Neurology

Aidyn was born and raised in Portland, Oregon. In May 2024, she graduated from Whitman College with a bachelor’s degree in psychology and a minor in biology. She previously worked as a student researcher in the Psychology Department at Whitman College, investigating the effect of language framing on victim-blaming attitudes and prosocial behavior. Aidyn is now an Assistant Clinical Research Coordinator for the PET program in the Rabinovici Lab at the Memory and Aging Center.

Leslie Magana is a clinical research coordinator in the Memory and Aging Center working with Dr. Howie Rosen and Cecilia Alagappan. In this role, she oversees the ADDPCP (Advancing the Diagnosis of Dementia in Primary Care Practice) project, focused on improving primary care assessment and the diagnosis of dementia using the Assessment of Cognitive Complaints Toolkit.

Whitney Walker is a dedicated Adult-Gerontology Clinical Nurse Specialist with over a decade of acute care experience at UCSF. Originally from Connecticut, she brings over 13 years of expertise in acute transitional and ICU clinical settings. Whitney previously held the role of Lead Clinical Trials Nurse at the UCSF Neuroscience Clinical Research Unit, where she honed her skills in clinical research and patient care.

Greg received his bachelor's degree in Microbiology from Brigham Young University where he developed a new class of influenza inhibitors. He completed his PhD degree at UCSF in Martin Kampmann's Lab. In the Kampmann lab, he studied how the V337M tau mutation perturbs differentiating iPSC-derived neurons. Greg works with the Clelland Lab at the Memory and Aging Center to develop new methods for screening nanoparticle delivery of gene editing therapies.  

Dr. Margo Heston is a postdoctoral scholar and an NIH F99/K00 fellow funded through the NIH Blueprint and BRAIN Initiative Diversity Specialized Predoctoral to Postdoctoral Advancement in Neuroscience (D-SPAN) program.

San-Hae is a postdoctoral researcher at the UCSF Memory and Aging Center under the mentorship of Dr. Claire Clelland. His research focuses on developing delivery systems for CRISPR-based therapies to treat neurodegenerative diseases.

Kamryn is an Assistant Clinical Research Coordinator in the Community Outreach Program at the UCSF Memory and Aging Center and works with Dr. Charles Windon.

Kamryn graduated from Howard University in May 2024 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology. At Howard, she worked as an emergency medicine medical scribe. Following her time at the MAC, Kamryn plans to pursue medical school and a master’s degree in public health. 

In her free time, she enjoys working out and crocheting.

Jenna joined the CAN Lab within the Memory and Aging Center in August 2024. She graduated from Boston College in May 2024 with a Bachelor of Science degree in neuroscience and a Bachelor of Arts degree in philosophy. While in college, she interned at the Center for Health Outcomes and Interdisciplinary Research at Massachusetts General Hospital, working with Dr. Rush on the development of a psychosocial resilience program for ALS dyads.

Yinyan Xu joined the Seeley Lab at the UCSF Memory and Aging Center in September 2024 as a postdoctoral scientist. She completed her pre-med training at Tsinghua University and received a medical doctorate degree from Peking Union Medical College. She acquired her PhD degree from the Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences at Oxford University, investigating the translational profile of human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived motor neurons carrying the C9orf72 hexanucleotide repeat expansion.

Fangda was enrolled in an 8-year MD program at Peking University in 2013. After obtaining his Bachelor of Medicine degree in 2018, he joined Prof. Edison’s lab at Imperial College London and was awarded his PhD degree in brain science. He continued his clinical program in 2021 and obtained his medical degree in neurology in 2024. He is now a post-doctoral researcher in TeeLab at the UCSF Memory and Aging Center, with a focus on neuroimaging research.