member

Marlene Lin, MS

Neuroimaging Data Analyst

Marlene is a neuroimaging data analyst in the Rabinovici Lab. Originally from Guangdong, China, she received her BS degree in computational biology from UCLA in 2023 and her MS degree in health data science from UCSF in 2025. She joined the lab in late 2023 to pursue her capstone project on data-driven tau-PET subtypes in sporadic early-onset Alzheimer’s disease and now supports various ongoing research projects related to Alzheimer’s disease.

Nilgoun Bahar, SLP, PhD

Postdoctoral Scholar

Nilgoun Bahar, SLP, PhD, is a postdoctoral research scholar in the ALBA Lab at the UCSF Memory and Aging Center, where she works primarily on the Dyslexia Project. She earned her PhD in experimental psychology from the University of Oxford’s Brain, Speech, and Language Lab and holds a clinical master’s degree in speech-language pathology from the University of Toronto. She completed her clinical residency at the Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) in Toronto.

Nicoletta Biondo, PhD

Specialist

Nicoletta holds a PhD degree in Psychological Sciences and Education from the University of Trento and a Master’s degree in Linguistics and Cognitive Studies from the University of Siena. Her research bridges theoretical linguistics and cognitive neuroscience to investigate how linguistic information is processed in the brain across different populations, including healthy and brain-injured monolingual and bilingual adults, using methods such as eye-tracking, EEG, and neuroimaging.

Jessica Buxton, BA

Assistant Clinical Research Coordinator

Jessica is a research coordinator in Dr. Joel Kramer’s lab, working primarily on the MarkVCID study. She graduated with a BA degree in Neurobiology from UC Berkeley in May of 2024 and hopes to continue pursuing her interests in neurodegenerative diseases as well as becoming a neurosurgeon.

Nicholas Schwartz, MD, PhD

Behavioral Neurology Clinical Fellow

Nicholas (Nick) Schwartz, MD, PhD, is a Behavioral Neurology Fellow at the UCSF Memory and Aging Center. He grew up in Ann Arbor, Michigan and obtained a BS degree in Neuroscience and Philosophy at Duke University, where his research focused on using egg-laying behavior to model decision-making in fruit flies. He completed his MD and PhD degrees at the Stony Brook University Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP), where his dissertation work focused on sphingolipid metabolism in neuropathy.

Allison Hughes, BS

SR. Research Study Coordinator

Allison graduated from Santa Clara University with a Bachelor of Science degree in psychology and double minors in biology and urban education. She is passionate about rehabilitation sciences and plans to pursue a career in physical therapy.

Outside of the Boxer Lab, she enjoys hiking, playing tennis, and pickleball.

Julian M. Siebert, PhD

Postdoctoral Scholar

Dr. Siebert is a quantitative researcher interested in linguistically equitable measurement in education and its influence on multilingual students’ educational trajectories. He is a Postdoctoral Scholar with UCSF’s Multitudes Project where he works on building a linguistically fair reading screener for Californian public schools.