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.
Pongpat Putthinun is a health economist and postdoctoral scholar in the UCSF Memory and Aging Center. He joined the Decision Lab team, led by Dr. Winston Chiong, and is currently working on a project aimed at understanding how genetic predispositions to frontotemporal dementia influence decision-making in the pre-symptomatic phase. Through neuroeconomic methods, the research seeks to identify incidents of early impaired judgment that could lead to early intervention strategies to decelerate the onset of frontotemporal dementia.
Dr. Gil Rabinovici holds the Edward and Pearl Fein Distinguished Professorship in Memory & Aging in the UCSF Department of Neurology. He received his BS degree from Stanford University and MD from Northwestern University Medical School. He completed his neurology residency (and chief residency) at UCSF and a behavioral neurology fellowship at the UCSF Memory and Aging Center (MAC), where he cares for patients with cognitive disorders.
Liya Rabkina is a licensed and board-certified genetic counselor at the Memory and Aging Center. She graduated from Northwestern University's master’s program in genetic counseling in 2020 and became board-certified later that same year. In 2024, Liya finished a research fellowship through a collaboration between Northwestern University and the University of Pennsylvania, while also earning a master's certificate focused on advancing research training for genetic counselors. She has experience in oncology and preimplantation genetic testing (infertility genetics).
Siddarth graduated from UC Berkeley in 2024 with a BA degree in Cognitive Science and Psychology and a minor in Data Science. At UC Berkeley, Sid worked as a research assistant at the Center of Human Sleep Science. He joined the Memory and Aging Center as an Assistant Clinical Research Coordinator on the Language/PPA Team in the ALBA Lab. Sid is interested in studying the mechanisms behind neurodegeneration and protective factors, along with focusing interventions on underserved communities.
Dr. Kamalini Ranasinghe received her medical degree from the University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka and completed her internship training in general medicine and general surgery. She earned her doctorate degree in Cognition and Neuroscience from the University of Texas at Dallas, under the mentorship of Dr. Michael Kilgard.
Dr. Kate Rankin is a professor in the UCSF Department of Neurology who specializes in the neuropsychological, neuroanatomic and genetic underpinnings of human socioemotional behavior in healthy aging and neurodegenerative disease. She studied psychology at Yale for her undergraduate work and received graduate degrees from Fuller School of Psychology in Pasadena, including her PhD degree in clinical psychology and a master’s degree in theology.
Claudio graduated from Harvard University in May 2022 with a degree in Molecular and Cellular Biology and a secondary focus in Global Health and Health Policy. During college, he had the opportunity to conduct research under the guidance of Professor Richard Losick, exploring the complexities of chronic microbial infections for his senior research thesis.
Rochelle-Jan (RJ) Reyes (they/she) is a staff research associate in the de Leon Lab at UCSF. With Dr. de Leon and members of the lab, they support the Bilingualism Study that aims to investigate bilingualism’s effect on healthy aging and neurodegenerative disease. RJ is also a PROPEL scholar at UCSF.
Dr. Liara Rizzi received her PhD and MSc degrees in Medicine: Medical Sciences in Brazil. After her PhD, she started as a postdoctoral fellow at Unicamp, SP, Brazil. She joined the Grinberg Lab as a postdoctoral scholar in 2023. Since the beginning of her academic career, she has been working on biomarkers related to neurodegenerative diseases, especially Alzheimer's disease.
Hannah graduated from Cornell University in May 2023 with dual degrees in Music and Biology with a concentration in Neurobiology and Behavior. After graduating, she spent a year and a half as a Clinical Research Coordinator at Massachusetts General Hospital, where she worked with Huntington’s disease patients as part of The Rosas Lab. She is excited to be part of Dr.
Oscar is the Assistant Clinical Research Coordinator at the Yokoyama Lab. He supports the research focusing on the genetic, structural and cognitive characterization of Alzheimer's disease and frontotemporal dementia in Central and South American populations.
Salma was born and raised in Orange County, California. She graduated from the University of California, Berkeley in May 2022 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Molecular and Cell Biology: Neurobiology and Spanish Linguistics. She is now working as an Assistant Clinical Research Coordinator to aid with various studies related to Alzheimer's disease in the Rabinovici Lab.
