BALLER LAB
Lab News
Dr. Emily Beydler Accepted to National Neuroscience Curriculum Initiative's (NNCI) Effective Scientific Communication Program
Dr. Beydler has been accepted into NNCI's longitudinal Effective Scientific Communication course. Supported by the NIMH, SOBP, ACNP, and AADPRT, NNCI brings together educators and neuroscientists to create resources that help train psychiatrists to integrate a modern neuroscience perspective into every facet of their clinical work. Through the course, Dr. Beydler will work with NNCI to develop a clinical commentary that makes neuroscience concepts salient for psychiatrists.
Dr. Baller & Elena Present at SOBP 2026!
Dr. Baller and Elena both attended the 2026 Society of Biological Psychiatry Annual Meeting in New York City. Dr. Baller presented, "Age and sex-specific patterns of cognitive performance during midlife in people with multiple sclerosis." Elena presented, "Penn Computerized Neurocognitive Battery Replicates Known Deficits and Identifies Novel Impairments in Multiple Sclerosis."
Elena Presents at ACTRIMS 2026!
Elena presented at the 2026 Americas Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis annual forum in San Diego, CA. She presented her project, "Penn Computerized Neurocognitive Battery Reveals Global and Task-Specific Deficits Across Several Cognitive Domains in Multiple Sclerosis."
Emily Beydler, MD Joins the Lab!
The Baller Lab is delighted to announce that Dr. Beydler, a PGY-4 psychiatry resident at Penn, has officially joined the Lab!! She will lead a highly-important new project through the NIMH-funded Penn Mental Health AIDS Research Center, entitled "Sex as a Biological Variable in HIV-Associated Neurocognitive Disorder: Leveraging PMHARC Biobank to Examine Immune Mechanisms by Sex and Menopausal Status.” Welcome, Emily!
Elena Cooper Graduates and Heads to Johns Hopkins
After two extremely productive years in the Baller Lab, Elena is off to start her journey to medical school at the Johns Hopkins Post-Baccalaureate Premedical Program!
Millie Sach Joins the Lab
Millie joins the Baller Laboratory as Dr. Baller's new Clinical Research Coordinator! She graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Dartmouth College with a B.A. in Psychology and Chinese this June and will lead the lab's ongoing study exploring the relationship between white matter lesions in multiple sclerosis and depression.
Dr. Baller hits the SOBP circuit!
At SOBP 2025, Dr. Baller presented the talk "Interpreting the Signal" during the Brain Preconference Meeting and again during Neuroscience for Prime Time as part of the NNCI's "This Talk is Really Cool" Series. She rounded out her conference with a poster presentation entitled: "Anxiety as a disease of white matter network disruption: Association between anxiety severity and multiple sclerosis lesion burden in the uncinate fasciculus."
Dr. Baller Presents at ANPA
Dr. Baller presents "Presidential Invited Symposium at the American Neuropsychiatric Society's Annual Meeting: A network-based approach to understanding depression in multiple sclerosis" at the 2025 American Neuropsychiatric Association conference.
Elena Presents at Penn Psychiatry Research Day
Elena presents her poster "Investigating Mood and Cognition in Patients with Multiple Sclerosis" at the Dwight L. Evans, M.D. Penn Psychiatry Research Day.
Dr. Baller Wins Teaching Award of Excellence!
Dr. Baller was selected for this year's Leonard Berwick Memorial Teaching Award by the Perelman School of Medicine. This award recognizes “a member of the medical faculty who in his or her teaching effectively fuses basic science and clinical medicine."
Paper Accepted to JAMA Network Open
Dr. Baller’s paper “Association of Anxiety with Uncinate Fasciculus Lesion Burden in Multiple Sclerosis” has been accepted and published in JAMA Network Open! Here, authors use clinical MRIs and data from the electronic medical record to show that lesions to the tract that supports hubs of the anxiety network increases risk for anxiety in MS!
