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.
Alex started off in the neuropathology core at UCSF’s Memory and Aging Center in 2013 under the mentorship of Prof. Lea T. Grinberg. There, he developed interests in the factors that influence selective vulnerability underlying early Alzheimer’s disease stages and associated neuropsychiatric manifestations. Now a Ph.D. Candidate at UC Berkeley, he is co-advised by Prof. Grinberg and Prof. Daniela Kaufer and continues his focus on neurodegenerative disease vulnerability.
Emma received her BA degree in biology from Swarthmore College in 2017. While at Swarthmore, she developed an interest in public health, which lead to her research on methods used by medical professionals to combat the stigma of schizophrenia in Valparaíso, Chile. After working as a medical scribe at CityMD in New York City for one year, she returned to her native Bay Area. At the Memory and Aging Center, Emma assists families with the donation process and acts as Dr. Bill Seeley’s administrative assistant.
Sabrina Erlhoff manages the development and implementation of the TabCAT software platform. TabCAT is a technologically and scientifically robust system for the administration of novel cognitive and behavioral assessment measures aimed at advancing early detection and monitoring of neurocognitive disorders developed by Dr. Kate Possin.
Zoe is a speech-language pathologist at the UCSF Memory and Aging Center in the ALBA Language Neurobiology Lab led by Dr. Marilu Gorno Tempini. Zoe has a BS degree in Cognitive Science with a specialization in neuroscience from UC San Diego and an MS degree in Speech-Language Pathology from Vanderbilt University.
A physician neuroscientist, Dr. Falke works on an applied neuroscience initiative to improve academic outcomes, such as reading and math, in school-age children. A major focus is generating scalable multi-dimensional learning profiles to guide targeted instruction. As he has for nearly a decade, Dr. Falke continues to serve as the Director of Targeted Interventions and Research at Carroll School, a school for children who struggle to learn reading in typical education environments.
Kristen joined the Selective Vulnerability Research Laboratory led by Dr. William Seeley in January 2022 as a research associate. She assists with neuroimaging data management and analysis. She received her BA degree in psychology from Washington University in St. Louis where she volunteered in the Cognitive Control and Psychopathology Lab.
D. Luke Fischer is a neurologist-neuroscientist with an interest in cognition in neuronal synucleinopathies. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Michigan State University with degrees in Philosophy and Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, and he remained there to complete his PhD degree in Neuroscience in the laboratory of Dr. Caryl E. Sortwell as part of a dual-MD/PhD program. As a trainee in the NINDS Morris K.
Taru received a bachelor of science degree in cognitive neuroscience from the University of California, San Diego and completed a PhD degree in psychology in the Self-Regulation Laboratory at the University of Texas at Austin in 2016. She joined the Dementia Imaging Genetics Lab in 2017 to support neuroimaging methods for understanding the underlying biology of genetic variants of frontotemporal dementia.
Originally from Huntsville, Alabama, Celeste earned her undergraduate degree in Neuroscience at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. While there, she took several philosophy courses, inspiring her interest in bioethics. Afterwards, Celeste enrolled in the Masters of Bioethics program at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. Her thesis research consisted of examining ethical perspectives of identity in patients who had undergone deep brain stimulation for treatment resistant depression.
