Anna Karydas is the Biospecimen/Genetics Programs Manager at the Memory and Aging Center. She serves as the primary subject expert for the acquisition, characterization and management of biological materials. Anna works directly with the clinical staff, including nurses and genetic counselors, to ensure accurate and efficient collection, delivery and reconciliation of biologic materials.
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.
Rachel joins the Memory and Aging Center as a Research Data Analyst on the Care Ecosystem team, where she manages the Care Ecosystem codebase and collects data through interviews with study participants. In this capacity, she hopes to improve care outcomes for dementia patients and their caregivers.
Mary Koestler joined the Memory and Aging Center’s clinical trials unit as project administrator and trials nurse in July 2007. Dr. Koestler completed a master’s degree in nursing with an emphasis in clinical research management at UCSF followed by a PhD degree. She currently manages industry-sponsored FDA Phase I-III Alzheimer’s disease trials. Dr. Koestler is credentialed by the Association of Clinical Research Professionals (ACRP).
Eena Kosik graduated from the University of California, Berkeley in 2017 with a bachelor’s degree in cognitive science. During her time at Berkeley, Eena worked as a research assistant in Dr. Robert Levenson’s lab doing facial coding of patients with neurodegenerative diseases. She then spent her final two years in Dr. Robert Knight’s lab completing an honor’s thesis on the neural mechanisms of prediction through electroencephalography brain recordings.
Dr. Kramer is a Professor of Neuropsychology in Neurology and the Director of the Memory and Aging Center Neuropsychology program. He earned his doctorate in psychology at Baylor University and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in neuropsychology at the Martinez VA hospital. Dr. Kramer is board certified in clinical neuropsychology.
Renaud La Joie originally studied medicine in his native Normandy before graduating with a master’s degree in neuroscience from the Université Pierre et Marie Curie in Paris. He then pursued a PhD degree in neuropsychology with Gael Chételat and Béatrice Desgranges, where he studied Alzheimer's disease using multimodal PET and MRI imaging. Dr. La Joie then spent a year with Dr. William Jagust at the University of California, Berkeley before joining Dr. Gil Rabinovici’s lab at the Memory and Aging Center in March 2016.
Dr. Serggio Lanata was raised in Peru, where he began his undergraduate studies in general science. He later earned a bachelor of science degree from the University of Florida. He obtained his medical degree from the University of South Florida, and then completed his medicine internship and neurology residency at Brown University. He joined the UCSF Memory and Aging Center in July 2013 as a Clinical Instructor and Behavioral Neurology Fellow. He evaluates and treats patients referred to the MAC clinic.
Eva is an undergraduate student at UC Berkeley (class of 2020), where she is currently majoring in molecular and cellular biology with a concentration in neuroscience. In high school, Eva worked as a lab assistant at the Bankiewicz Lab for Translational Neuroscience Research. Eva joined the Grinberg Lab in Summer 2017 as a work-study student and is going to be working as a lab assistant. She intends to pursue a career in the medical field.
Michael graduated from Harvard College in May 2017 with a BA degree, having majored in human developmental and regenerative biology and minored in English. During college, he worked at the Harvard Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology (HSCRB) in the Eggan Lab under the supervision of Aaron Burberry. Using cell-based models, Michael’s research in college focused on finding the causal relationship between a mutation in the C9ORF72 gene, neuroinflammation and ALS-FTLD.
