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.
Kaan grew up in Istanbul, Turkey, and finished medical school at Istanbul University. Following medical school, he pursued a research fellowship at the Mayo Clinic Jacksonville, where he focused on Alzheimer’s disease genetics, transcriptomics, and blood-based biomarkers with a focus on underrepresented minorities. He did his neurology residency at the University of Iowa, being one of the chief residents in his final year of training.
Siddarth graduated from UC Berkeley in 2024 with a BA degree in Cognitive Science and Psychology and a minor in Data Science. At UC Berkeley, Sid worked as a research assistant at the Center of Human Sleep Science. He joined the Memory and Aging Center as an Assistant Clinical Research Coordinator on the Language/PPA Team in the ALBA Lab. Sid is interested in studying the mechanisms behind neurodegeneration and protective factors, along with focusing interventions on underserved communities.
Destine Williams is a Staff Research Associate in the Specimens Processing Lab. She is from Phoenix, Arizona, and studied at Purdue University, where she earned a BS degree in Psychology. She plans to pursue medical school later in the future.
Mia received her BA degree in Psychology from Rice University. She joined the MAC as an Assistant Clinical Research Coordinator on the Language/PPA Team. Previously, she worked as a Research Assistant at the T-SCAN Lab. She is passionate about utilizing research to develop targeted interventions for underserved and underrepresented populations. In her free time, she enjoys hiking, bullet journaling, and trying new restaurants.
Rochelle-Jan (RJ) Reyes (they/she) is a staff research associate in the de Leon Lab at UCSF. With Dr. de Leon and members of the lab, they support the Bilingualism Study that aims to investigate bilingualism’s effect on healthy aging and neurodegenerative disease. RJ is also a PROPEL scholar at UCSF.
Dr. Luke Fischer (he/his) is a neurologist-neuroscientist with an interest in Lewy body disease. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Michigan State University with degrees in Philosophy and Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, and he remained there to complete his PhD degree in Neuroscience in the laboratory of Dr. Caryl E. Sortwell as part of a dual-MD/PhD program. As a trainee in the NINDS Morris K.
Stefania Pezzoli completed her PhD degree in Neuroscience at the University of Sheffield in the United Kingdom. Her research aimed to investigate the neural and cognitive correlates of visual hallucinations in Lewy body disease and Alzheimer’s disease by integrating multimodal neuroimaging and neuropsychological measures.
