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.
Ashley is transitioning from a former career as a ballet dancer to a field of medicine, science and groundbreaking clinical research. She graduated magna cum laude with a performing arts degree in the Liberal Education for Arts Professionals (LEAP) program at Saint Mary’s College of California. While focusing on her artistry as a ballerina, she enjoyed traveling the world and experiencing unique cultures.
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.
Ranjani graduated from the University of California, San Diego with a bachelor’s degree in cognitive science specializing in Clinical Aspects of Cognition. She is extremely interested in and passionate about neurodegenerative disease research, especially Alzheimer’s disease. She now works at the Memory and Aging Center in Dr. Rabinovici’s In Vivo Molecular Neuroimaging Lab.
Laura Wise was born and raised in San Francisco. She has a bachelor of science degree in health education from San Francisco State University. Laura always had a passion for promoting health education in underserved communities and serving as an advocate for access to better healthcare and medical treatment resources for people of color. She also has a passion for supporting troubled youth in navigating mental and physical health challenges.
Ana Tyler, JD, MA, received her undergraduate degree from The Ohio State University and her law degree with a concentration in health law and policy and master’s degree in bioethics from Case Western Reserve University. After completing a fellowship in Clinical Ethics from Sutter Health (California Pacific Medical Center, San Francisco), she worked as a clinical ethicist at Beaumont Health in the metro Detroit, Michigan area.
Jack Taylor is an Assistant Clinical Research Coordinator in the Boxer Lab of the Memory and Aging Center, focused on piloting and implementing smartphone-based cognitive assessments into ALLFTD (the ARTFL-LEFFTDS Longitudinal Frontotemporal Lobar Degeneration multisite research consortium).
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.
As a social worker at the UCSF Memory and Aging Center Clinic, Amanda Li assists with brief psychotherapy, resource coordination and education, and psychosocial assessment to work with the multidisciplinary team with identifying areas of support that she can provide and areas of strength/growth for patients and their families.
