PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
Neil A. Nadkarni, MD | Email: neil.nadkarni@stonybrookmedicine.edu 
Neil hails from the land of New Jersey. He has a BA in Biological Sciences with a concentration in Neurobiology & Behavior from Cornell University, and an MD degree from Boston University. While in medical school, Neil was awarded a HHMI Medical Student Fellowship to study pre-eclampsia. He then pursued a neurology residency at Northwestern University in Chicago, during which he received an R25 NINDS Resident Research Fellowship.
Upon completing a Neurocritical Care Fellowship, Neil was awarded an NINDS K08 grant investigating the dynamics between immune cells and cerebrovascular changes. He continues to see patients as he sets up the lab. He also serves as the faculty liason for the Student Interest Group in Neurology and co-leader of the MSTP POD Advisory group. His biggest pastime is spending time with his wife, Anne, and their children, Graham and Louisa. He also enjoys going to concerts and trying ridiculous foods on dares.
LAB MEMBERS
Nistha Boghra, BA | Medical Student at Renaissance School of Medicine, SBU
Nistha is a native Long Islander. She was a Stony Brook University Scholar in Medicine, which allowed her to join the NVITe lab as an undergraduate and build on her skills throughout medical school. During her undergraduate studies, she was also President of the student body. Her honors thesis in college focused on MRI data based off the mobile stroke unit registry. She will be building on that work as she seeks to understand spatial features of stroke as they relate to presentation as well as lesion-symptom mapping. For Summer 2026, she will conduct her SCP project investigating the mobile stroke units and stroke features. She will be the principal contact for working with HECMR as we pilot novel methods in stroke outcomes data.
Miguel M. Madeira, PhD | AHA Postdoctoral Fellow
Dr. Madeira, born in Portugal, has led an international life, residing in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, Brazil, as well as Miami, Florida. He pursued his undergraduate studies at Marist College in New York, where he majored in Biology and double minored in Chemistry and Economics. During his time at Marist, he was also the varsity swim team captain. Dr. Madeira furthered his education at Stony Brook University, earning a PhD in Molecular and Cellular Pharmacology. He has a particular interest in single-cell sequencing and utilizing the technology to develop targeted therapies in stroke. Outside of his academic and professional pursuits, he enjoys swimming, biking, and running, maintaining an active lifestyle.
Laurel E. Schappell, BS MS | MSTP Student & AHA Predoctoral Fellow
Laurel is originally from Lititz, Pennsylvania. She received her BS and MS in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Delaware and is now a 6th-year student in Stony Brook’s Medical Scientist Training Program (year 4 of PhD). Her research in the lab is primarily focused on defining the effects of microglia-neutrophil interactions on functional and pathological outcomes following ischemia/reperfusion injury. She also serves as President of the SBU MSTP Student Government. She particularly likes animal surgery, live-animal imaging, and advanced microscopy. In her free time, Laurel likes to mountain bike, swim, hike, and read.
Meiyi Tang, PhD | Senior Research Scientist
Originally from Shandong Province in China, Meiyi has been at Stony Brook since 1999. He received his BSc from Qufu Normal University in China, an MSc in Animal Sciences from Shandong University, and a PhD in Physiology from the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Meiyi is an expert animal surgeon with experience in various fields, including pregnancy, nephrology, cancer, and stroke. His downtime hobbies include hiking and table tennis.
CURRENT STUDENTS
Tyrese Brown | Undergraduate Student at SBU
Tyrese Brown is of Jamaican origin and was a student at SUNY Adirondack, where he was a laboratory technician for General Biology 1, General Biology 11, and Microbiology. After earning an associate's degree in science, he transferred to Stony Brook University and is majoring in Biological Sciences on the pre-med track. For Summer 2026 he presented work at the SUNY Summer Opportunities for Academic Research (SOAR) program.
Emma McKinnon | Medical Student at University of Bologna, Italy
After graduating from Ward Melville High School in Setauket, New York, Emma moved to Italy where she is now a second-year medical student at the University of Bologna. With aspirations of becoming a neurologist, she is volunteering in the lab to gain hands-on research experience in neuroscience and deepen her under standing of clinical neurology. In her free time, Emma enjoys reading, hiking, and traveling.
LAB ALUMNI
Julia Chen | Summer 2025 translational lab experience (BioSIP) sponsored by the Cornell University Office of Undergraduate Biology. BS Candidate at Cornell University.
Natalie Deng | Summer 2026 translational lab experience (BioSIP) sponsored by the Cornell University Office of Undergraduate Biology. BS Candidate at Cornell University. Developed code and imaging pipelines for human data analysis.
James DiPersio, BS | Created the first lab forays into behavioral animal code, built our computers from scratch.
Claire Polizu, MD | Developed first iterations of laser speckle code. Yale Adult Neurology Residency.
Jason Qian | Developed code for light-sheet and animal behavior while a full-time high school student at Stony Brook School. University of Toronto BS Candidate.
Vignesh Subramanian, BS | Honors thesis on applying deep learning in the Corner test.
Jerry Varghese, BS | Created 3D corner test assessments for his URECA project. Incoming SBU RSOM Medical Student.
Apollon Zoumpanidopoulos, BS | Team player who assisted in various aspects of day-to-day lab needs.
CONTACT US
Our lab is fielding interest from incoming MD/PhD and PhD students starting in Fall 2026. There are a limited number of undergraduate student positions available starting Fall 2026. If you have questions, please feel free to reach out to Neil at his email: neil.nadkarni@stonybrookmedicine.edu.