UCSF’s innovative, collaborative approach to patient care, research and education spans disciplines across the life sciences, making it a world leader in scientific discovery and its translation to improving health.
Meghan earned her Bachelor of Science degree from UC Irvine in June 2025. While at UC Irvine, she worked with Dr. Aaron Bornstein studying decision-making and memory in older adults.
Currently, she serves as an Assistant Clinical Research Coordinator in Dr. David Perry’s lab. Her research interests include studying neurodegenerative diseases and their effects on decision-making and memory.
Taylor joined the Yokoyama Lab at the Memory and Aging Center from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo where he studied both microbiology and enology. Taylor also helps manage the Biospecimens Core. Prior to his start at UCSF, Taylor worked as a Research Assistant at Cal Poly in cell culture utilizing various commercial probiotics and Vibrio parahaemolyticus to understand human intestinal epithelial and immune cell relationships upon probiotic and pathogenic challenge.
Youjin joined the Dementia Imaging Genetics Lab, led by Dr. Suzee Lee, in February 2024 as a Postdoctoral Scholar to investigate potential multimodal neuroimaging biomarkers for early detection and monitoring of frontotemporal dementia. Youjin received her bachelor’s degrees in Psychology and Home Economics Education and a master’s degree in brain and cognitive engineering from Korea University in South Korea.
Matenyeh supports faculty and fellows in the Global Brain Health Institute (GBHI) to conduct research projects in East Africa, including HMCA-DP and BRIDGE Africa.
Aimee Kao, MD, PhD, is a Professor of Neurology at the University of California, San Francisco and the John Douglas French Foundation Endowed Professor. She leads an NIH-supported Tau Center Without Walls and directs the UCSF Tau Consortium Human Fibroblast Bank. Dr.
Sarah Kaufman received her undergraduate degree in Molecular and Cell Biology, with a focus in Neuroscience from the University of California, Berkeley. She completed her MD/PhD degrees through Washington University in St. Louis MSTP. Her graduate research focused on tau aggregation and tau strain biology in the laboratory of Marc Diamond. After completing her dual degree she began Neurology residency at the University of California, San Francisco.
Niall Kavanagh is a communications officer with the Global Brain Health Institute (GBHI). Based at UCSF, he is responsible for developing and sharing the stories and messages of GBHI and the Atlantic Fellows for Equity in Brain Health.
Willa is a speech-language pathologist at the UCSF Memory and Aging Center in the ALBA Language Neurobiology Lab. Willa has a BA degree in Psychology from Lewis & Clark College and an MA degree in Speech-Language Pathology from the University of Texas at Austin.
Alessandra serves as the primary point of contact for the Atlantic Fellows for Equity in Brain Health program at GBHI. While monitoring the fellows' progress and providing programmatic support, she facilitates connections within the Memory and Aging Center and the UCSF community.
