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.
Dr. Peter A. Ljubenkov is a behavioral neurologist at the UCSF Memory and Aging Center and specializes in caring for patients experiencing memory, language and behavioral changes due to neurological conditions, such as Alzheimer’s disease, Lewy body dementia, and other causes of dementia.
Carina is a research coordinator in Dr. Joel Kramer’s lab working primarily on Dr. Kramer’s Healthy Aging studies. She graduated with a BS degree in Biology from Tufts University in May 2023.
Jolina received her master’s degree in cognitive neuroscience from the University of Fribourg, Switzerland. For her PhD degree in clinical neuropsychology, she joined the German FTLD consortium at the Department of Neurology in Ulm, Germany to examine cognitive features and neuroimaging biomarkers in frontotemporal dementia with a focus on primary progressive aphasia. She joined the Dementia Imaging Genetics Lab in 2021 to get a deeper understanding of the brain’s connectivity and its systematic degeneration in frontotemporal dementia.
Xavier graduated from UC Berkeley in May 2023 with a double major in Psychology and Social Welfare. During college, he worked in the Family & Culture Lab with Dr. Qing Zhou as a research assistant investigating the links among bilingual development, executive function, parent-child and teacher-child relationships, and socio-emotional development in young children from Mexican American and Chinese American families. He also worked in La Clínica de la Raza as an Integrated Behavioral Health Volunteer serving undocumented individuals in the East Bay.
Piyush is a Neuroimaging Data analyst in the RabLab, with experience in medical imaging. He obtained his master’s degree in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Southern California and a bachelor’s degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from India.
Eugenie Mamuyac joined the UCSF Dyslexia Center's Multitudes project in September 2021. Now, she primarily works with Dr. Jessica de Leon as a research coordinator and administers the CATS (Cognitive Assessments for Tagalog Speakers) battery.
Prior to UCSF, Eugenie received her master's degree in Asia Pacific Studies at the University of San Francisco. Her research interests include bilingualism and acculturation.
Maria Luisa Mandelli leads the neuroimaging research within the language team of the Memory and Aging Center. Her research focuses on neuroanatomical changes caused by language and other neurodegenerative disorders. She has been working on brain magnetic resonance imaging for the past ten years, with the goal of better understanding of how the brain develops, changes over time, and how it makes us who we are.
Alyson is a practice coordinator that handles many sub-specialty clinics for the MAC such as Huntington’s disease, movement disorders and genetics. She graduated from CSU Long Beach with a bachelor’s degree in health science. She enjoys baking desserts, learning about the Korean culture and language, and has a passion for helping all those in need.
Originally from Sonoma County, Dolce attended college at UCLA, where she graduated with a degree in Psychology. While at UCLA, Dolce was a research assistant at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, studying the effects of behavioral therapy on children with autism spectrum disorder. She also served as a public speaker with the National Alliance on Mental Health, Westside LA, working to expand mental health awareness to young adults in the community.
Alex Martinez-Arroyo graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He received his Bachelor of Science degree in psychology with a minor in neuroscience in May 2021. While at the University of North Carolina, he worked in Dr. Prinstein's lab where he studied adolescent interpersonal relationships, depression, and suicide. He looked for subjective biomarkers of stress and their effect on mental health. Alex also worked in Dr. Muscatell's Social Neuroscience Lab where he studied how the brain responds to health messages in people from different cultural backgrounds.
Luis Martinez Roman, MD, MPH, completed his medical studies at Universidad del Rosario, Colombia. He worked in the “Cedesnid” public foundation for people with low economic resources, disabilities, and neurological diseases in Bogota, Colombia. Luis received his master's degree in Neurology from the Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina. In the final year of his residency, he was selected to do a rotation in the Memory and Aging Unit at Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau in Barcelona, Spain.
