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.
Courtney studied biological engineering and biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She then completed her MD/PhD at UT Southwestern. She trained with Dr. Joachim Herz studying ApoE receptor signaling in transgenic mouse models of Alzheimer's disease. She identified a role for reelin, a protein that is vital for brain development, in protecting older rodents against amyloid beta, one of the primary pathology proteins that accumulate in Alzheimer's disease.
The Clelland laboratory aims to develop cures for dementia and related neurodegenerative diseases. She is focused on single-gene (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.
Dr. Kaitlin Casaletto is a scientist-practitioner, board-certified neuropsychologist, and Associate Professor at the UC San Francisco Memory and Aging Center (MAC). She leads a research program identifying novel biobehavioral targets of dementia prevention. Her work has a particular lens towards sex differences and translational study designs that leverage proteomic and digital health approaches to identify targets of cognitive resilience to aging.
Charles Windon, MD, is an assistant professor of clinical neurology at the UCSF Memory and Aging Center. In this role, he participates in the clinical care of those with neurodegenerative disease and also participates in the research evaluations of those referred to the Memory and Aging Center with a multitude of neurological conditions. Charles is also involved in the community outreach program at the MAC, with a particular interest in outreach to underserved communities, especially the African American community within the San Francisco Bay Area.
Dr. David N. Soleimani-Meigooni is a neurologist who cares for patients experiencing cognitive symptoms as a result of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease.
In research, Soleimani-Meigooni focuses on advancing precision-medicine approaches to diagnosing Alzheimer's disease and other neurodegenerative diseases. He looks at using positron emission tomography (PET) to image amyloid-beta and tau (protein fragments that accumulate in the brains of people with the condition).
Dr. Staffaroni is a clinical neuropsychologist and Associate Professor at the UCSF Memory and Aging Center. His research focuses on improving early detection, prognosis, and monitoring of neurodegenerative diseases through a combination of clinical tests, neuroimaging, and blood-based biomarkers. He leads studies of remote digital data collection in frontotemporal dementia using smartphone assessments and sensor technologies.
Elena Tsoy was awarded her PhD degree in counseling psychology from the University of Massachusetts Boston. She completed her predoctoral internship in clinical psychology at Tewksbury State Hospital and her postdoctoral fellowship in neuropsychology at UCSF Memory and Aging Center.
As an Assistant Professor of Neurology at UCSF, Dr. Lawren Vandevrede's overarching goal is to provide outstanding clinical care to patients with dementia and their caregivers. He completed his medical training in Chicago, where he also obtained a PhD degree in neuroscience working with his mentor to develop novel therapeutic agents for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease.
Kristine Yaffe, MD, is the Scola Endowed Chair and Vice Chair, Professor of Psychiatry, Neurology, and Epidemiology, and Director of the Center for Population Brain Health at the University of California, San Francisco. Dr. Yaffe is dually trained in neurology and psychiatry and completed postdoctoral training in epidemiology and geriatric psychiatry, all at UCSF. In addition to her positions at UCSF, Dr. Yaffe is the Chief of NeuroPsychiatry and the Director of the Memory Evaluation Clinic at the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Health Care System.
Dr. Sampognaro majored in neurobiology as an undergrad at Georgetown University. There, he worked as a research assistant in the laboratory of Maria Donoghue, studying the molecular underpinnings of Eph/ephrin signaling and its role in cortical neuronal development. After college, he matriculated to the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, where he earned his MD and worked part-time in Charlotte Sumner’s laboratory, quantifying the degree of SMN1 insufficiency in humans with spinal muscular atrophy.
