Berenson-Allen Center Fellows

Meet Our Fellows

Stephanie Buss, MD

Sidney R. Baer, Jr. Foundational Fellow in the Clinical Neurosciences

Education History
  • MD, Albert Einstein College of Medicine
  • BA, Neuroscience, Brown University
Clinical Training
  • Neurology Residency, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA
  • Internship, Department of Medicine, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA
Research Interests

I am interested in researching neural plasticity, and how it impacts the brain's ability to recover from a variety of neurologic and psychiatric diseases. Specifically, I am interested in the relationship between neural plasticity and cognitive reserve, and discovering how we can harness the brain's potential to adapt in order to enhance quality of life in disorders of the central nervous system. I am interested in combining natural mechanisms of enhancing cognitive reserve, including exercise, diet, social and intellectual activity, with novel mechanisms such as noninvasive brain stimulation and new therapeutic interventions.

I will be focusing my research on disorders of memory and executive function, specifically mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease. I hope to develop and validate a biomarker for neural plasticity in amnestic mild cognitive impairment using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). In the future, this biomarker could be used to predict which patients are most at risk to develop dementia, and identify which patients would be most likely to benefit from future therapies to delay onset of dementia.

Clinical Interests

I am currently in fellowship for behavioral neurology and neuropsychiatry, focusing on dementia including Alzheimer's disease, as well as traumatic brain injury and neurorehabilitation.

Personal Interests/Hobbies

I enjoy running along the Charles River, learning how to do crosswords, reading science fiction, and traveling.

Personal Goals

I will seek to develop clinical expertise in treating patients with dementia and other cognitive disorders, as well as learn to design clinical research trials using noninvasive brain stimulation to explore neural plasticity in this population, and eventually develop new therapies to enhance cognitive reserve.


Ali Jannati, MD, PhD

Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Education History
  • PhD, Cognitive and Neural Sciences, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, Canada
  • MA, Cognitive and Neural Sciences, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, Canada
  • MD,Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

Ali received his MD from Tehran University of Medical Sciences in Tehran, Iran, where he was involved in research studies in neurogenetics, neuropharmacology, cognitive psychology, and neurology. He then pursued his graduate studies in Cognitive and Neural Sciences at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada, where he studied visual attention, masking, and visual search in healthy adult humans using visual psychophysics, electroencephalography (EEG) and event-related potentials (ERPs).

Ali first joined the BA-CNBS as a Visiting Fellow in 2013, while still in graduate school, to gain experience in applications of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). After completing his PhD training, he returned to the BA-CNBS as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in December 2014.

Research Interests

Ali's long-term interests lie in utilizing techniques in cognitive neuroscience and neurophysiology, including behavioral experiments, EEG/ERP, noninvasive brain stimulation, and functional neuroimaging to improve the understanding, diagnosis, and treatment of neuropsychiatric disorders. At present, he is working on a project that explores the utility of TMS measures of brain plasticity as a novel neurophysiologic endophenotype in high- and low-functioning adults and children with autism spectrum disorders.


Juho Joutsa, MD, PhD

Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Education History
  • PhD, University of Turku, Finland
  • MD, University of Turku, Finland

Juho received his MD in 2009, PhD in 2012 and title of docent (adjunct professor) in experimental neurology in 2015 from University of Turku, Finland. Before moving to Boston, Juho worked as a neurology resident at Turku University Hospital. In 2016, he was awarded Academy of Finland Postdoctoral Researcher funding, which aims to support the most promising Finnish researchers who have recently completed their doctoral degree. Currently, Juho is pursuing postdoctoral research on combining neuromodulation and neuroimaging techniques in MGH/HST/MIT Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging and BACNBS at Harvard Medical School.

Research Interests

Juho's work has focused around the brain dopamine system and neuroimaging. He is interested in combining neuromodulation with multimodal neuroimaging techniques, attempting to gain more insight to the human neurobiology and brain disorders. In particular, he is interested in investigating the pathophysiology and potential novel treatment methods for behavioral addictions and non-motor symptoms of neurological disorders.

Personal Interests/Hobbies

Juho spends most of his free time with his lovely wife and two small children. He also enjoys running and sailing.

Personal Goals

Juho's professional goal is to improve the understanding of the neurobiological effects of neuromodulation techniques and apply these techniques to improve patient care. After postdoctoral training, he plans to complete his residency and establish his own research group in Finland.