Georgia Malandraki recently joined the Beckman Institute as a part-time faculty member.

Her research uses rapid magnetic resonance imaging scans to identify biological patterns between the brain and body for improving diagnosis and rehabilitation of swallowing disorders in patients after a stroke or with Parkinson’s disease.

She is especially interested in reducing chronic pain using neuroscience and machine learning. Her research aims to help telehealth providers make informed decisions based on signals between the brain and body relayed to them directly from a patient’s wearable technology. She collaborates with bionengineering Professor Brad Sutton in the SimulScan project and bioengineering Professor Yuan Yang to study neuromodulation.

Malandraki is head of the Department of Speech and Hearing Science, the same department where she completed her doctoral training in 2008. Maladraki recounts fondly of the many hours she spent collecting and analyzing data at the Beckman Institute for her dissertation research.

“Returning now as faculty is both exciting and deeply meaningful, and I look forward to strengthening our existing collaborations and building new collaborations that combine neuroscience, engineering, technology and clinical science to advance neurorehabilitation and improve people's lives,” she said, referring to her scientific journey with the Biomedical Imaging Center at the Beckman Institute.