Dr. Zemple is the Director of the EEG Laboratories at St. Louis Children's Hospital

As a pediatric epileptologist, the goal of Dr. Zempel's research is to improve the localization of neuronal activity through new imaging modalities that are translatable to humans. By studying a model system of partial seizures which has been adapted to the magnetic resonance environment, allowing the measurement of electrical signals concurrent with imaging. Using conventional and newly developed magnetic resonance techniques, Dr. Zempel and his colleagues have localized ongoing seizure activity and characterized the damage that occurs with seizures. He is also characterizing and utilizing new magnetic resonance contrast agents with the goal of using such an agent to localize seizure activity to provide a major advance in the diagnosis and treatment of epilepsy.

A second focus of Dr. Zempel's research is the quantitative characterization of electrical activity directly recorded from the human brain as part of an evaluation for epilepsy surgery. The ready availability of increasing computational power makes analysis of the characteristics of brain activity feasible in the time frame of the surgery evaluation. Such techniques focus on seizure detection, prediction and characterization of the zone of abnormal brain tissue.

Medical Training

Dr. Zempel originates from Kenosha, Wisconsin. He received a B.S. in Molecular Biology with Honors in 1985 from the University of Wisconsin/Madison. In July, 1985 he entered the Medical Scientist Training Program at Washington University School of Medicine, receiving his MD/PhD (in neurobiology) in 1995. Dr. Zempel completed a Pediatric internship and residency at St. Louis Children's Hospital in 1997, after which he entered the Pediatric Neurology Residency program at Washington University School of Medicine/St. Louis Children's Hospital. He completed a two year fellowship in epilepsy and became Instructor in Neurology in 2002.

Selected Publications

Zempel, JM, Ives J, and Neil JJ: Recording seizures in an MR environment: The role of MR compatible animal monitoring. (2002) ISMRM Meeting, Tenth Annual Meeting. May 18-24, 2002

Zempel, JM, Ives J, and Neil JJ: Recording EEG in a high field MRI environment. (2001) Epilepsia 42(7):129.

Ives JR, Zempel JM, and Brevard ME: Techniques and methods for recording animal EEG activity in high magnetic fields. (2001) Epilepsia 42(7):126.

Ueno S., Zempel JM, and Steinbach, JH: Differences in the expression of GABAA receptors between functionally innervated and non-innervated granule neurons in neonatal rat cerebellar cultures. (1996) Brain Res 714(1-2): 49-56.

Zempel JM and Steinbach JH: Neonatal rat cerebellar granualar and Purkinje neurons in culture express different GABAA receptors. (1995) Eur J Neurosci 7(9): 1895-1905.