Meet the Team

Sarah Dulaney earned a Master of Science degree in gerontological nursing at UCSF and is certified as a Geriatric Clinical Nurse Specialist by the American Nurses Credentialing Center.

Shubir Dutt, PhD, is an assistant professor in the UCSF Department of Neurology at the Weill Institute for Neurosciences and a licensed clinical neuropsychologist at the UCSF Edward and Pearl Fein Memory and Aging Center. Dr. Dutt specializes in the assessment and care of patients with cognitive disorders, including Alzheimer’s disease (AD), frontotemporal lobar degeneration spectrum disorders (FTLD), and other neurodegenerative conditions.

Valerie joined the Yokoyama Lab in 2023 as a staff scientist with a career-long interest in evaluating genetic factors involved in neurological diseases. She earned a PhD degree in Neuroscience at the University of Michigan, where she identified transcriptional regulation sequences for a gene involved in epilepsy and movement disorders. During her postdoctoral fellowship at NHGRI and UCSF, she studied the role of alpha-synuclein in Parkinson’s disease.

Laura Fenton is a predoctoral fellow in the UC San Francisco Clinical Psychology Training Program, where she works in Dr. Kaitlin Casaletto’s lab. Her research focuses on understanding how modifiable lifestyle factors, such as physical activity and sleep, can promote brain health during aging. Prior to joining UCSF, she received her BA degree in psychology from the University of California, Berkeley.

Kristen joined the Selective Vulnerability Research Laboratory led by Dr. William Seeley in January 2022 as a research associate. She assists with neuroimaging data management and analysis. She received her BA degree in psychology from Washington University in St. Louis where she volunteered in the Cognitive Control and Psychopathology Lab.

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.

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.

Melina Flores has worked in healthcare for over 15 years. She received a bachelor’s degree in Healthcare Management in 2015 and found working in the healthcare industry to be her passion, allowing her to nurture her desire to help others.