council. Dr. Morton was a member of the Board of Directors of the ASHG for 12 years and served as the 2014 President. She completed a six year tenure as Editor of The American Journal of Human Genetics and is currently Co-Editor of Human Genetics. Dr. Morton is a Fellow of the AAAS. She is an elected member of the International System in Human Cytogenomics Nomenclature (ISCN) and a recipient of the Distinguished Cytogeneticist Award from the American Cytogenetics Conference (ACC).

Chair and Professor,
Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences
Dartmouth College

Talk Title
The Neurobiology for a Sense of Direction

Biography
Jeffrey Taube, PhD, is a professor in and chair of the Department of  Psychological and Brain Sciences at Dartmouth College. His research interests encompass understanding the neurobiological mechanisms that underlie our abilities to navigate and our sense of spatial orientation. In particular, his research program has focused on understanding our sense of direction. 

His team records single unit activity in freely-behaving rodents and correlate the activity with an animal’s spatial location and directional heading. Over the years, they have studied a population of so-called ‘head direction cells’, which discharge as a function of the animal’s directional heading. Their research has performed experiments that address the neurobiological circuitry of these cells and how this signal is generated by the brain. They also conduct experiments exploring how animals use the head direction signal during navigation.

Dr. Taube's talk will focus on how the head direction cell is generated and they respond in 3-D and why this matters. 

Clinical Research Audiologist
National Institutes on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders

Talk Title
TBD

Biography
Chris Zalewski, PhD, received his undergraduate degree from The Pennsylvania State University, his Masters degree in Audiology from The University of Maryland, and his PhD in Audiology from Gallaudet University. He has served as a clinical research audiologist with the National Institutes on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) since 2002, where his primary clinical responsibilities involve the investigation of the auditory and vestibular phenotypes of rare genetic diseases and syndromes.

Dr. Zalewski has maintained a regular adjunct faculty appointment at the University of Maryland since 2002 and has past or recurring guest appointment lectures at Georgetown University, Gallaudet University, Towson University and with Walter Reed National Medical Center. He has been a member of the American Balance Society since its founding in 2008 and has served on the Board of Directors of the American Balance Society since 2013, including that of President in 2021. Dr. Zalewsk also served a three-year term on the Board of Director’s for the American Academy of Audiology 2016-2018. He received the Vestibular Disorders Association Vestibular Champion Award in 2018.

His primary research interests are in vestibular physiology and balance disorders, with an emphasis on rotational testing, otolith function, and vestibular sensitivity measures. He is the primary or co-author of many book chapters and articles investigating the auditory and/or vestibular function of rare diseases, including a textbook on rotational vestibular assessment published in 2018.

Dr. Zalewski also has a personal interest in the historical perspectives of medicine and, in particular, that of vestibular science.