Research Team

Brian A. Fallon, MD, MPH, Professor of Clinical Psychiatry at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, is the Director of the Lyme and Tick-borne Diseases Research Center at the Columbia University Medical Center.  A graduate of Harvard College, he obtained his M.D. degree from the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, as well as a master's degree in public health epidemiology from Columbia University. He did his research training and an NIH fellowship in biological psychiatry at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center and the New York State Psychiatric Institute.   Dr. Fallon’s research has focused on neuropsychiatry – the discipline that studies the behavioral and mood effects of diseases that affect the brain.  His particular areas of research focus in Lyme disease include phenomenology, diagnostics, neuroimaging, biomarker, and treatment studies.  His expertise in psychiatry includes neurocognitive testing, clinical trial development, obsessive compulsive disorder, and hypochondriasis. Dr. Fallon has published over 100 peer-reviewed articles, review papers, and book chapters and he has served as a reviewer for many journals, including JAMA, Journal of Infectious Disease, Clinical Infectious Disease, and the American Journal of Psychiatry.

Barbara Strobino, MPH, PhD, Associate Research Scientist in the Division of Clinical Therapeutics at Columbia University, is Associate Director for Research and Administration at the Lyme and Tick-Borne Diseases Research Center.  Dr. Strobino received her PhD in epidemiology from Columbia University. For 10 years she served as the Principal Investigator or Co-Investigator of several population based studies of Lyme disease and pregnancy outcome. These studies, funded by the National Institutes of Health, the New York State Tick-Borne Disease Institute and the March of Dimes, looked at miscarriages, stillbirth, preterm delivery and congenital malformations in relation to maternal Lyme disease.  Her interests also include the epidemiology of Lyme disease in childhood and adolescence.  She has published and lectured extensively on Lyme disease and pregnancy outcome.  Dr. Strobino’s new position here at the Columbia University Lyme and Tick-Borne Diseases Research Center will draw upon her skills in administration, research and data analysis, and grant development.    

Kathy M. Corbera, MD is Associate Director of the Lyme and Tick-Borne Diseases Evaluation Service at the Columbia University Medical Center. She served as coordinator of the Columbia University, NIH-funded study, “PET and MRI Imaging of Persistent Lyme Encephalopathy.”  Dr. Corbera has broad expertise in clinical infectious disease practice and research.   She was a Research Fellow in the Department of Neurology at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, and has worked abroad in clinical infectious disease and AIDS in Mexico, France and Argentina.  In addition to her work at the Lyme Evaluation Service, Dr. Corbera is Associate Director of Education.  She coordinates the educational fellowships sponsored by the Lyme and Tick-Borne Diseases Research Center.

John G. Keilp, PhD is an Associate Research Scientist in the Division of Neuroscience at Columbia University. He has extensive experience in the assessment of cognitive impairment in psychiatric (depression) and neurologic (dementia, HIV and Lyme encephalopathy) disorders. He has also conducted numerous studies examining correlations between cognitive deficits and brain blood flow. Dr. Keilp is widely published in peer-reviewed journals.

James R. Moeller, PhD is Assistant Professor in the Division of Geriatrics at Columbia University.  He has pioneered the development of novel analytic methods for functional brain imaging data.  He has published and lectured widely on these methods, which have been applied to a variety of brain disorders including Parkinsons Disease, Torsion dystonia, Alzheimer’s Disease, and Lyme Disease.

Carolyn Britton, MD, Clinical Professor of Neurology at Columbia University is the chief neurologist for our Lyme research studies.  With specific expertise in neurovirology, Dr. Britton has a particular interest in the clinical care and research of patients with Lyme disease, Multiple Sclerosis, and HIV.  In 2008, Dr. Britton was elected President of the National Medical Association. 

Dave Hardesty, MD.  Dr. Hardesty is a clinical and research neurologist, having completed his medical and neurology residency at the University of New Mexico and his movement disorder fellowship at the Neurology Department at the Columbia University Medical Center. Dr. Hardesty’s post-fellowship training has included research in novel neurosurgical therapeutic strategies, such as deep brain stimulation for the treatment of movement disorders. He has received additional training focused upon Lyme and tick-borne diseases during his work in the Lyme Disease Research Center.

Ted Dwyer, MD, has been the primary clinical rheumatologist for our Lyme studies and has published on the role of HLA markers in Lyme arthritis.

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