Project Collaborators

Collaborators

Gary E. Martin, Ph.D., Associate Professor
St. John’s University, Staten Island, NY
marting@stjohns.edu

Dr. Gary Martin is an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at St. John’s University in New York, and a nationally certified speech-language pathologist. Dr. Martin’s own research focuses on speech and language development in children with autism spectrum disorder, fragile X syndrome, and Down syndrome, with an emphasis on pragmatic language, prosody, and the overlap of fragile X and autism. With the NDL, he collaborates on autism- and fragile X-related research, including mentoring students in the lab, and collaborating on papers and presentations. Dr. Martin earned his B.A. in Communication Science and Disorders and his M.A. in Speech-Language Pathology at the University of Pittsburgh, and his Ph.D. in Speech and Hearing Sciences at the University of North Carolina.

Jennifer Cole, PhD, is a Professor in Northwestern’s Department of Linguistics, and Principal Investigator of the Prosody and Speech Dynamics Lab. Dr. Cole’s lab investigates prosody and dynamic patterning in the production, perception, and comprehension of speech, through the multi-disciplinary lens of language science. The goal of her lab’s research is to understand the nature of prosody and speech dynamics in linguistic grammars, cognitive representations, and processing as they relate to emotional and affective expression, and in their social function in communicating identity and relationships of social alignment. Dr. Cole’s projects do this by investigating prosody and dynamic speech patterns in the acoustic signal and in the perception and comprehension of speech, studying language at the individual and population levels. Her collaboration with the NDL applies these techniques to the study of autism and fragile X syndrome.
https://www.prosodylab.linguistics.northwestern.edu/

Elizabeth Berry-Kravis, MD, PhD is a Professor of Pediatrics, Neurological Sciences, and Biochemistry at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. She is also the Co-Director of the Molecular Diagnostics Section of the Genetic Laboratory at Rush University. Dr. Berry-Kravis studies genotype- and phenotype-related neurodegenerative and neurogenetic diseases. She established the comprehensive Fragile X Clinic and Research Program in 1991, through which she now provides care and support to over 600 patients with fragile X syndrome. Dr. Berry-Kravis is internationally recognized for both research and clinical work on fragile X-associated disorders. Her research involves studies of the genetics of fragile X-associated disorders, biomarker development, effects of pharmacotherapy, and treatment outcomes. Dr. Berry-Kravis’ lab analyzes genetic samples collected from NDL participants and helps interpret this data for our autism and fragile X syndrome research.
https://www.rush.edu/kids/services-conditions/fragile-x-syndrome-clinic

Nina Kraus, PhD runs Northwestern’s Auditory Neuroscience Laboratory, which focuses on the biology of auditory learning. Through a series of innovative studies involving thousands of research participants from birth to age 90, her research has found that our lives in sound, for better (musicians, bilinguals) or worse (language disorders, concussion, aging, hearing loss), shape auditory processing and are associated with myriad downstream abilities. Dr. Kraus takes an innovative approach in measuring auditory processing, such that data can be collected in schools, community centers, and clinics. Using the principles of neuroscience to improve human communication, she advocates for best practices in education, health, and social policy. Dr. Kraus currently collaborates with the NDL on projects that measure the frequency following response – which reflects the brain’s response to sound – in families with autism and fragile X syndrome.
https://www.brainvolts.northwestern.edu/

Latha Soorya, PhD is a clinical psychologist, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, and Research Director for the Autism Assessment, Research, Treatment, and Services (AARTS) Center at Rush University in Chicago. She brings expertise in clinical assessment and evidence-based treatment in neurodevelopmental disorders. Dr. Soorya leads a talented research team at the AARTS Center at Rush and is involved in a variety of studies investigating psychosocial and pharmacological interventions in individuals with neurodevelopmental disorders. Her research program focuses on developing and disseminating evidence-informed practices and, most recently, on multi-modal interventions with capacity to address the complex autism spectrum disorder phenotype. Dr. Soorya collaborates with the NDL by sharing de-identified eye-tracking and narrative data collected in her own research for our autism research project.
https://www.rush.edu/services/autism-assessment-research-treatment-and-services-center

Steve Warren, PhD is a University Distinguished Professor of Speech-Language-Hearing: Sciences and Disorders and an Investigator with the Institute of Life Span Studies at the University of Kansas. He currently serves as Principal Investigator in collaboration with Dr. Nancy Brady on an ongoing longitudinal study on the impact of parenting on the development of children with fragile X syndrome. Throughout his career, Dr. Warren’s research has focused on communication and language development in children with developmental delays and disabilities. Much of his work has focused on the effects of different types of communication and language interventions, as well as the way children with specific neurodevelopmental disorders (e.g., Down syndrome) respond to different interventions. Dr. Warren is currently a Co-Investigator in an ongoing project with the NDL on our study of language and communication in families with fragile X syndrom. The rich data available from his studies helps maximize the impact of our research and will allow us to more deeply characterize longitudinal patterns of language development.
https://lsi.ku.edu/

Nancy Brady, PhD is a Professor and Chair in the department of Speech Language Hearing Sciences and Disorders and an Investigator in the Life Span Studies at the University of Kansas. She currently serves as Principal Investigator in collaboration with Dr. Steve Warren on an ongoing longitudinal study on the impact of parenting on the development of children with fragile X syndrome. Dr. Brady’s research focuses on understanding how pre-speech communication develops, identifying aspects of pre-speech communication directly related to language development, and developing interventions aimed at promoting language by strengthening these foundational skills. Drs. Warren and Brady are collaborating with the NDL by sharing de-identified conversation data collected in their research with women with the FMR1 premutation and their children with fragile X syndrome for use in our renewal project, A Family-Genetic Study of Autism and Fragile X Syndrome.
https://lsi.ku.edu/

Patrick Wong, PhD is the Stanley Ho Chair in Cognitive Neuroscience and a Professor of Linguistics, as well as the Founding Director of the Brain and Mind Institute at The Chinese University of Hong Kong. His research at the Laboratory for Language, Learning, and the Brain concerns language and the brain, language learning across the lifespan, speech perception, music perception, and language and communication disorders. Dr. Wong’s research covers a wide range of basic and translational issues concerning the neural basis and disorders of language and music. His work on language learning investigates the sources of individual differences by focusing on the neural and neurogenetic markers of learning. Prior to joining CUHK in 2013, Dr. Wong was a tenured faculty at Northwestern University. Dr. Wong collaborates with the NDL on our cross-cultural autism research across the domains of genetics, neurobiology, cognition, and language.
http://brain.cuhk.edu.hk/people.html

John Sideris, PhD is a quantitative psychologist and psychometrician at the University of Southern California. He has served as the data analyst on many projects, ranging from investigations of children with developmental delays – particularly with regard to children with autism spectrum disorder and related syndromes – to studies of early childcare programs. Much of this research has centered on children’s sensory features, social engagement, language, neural processes, and developmental trajectories. In early childcare, Dr. Sideris’ work has focused on the measurement of childcare quality generally and as it relates to children with disabilities. He has particular expertise in longitudinal modeling (e.g., change over time in children with developmental delays) and in latent variable models (e.g., factor analysis of existing and new measures). Dr. Sideris has collaborated with the NDL since its inception by serving as project statistician on all projects involving fragile X syndrome and autism, helping to analyze and interpret this data.
https://chan.usc.edu/people/faculty/John_Sideris