Principal Investigator
Prof. Dr. med. Inga Katharina Koerte, M.D.
Dr. Koerte is holding a dual affiliation as Professor of Neurobiological Research in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU), Munich, Germany and as Lecturer in Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School (HMS), Boston, USA.
The overarching goal of Dr. Koerte’s research is to investigate the effects of brain trauma on the brain’s structure and function, as well as the development of diagnostic markers that can be used for the purpose of both therapeutic, and preventative interventions. Her research focuses on the most vulnerable traumatic brain injury (TBI) patient cohorts – children, adolescents, and women.
Dr. Koerte was the first to show alterations in the brain’s microstructure following repetitive subconcussive head impacts in young athletes without a history of concussion, as well as structural changes in ice hockey players over the course of a play season. Together with her team, she detected signs of accelerated aging and neuroinflammation associated with exposure to repetitive brain trauma, identified risk factors, and biomarkers for neurodegeneration after brain trauma. Dr. Koerte is the recipient of numerous awards and prizes. She is the principal investigator of a study elucidating the effects of sex in sports-related concussion funded by the National Institutes of Health (RO1 NINDS). She is the Coordinator of a European multi-site study on the effects of repetitive head impacts in youth athletes (REPIMPACT), and a Co-leader of an international, multi-center initiative on large-scale analyses of neuroimaging data in sports-related concussion and pediatric TBI (ENIGMA). Dr. Koerte is associate faculty of the Graduate School of Systemic Neuroscience in Munich, Germany.
In summary, Dr. Koerte has a record of accomplished and productive high-impact research projects in an area of high relevance to public health. Her research utilizes and further develops cutting-edge technology to address brain alterations following brain injury and aims to lead to a new understanding of brain processes following traumatic brain injury. This new understanding will, in turn, open up new horizons for early diagnosis, effective therapeutic approaches, and prevention of long-term sequelae, for which she is most committed.
Contact Inga: inga.koerte [at] med.uni-muenchen [dot] de
Senior Scientists & Post-Docs
Dr. rer. nat. Saskia Rusche (née Steinmann)
Saskia joined cBrain in 2023 as a Senior Scientist. Prior to this, she was Co-Director of the Psychiatry Neuroimaging Branch (PNB) at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, a lecturer at the University of Hamburg, and a visiting scientist at Harvard Medical School’s Psychiatry Neuroimaging Laboratory (PNL). Her research focuses on utilizing multimodal neuroimaging techniques (EEG, fMRI, EEG-fMRI, and dMRI) to investigate the pathophysiology of psychiatric and neurological disorders.
Throughout her career, she has received several scholarships and authored over 30 publications in peer-reviewed journals. She is particularly known for her work on brain hemispheric dysfunction as a mediating factor behind auditory-verbal hallucinations in schizophrenia, which led to the development of the “interhemispheric miscommunication theory.” Currently, she is working on developing a transdiagnostic fMRI-based neurofeedback intervention aimed at normalizing dysfunctional networks in neurological, metabolic, and psychiatric disorders. Saskia holds an M.A. from LMU Munich and a PhD from the University of Hamburg.
Contact Saskia: saskia.rusche [at] med.uni-muenchen [dot] de
Alberto Villagran, M.Sc.
Philine Rojczyk, Dr. hum. biol.
Philine graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in psychology from Leiden University, The Netherlands and moved to Germany in 2016 where she is a clinical psychology Master’s student at Medical School Hamburg. Philine is interested in brain structural changes during brain development. Following her Master’s she spent a 1 year research traineeship at HMS. After having obtained her PhD., she is now a post-doc at cBRAIN.
Contact Philine: philine.rojczyk [at] med.uni-muenchen [dot] de
Research Coordinator
Anja Betz, M.Sc.
Anja joined cBRAIN in 2022 for her thesis project and graduated in 2023 with a Master's degree in Clinical Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience. During this time, she also visited HMS for a research internship. She stayed at cBRAIN as a research coordinator and has since started her PhD at the Graduate School of Systemic Neurosciences (GSN) and the International Max Planck Research School for Translational Psychiatry (IMPRS-TP). Her active research interests lie at the intersection of neuropsychology and neuroimaging: physiological and psychological consequences of mTBI, prognosis and early potential for intervention, as well as the statistical modelling of neuroimaging data.
Contact Anja: anja.betz [at] med.uni-muenchen [dot] de
Administrative & Project Assistants
Doris Bianco
Carolina Silberbauer
Carolina Silberbauer has been working as a project assistant and study nurse in the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at LMU since 2009. She collaborates across various research groups, coordinates the study nurses team, and is responsible for organizational tasks as well as public relations work.
As a certified mindfulness trainer (Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction), she led weekly mindfulness and meditation sessions for the cBRAIN team. Additionally, she is responsible for the mindfulness training of children, adolescents, and adults involved in the mindfulness-based fMRI neurofeedback study (mbNF).
Contact Carolina: carolina.silberbauer[at]med.uni-muenchen [dot] de
Clinician Scientist
Dr. med. Annika Cecil Bertram, M.D., B.Sc.
Annika earned her B.Sc. in Business Administration from Otto-Friedrich-University Bamberg in 2014. In 2020, she successfully graduated from medical school at Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg. She has a keen interest in psychiatry and the potential to visualize psychopathologies through imaging techniques. In 2021, while working as a resident physician in neuroradiology at the University Hospital Heidelberg, she gained expertise in neuroimaging. Her doctoral thesis focused on imaging techniques in maxillofacial surgery and was successfully defended in 2022.
In the same year, Annika transitioned to Ludwig-Maximilian University Munich, aiming to expand her knowledge of mental disorders in childhood and adolescence. As an experienced resident physician in child and adolescent psychiatry, she joined cBRAIN in 2023. Her research revolves around integrating neuroimaging techniques and neuropsychology in the study of brain development.
Contact Annika: annika.bertram[at]med.uni-muenchen [dot] de
Dissertation Candidates
Luisa Berger, B.Sc.
Luisa is a medical student at LMU Munich and a doctoral candidate with cBRAIN since 2022. During her B.Sc. in Psychology at the University of Freiburg, she developed a strong interest in mental health research, particularly in exploring the intersection of neuroimaging and psychiatric symptoms. Supported by a full scholarship from the German Academic Scholarship Foundation, she conducted research at the PNL Lab at Harvard Medical School in Boston and the AIM Lab at King’s College London.
Her research explores diffusion imaging of mTBI and PTSD symptoms in vulnerable populations, such as military veterans and individuals who have experienced intimate partner violence. Luisa is dedicated to using advanced data analysis to uncover the biological mechanisms underlying psychiatric symptoms. In her free time, she enjoys nature, animals, and discovering Munich’s art galleries.
Contact Luisa: luisa.berger [at] med.uni-muenchen [dot] de
Alexandra Castro Silva
Contact Alexandra: Alexandra.Castro [at] med.uni-muenchen [dot] de
Leonard Jung
Leonard is a medical student at LMU and a doctorate student at cBRAIN since 2019. Using advanced MRI techniques, he investigates the impact of contact sports on brain clearance and accelerated aging processes. Leonard has received the LMU- international medical research scholarship (iFo MeCuM) and the LMU-Harvard research scholarship.
Contact Leo: leonard.jung [at] med.uni-muenchen [dot] de
Lisa Fuchs
Lisa is a medical student at LMU. She joined cBrain as a research assistant in October 2023 and began her Doctoral studies in August 2024 at our partner lab, The Center for Clinical Spectroscopy at Brigham and Women´s Hospital in Boston. There, she investigates the effects of Traumatic Brain Injury, and hormonal influences on brain metabolism. She is holding a scholarship by LMU’s student excellence program (StEP).
Contact Lisa: lisa.fuchs [at] med.uni-muenchen [dot] de
Zheyuan Li, M.Sc.
Zheyuan is a Ph.D. student at cBRAIN. He graduated and received his Master’s degree from Peking University, where he finished his clinical training and research in the neurology department. He is mainly interested in the correlation between clinical characteristics and advanced neuroimaging in patients with mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI). Zheyuan is holding a scholarship from the CSC program.
Contact Zheyuan: zheyuan.li [at] med.uni-muenchen [dot] de
Lasse Lohman
Lasse is a medical student at LMU and doctorate candidate at cBRAIN. He joined the team in September 2022 as a research module student. Lasse is interested in investigating the brain's gray matter affected by repetitive head impacts.
Contact Lasse: jan.lohmann [at] med.uni-muenchen [dot] de
Hanneke MacLaren, B.Sc.
Hanneke is enrolled in the Fast-Track PhD programme within the Graduate School of Systemic Neurosciences (GSN) and started her PhD at cBRAIN in October 2022. She completed her undergraduate degree in neuroscience at the University of Dundee in Scotland. Her main projects investigate diagnostic and prognostic tools for clinical outcomes after pediatric mTBI, with a particular focus on the influence of sex differences.
Contact Hanneke: hanneke.maclaren [at] med.uni-muenchen [dot] de
Lisa Nguyen
Lisa is a medical student at LMU and joined cBRAIN as a research assistant in 2021. Driven by her passion for neuroimaging and the effects of PTSD and mTBI on the human brain, she has continued to work as a doctorate student since April 2023. During her first research stay at the PNL, HMS, in 2023, she was funded by the Boehringer Ingelheim Fonds Travel Grant. For her second stay in 2024, she was awarded the Carl-Duisberg-Fellowship and the Biomedical Education Program Fellowship. Lisa is holding scholarships of the Barthel Foundation and the Hans-Rudolf-Foundation.
Contact Lisa: lisa.nguyen [at] med.uni-muenchen [dot] de
Lara Pankatz
Funded by LMU's FöFoLe program Lara joined cBRAIN as a medical dissertation candidate in 2020. Her main interest lies in investigating the grey-white matter boundary in the context of repetitive head impacts and mild traumatic brain injury.
Contact Lara: lara.pankatz [at] med.uni-muenchen [dot] de
Paul Raffelhüschen
Paul is a medical student at TU Munich and joined the team in 2019 as doctorate student. His interests lie in the assessment of advanced imaging techniques for clinical application and the long term effects of TBI on the human brain. He is therefore working on data of sports related brain injuries and sex differences in TBI rehabilitation and is spending a semester at PNL, HMS.
Contact Paul: paul.raffelhueschen.extern [at] med.uni-muenchen [dot] de
Luisa Schuhmacher
Bettina Schwarz-Moertel, M.D.
Kosisochukwu E. Umeasalugo, M.Sc., B.Sc.
Simon Weissbrod
Simon is a medical student at LMU since 2020 and has been a dissertation candidate at cBRAIN since 2023. His main research focus lies in diffusion weighted imaging, exploring white matter microstructure of young athletes exposed to repetitive head impacts (RHI). He aims to further understand the sex differences in RHI-exposed athletes and what changes drive health outcomes in later life. For his research year he visited the Psychiatric Neuroimaging Lab (PNL) at Harvard medical school supported by the Elite Network of Bavaria and the German Academic Scholarship Foundation.
Contact Simon: simon.weissbrod[at] med.uni-muenchen [dot] de
Tim Wiegand
Master's Graduates
Elisabeth Moulaert, MSc.
Elisabeth is a neuroscience master’s graduate from the Graduate School of Systemic Neurosciences (GSN). She carried out her master’s thesis research at cBRAIN on the impact of mild traumatic brain injury on white matter development based on multimodal diffusion MRI analyses. During her bachelor’s at University College Utrecht, from which she graduated in 2022, she majored in cognitive neurosciences and molecular biology, while completing a minor in Political Sciences. Her interests currently lie in human multimodal neuroimaging and child brain development. In the long term, she aspires to develop an expertise in clinical neurosciences and apply her knowledge to shape brain health policy.
Contact Elisabeth: elisabeth.moulaert [at] med.uni-muenchen [dot] de
Kate Rendall, MSc.
Kate graduated from the Graduate School of Systemic Neurosciences at the LMU in 2025 with an M.Sc. in Neuroscience and from the University of Toronto in 2022 with a B.Sc. in Neuroscience, Psychology, and Physiology. Her master’s thesis at cBrain focused on developing a framework for the combined processing and analysis of magnetic resonance elastography and diffusion tensor imaging data in young adults to assess white matter health following sports-related repetitive head impacts. In her free time Kate enjoys running and being outside.
Contact Kate: kate.rendall [at] med.uni-muenchen [dot] de