Researchers

To maximize efficiency and foster expertise, the Thompson Center has developed a unique research structure that supports our mission of supporting individuals and families impacted by autism and other neurodevelopmental diagnoses. Our centralized Research Core allows our dedicated faculty to work on a wide range of studies with professional staff support, ensuring that the complexities of autism are met with the utmost care.

Thompson Center Faculty Researchers

David Beversdorf, M.D.

Professor

Academic Department: Radiology, Neurology, Psychological Sciences

Research Interests:

Alzheimer’s & dementia
Autism
Cognition
Epigenetic biomarkers
Neuroimaging
Neuroscience
Pharmacology
Stress

Department of Psychological Sciences Faculty Profile

Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory

Thompson Center Researcher Spotlight

Benjamin Black, M.D.

Assistant Professor

Academic Department: Pediatrics

Dr. Black’s clinical and research work has focused on optimizing treatments for children with neurodevelopmental disorders, including autism and ADHD. He remains a busy clinician, and it is his work with patients and their families that informs his research endeavors. The goal of his research and clinical work is the same – to improve the lives of children and their families affected by neurodevelopmental disorders. His research background has largely focused on identifying subsets of populations that may respond differently to specific treatments. He is actively involved in clinical trials of new medications for patients with autism.

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Connie Brooks, Ph.D.

Clinical Professor & Executive Director, Thompson Center for Autism & Neurodevelopment

Academic Department: Health Psychology

Research Interests:

Autism in the foster care population
Clinical processes

Department of Psychological Sciences Faculty Profile

Joanna Mussey, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor

Academic Department: Psychiatry

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Kerri Nowell, Ph.D.

Associate Clinical Professor

Academic Department: Health Psychology

Dr. Kerri P. Nowell is an Assistant Clinical Professor and Licensed Psychologist in the Department of Health Psychology at the University of Missouri. She is the Principal Investigator for several research grants, leads autism diagnostic clinics, and provides clinical supervision and training for students at various training levels. Prior to obtaining her doctoral degree from the University of Houston, Dr. Nowell was a Site Supervisor for the Simons Simplex Collection at Baylor College of Medicine. Dr. Nowell has clinical expertise in the diagnosis and treatment of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). She also has considerable experience with interdisciplinary collaboration in clinical and research contexts. Dr. Nowell’s research focuses broadly on improving the diagnostic process for individuals suspected of having ASD. Specifically, her clinical research to date has focused on diagnostic evaluation and characterization of the ASD phenotype. Her scientific contributions fall into three major categories: 1) characterizing phenotypic profiles in ASD with an aim to identify possible subpopulations within the spectrum 2) working on interdisciplinary research teams to examine the relation between behavioral phenotype and genotype, and 3) examining how socio-demographic and individual factors may influence timeliness of ASD diagnosis.

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Erynne Shatto, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor

Academic Department: Psychiatry

Research Interests:

Autism affirming clinical practice
Infant mental health
Translational research with empirically supported treatments
Trauma

MU Health Care Provider Profile

Stephen Sheinkopf, Ph.D.

Professor and Thompson Endowed Chair; Executive Director, Thompson Center for Autism & Neurodevelopment

Academic Department: Pediatrics

Dr. Sheinkopf’s research employs novel approaches to studying risk for autism in infancy and on improved understanding of heterogeneous outcomes in autism spectrum disorders. Current projects utilize psychophysiology tools to interrogate individual differences in attention, arousal, and regulation in relation to developmental outcomes in children and adults with autism, and use of cry acoustics and neurobehavioral measures to identify indicators of risk for autism in early infancy. Dr. Sheinkopf’s research extends to other pediatric populations as well, including research on developmental course in children with prenatal exposures and children born premature. Throughout his career, Dr. Sheinkopf has maintained a deep commitment to clinical service, training, and mentorship. He maintains an active early diagnostic clinic and has mentored numerous trainees, ranging from undergraduate students to early career clinicians and scientists.

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Tracy Stroud, D.O.

Professor

Academic Department: Pediatrics

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Research Collaborators

Paul Carney, M.D.

Professor

Academic Department: Pediatrics, Neurology, Biomedical Engineering

Dr. Carney’s research is based on the fundamental neuropsychological paradigms of learning, namely, to induce changes in the brain and behavior, combining it with innovative developments in systems neuroscience and genetics, and computational algorithms. The central theme of his work is that he combines engineering, genetics, and neuroscience with medical research to develop more effective therapies for neurological disease. This leverages his experience as both a clinician and scientist. The passion that drives Dr. Carney’s career is the search for better ways to prevent and treat chronic neurological disease. In his computational neuroscience work, Dr. Carney seeks to implement new methods and models for the characterization of temporally dynamic, spatially embedded, and multi-scale network systems, with the goal of predicting systems behavior and designing perturbations to characterize and treat individuals with syndromic autism spectrum and genetic epileptic disorders.

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Brad Ferguson, Ph.D.

Research Assistant Professor

Academic Department: Neurology

Research Interests:

Anxiety
Autism
Clinical trials
Epigenetic biomarkers
Gastrointestinal disorders
Mobile app development
Neuroimaging
Precision medicine
Stress
Wearable technology

School of Medicine Faculty Profile

Judith Miles, M.D., Ph.D.

Professor Emerita

Academic Department: Pediatrics, Genetics

Dr. Miles research interests are the delineation of the clinical and genetic heterogeneity within the autism behavioral diagnosis and how this information can be used to improve diagnosis, find specific genetic and epigenetic causes, and to direct treatment choices which will improve outcomes. Collaborative studies with Dr. Ye Duan are using advanced computational techniques to extract 3D surface models of brain structure and analyze brain anatomy including volume, asymmetry, and highly localized shape variations. Studies with Dr. Gary Yao are analyzing the dynamic pupillary reflex, as a technique to evaluate functions of the retina, midbrain, and cortex which can help characterize brain function in children with autism. Additional research studies include investigations of the differences between males and females with autism, the role of macrocephaly as an autism indicator, and the relationship between facial and brain structure in autism.

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Laura Morett, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor

Academic Department: Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences

Research Interests:

Autism
Gesture production and processing
Language acquisition
Neuroscience
Speech and language

College of Health Sciences Faculty Profile

Rose Osnaya, Ph.D., BCBA-D

Professor

Academic Department: Special Education

Research Interests:

Autism
Behavior

College of Education & Human Development Faculty Profile

Chi-Ren Shyu, Ph.D.

Director of MU Institute for Data Science and Informatics, Paul K. and Dianne Shumaker Professor

Academic Department: Electrical Engineering & Computer Science

Chi-Ren Shyu (he/him/his) is a Paul K. and Dianne Shumaker Professor in electrical engineering and computer science and serves as the director of the MU Institute for Data Science and Informatics, where 60 interdisciplinary core faculty from 22 departments/schools support more than 160 graduate students in the MS degree program in Data Science & Analytics and PhD degree program in Informatics with emphasis areas in bioinformatics, health informatics and geospatial informatics. Shyu has organized and chaired technical program committees for several IEEE conferences, such as IEEE HealthCom 2011 (Columbia, Missouri), IEEE BigMM 2016 (Taipei, Taiwan), IEEE BIBM 2017 (Kansas City, Missouri), and IEEE BIBE 2018 (Taichung, Taiwan). He will be organizing IEEE BIBE 2023 in North America. He is representing MU and serving on the Southeast Conference (SEC) Artificial Intelligence Curriculum Consortium. Since joining MU in 2000, Shyu has received several awards including the National Science Foundation CAREER award, Engineering Faculty Research Award, Engineering Teaching Excellence Award, the University of Missouri Faculty Interdisciplinary Entrepreneurial Award, UM System President’s Leadership Award and seven computer science teaching awards. His current research focuses on digital health, explainable AI, quantum computing and spatial Big Data analytics. He is a Fellow of the American Medical Informatics Association.

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Melanie Tkach, Ph.D., MSOT, OTR/L

Assistant Professor

Academic Department: Occupational Therapy

Dr. Tkach is the director of the Family Adaptability and Meaningful Life Participation Lab (FAM-LIFE Lab), which seeks to develop and evaluate occupation-focused assessments and interventions to support evidence-based pediatric occupational therapy. The ultimate goal of this research is to improve participation, health, and well-being for children with neurodevelopmental disorders and their families (e.g., Autism, Cerebral Palsy). The FAM-LIFE laboratory specifically evaluates (1) the psychometric properties of performance-based tests of functional cognition in children and youth, (2) the effect of occupation-based coaching in children with neurodevelopmental disorders and their families, and (3) caregiver roles and engagement in pediatric telehealth services.

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