Pathology

Yinyan Xu joined the Seeley Lab at the UCSF Memory and Aging Center in September 2024 as a postdoctoral scientist. She completed her pre-med training at Tsinghua University and received a medical doctorate degree from Peking Union Medical College. She acquired her PhD degree from the Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences at Oxford University, investigating the translational profile of human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived motor neurons carrying the C9orf72 hexanucleotide repeat expansion.

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.

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.

Sevinç joined the Seeley Lab as a postdoctoral scholar in October 2023. She completed her BSc degree in Molecular Biology and Genetics at Boğaziçi University in Turkey. She then moved to Germany, where she earned her MSc degree in Developmental and Stem Cell Biology from Heidelberg University. Her Master's thesis focused on establishing culture conditions for circulating tumor cells from breast cancer patients in the lab of Andreas Trumpp at the German Cancer Research Center.

 Lily joined the Seeley Lab in September 2023 as a research associate and assists with the brain bank, immunohistochemistry, and other technical work for various projects. Lily received a BA degree in Molecular and Cell Biology from the University of California, Berkeley in May 2023. As an undergraduate, Lily was a research assistant for a lab studying the neural pathways of feeding behavior in Drosophila, along with working in public health, sexual health education, and sexual violence and harassment prevention.

Sean Coulborn is a postdoctoral researcher at the UCSF Memory and Aging Center under the mentorship of Dr. David Perry. His research focuses on improving the certainty of clinical diagnosis and predicting the pathological diagnosis in neurodegenerative diseases.

At the Memory and Aging Center, Antonia assists families with the brain donation process and acts as Dr. William Seeley’s administrative assistant. She graduated in 2021 from UC Davis with a BS degree in Neurobiology, Physiology, and Behavior. She participated in health-related internships and was a member of several clubs such as Alzheimer’s Buddies, Pre-Dental Society, and Outdoor Crew.

Sarah Kaufman, MD, PhD, is a physician-scientist dedicated to advancing our understanding of neurodegenerative diseases, with a particular focus on frontotemporal dementia and tauopathies. She earned her undergraduate degree in molecular and cell biology, with a focus on neuroscience, from the University of California, Berkeley. Dr. Kaufman then completed her MD and PhD through the Medical Scientist Training Program at Washington University in St. Louis, where her graduate research, conducted in Dr.

Maria joined the Memory and Aging Center in February 2021 as Administrative Manager to provide operational, analytical and administrative support to the Neurodegenerative Disease Brain Bank. She has a BA degree in education, with minors in mathematics and Spanish literature from the University of Pennsylvania.

Athena studied Integrative Biology and Classics at UC Berkeley. She was involved in archaeological research and assisted the excavation of a prehistoric cemetery in Greece. On campus, she was a volunteer EMT and worked as a chef for her housing cooperative. Her experiences volunteering in hospice and nursing facilities led her to the Memory and Aging Center, where she assists patients, families, and caregivers with the autopsy program.