Brain, Body and Appetite Research Collaborative (Schur Laboratory)

Professor of Medicine
Director, UW Nutrition and Obesity Research Center (UW NORC)
Clinical Research Director, UW Medicine Diabetes Institute

Dr. Ellen Schur is the Principal Investigator of the Lab. She earned her medical degree from Stanford University, completed residency at UW in Internal Medicine and completed a master’s degree in Epidemiology from UW. Dr. Schur practiced primary care at Harborview Medical Center for 13 years. Her patient care is now focused on helping patients manage their weight and any associated health problems and is located at the UW Medicine Center for Weight Loss and Metabolic Surgery. Dr. Schur has led interdisciplinary studies funded by the National Institutes of Health and American Diabetes Association, among others. Dr. Schur discovered the first evidence of inflammation and potential scarring in body-weight regulating areas of the brain in humans. She is dedicated to mentoring and was the founding Chair of the Department of Medicine’s Mentorship committee.

Senior Research Scientist
Research Manager, BBARC

Dr. Susan Melhorn earned her PhD in neuroscience at the University of Cincinnati and completed a post-doctoral fellowship at UW. Her graduate and post-graduate training utilized animal models to study ingestive behavior, obesity, and chronic social and physiological stress. Susan joined the team in 2011 and is the BBARC’s Senior Research Scientist. Susan is the project manager and primary data and neuroimaging analyst for the projects under Dr. Schur. She is part of the UW Nutrition and Obesity Research Center’s Clinical and Translational Research Services core providing coordination of MRI acquisitions and MRI analyses for UW NORC affiliate investigators.

Acting Instructor

Dr. Leticia Sewaybricker earned her medical degree, completed residency in Pediatrics and fellowship in Pediatric Endocrinology at the University of Campinas, Brazil. She first joined the BBARC team in 2015 to conduct part of her PhD research. After completing her PhD at the University of Campinas, Leticia returned to the team in 2018 as a postdoctoral scholar to continue work related to brain structural and functional characteristics, appetite and body weight regulation in children. She was recently granted an AHA career development award to study the impact of social and environmental factors in the brain and future cardiometabolic risk in children.

Assistant Professor of Pediatrics

Dr. Alyssa Huang completed a dual major in neuroscience and psychology at Northwestern University, her medical degree at The Ohio State University College of Medicine and her Pediatric Residency at Los Angeles County – University of Southern California Medical Center. She subsequently completed her pediatric endocrinology fellowship at the University of California San Francisco where she investigated how macronutrients affect the brain and feeding behavior in mouse models. In 2019, she joined University of Washington and Seattle Children’s Hospital Division of Endocrinology. She is the co-medical director for the pediatric Insulin Resistance and Type 2 Diabetes Clinics and provides care in the Adolescent and Young Adult Diabetes Clinic. Dr. Huang joined the BBARC in 2021 to pursue her research interests in understanding the complex relationship between the brain, feeding behavior and development of obesity and diabetes in children and adolescents. She was awarded the Diabetes Research Center Pilot and Feasibility award in 2021 to study hypothalamic changes in youth with type 1 diabetes. She recently was accepted to the Seattle Children’s Clinical Research Scholar Program to complete a pilot study aimed at assessing the association between hypothalamic changes in youth with obesity, prediabetes and type 2 diabetes.

Endocrinology Fellow

Melbin Thomas is currently a second-year endocrinology research fellow at the University of Washington. Her interest in research began after she graduated medical school. She worked as a clinical research coordinator for a few years prior to starting her Internal Medicine residency at Sinai Hospital of Baltimore. During her residency, she enjoyed the vast diversity of topics seen in endocrinology. To pursue her interest in endocrinology, she moved across the coast to begin her fellowship. Her research interest is in the field of obesity and nutrition. She is currently working on the WYE project in Dr. Schur's lab.

Post Doc

Dr. Dabin Yeum earned her PhD in Quantitative Biomedical Sciences program at Dartmouth College. Her graduate research involved investigating various aspects of childhood obesity including the genetic risk score, neural reward reactivity and attentional bias to food cues, and eating behaviors. Dabin joined the team in 2023 as a postdoctoral scholar.

Research Coordinator

Mary is BBARC's IRB specialist, obtaining approvals and managing compliance and maintenance needs. She leads recruitment efforts for WEBS and WYE and manages study visit scheduling across multiple studies.

Research Coordinator

Roz is the primary coordinator responsible for executing study visits, recruitment and retention and is currently actively working on our BASIC2 and WEBS projects.

Research Study Assistant

Olivia completed her undergraduate degree in Biology from the University of Nevada, Reno in 2022 and joined BBARC in 2023. She is actively working on WEBS and BASIC2 in executing study visits and supporting study activities.

Assistant Professor of Medicine
Emory University

Dr. Suchitra Chandrasekaran earned her medical degree from Northwestern University, completed residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology at The Ohio State University and fellowship in Maternal Fetal Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Chandrasekaran worked with the BBARC team while she was a Women’s Reproductive Health Research fellow and was awarded a UW Diabetes Research Center Pilot and Feasibility Award. She is now at Emory University running an independent research program studying relationships among hypothalamic inflammation, gestational weight gain, and gestational metabolic disease.

Endocrinologist
Kaiser Permanente Northwest

Dr. Jennifer Rosenbaum earned her medical degree from the University of California-San Francisco, completed residency at Providence Portland Medical Center in Internal Medicine and an Endocrinology Fellowship at UW. Jennifer worked with the BBARC team during her endocrinology fellowship investigating brain inflammation and glucose regulation. She has since gone on to complete an informatics fellowship at Oregon Health Sciences University earing a masters in bioinformatics. Dr. Rosenbaum is currently a practicing endocrinologist at Northwest Permanente (Kaiser) in Portland and working as a physician champion (informatics).

Maternal Fetal Medicine Specialist
Swedish Hospital/Providence Medical Group

Dr. Kelsey Olerich earned her medical degree and doctorate from the University of Iowa, completed residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology at Washington University in St. Louis, and fellowship in Maternal Fetal Medicine at the University of Washington. Kelsey worked with the BBARC team while completing her fellowship and investigated the impact of maternal metabolic disease on radiologic evidence of offspring hypothalamic gliosis. Dr. Olerich is currently a Maternal Fetal Medicine Specialist at Providence/Swedish Hospital in Washington.