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.
Shirley was born in Guangzhou, China, and grew up in Los Angeles, California. She attended the University of California, Santa Barbara, and graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Pharmacology. During her undergraduate studies, she worked as a Certified Pharmacy Technician and gained patient care experience as an Emergency Department volunteer and Surgical Nursing volunteer in the hospital.
Coty is a research coordinator for Dr. Kaitlin Casaletto’s Activities for Aging Neurogenesis study, an intervention-based study investigating the relationship between lifestyle factors and protein markers of neural functioning. She graduated with a BS degree in Clinical Psychology from UC San Diego.
Chelsea Chen is a clinical research coordinator with the Geschwind Lab at the Memory and Aging Center. She oversees studies involving spinocerebellar ataxia and multiple systems atrophy.
Chelsea previously worked for the Bove Lab at the UCSF Multiple Sclerosis and Neuroinflammation Center and studied psychology at UC Berkeley. She plans to go to medical school.
Dr. Yu (Sherry) Chen is a postdoctoral researcher with a background in Neuropsychology and Neurology. She received her medical degrees from Capital Medical University, China, and undertook her Neurology training at Beijing Tiantan Hospital, China. In 2015, she joined FRONTIER (Frontotemporal Dementia Research) Clinic in Sydney, Australia, and began her Ph.D. with Dr. Olivier Piguet at the University of Sydney to further pursue her interest in human cognitive function, focusing on the role of the cerebellum in cognition. Dr.
Jonathan graduated from UC Berkeley in 2018. He was first exposed to research was through UCSF's Diversity Scholar Program in the summer of 2015. Through this program, he received training in neuroscience lab techniques, computational science, and entrepreneurship. He joined the Grinberg Lab in fall 2015 as an undergraduate student. His goal is to pursue a medical career as a clinician in neurology.
Miranda was born and raised in Palo Alto, California and graduated from the University of California, Berkeley in May 2020 with a bachelor of arts degree in molecular and cell biology. At the Memory and Aging Center, she is working as a clinical research coordinator in the Rabinovici Lab to help coordinate studies examining the utility of innovative neuroimaging techniques and other biomarkers for the improved diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease.
Gillian Chen is an administrative assistant for the Rabinovici and Rosen Labs. Born and raised in the Bay Area (mostly in the East Bay), she earned her bachelor of science degree in health sciences with a focus on administration and management at California State University, East Bay. She then completed her master’s degree in health care administration with a focus in management and change in health care, also at CSU East Bay.
In her free time, Gillian likes to work out, play with her dog and read.
Samantha Cheung is an administrative officer for the clinical trials group. Samantha graduated from the University of San Francisco with a BA degree in Psychology and a minor in Child and Youth Studies.
Hannah graduated from the University of Southern California in 2022 with a BS degree in Neuroscience. At USC, she was a research assistant at the Zilkha Neurogenetic Institute using histology techniques to visualize fluorescently labeled neural circuits. She also studied the effects of sex hormones on Alzheimer’s disease as a research assistant at the USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology. Hannah has experience performing immunohistochemistry, perfusion-fixation surgery, confocal microscopy, and imageJ analysis.
Chris works as a Data Analyst in the Memory and Aging Center under Dr. Kate Possin. Chris collaborates with the TabCAT team and Care Ecosystem project, where he excels in data visualization, statistical modeling, and data management. He works mainly in R and Python.
The Clelland laboratory aims to develop cures for dementia and related neurodegenerative diseases. She is focused on monogenic causes of frontotemporal dementia and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, such as mutations in the C9orf72 gene. She and her team develop CRISPR gene editing approaches in relevant cell types derived from human iPSCs and are working to develop better cell model systems of disease.
