Ashley VanMeter, Ph.D.

Professor on the Tenure Track, Department of Neurology
Director, Center for Functional and Molecular Imaging

Email: Ashley.VanMeter@georgetown.edu
Office: Preclinical Science Building, Suite LM-14

• PhD (1993) Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, Computer Science
• MS (1991) Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, Computer Science
• BS (1987) University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, Computer Science

Research: Dr. VanMeter has significant expertise in the analysis of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data. Her graduate work involved the development of computer algorithms used for the analysis of white matter and gray matter segmentation in structural MRI scans. Before joining the faculty at Georgetown, she was a staff fellow in the Laboratory of Neuroscience in the National Institute of Aging, where she co-authored the first paper to use fMRI to investigate dyslexia (Eden, et al. Nature, 1996). In addition, Dr. VanMeter led the development of a number of major software programs as the Director of Research and Development at Sensor Systems, Inc, including one that one for the analysis of multi-modal datasets including structural MRI and fMRI. She designed and developed the database and data transfer systems used for the MRI data collected in the NIH Pediatric Development (NIHPD) project, a longitudinal study utilizing MRI that studied brain development in 500 children at 7 sites across the country. She was later PI of an NIH-funded STAART (Studies to Advance Autism Research and Treatment) Center Grant Project, in which a number of MRI-based techniques were used including fMRI, DTI, and MR spectroscopy to investigate the neurobiological basis of autism. Another of her NIH funded R01 grants applied these same techniques to prospectively identify specific deficits or features of underdevelopment in prefrontal cortex and other reward processing centers that predict alcohol initiation and act as risk factors in escalation of alcohol use in a longitudinal study of adolescents. Her current research focuses on the impact of nutrition and diet on the brain. This includes an ongoing clinical trial of a low-glutamate diet for symptom relief in Gulf War Illness. The pilot study demonstrated significant improvements in a number of neurological symptoms including headache and migraine frequency and intensity.