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.
Valentina joined Dr. Joel Kramer’s lab as a research coordinator in September of 2021 and works primarily on the Healthy Brain Aging study as well as the Mechanisms of Executive Decline study. She graduated with a BA degree in Neurobiology from UC Berkeley in May of 2021 and has interests in neurodegenerative disorders with plans of becoming a neurosurgeon.
Sarah Inkelis is an assistant professor at the Memory and Aging Center. She completed her neuropsychology postdoctoral fellowship at the UCSF Dyslexia Center after earning her doctorate degree in Clinical Psychology at the SDSU/UC San Diego Joint Doctoral Program and finishing her internship in pediatric neuropsychology at the UCLA Semel Institute. Her PhD research examined neurobehavioral outcomes of children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders, with a particular emphasis on the relationships between sleep and neurodevelopment.
Joseph graduated from UC Berkeley in 2017 with honors in molecular and cell biology (neurobiology). He began his research career in UCSF's Weill Institute for Neurosciences in Summer 2014 as a research assistant for Dr. William Seeley's Selective Vulnerability Research Lab. In Seeley’s lab, Joseph assisted with human brain banking and neuropathology studies of frontotemporal dementia.
Jonathan graduated from UC Berkeley in 2018. He was first exposed to research was through UCSF's Diversity Scholar Program in the summer of 2015. Through this program, he received training in neuroscience lab techniques, computational science, and entrepreneurship. He joined the Grinberg Lab in fall 2015 as an undergraduate student. His goal is to pursue a medical career as a clinician in neurology.
Ayesha graduated from the University of Arizona with a Bsc degree in Psychological Sciences where she primarily involved herself in researching family relationships and COVID-19 tracing and public health interventions. While on campus, she was also involved in outreach through founding and leading her club, Women in Psychology.
Alex Martinez-Arroyo graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He received his Bachelor of Science degree in psychology with a minor in neuroscience in May 2021. While at the University of North Carolina, he worked in Dr. Prinstein's lab where he studied adolescent interpersonal relationships, depression, and suicide. He looked for subjective biomarkers of stress and their effect on mental health. Alex also worked in Dr. Muscatell's Social Neuroscience Lab where he studied how the brain responds to health messages in people from different cultural backgrounds.
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.
Aura coordinates the Pilot Awards program within the Global Brain Health Institute (GBHI). She also works closely with the International Research Manager to support regional impact efforts, with a particular focus on subawards, contracts and vendor payments.
Brandon Holmes, MD, PhD, is an Assistant Professor at the Memory and Aging Center (MAC). He completed his clinical fellowship at the MAC and his post-doctoral research in the Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry in the laboratory of James A. Wells, PhD, where he studies how microglia, the innate immune cells of the central nervous system, alter their proteome in the context of neurodegeneration and neuroinflammation. Learn more about his research here.